Happiness Despite a Lawless, Loveless World

“Happy are the ones faultless in their way, the ones walking in the law of Jehovah.”​—PSALM 119:1.

1, 2. (a) From whom does genuine happiness come, and for how long is it possible to experience it? (b) Rather than “the Beatitudes,” what should the opening part of the Sermon on the Mount be called, and why so?

HAPPINESS comes from the Creator of man. He is “the happy God” with good news for us. (1 Timothy 1:11) He has laid up everlasting happiness for his human creatures here on earth. Even now, they may enter into it by bringing themselves into line with his regulations.​—Psalm 119:26, 33.

² Nineteen centuries ago Jesus Christ, the Son of “the happy God,” delivered what has come to be called the Sermon on the Mount. According to Matthew 5:1-12, this sermon opened up with what are called “the Beatitudes,” meaning “the Blessednesses.” However, according to the Greek language, into which the disciple Matthew’s account of the earthly life of Jesus Christ was translated, they should rather be called “the Happinesses.” Even the account of Matthew in the Hebrew language uses the Hebrew word meaning “happy.”

3. (a) Did the writer of Psalm 119 qualify to enjoy the special happinesses, set forth by Jesus Christ? Explain. (b) Describe the psalmist’s expressed feelings toward the Law covenant mediated by Moses.

³ A man who anciently qualified for enjoying such happinesses as were set forth by the Jewish Messiah, Jesus Christ, was the inspired Jewish writer of Psalm 119, the longest psalm of the Bible. In line with the reasons given by Jesus Christ for being happy, the psalmist was conscious of his spiritual need. Also, he was mournful, he was mild-tempered, he hungered and thirsted for righteousness, he was merciful, he was reproached and persecuted, and he had every sort of wicked thing lyingly said against him. He wrote the psalm hundreds of years before our Common Era, while the nation of Israel was still under the Law covenant that had been mediated by the prophet Moses between Jehovah God and the nation in 1513 B.C.E. at Mount Sinai. Properly the psalmist had no fault to find with the Law of that covenant, for it was God-given. He well knew that the pagan nations all around the land of Israel had nothing to compare with that divine Law. He looked upon it as most enlightening, saying in Ps 119 verses 105 and 130: “Your word is a lamp to my foot, and a light to my roadway. The very disclosure of your words gives light, making the inexperienced ones understand.”

4. (a) In what order is Psalm 119 composed, and how is this a help? (b) By making reference to “the book of psalms,” Jesus and his disciples set a pattern for whom, and for what purpose?

⁴ To serve as a memory aid the psalmist made it an alphabetic psalm, so that in the 22 stanzas each of the 8 Hebrew lines starts with the same Hebrew letter, in alphabetic order. Thus each line of the first stanza under the first Hebrew letter Aleph as a heading starts with that first letter Aleph. Each line of the second stanza starts with the second Hebrew letter Beth. So it goes down through the 22 stanzas of the psalm, corresponding to the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. With 8 Hebrew lines to each of the 22 stanzas, the psalm mounts up to 176 verses. In his teaching, Jesus Christ himself referred to “the book of Psalms.” (Luke 20:42; 24:44) In this he set a pattern for his disciples.​—Acts 1:20; 13:33; 1 Corinthians 14:26; Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16; Hebrews 4:7; James 5:13.

5. In opening up Psalm 119, whose experiences did the writer likely have in mind?

⁵ The psalmist doubtless wrote out of his own personal experience when he opened up Psalm 119, saying: “Happy are the ones faultless in their way, the ones walking in the law of Jehovah. Happy are those observing his reminders . . . In his ways they have walked. You yourself have commandingly given your orders to be carefully kept. O that my ways were firmly established to keep your regulations! In that case I should not be ashamed, when I look to all your commandments. I shall laud you in uprightness of heart, when I learn your righteous judicial decisions. Your regulations I continue to keep. O do not leave me entirely.”​—Psalm 119:1-8.

