David's Concept concerning David's Kingship before God Based upon the Keeping of the Law and the Principle of Good and Evil

0:00We praise the Lord for thy great land, that we might well be in place may be." Welcome to Life Study of the Bible brought to you by Living Stream Ministry. These programs are based on the ministry of witnessly and his 21-year crowning work, the Life Study of the Bible, which focuses on the enjoyment of Christ as the divine life as revealed in the Bible. We hope that through these studies you'll be brought into a deeper enjoyment of the Scriptures and of our dear and precious Lord Jesus. You can contact us by sending email to radioatlsm.org or reach us toll-free 888-life study. Now let's join today's program. Psalm 19 verse 7 says, The law of Jehovah is perfect restoring the soul. The testimony of Jehovah is faithful,

1:07making the simple wise. In the whole Bible there is no other portion which uplifts the law as highly as Psalm 19 verses 7 through 11. And many Christians today also uplift this portion of Scripture. Yet even if we could fulfill the law in the prayer expressed here about being cleared of secret faults and presumptuous sins, God would still not be happy. This is Matt Miller with John Pester for a Life Study of Psalms program that may shock many of you today. So I hope you'll really stay with us for it. John welcome back to the studio for a very important Life Study. It's good to be here, Matt. John today's Life Study program is covering five Psalms, Psalm 17 through 21. But because of time we'll only be able to cover a portion of Psalm 18 and 19. Give us a brief introduction to this group of Psalms and a background

2:15or a review for those listeners who may not have been listening on a day-to-day basis with us. Well, I think the most important thing that the listeners have to understand about the Psalms as a whole is that it is a book of divine revelation that is composed of the expressions, sentiments, feelings, impressions and experiences of godly men. These are the utterances of godly men and primarily one of the main utterances, the scope of the main utterance of these godly men is concerning God and how he deals with his people. The situation in the Psalms, however, is not that it just contains the divine concept of how God deals with man. It also presents the human concept about how God deals with man and God deals with man according to Christ and in Christ. But the human concept is that God deals with man according to the law and according to man's ability to keep the law and fulfill the law. And this is an improper concept. It comes out of a good

3:19heart, a good motivation, a good desire to please God, to be perfect before God. But if you're in this line of trying to keep the law in order to please God, you're in the line of good and evil. But God wants us to be in an entirely separate line, which is the line of life. And that's why these radio programs are called the life study because we're focusing in on the line of life, which is entirely centered and contained in the person and the work of Christ. This is the line that needs to be exalted. This is the line that makes God happy. I want to underscore one thing you said there, John, just to help our listeners who may not be familiar with these two lines that you mentioned, the line of life and also the line of knowledge of good and evil. Those two lines came from the very beginning of the Bible in chapter two of Genesis. There were two trees, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And that line went through the whole Bible and ends in the lake of fire. And the other tree, the only other tree named in Genesis chapter two is the tree of life. And that line

4:25goes through the whole Bible and ends in the New Jerusalem. So we don't want to take for granted that our listeners understand that. Now, before we go to our first section with witness, John, I'd like to read what is the heading before Saul 18 starts. There's a little heading and it's helpful to know what's at the beginning of the heading because witness Lee is going to talk about it. It says to the choir director of David, the servant of Jehovah who spoke to Jehovah, the words of this song on the day when Jehovah delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said, okay, then Saul 18 starts. And I want to read the first two verses because they're really good. And we're going to focus on the good part of Saul 18 because Saul 18 is like a lot of the Psalms. It has an up and a down. We're going to focus on the upside of Saul 18, which is really in verse one and two says, I love you. Oh, Jehovah, my strength.

