If you will look at verses 7 and 8 of our Psalm, you will see four things which the Word of God does. "It converts the soul, makes wise the simple, rejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes." Let us think of these four things.
First: "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." The law here means the whole covenant of Jehovah.
You remember how, when God appeared to Abraham, that Abraham fell on his face, feeling his utter weakness and nothingness, and then God talked with him. When a man is laid low in the dust then God can talk to him. And God said to Abraham, "I will make my covenant between Me and thee." [Footnote: Gen. xvii. 2.] A covenant is a promise made under solemn conditions, and it is God's covenant of grace which converts the soul. Such a promise as we have in Ezekiel: "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh: And I will put my Spirit within you." [Footnote: Ezek. xxxvi. 26.] God says "I will" five times in those few lines, because He wants us to understand that in giving this promise He undertakes to do in us and for us what we can never do for ourselves.
This reminds me of a young woman who was troubled because, although she was longing to be saved, yet she felt her heart was so hard. One Sunday the minister took this verse as the text for his sermon. When he gave it out it seemed to her as if a voice was speaking these words close to her, right into her ear, "I will give you an heart of flesh." It came like a message direct from God. She was so deeply touched she could not listen to the sermon, and after it was over she went into the fields to find a quiet place that she might look at the words again in her Bible. She is now a very bright earnest Christian.
It is through the Word that God speaks to our hearts, and when the Holy Spirit makes it a living Word and quickens us to receive it with faith, then we are converted. If you are not saved, take your Bible and read it prayerfully, and you will find in it just what you want. Remember the letter of Scripture is of no use unless we experience its power and enjoy its sweetness.
A young clergyman was converted through a very strange text. He was so much depressed he thought of committing suicide, and then his eye fell on that verse in Ecclesiastes, "A living dog is better than a dead lion." [Footnote: Eccles. ix. 4.] The words brought fresh hope to him. He said to himself, One thing is certain and that is, I am still a living man, and he was then led to seek Christ as the Way, the Truth and the Life.
It is wonderful to think of the many different ways in which God sends His Word home to our hearts. Spurgeon gives an instance of this. He was asked to visit a dying man who told him about his conversion. He said, "Some years ago I was at work in the Crystal Palace. God's Spirit was striving with me and I felt the burden of sin. It seemed to follow me wherever I went. Suddenly a voice said to me distinctly, 'Behold he Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.' [Footnote: St. John i. 29.] No one was near me, and I thought the message had come straight from God. I then saw clearly that Christ had died to save me, and ever since I have had joy and peace in believing."
Spurgeon listened to the dying man's testimony with deep interest, and he remembered that on that very day he had gone to the Crystal Palace to test his voice in the transept before speaking at a People's service which was to be held there, and had used that very text, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world."
Let us thank God that His Word is perfect in converting he soul.
"The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." It is well known that very often a man who is no scholar, but who is taught of God, is able to see deep truths which learned men fail to understand. Every time you read your Bible look up and say, "Lord, open Thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law." [Footnote: Ps. cxix. 18.]