Psalm 119:2a
“Blessed are they that keep his testimonies…”
Here we turn from the law of the Lord to one of its many other aspects, His testimony. Just as the beloved disciple of Christ is blessed by living a life of consistent obedience to the spoken/written law of the Lord, they too, are blessed by keeping His testimony as well.
The word testimony appears many times in the Psalms (mostly found however here in Psalm 119). In other places it is found to describe an action that is intended to secure an oath, to mark a significant event in history, to remember some thing or event of great importance. In the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy God instructs His people to keep His testimony. 6:17-19,
17 Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies , and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee. 18 And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the LORD: that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, 19 To cast out all thine enemies from before thee, as the LORD hath spoken . KJV (emphasis mine)
Here we see the Lord proclaim to His people that they are to keep His testimonies; as well as His commandments and statues. Why testimonies? The testimony is evidence or proof provided by the existence or appearance of something. And God ultimately gives testimony concerning His being and His character. Not only that, but also to His Word (His written testimony). His Testimonies are true and secure; and not only that, but His testimony are coupled with promises. Here God promises His people that they “may go to the good land which” He assured unto their fathers, “to cast out all their enemies.” And once more He solidifies his testimony by the utmost authority of His Name, by proclaiming “as the LORD hath spoken.”
It is very important that disciples remember this fact; that in time past God declared His testimony. He has declared His Word in its written form (The Bible), and the testimony of His Son, and the testimony of His Spirit. To come into an encounter with His testimony is a great land mark in our lives, something of enormous value, something we aught to rehearse in our minds and in our hearts. To always remember, at some specific time in our lives when we first came in contact with the God of heavens and earth, and he left the seal of the Holy Spirit on our souls, the promise of His Son's redemptive work on the cross to change our lives (making us into new creations). To place great value in our hearts his testimony; even so to make radical changes in our lives, and still to pass down to our posterity so that they to can know the testimony of the Lord through our testimony, what great things has the Lord done for me. 6:20-25,
20 And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, what mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD our God hath commanded you? 21 Then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt; and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand: 22 And the LORD shewed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes: 23 And he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers. 24 And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day. 25 And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us. KJV