5:28Jehovah is my crag and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my high retreat. Let's go to witness Lee for today's life study. Now it's on 18. Here is song, which was a talk, a human talk with the divine God. Isn't this wonderful? Instead of to have the chance, the privilege that to talk to God is too too great a blessing. Could the man talk to God? If I come to you, you turn your back to me, how can I talk? To talk, number one, must be intimate, must be close and must be face to face and eyes to eyes. Sometimes we need nose to nose. And your nose, that's my nose. That is the

6:31intimate talk. See, good talk begins. I love you, oh, Jehovah. Very good. Very sweet talk, okay? Jehovah is my crag. Some can rot, very high on a mounted path, and very steep, very risky, dangerous, very kind of hiding place. Much improvement in his enjoyment of the saving God as his things. His crag, his fortress, his delivery, his God, his rock, his shield, his salvation's horn, and his high tower in home, he told refuge. Many things here, no justice, no righteousness, say, I love you, because you have been so much to me. You are my saving God. That's why, that's why

7:40crag, as my fortress, as my delivery, as my God, as my rock, as my shield, then as my salvation's horn, as my high tower in you, I told refuge. This enjoyment of God, very good. John, when you touch a portion like this, it's very good. It's the enjoyment of God, and that's why I wanted to stop here, and we'll get an opportunity to get into the other side of the coin, so to speak, when David does uplift the law. But here, David is not uplifting the law. He is loving God. He's trusting God. He's depending on God. Isn't this wonderful? This is a wonderful portion, and this shows the kind of up the high peak in this particular Psalm, and it's wonderful, and it's marvelous, and it's so simple. This is an experience of a godly

8:42man who was relying upon God, who trusts in God, who leans on God, who looks to God in every situation, and it begins with this simple phrase, I love you. Oh, Jehovah. I realized, in my experience, as I was just even listening to this message, it was so difficult for me in my early years, after I received the Lord. It was very difficult for me to say, I love you, Lord Jesus. John, I heard a Christian teacher say one time, we shouldn't tell the Lord, we love him. This is the beginning point. We should be people who, every day, tell the Lord, Lord Jesus, I love you. That's the beginning of the process of being in the proper line of life, to have a face-to-face intimate conversation with the Lord every day, and how much more intimate can it be than to begin such a conversation by saying, Lord, in spite of everything that I am, I love you. Lord Jesus, I love you. And when you initiate that conversation, when you begin to have that kind of intimate face-to-face nose-to-nose conversation with God, there is a spontaneous operation of life in our being that

9:48brings us into a different realm. And I just appreciate how this begins in such a simple way. It is not a small thing to say, Lord Jesus, I love you. I would encourage all the Christians, whether be willing to say this privately and even publicly. Lord Jesus, I love you. Declare your love to the Lord. And in that declaration, you will be in the line that makes God happy. You know, John, there's 50 verses in Psalm 18, and Witnessly has a lot more to say about this Psalm. And we can't cover it all because of time. That's why we have to keep moving here. But David takes a step down. We really need to move on to Psalm 19. Because in Psalm 19, I said this at the beginning of the program, and Witnessly is going to say it in this next portion, this is the top uplifting of the law in the whole Bible, these verses in Psalm 19. And we're going to get into it. And I want to encourage the listeners to look at the printed life study to get into this more. And it is available on the internet at ministrybooks.org. You can get

10:52there from the main living stream website, which is just LSM.org. But you can actually go and read the entire life study of Psalms. And this particular life study is printed message number nine. But we're going to do our best to at least cover the high points here for you on the radio. John, did you want to make any more comments before we go on here? Well, I just wanted to mention this point. Once a person loves the Lord and is filled with a love for the Lord, there is a spontaneous reaction within that person to want to please the Lord. And then it becomes a question of does a person have the revelation to know what really pleases the Lord? They think and many Christians think that what pleases the Lord is to fill the law, to be perfect before the law. And so after you have this high peak of loving the Lord, lots of times you come down to a lower level because out of that love for the Lord, there's a desire within us to please God. And we think that that pleasing of God is related to our fulfillment

11:52of the law. And that's where David in this next Psalm, Psalm 19, he drops a little bit because he has that desire. Well, let me read verses seven through 14. And I think they're going to be familiar to a lot of our listeners. I know I prayed these prayers. I uplifted this portion of scripture myself. I appreciated it as a Christian. And I think in the light of today's life study, I think it'll be a shock to see this portion of scripture in the light of the line of life. Let me read these verses. The law of Jehovah is perfect restoring the soul. The testimony of Jehovah is faithful. Making the simple wise, the precepts of Jehovah are right, making the heart joyous. The commandment of Jehovah is clear, enlightening the eyes. The fear of Jehovah is pure, enduring forever. The judgments of Jehovah are truth and all together righteous. More to be desired are they then gold, even much refined gold, sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.