6. (a) How are key words made to stand out in this psalm? (b) Of what was the psalmist a student, and how is this borne out?

⁶ In that opening stanza of 8 Hebrew lines we note the key words law, reminders, orders, regulations, commandments, and judicial decisions. All through the 176 Hebrew verses, the psalmist emphasizes those words. For example, he uses the word “law” 25 times, “reminders” 22 times, “orders” 21 times, “regulations” 21 times, “commandments” 20 times, “judicial decision(s)” 21 times, with the related word “commandment” being used twice in the psalm. Despite the psalmist’s repeated use of these words that may sound legalistic, there is no evidence that he was a professional lawyer or jurist or even a judge. He was foremost a student of Jehovah’s recorded Word, which fact is borne out by his use of the expression “your word” 15 times. If he was the king of the nation of Israel, he was under the divine command to write a personal copy of the Law of Jehovah’s covenant with Israel for his own study and use. (Deuteronomy 17:14-18) The psalmist did not find the close study of Jehovah’s “word” with these features in mind to be boring, wearisome. He longed for what would help him to be law-abiding. (Psalm 119:40, 131, 174) Are we like him?

7. (a) How does knowing and walking in God’s law benefit us? (b) To what does “Torah” refer, but under what arrangement do Christians find themselves?

⁷ When we compare the international and national laws of the lands that are under the unseen control of “the father of the lie,” Satan the Devil, with Jehovah’s law, we can join the psalmist in saying: “Your law is truth. You are near, O Jehovah, and all your commandments are truth.” (John 8:44; Psalm 119:142, 151) So by “walking in the law of Jehovah,” we, like the psalmist, will be safeguarded from walking in the way of worldly error to our own hurt, bodily and spiritually. This works for our happiness. (Psalm 119:1) It works for our having divine blessing and approval. This affects our hearts, just as Psalm 119:97, 126, 127 indicates. The psalmist was under the Mosaic Law covenant that contained the “Torah,” the body of divine law that embodied many hundreds of distinct laws. Jehovah’s anointed witnesses of today are under the new covenant (of which Jesus Christ is the Mediator) with a “law” written, as it were, “in their heart.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34) By studying the Christian Greek Scriptures, they get acquainted with the new covenant “law” and its commandments.

8. (a) Does this lawless world face a bright prospect? (b) How did the psalmist describe his tearful concern over the failure of the Jews to keep God’s Law? (c) How was Jesus’ prophecy regarding unfaithful Jerusalem fulfilled, and what does this portend for Christendom?

⁸ The due time draws near for the rightful Lawgiver, Jehovah, to take action against this lawless world. A tearful prospect lies ahead. In his own day the psalmist, as a lover of God’s law, wept over the situation. (Psalm 119:136) A few days before undergoing a cruel martyr’s death, Jesus Christ wept over the tradition-keeping but lawbreaking city of Jerusalem. (Luke 19:41) Thirty-seven years after the Jews had crowned their lawbreaking by having the innocent Messiah, Jesus Christ, put to death at Gentile hands, Jehovah did act. (Psalm 119:126) The mournful things foreseen by Jesus Christ did come upon the city in 70 C.E. Today that which was foreshadowed by Jerusalem, and the Jewish people over which she ruled, is involved on a tremendously larger scale. Christendom, her modern-day lawbreaking counterpart, is far greater than ancient Jerusalem and the nation of Israel. In his own way Jehovah will put into the hearts of the political elements of this world to turn against all organized religion of the world, including Christendom, the fraudulent Kingdom of Christ.​—Revelation, chapter 17.

9. (a) Contrast Christendom’s blood-spilling course with the attitude and conduct of Jehovah’s Witnesses. (b) Our course harmonizes with what pattern? (c) For what reasons does Christ reject Christendom today?

