17, 18, 33-40. An Example of Prayer—[Psalm 119:17, 18, 33-40 quoted.] Such prayers as this the Lord′s servants should be continually offering to Him. This prayer reveals a consecration to God of heart and mind; it is the consecration that God is asking us to make (The Review and Herald, September 17, 1908).
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18. The Reservoir of Heaven Not Locked—The Bible should be studied with prayer. We should pray as did David, “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.”Psalm 119:18. No man can have insight into the Word of God without the illumination of the Holy Spirit. If we will but come into the right position before God, His light will shine upon us in rich, clear rays. This was the experience of the early disciples.... [Acts 2:1-4 quoted.] God is willing to give us a similar blessing, when we seek for it as earnestly.
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The Lord did not lock the reservoir of heaven after pouring His Spirit upon the early disciples. We, also, may receive of the fullness of His blessing. Heaven is full of the treasures of His grace, and those who come to God in faith may claim all that He has promised. If we do not have His power, it is because of our spiritual lethargy, our indifference, our indolence. Let us come out of this formality and deadness (The Review and Herald, June 4, 1889).
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Did the contempt shown to the law of God extinguish David′s loyalty? Hear his words. He calls upon God to interfere and vindicate His honor, to show that there is a God, that there are limits to His forbearance, that it is possible to so presume upon the mercy of God as to exhaust it. “It is time for thee, Lord, to work,” he says, “for they have made void thy law.”Psalm 119:126.
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David saw the divine precepts thrown aside, and obstinacy and rebellion increasing. Was he swept away by the prevalence of apostasy? Did the scorn and contempt cast upon the law lead him to cowardly refrain from making an effort to vindicate the law? On the contrary his reverence for the law of Jehovah increased as he saw the disregard and contempt shown for it by others [Psalm 119:126-130, 165 quoted] (Manuscript 27, 1899).
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126, 127. Time for God to Work—David was greatly tried in his day in seeing men pouring contempt upon God′s law. Men threw off restraint, and depravity was the result. The law of God had become a dead letter to those whom God had created. Men refused to receive the holy precepts as the rule of their life. Wickedness was so great that David feared lest God′s forbearance should cease, and he sent up a heart-felt prayer to heaven, saying, “It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law. Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.”
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If David thought in his day that men had exceeded the limits of God′s mercy, and that God would work to vindicate the honor of His law, and bring the wickedness of the wicked to an end, then what influence should the widespread iniquity of our day have upon those who love and fear God? When there is widespread disobedience, when iniquity is increasing to a swelling tide, will the professed Christian world be evil with the evil, unrighteous with the unrighteous? Shall we place our influence on the side of the great apostate, and shall universal scorn be heaped upon God′s law, the great standard of righteousness? Shall we be swept away by the strong tide of transgression and apostasy? Or shall the righteous search the Scriptures, and know for themselves the conditions upon which the salvation of their souls depend? Those who make the Word of God the man of their counsel will esteem the law of God, and their appreciation of it will rise in proportion as it is set aside and despised. Loyal subjects of Christ′s kingdom will re-echo the words of David and say, “It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law. Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.”Psalm 119:126, 127. This is the position those will occupy who love God sincerely and their neighbors as themselves. They will exalt the commandments in proportion as contempt increases (Undated Manuscript 145).
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