“Thy word have I hid in mine heart.”

His heart would be kept by the word because he kept the word in his heart. All that he had of the word … he had stored away in his affections, as a treasure to be safely preserved, or as a choice seed to be buried in a fruitful soil: what soil more fruitful than a renewed heart, wholly seeking the Lord?

The word was God’s own, and therefore precious to God’s servant.

He did not wear a text on his heart as a charm, but he hid it in his heart as a rule. He laid it up in the place of love and life, and it filled the chamber with sweetness and light. We must in this imitate David, copying his heart-work as well as his outward character.

1) We must mind that what we believe is truly God’s word; that being done, we must hide or treasure it each man for himself.

2) We must see that this is done, not as a mere feat of the memory, but as the joyful act of the affections.

“That I might not sin against thee.”

Here was the object aimed at. As one has well said,—Here is the best thing,—”thy word”; hidden in the best place,— “in my heart”; for the best of purposes,—”that I might not sin against thee.”

This was done by the Psalmist with personal care, as a man carefully hides away his money when he fears thieves: in this case the thief dreaded was sin. Sinning “against God” is the believer’s view of moral evil; other men care only when they offend against men. God’s word is the best preventive against offending God, for it tells us his mind and will, and tends to bring our spirit into conformity with the divine Spirit. No cure for sin in the life is equal to the word in the seat of life, which is the heart.

—Charles H. Spurgeon
Adapted from The Golden Alphabet (Passmore and Alabaster, 1887), Ps 119:11.

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