⁹ Did not two world wars break out in Christendom, with her clergy backing such blood-spilling conflicts? In marked contrast with such breakers of the law of God’s new covenant, which commands brotherly love, the psalmist said as a pattern for Jehovah’s Witnesses of today: “Falsehood I have hated, and I do keep detesting it. Your law I have loved.” (Psalm 119:163) He desired to be wholehearted in his law keeping. He expresses his dislike of a halfhearted, lukewarm attitude, saying: “The halfhearted ones I have hated, but your law I have loved.” (Psalm 119:113) This is how Jesus Christ feels toward Christendom today, for it resembles the congregation in ancient Laodicea. To Christendom he can justly say: “Because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:16) We cannot be loving the lawless, loveless world and be loving Christ at the same time. There can be no straddling of the fence. Warm love must be the moving force behind obedience to God. Jehovah could never inspire a wholehearted servant of his to say anything less forceful than this: “I shall show a fondness for your commandments that I have loved.”​—Psalm 119:47.

10. (a) What do we have to be fond of, even as was the psalmist? (b) What was the affliction of the psalmist designed to do, but to what course did he hold, having what effect upon us?

¹⁰ Our being fond of Jehovah’s law leads to salvation. The psalmist owned up to this when he said: “If your law had not been what I am fond of, then I should have perished in my affliction.” (Psalm 119:92) His affliction was not some death-dealing sickness. He was under affliction from the presumptuous (toward God), who were hating him and persecuting him. Under the pressure he would have yielded to the aims of such Israelites and have gone contrary to Jehovah’s will if he had not loved God’s law so much. What a fine example the psalmist is to us today who are under such pressure from a world in which lawlessness abounds to such an extent that the love of the majority of mankind has cooled off during this conclusion of the system of things!​—Matthew 24:3, 12.

11. Our salvation stems from what, and so how do we view human schemes?

¹¹ Only by keeping God’s law do we have basis for expecting to be saved eternally. We long for salvation into God’s new system of new heavens and a new earth. Close to the end of Psalm 119, verse 174 expresses it for us, saying: “I have longed for your salvation, O Jehovah, and your law I am fond of.” Hence, we reject the proposed human schemes and arrangements for the salvation of this lawless, loveless world.

Law-Abiding Under Persecution

12. (a) Persecution of the “woman” and her “seed” is instigated and carried out by whom, and why? (b) How have the persecutors been rebuked?

¹² Persecution on a world scale was foretold for Jehovah’s Witnesses during these last days of this dying old system of things under the unyielding rule of the symbolic dragon, Satan the Devil. Revelation 12:17 points out his target, saying: “The dragon grew wrathful at the woman [Jehovah’s wifelike organization], and went off to wage war with the remaining ones of her seed [aside from the newborn Kingdom], who observe the commandments of God and have the work of bearing witness to Jesus.” The persecution comes principally from those who presume to stray away from what God commands for these last days of the dragon’s visible system of things on earth. By means of the Kingdom message proclaimed worldwide by Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jehovah has rebuked these cursed ones, just as Psalm 119:21 says: “You have rebuked the cursed presumptuous ones, who are straying from your commandments.” Far different is the case of the faithful ones whom such presumptuous persecutors reproach and revile, just as was the case with the psalmist: “The presumptuous ones themselves have derided me to the extreme. From your law I have not deviated.”​—Psalm 119:51.

13. (a) Despite the wicked designs of persecutors, to what outcome does keeping God’s law lead? (b) How, in modern times, has this been demonstrated?

¹³ Seeing that Jehovah’s Witnesses are proceeding in agreement with Jehovah’s law for this time, the presumptuous persecutors try to bring about the downfall of the law-abiding Witnesses, just as was illustrated in the case of the psalmist, who said: “The presumptuous have excavated pitfalls to get me, those who are not in accord with your law.” (Psalm 119:85) The putting of the presumptuous schemers to shame means not merely the exposure of their misleading ways but, more particularly, the vindication of Jehovah as the true God. So with no maliciousness the psalmist could pray: “Let the presumptuous ones be ashamed, for without cause they have misled me. As for me, I concern myself with your orders.” (Psalm 119:78) Jehovah makes sure that even the persecution works out for good and that the persecutors do not really fraudulently gain anything. He responds to the prayer of Psalm 119:122: “Act as a surety for your servant for what is good. May the presumptuous ones not defraud me.” Death on a mass scale threatened Jehovah’s Witnesses during the dictatorships of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, but by not forgetting the law and commandments of their God, they stood firm and many survived. In the words of Psalm 119:60, 61, the survivors can say: “I hurried up, and I did not delay to keep your commandments. The very ropes of the wicked ones surrounded me. Your law I did not forget.” The Almighty God is able to cut or break asunder the ropes of restraint tied about his Witnesses by their enemies and thus to free his servants in his due time for the work that he has ordained for them to do during this conclusion of the system of things.

