By Mr G. D. Buss, a Vice-President of the Society

‘Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee’ (Psalm 119.11).

What a remarkable Psalm is the one hundred and nineteenth! Not only is it the longest chapter in Holy Scripture and also an alphabetical Psalm (each stanza beginning with the same Hebrew letter at the head), but, more importantly, every verse speaks in some way of the Word of God. It is very evident that the Psalmist, who could well have been David although we are not told this, had a deep and loving regard for the Word of God.

In the verse at the head of our meditation, the Word hidden in his heart tells us of his deep affection for it. After the loss of Calais to the French in January 1558, Queen Mary I is reported to have said that when she died, if they opened up her heart the word ‘Calais’ would be written there because she loved it so much and was so sad at its loss. It would have been far better for that miserable queen, and for the Lord’s children in her reign, if the Word of God had been written there, and then she would not have persecuted the true church of Christ as she did.

The Psalmist’s confession is akin to that of Lydia’s of whom we read, ‘whose heart the Lord opened’ (Acts 16.14). Like the Psalmist, the Word of God in Lydia’s heart bore rich fruit in her life. As the seed is sown in the earth, in due season the blade appears above the ground, and in God’s time the fruit is yielded. This is what Peter tells us is, ‘being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever’ (1 Peter 1.23). This is the eternal life that Christ gives to His sheep, of whom He speaks in John 10.

But what is it about the Word of God that it should yield such a harvest in the life of a believer? Surely it is this, that the written Word applied by the Holy Spirit—the Spirit of Christ—brings Christ into the heart. Even as Paul said of the believers at Colosse, ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory’ (Colossians 1.27). It was this confession that the martyr Polycarp made before the Roman emperor when he said, ‘I am the God-bearer’. Likewise, when Polycarp was commanded to worship the emperor rather than Christ, he said, ‘Eighty and six years have I served Him and He has done me no wrong’.

To have Christ in the heart is to be born again

As John records in John 1.11–13: ‘He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God’.

To have Christ in our heart, through His Word, is to be justified by His grace

As Paul tells us in Romans 10.8–11: ‘The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed’.

To have Christ in our heart is a preservative against the sin of unbelief, in particular

The Psalmist confessed that having the Word of God rooted in his heart preserved him from the inherent dangers of unbelief which dwelt in the natural man which Paul tells us of, ‘But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned’ (1 Corinthians 2.14). The answer to the challenge of unbelief is to say, as our Saviour set the example when combatting the lies of Satan: ‘It is written’. So, if we have the Word written in our hearts by the Spirit of Christ, we have an effectual antidote to sin.

To have Christ in our heart is to be sanctified

‘Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth’ (John 17.17). When Barnabas went to Antioch and ’had seen the grace of God, [and] was glad’ (Acts 11.23), he could see the evident work of sanctification in the lives of the believers there. Indeed, the Psalmist in this very word tells us that the presence of the Word in his heart was a defence against sin. The deeper the work of sanctification goes, that is, the more established the Word of God is within us, the more Christ-like will be our behaviour.

You are living a Gospel, a chapter each day.
In the things that you do and the things which you say.
Men hear what you say and watch what you do.
Say, what is the gospel according to you. ¹

To have Christ in our heart is to be assured that we are in the right way. The heart of the two travellers on the Emmaus Road ‘burnt within them’ as Christ expounded to them the Scriptures concerning Himself and dispelled their unbelieving conclusions about the way they took. As one writer said:

A little talk with Jesus
How it smooths the rugged road!
How it seems to help me onward,
When I faint beneath my load!²

To have Christ in our heart is to be satisfied

Asaph said: ‘Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever’ (Psalm 73.25–26). It was this sense of the inner presence of God—and Christ—which drew Moses out of the luxury of Egypt to unite himself with the despised people of God, because he esteemed ‘the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt’ (Hebrews 11.26). The same inner principle drew Ruth out of Moab, sustained Daniel in the lion’s den, accompanied the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace, and gave David the victory against Goliath. Indeed, the whole of Hebrews 11 is a record of the power of faith in Christ and its reward.

The very fact that the Psalmist in Psalm 119 confessed that he had hid God’s Word in his heart displays that grace had wrought that willingness to receive the Word as Lydia did. Those in whom the Word of God is hidden have the rich privilege of their life being hidden with Christ in God (see Colossians 3.3). This is the sacred secret of the preservation of the saints as expressed by David, ‘The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant’ (Psalm 25.14).

First published in Quarterly Record 651. Published online 7 April 2025.