Confidence

Psalm 119:41-48 

w Waw

 ⁴¹ May your unfailing love come to me, O LORD,
       your salvation according to your promise; 
 ⁴² then I will answer the one who taunts me,
       for I trust in your word.
 ⁴³ Do not snatch the word of truth from my mouth,
       for I have put my hope in your laws.
 ⁴⁴ I will always obey your law,
       for ever and ever.
 ⁴⁵ I will walk about in freedom,
       for I have sought out your precepts.
 ⁴⁶ I will speak of your statutes before kings
       and will not be put to shame,
 ⁴⁷ for I delight in your commands
       because I love them.
 ⁴⁸ I lift up my hands to your commands, which I love,
       and I meditate on your decrees.

Keeping the law gives us a confidence that we otherwise wouldn't have.

I want to focus on verses 45-47 in this section because it talks about a noticeable benefit of keeping God's, confidence. The psalmist here states that he "will walk about in freedom" because he seeks out God's precepts. He also states that he will speak of God's law before kings "and will not be put to shame." Doing what is right gives us a confidence, a boldness, that we otherwise wouldn't have. We can withstand a lot of criticism from others if we know that what they are saying is false. In my studying of the life of the apostle Paul, it is easy for me to see that he had this confidence, this boldness that stood in such a stark contrast to his accusers. He had that confidence because he knew what he believed and he knew that what he believed was right.

It is important to note what it states in the end of verse 47, "because I love them". If we are keeping God's law for any other reason than love, we will not have that confidence because that confidence does not come from fulfilling an obligation. Someone once told me that God = law = love. To think of it in any other way would be to have a legalistic, works-oriented religion.