James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary
Psalms 138:2
GOD’S WONDERFUL WORD
‘Thou hast magnified Thy word above all Thy Name.’
I. There are myriads who profess to believe in the Son of God, who never study His word.—It is in their possession; it is perhaps perused;—but it is not pondered; it is not prayed over. The pearl-like truths which lie on the very surface of it are never discovered. It is with the priceless stores which are deposited there as it was with the ample wealth concealed between the pages of a Bible presented to a thoughtless youth when he left his parent’s home, but which he never discovered, because he never opened the book.
II. But let us now consider some of the riches imparted to man through that word of God which He has magnified above all His name.
It has shed light into many a dark soul, led millions to the knowledge of God, and prepared them for a blessed eternity. It has turned them from the path of the destroyer into the path of peace, and never forsaken them till it saw them safe in glory.
The Bible has made many a dying man’s chamber an anteroom to heaven, and many a dying man’s soul a dwelling of the King of kings. It has projected its light into the very grave, and enabled multitudes to say, ‘Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.’
The Bible has made many a widow’s heart leap for joy, when it told her in words which the Holy Ghost teaches, ‘Thy Maker is thy husband.’
The Bible has done more for man than all that we can ever learn from ocean, earth, or sky can accomplish. It has made God known as the God of saved sinners; the God who loved us, and sent His son to die for us, even when we lay polluted in our blood.
Illustration
‘The Bible has elevated woman to her Divinely appointed rank as the companion, not the slave, of man. The Bible has tamed fierce nations; it has subdued the cannibal and made him gentle. It has elevated the Samoyede, and made even him a man. True, not by itself, but by the Spirit of God have these things been achieved, through means of the Bible. But that Spirit waits to be gracious; and may He breathe on us, to quicken us from spiritual death, and teach us to walk with Christ in newness of life, that we may be fellow-workers with God in magnifying His word above all His Name!’