Psalm 119:162–166

162 I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil.

163 I hate and abhor lying: but thy law do I love.

164 Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments.

165 Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.

166 LORD, I have hoped for thy salvation, and done thy commandments.

The Psalmist is talking about the faith that he has and the enjoyment that he has in the words of God. And as Christians that we ought to be able to look at verse 162 and we ought to be able to say that verse applies to us, it says I rejoice at thy word as one that finds great spoil.

To rejoice over something is, is to have joy. Rejoicing and joy are inseparably connected with the life of God’s people in the Bible, In both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

 We should have joy and rejoicing. Rejoicing and joy is characterized in the heavenly host before the throne of God in Revelation chapter 19:6-7

Revelation 19:6–7

6 And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.

7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

Rejoicing characterizes the consecrated life of a Christian here on earth with the hope of future glory. According to First Peter chapter four and verse number 13,

1 Peter 4:13

13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

Rejoicing is quite often demonstrated with loud shouting and clapping and sometimes even dancing. Oh no! A Baptist preacher said something about dancing, David danced to the Lord because of his excitement and his joy and his rejoicing in his worship of the Lord.

The Psalm says I rejoice at thy word. He rejoiced at the word as one that finds great spoil. You know what spoil is.

Spoil is like booty and plunder, you know, that’s something that you got, that you didn’t really earn. That’s what spoil is; unfortunately, most Christians approach the word of God and rejoice in the word of God as one that finds great spoil, But, they have a little different take on what the word spoil means.

For instance, I don’t like to have leftovers at the house, first of all, because if there’s still food to be eaten, I just like to eat it. But mostly it’s not because I’m too good to eat leftovers. I’ll eat, leftovers, you know what? if you have some leftovers you want to give me, especially if it’s a leftover rib-eye steak. I’m game. But I don’t like leftovers because my wife has this bad habit of using butter bowls to hold leftovers in. And then I think it’s a bowl of butter. Now I think it’s a bowl of butter And then I’m like, oh, I don’t need butter today, so I don’t open it today and I don’t open it tomorrow but sooner or later I decide I’m going to make grilled cheese or something. And I go to open the butter bowl and it’s a science project. Oh, that’s where the green bean casserole went.

That’s how most Christians approach the word of God as one that finds great spoil. They act like it’s something that’s spoiled. Something that they don’t want, something that they want to avoid. It ought not to be that way. You ought to rejoice at God’s word as one that finds great spoil, in other words, as something that you find some great treasure you don’t deserve. But the Lord has given you anyhow.

 It’s the thrill of discovering a hidden cache of treasure. Have you ever been geocaching? I like to geocache. You get this GPS coordinate, you go out in the woods and, you go and you try to find something that somebody hid out in the woods. It’s fun to find that stuff. There’s nothing worth anything in there, you know, usually like little, matchbox cars or something. But, it’s fun anyway. It’s fun. I like to go gold prospecting too. Not because I ever think I’m going to get rich with whatever gold that I end up finding. But it’s just the fact that I found it. It was there. Nobody could see it. I found it. It’s exciting.

That’s how you ought to approach the word of God, it should be exciting. It’s not just, I have to read my  Bible today. Or I have to check off my reading list. You know, the preacher might ask me if I read my Bible this week, So I better make sure I read my Bible today so that I could say yes, without lying this week. That’s how most Christians approach the word of God; instead of approaching it the way the psalmist does. I rejoice at thy word as one that findeth great spoil. It should be exciting, and thrilling to us because the word of God teaches us some things.

The next verse says I hate in abhor lying. But thy law do I love. The word of God teaches you the things that you ought to love and the things that you ought to hate. And if you’re in line with the word of God, and if you rejoice in His word as one that findeth great spoil, then you’re going to hate and abhor lying and lies because God hates lies.

There are things in the Bible that God hates. The book of Proverbs says that there are six things that God does hate yet One is an abomination. There are things that you’re supposed to hate. You’re not going to know what those right things are. If you’re not spending time in the word of God, because if it’s just up to you to decide what to hate, you’re going to hate all kinds of things that aren’t any good for you. You’re going to hate things that aren’t, patting you on the back. But that doesn’t necessarily line up with the things that God doesn’t love, the things that God hates. You learn that through his word here.

He says seven times a day, Do I praise thee, because of the righteous judgments? Seven is the number of perfection in the Bible. So it’s not just like, OK, well, I have to remember, I better write these down. I praise God seven times a day. that’s not really what he’s saying. What he’s saying is, He was completely and wholeheartedly praising God all the time for His righteous judgments. That’s how we ought to approach the word of God.

Psalm 119:165

165 Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.

That doesn’t mean that you won’t ever be offended by anything. It doesn’t mean that nothing bad will ever come your way. It just means that as you go through those things, you can have peace, discovering the hidden treasures in the word of God will bring you real peace in your life. But if you don’t, if you don’t rejoice at the word of God, like one that finds great spoil, then you’re not going to realize and be able to experience that peace.

And then finally, he says, Lord, I have hoped for thy salvation and done thy commandments. Salvation comes first and works come second. That’s why we can have This peace, If you’ve accepted Jesus Christ, as your personal Lord and Savior, you’re saved, and you have eternal life. You have heaven as your home.

There’s nothing that can change that, but you’re still stuck in this body and your body hasn’t been redeemed yet. And that’s what we’re looking forward to. That’s what we’re looking for. And that’s why we can have peace through all that trouble and all, all those offenses and everything else. We can have peace through all that stuff because we know what God’s word says about it, because we rejoice in his word.

Have you rejoiced in his word this week? Not have you just read it, not just have you done your duty and completed your weekly bible reading, but have you rejoiced at his word?

That’s what I want to encourage you to do. Rejoice at his word like one that finds great spoil. Like if you found a treasure of buried gold in your backyard this afternoon, as exciting as that would be, You should rejoice after God’s word even more.

Our hope at Irvington Bible Baptist Church is that this podcast provided some encouragement and helped you develop a closer relationship with the LORD Jesus Christ.