14. (a) Similar to the psalmist’s case, what have Jehovah’s Witnesses experienced, and what has been the outcome of their enemies’ efforts? (b) Who are able to rejoice over their sufferings, and why?

¹⁴ According to his words at Psalm 119:84, 86, 161, the psalmist underwent much persecution even from his own countrymen. Witnesses of Jehovah have suffered persecution inside and outside the lands of Christendom in which they are under ban at the present time. However, the enemy has failed in the purpose of his foul, unjustified persecution! To the amazement of the enemy, the Witnesses who are “walking in the law of Jehovah” and “observing his reminders” are moved to rejoice over their sufferings for Jehovah God and his Christ. They are reminded of what Jesus Christ said in his list of happinesses: “Happy are you poor, because yours is the kingdom of God. Happy are you whenever men hate you, and whenever they exclude you and reproach you and cast out your name as wicked for the sake of the Son of man. Rejoice in that day and leap, for, look! your reward is great in heaven, for those are the same things their forefathers used to do to the prophets [including the psalmist].” (Psalm 119:1, 2; Luke 6:20, 22, 23) Sharing in Jehovah’s delight, his persecuted Witnesses continue to “magnify the law and make it majestic.”​—Isaiah 42:21.

Reminders and Orders of the God of a New System

“I have kept your orders and your reminders, for all my ways are in front of you.”​—PSALM 119:168.

1. In what ways do reminders serve to make Jehovah’s people happy?

GOD’S righteous new system is at hand! Jehovah’s Witnesses, who love his righteous law, need to get reminders from his Word and through his organization at vital times. Because they observe such divine reminders, they are happy. Such reminders move them to search for him, with happiness resulting. The English translation of the Hebrew word ‘edothʹ as “reminders” instead of “testimonies” (martyriʹa, according to the Greek Septuagint Version) is stronger and more purposeful. It indicates that Jehovah, as occasion requires, calls back to our minds what his law, his orders, his regulations, his commandments and statutes are. Thus he does not let us forget these entirely. If we do not get irritated at such reminders, we become happy because of observing them.

2. What basis did the writer of Psalm 119 have for highlighting so many reminders?

² If writing at the latest in the fifth century before our Common Era, the psalmist would have at his disposal all the Hebrew Scriptures from Genesis to Malachi. The fifth book is called Deuteronomy (Greek Septuagint Version, as seen above), which name means “Second Law.” Evidently the contents of this book were considered to be, for the most part, an explanation of the Law (covenant) that Jehovah made with Israel through the mediatorship of the prophet Moses. So Deuteronomy should contain reminders, but all the other books of the Bible likewise contain God’s reminders to us.

3. (a) Of what do the quotations from the Hebrew Scriptures remind us? (b) How can our happiness be greater than even that enjoyed by the psalmist?

³ The hundreds of quotations made from the Hebrew Scriptures in the Christian Greek Scriptures serve as reminders not only of what Jehovah taught his people under the Law but also of his magnificent purposes concerning the Christian congregation and the redeemed human race. The disciples today of Jesus Christ, the Greater Moses, have more reminders from Jehovah God than the psalmist had, and by faithfully observing them they should have greater happiness than the psalmist had. In searching for His reminders by Bible study, they are really searching for Jehovah with all their heart.