13:02More over by them your servant is warned, and keeping them there is much reward. Who can discern his errors? Clear me of my secret faults. Also, keep back your servant from presumptuous sins. Do not let them have dominion over me. Then I will be blameless and cleared of great transgression. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable before you, O Jehovah, my rock and my redeemer. Let's go to witnessly. Now we come to some nineteen. The first few verses is my halfless. No doubt here he was in the line of life about the heavens. But right after these, listen, David just cannot stay away from the law.

14:03You see, after the appraisal of the heavens speaking, you can see how the hot weight he appraised the law. Oh, so marvelous. Oh, so sweet. That's honey. These days, Americans were like chocolate. But now, can you see, firstly, David appraised the heavens thinking. Then he got his hands to talk about the law. In the whole Bible, there's no other potion of reaching the law so highly as this. Could you see such a prayer indicates what? In the case, he stick himself to the law. To such extent that by keeping the law, his secret

15:09falls with deathless. And he is preceptive sins with deathless. And he's loud and he is hard. The mouth of the word and the heart of the meditation all will be delved. He needs to be so perfect and so clean. They're saying, whether he could make it or not, I don't ask you. Even supposedly, he could make it. The things make God happy. John, this is a really big question that we need to stop and ask our listeners right now. If David or anyone listening today could fulfill the law or be cleared of secret faults or presumptuous sins, would God be happy? This is a very important question because I think it goes

16:11to the heart of the Christian pursuit of many Christians in today's Christianity. And that is that they believe that what will make God happy is if we absolutely fulfill every aspect of the law, especially the Ten Commandments and are perfect in those regard and don't have those kinds of sins on our record. But this is not what makes God happy. What makes God happy is Christ. This is my beloved son. Hear him. And what makes God happy is to have Christ living within us and fulfilling through the law of the spirit of life, the reality of that testimony contained in the law. He Christ living in us has the capacity and he is the only one that has the capacity to do this. And he is the only one that God is interested in doing it in us. God has no desire for man to present to himself his own righteousness. Not according to works of righteousness which we did, but according to his great mercy, he saved us. There is nothing that we can do. If we could

17:16hypothetically reach the stand of the law, God would still not be happy. In reality, there is no way with our sinful nature for this to happen. And so we should never, never focus in on trying to fulfill the law because we can't do it. We should focus in on receiving and enjoying Christ because he can fulfill it in us. Well, only Christ can do it and that's what the normal Christian life is is Christ living in us. So I'd like to read Galatians 2.20 before we go to our final portion. I am crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. Let's go to witness Lee for the conclusion of today's radio program. The entire principle of the Bible tells us God doesn't want anything from man. Regardless how good as I, the human God says, put aside, I don't want it. What I want must be God incarnated to be man by the name of Jesus. It must be through him dying on the cross

18:24and must be through him in reflection to become a life-giving spirit, to indulge in you, to leave in you and to leave him out of you. That is not your goodness. That is Christ. To me, to leave is Christ. Could you see this? You should not interpret Psalm 19 by itself. We have to interpret this part of the word by the entire Bible principle. Suppose David could make tribute such a person's magnanimous. He has been exalted, holy, but the Bible never exalts anyone but Christ. Christ must have to be eminent, not I but Christ that lives in me. I must let you know what I was. Over 50 years ago, every day in the morning,

