“Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word” (Psalm 119:17).
TEXT — Psalm 119:17-24
Message
The effort to defeat mortality by coming up with the concept of the elixir of life has been unsuccessful throughout human history. The ancient Greeks brought the idea of ambrosia, the food of the gods. They said if people ate it, they would live forever. Then the European alchemists of the Middle Ages worked feverishly for the Philosopher’s stone to offer human beings immortal life.
They all crashed in their bid to sidestep death because it was outside the ordinance of God. Only those who seek His mercy and follow His laws shall have eternal life. That was the prayer of the psalmist. Recognising this truth, he pleaded, “Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word. Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law”. He harps on the law of the Lord as the source of his life. God’s word appears variously as law, statutes, testimonies, commandments and judgments in the writer’s prayer.
The good life in the world is scarcely about surrounding oneself with man-made prescriptions of how to live long or how to outwit death. They are bound to fail because they come from the closet minds of finite men. Despite the huge funds, research, man-hours and skills that have been deployed to gift mortal beings eternal life, such puny efforts have proven a pipe dream.
Living well and long here on earth, and receiving eternal life in heaven are not in the domain of any human sphere to give. God does it. He has unsparingly revealed how to attain it through His word. Having obtained this revelation, man no longer needs to pursue illusory doctrines about the good life or eternity. His is to receive the gospel, believe it and live.
Thought for the day
Eternal life is neither a human concept nor under man’s control
Listed among “500 most powerful people on the planet” by the Foreign Policy magazine in 2013, Pastor (Dr.) William F. Kumuyi is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry (DCLM) headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. DCLM started in 1973 as a 15-member Bible study group right in Kumuyi’s apartment at University of Lagos where he was a lecturer. His revolutionary Bible teaching on personal holiness and commitment to evangelism soon gained so much traction and resulted in a widespread revival.
3 comments
Peace be unto you. I observed that the audio recording skipped some lines of the write-up when reading. Today is not the first time.
Peace be unto you. I observed that the audio recording skipped some lines of the write-up when reading. Today is not the first time.
Great.
I bless the name of the Lord, for this powerful and inspiration topic this morning.
Am so much inspired by this sermon and I thank God his words.