4. Rather than being irritated by God’s reminders, what is the right attitude in imitation of the psalmist?

⁴ That which gives us good advice and keeps us from sharing the fate of the wicked is something to be appreciated. The psalmist felt that way about God’s reminders. (Psalm 119:24, 119, 167) Jehovah’s Witnesses of today likewise are not irritated because God sees good to remind them of things having to do with his law either in their Bible study or by means of his organization. They loyally choose to stick to his reminders. “I have cleaved to your reminders. O Jehovah, do not put me to shame.”​—Psalm 119:31.

5. (a) Reminders from God’s Word and his organization serve what purpose? (b) How can we personally show the high regard for Jehovah’s reminders that the psalmist had?

⁵ God does not furnish his reminders to put his Witnesses to shame, but by them he guards them against a shameful course. They want their seat of affection to lean to things that are really profitable for all time to come; so they join the psalmist in praying: “Incline my heart to your reminders, and not to profits.” (Psalm 119:36) Little wonder that we do not want to lose possession of these lastingly beneficial things by letting up on Bible study or on regularly meeting with Jehovah’s dedicated people. (Psalm 119:111) Love of their God with all their soul prompts them to this course. Even though it may mean severe correction for them, Jehovah’s Witnesses rejoice that Jehovah is leading them in the way of his reminders, so as to keep them from going astray and being lost forever: “In the way of your reminders I have exulted, just as over all other valuable things.”​—Psalm 119:14.

6. How have Jehovah’s Witnesses endeavored to be honest with themselves before God?

⁶ Although they have been severely criticized and even renounced by many for having made mistakes, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been honest with themselves before their God. They want to go in the way that his book of reminders points out to them. Their modern history shows that they have acted just as the psalmist of old did: “I have considered my ways, that I may turn back my feet to your reminders.” (Psalm 119:59) Only by doing this could they pray to God to keep them alive to continue doing his appointed work despite their bloodthirsty enemies. (Psalm 119:88) Confessing that they are God’s slaves because of their dedication of themselves to him through Christ and that they need to get the true sense of what he has set down in his written Word, they say: “I am your servant. Make me understand, that I may know your reminders.”​—Psalm 119:125.

7. What are their reasons for being thankful, and what have they prayed?

⁷ The things that God has disclosed in his Word since the end of World War I in 1918 are wonderful to them, so that they want to do what these disclosures point out to them. (Psalm 119:129) Jehovah has been perfectly justified in bringing his reminders to our notice and in laying them upon us as commandments. We are glad to acknowledge this prayerfully in the words of the psalmist: “You have commanded your reminders in righteousness and in exceeding faithfulness.” (Psalm 119:138) Thanks for such a loyal God!

8. In what way is eternal life dependent on understanding and keeping God’s reminders?

⁸ Today Jehovah’s Witnesses well understand that their gaining eternal life in God’s righteous new system of things depends upon their getting the sense of what he has to call to their attention and then their intelligently obeying. (Psalm 119:144) In a hostile world they have had to pray for the divine Hearer of prayer to save them out of the most threatening situations, especially in these days when all nations are being gathered for “the war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon. (Revelation 16:13-16) Most appropriate is the prayer: “I have called upon you. O save me! And I will keep your reminders.”​—Psalm 119:146.

9. What assurance do we have that divine reminders will continue to be at our disposal?

⁹ Although all the written reminders of Jehovah God were founded 1,900 years ago with the completing of the Bible of 66 books, they are available today and will continue to be at our disposal into the indefinite future. Psalm 119:152, as addressed to God, proves to be true: “Long ago I have known some of your reminders, for to time indefinite you have founded them.” In view of the knowledge of some of the reminders of Jehovah, the magazine Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence began to be published in July of 1879. Today, after 105 years of publication, this magazine continues to be circulated, and that on a worldwide scale in 102 languages. Even if enemies of Jehovah’s Witnesses may be permitted to stop the magazine, they will never be able to put an end to the Holy Bible containing Jehovah’s reminders that rest upon an eternal, or indefinitely lasting, foundation.