19:25I prayed this prayer. I prayed, David's prayer in Psalm 19. For a long time, I have your morning. If I didn't pray, I would not take breakfast. I nearly sighted this few verses. I like it. I said, like it. You know, don't ask me whether I made it or not. No one can. Everyone can pray, but no one can make it. Oh, who can clear me of my secret faults? Keep your servants from pigeons and seeds. Do not let them have dominion over me. Then I will be brainless and cleared of great transgression. May the word of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be accepted before you. Oh, Dehova, my rock and my redeemer. Marvelous prayer. Who can

20:26condemn this prayer? But you read this prayer. You go on to read Psalm 51. My goodness. There, David, I prayed Christ animals because he realized he has fully sold himself to the wrapping, to that fun occasion. He sold himself, cheaply. So he needed Christ. But I know we finished Psalm 19. Done. There's quite a contrast between David's attitude after he failed. And his attitude in Psalm 19, where he's appreciating the law. He obviously, he broke five of the 10 commandments when he sinned with Bathsheba, Euryah's wife. And so he realized in Psalm 51, he needed Christ. What a contrast. Why don't you talk a little bit about that contrast in the few moments we have left?

21:30Well, in Psalm 51, I believe the gravity of David's realization was not centered just upon his immediate failure related to Bathsheba. But that failure exposed to David what he was in his beam. He says, in sin, did my mother concede me in Psalm 51, he realized that apart from all of his good efforts, he was just a constitution of sin and that there was nothing in him that was capable of fulfilling the law. In Psalm 19, he uplifts the law because he feels like he can attain to that standard. In Psalm 51, he doesn't uplift the law at all because he realizes there's nothing within him that is capable of meeting that standard. And he calls upon the Lord. He looks to the Lord completely and fully and realizes that all of his worth before God depends upon his relationship to Christ. And when he is properly aligned with Christ and focused in and contacting the Lord

22:35and opening to the Lord and allowing the Lord to work within him, then he is proper before God. So I appreciate Psalm 51 because David's realization is that there's nothing that he can do to make himself right with God. And if he wants to be right with God, he has to be right with Christ. And therefore, he just turns so desperately to the Lord. And we don't need to wait until we have a great transgression to turn desperately to the Lord. I was looking at that verse and says, for I know my transgressions and my sin is before me continually. We need to be Christians that our sin is before us continually, turning us to the Lord and turning us to contact him and touch him. Don't wait to turn to the Lord until you have a big failure. Turn to the Lord right now with your small transgressions that you think are small. Turn to the Lord right now and allow Christ to operate, live and work his life out in us and through us. Well, John, I looked at the clock and we're out of time, but this is such a major item. We need a whole other radio

23:36program just to talk about our loving of Christ and our experiencing his blood, his cleansing, the constant shining of his light that brings us into more fellowship. And we get more cleansing of the blood, the cycle of life has revealed in first John 1. But we don't have time to cover that. So we're going to have to stop and allow our listeners to call us to get more information. Appreciate you coming in today. Amen. Thank you very much. Well, we prayed for you before today's radio program that you would all as a result of this program, love the Lord. We hope right now you would stop and tell the Lord, Lord, I love you. And that this program would bring you to a closer relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. On behalf of John Pester, this is Matt Miller. Thanks for listening today.

24:40Thank you for listening to Life Study of the Bible with Witnessly, brought to you by Living Stream Ministry. If you'd like to read the works of Witnessly and Watch Mani, just visit our website, ministrybooks.org. From there you'll find over 600 complete titles available to read online, free of charge. Witnessly's ministry stood squarely on the shoulders of his mentor and coworker Watch Mani, as well as those of countless ministers of the New Testament throughout the ages. The riches contained in his Life Study of the Bible represent the top, the cream of his seventy plus years of ministry, and range in topic from lessons for new believers to commentary and exposition on passengers from every book of the Bible. But they all contain practical and deeper truths about the Christian life. Again, this wonderful online resource is available to you free of charge at ministrybooks.org. If you have questions or comments about this

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