#190 – The Believers Whetstone

THE BELIEVER'S WHETSTONE

Psalms 119:25 “My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word."

The psalmist has lost his intimate walk with the Lord and finds himself groveling in the dust of despair. Has this ever happened to you? Uncle Buddy Robinson was saved in what we would call a camp meeting. He experienced the waves of God's love for weeks. His testimony is that he went to bed one night and slept off his religion. He went to bed rejoicing in the Lord, he awoke the next morning and what he called “his religion” was gone. Well, uncle Buddy would not settle until he regained his happy walk with the Lord. He got it back but it was a struggle. The words, “My soul cleaveth unto the dust,” is a good description of a believer who has lost touch with the Lord.

John Gill's comment on this is: “My soul cleaveth unto the dust, &c.] Either to the dust of death, having the sentence of it; being almost in despair of life, upon the brink of the grave seemingly, and free among the dead: or in a very low estate of mind, in great dejection and humiliation, rolling himself in the dust, and putting his mouth in it; if there might be any hope of deliverance; but despairing of it, unless the Lord appeared; or finding a proneness in him to the corruption of nature, the body of sin and death, which was very powerful and prevalent.”

The Psalmist, in this state of mind, and suffering utter despair, makes his request to the Lord, “quicken thou me according to thy word.” The Hebrew word for “quicken” means, “to be restored to life or health.” This verb is in the piel stem. The piel stem usually expresses an "intensive" or "intentional" action. He is asking God to exercise intensive action. It would be like saying, “Lord, pull me back out of the grave. I am at the point of no return and You are the only one that has the power to quicken me.”

F. E. Marsh says, “In calling attention to the fact, that the Word of God is a whetstone, to sharpen us in the many-sidedness of our Christian life, I want to call attention to the frequency with which the Psalmist pleads the prayer, 'Quicken me,' in the 119th Psalm. The Hebrew word translated 'quicken,' occurs no less than sixteen times. Nine times the term is rendered 'quicken' and 'quickened,' and five times 'live.' The same word is translated 'revive' in Nehemiah 4:2; Psalm 138:7; Habakkuk 3:2. The word occurs in three relations in Psalm 119.

1. There is the Psalmist's testimony as to what the Lord has done in the past (Psa. 119:50, 93.

2. The Psalmist's prayer for present revival (Psalm 119:17, 25, 37, 40, 77, 88, 107, 116, 149, 154, 156, 159, 175).

3. The Psalmist's confidence as to what the Lord will do in Psalms 119:144, "The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting: give me understanding, and I shall live." (The word live is the same word as revival or quicken).

Let's see how the Word of God is as a whetstone to sharpen us.

1. The Word of God is a whetstone to sharpen us in prayer (John 15:7).

2. The Word of God is a whetstone to sharpen us, in separating from us things contrary to the mind of God. There is one incident, recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, which illustrates in a remarkable manner the separating influence of the Word of God—when it is believed—upon the life. The Apostle Paul met with great success, in his preaching at Ephesus, and one results of his mission was, that many who had cunning arts, burnt all their books; and the cause of this is put down to the working of God's Word, for in speaking of the burning of the books, it says, “So mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed (Acts 19:20).

3. The Word of God is the whetstone to sharpen us in our spiritual life. When the Apostle Paul was leaving the Church in Ephesus, among other things he said, “I commend you to God, and the word of His grace, which is able to build you up” (Acts 20:32).

• The attitude in our spiritual life,