Carrying Out the Orders of Our Superior

10. What prominence does Psalm 119 give to God’s “orders”?

¹⁰ After the psalmist applauds in his opening two verses the happiness of those walking in the law of Jehovah and observing his reminders, he goes on to say: “Really they have practiced no unrighteousness. In his ways they have walked. You yourself have commandingly given your orders to be carefully kept.” (Psalm 119:3, 4) In this psalm the composer uses the word “orders” 21 times, thus keeping them in mind.

11. (a) Why was the psalmist careful about his conduct as indicated at Psalm 119:168? (b) What is the thrust behind the word “orders”?

¹¹ The psalmist tells us how he felt and what he did about those divine “orders.” In this way he served as a dependable example to us today. He appreciated that this course of life was under God’s observation and that he had to be careful how he conducted himself under Jehovah’s Law covenant. For good reason he said: “I have kept your orders and your reminders, for all my ways are in front of you.” (Psalm 119:168) Reminders are a stimulus to the memory, but orders are directives issued by a superior to a subordinate. They set out what is to be done and how it is to be done by the servant, slave, employee or soldier in a dutiful way. Orders are things stronger than precepts; and the Hebrew word thus translated, namely, piqudimʹ, means “appointments; charges.” Did these divine orders seem burdensome or distasteful to the psalmist, especially if keeping them caused one to be falsely accused or misrepresented? Let us listen to him: “O see that I have loved your own orders. O Jehovah, according to your loving-kindness preserve me alive.”​—Psalm 119:159, 169.

12, 13. (a) How did the standard set by the psalmist enable God’s servants to endure trials during and after World War I? (b) Though they were ‘smeared with falsehood,’ whose orders did the remnant obey?

¹² What a fine standard the psalmist set for true Christians associated with Jehovah’s visible organization in the midst of this lawless, loveless world! Living up to it has proved rewarding. In their environment filled with enemies of their God, they feel just as the psalmist did, like an “alien resident.” (Psalm 119:19, 54) Yet they feel that nothing matches God’s regulations for proper living. They had a narrow escape during World War I of 1914-18. During those war-mad years the enemies reached high up into the personnel of Jehovah’s visible organization to hasten the destruction of his people, even to the point of wrongly imprisoning the president and other highly responsible men at the headquarters of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. The experience was like what Psalm 119:69 describes: “The presumptuous have smeared me with falsehood. As for me, with all my heart I shall observe your orders.” The Most High God, their Superior, must be obeyed rather than obeying men down here on God’s footstool.

¹³ Yes, at the climax of World War I, with such outward seeming success against keepers of God’s orders, the enemies felt that they were about to exterminate his obedient dedicated people. So these could say: “In a little while they would have exterminated me in the earth; but I myself did not leave your orders.” (Psalm 119:87) The Supreme One of the universe foiled the dastardly plot of the presumptuous enemies.

14. In what sense could the remnant express the words of Psalm 119:45?

¹⁴ After their deliverance following the war, they felt the need to search for God’s orders as never before in order to learn what he purposed for them to do in the unexpected peace period. They could utter the words of Psalm 119:45: “And I will walk about in a roomy place, for I have searched even for your orders.”

Now and Into the Future

15. (a) What view expressed in Psalm 119 have God’s people made their own? (b) On what have they concentrated since 1919?

¹⁵ With the widening out of their Kingdom work to the very ends of the earth, their enemies have multiplied. But this does not frighten them into putting God’s instructions out of mind. Resolutely they persist. (Psalm 119:93, 94) Because of not being forgetful hearers of God’s Word, including his positive orders, but having become doers of his work, what can they now say without braggadocio, giving credit to Jehovah? This: “With more understanding than older men I behave, because I have observed your own orders.” (Psalm 119:100, 104) So from the postwar year of 1919 onward, they have not concerned themselves with the plans and arrangements of the nations. They have undeviatingly proclaimed the Kingdom of God by Christ as the one and only hope of mankind, instead of the League of Nations and its current successor, the United Nations. What “understanding”!

16. Though we are pressured to do wrong, of what are we convinced?

¹⁶ When God’s Word tells us who live in this era of the United Nations not to love this world and its things, it tells us the divine orders for us. We must and do consider them to be right; and they are! We take our stand with Psalm 119:128: “That is why I have considered all orders regarding all things to be right; every false path I have hated.” Due to our uncompromising stand we may be looked down upon by worldlings, but God’s rating of us is what counts, and so we do not want his directives to slip our minds.​—Psalm 119:141.

17. What are the prospects ahead, and how will divine protection be found when opposers close in on Jehovah’s people?

¹⁷ In spite of the intensified preaching of God’s Kingdom by Christ as the sole hope of the world of mankind for now more than 60 years, the schemers and planners of world affairs pay no heed. Now the wiping out of the whole human family by warfare with nuclear weapons threatens. Not merely this, but antireligious hatred embitters more and more human hearts. After all forms of false religion are destroyed, God’s enemies will have to deal with Jehovah’s Witnesses. When the irreligious opposers of God’s Kingdom close in upon the surviving witnesses of Jehovah, these will as never before need superhuman help. They will have to be covered with the protective shadow of an almighty hand, God’s hand. They will have a basis for appealing for that divine hand to come to their aid, just as stated in Psalm 119:173: “May your hand serve to help me, because your orders I have chosen.” Under those most challenging circumstances, Jehovah’s hand will not prove too short in reaching ability so that it cannot save God-fearing observers of his orders.​—Isaiah 50:2.

18. (a) Why will one’s being in the right company have a bearing upon survival through the end of this system of things? (b) Knowing the outcome for those who fear Jehovah, we will constantly concern ourselves with what?

¹⁸ As we near the catastrophic end of this lawless, loveless system of things and the end of the separating of the people of the nations, as when a shepherd separates his sheep from the goats, in the company of whom do we want to be found? In the company of the goatlike ones who will be cut off everlastingly from all existence or in the company of sheeplike lovers of Jehovah God? (Matthew 25:31-46) It is none too soon to choose the right partners. It is now the time to make the choice of the psalmist, who said of the Supreme Being: “A partner I am of all those who do fear you, and of those keeping your orders.” (Psalm 119:63) We know what will be the portion of those who fear Jehovah God, and we want to participate with them in this soul-satisfying portion, to Jehovah’s own joy. Because we love him, we are deeply and constantly concerned with pleasing him by doing what he requires of us. The psalmist well expresses our determination, saying: “With your orders I will concern myself, and I will look to your paths.”​—Psalm 119:15.

19. What wonderful work is being carried on now?

¹⁹ Since the close of a world war, the first of its kind, in 1918, the Most High God has carried on a wonderful work amid an opposing world. It is the work of having his Witnesses preach “this good news of the kingdom . . . in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations,” in view of the approaching “end” of this millenniums-old system of things. (Matthew 24:14) We want to have a part with him in his works. We want to do his will, and so we ask him to make us do his will. Our heartfelt prayer is still that of Psalm 119:27: “Make me understand the way of your own orders, that I may concern myself with your wonderful works.”

20. Which one of God’s most wonderful works is yet to be performed, and what will those preserved alive say about God’s orders?

²⁰ One of God’s most wonderful works, yet to be performed, will be that of preserving his faithful and loyal witnesses through the coming end of this system of things into the New Order. (2 Peter 3:13) It will be righteous on his part to safeguard them clear through the death of this mortally diseased system of things. He will respond to this inspired prayer on their part: “Look! I have longed for your orders. In your righteousness preserve me alive.” (Psalm 119:40) Let that be your prayer. Then, after the greatest tribulation of all world history and being safely within the portals of the new and righteous system of things, you will be sincerely moved to say: “To time indefinite I shall not forget your orders, because by them you have preserved me alive.”​—Psalm 119:93.