PSALM 119
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The exercises of a God-fearing man as a result of the law written in his heart.
The writer of the psalm is a servant of the Lord (Ps 119:17); a companion of those who fear the Lord (Ps 119:63); and a stranger in the land (Ps 119:19).
He is surrounded by transgressors that grieve his spirit (Ps 119:158), and enemies that oppress him (Ps 119:134). Princes speak against him (Ps 119:23), and persecute him without a cause (Ps 119:161). The proud hold him in derision (Ps 119:51), forge lies against him (Ps 119:69), and dig pits for his overthrow (Ps 119:85). The wicked lay snares for his feet (Ps 119:110), and lie in wait for his destruction (Ps 119:95). He is held in reproach and contempt (Ps 119:22); in the eyes of the world he is little and despised (Ps 119:141).
He is tempted by covetousness within, and vanity without (Ps 119:36-37). In the past he had gone astray (Ps 119:67), and wandered like a lost sheep (Ps 119:176). He had passed through affliction (Ps 119:71), and taken his life in his hand (Ps 119:109). At times he is in heaviness of soul, ready to faint (Ps 119:28, 81), and finds trouble and anguish.
Nevertheless in all his failures and trials, and through all his changing experiences, the Word of God is the unfailing resource of his soul. It is his delight and his comfort, the subject of his prayers, and the theme of his praise. It is a lamp to his feet, and a light to his path. It is sweeter than honey to his taste; it is more to him than thousands of gold and silver. By it he is restored in soul, strengthened in weakness, and enlightened in his understanding. Through it he cleanses his way, escapes temptation, and answers his opponents.
Thus the great theme of the psalm is the Word of God, cherished in the heart, expressed in the life, and witnessed to with the lips. Under different titles there is a reference to the Word of God in every verse, with the exception of Ps 119:122, 132. Prophetically the psalm presents the exercises of the godly in Israel during the days of tribulation that will precede their deliverance from their enemies, by the coming of Christ to reign. Morally the psalm is rich with instruction as to the practical life of the godly in all ages.
The psalm is arranged in twenty-two sections according to the number, and order, of the Hebrew alphabet. Every section consists of eight verses, each verse commencing with the same letter of the alphabet. It will be noticed that the law, or revelation of God, is referred to under ten different terms having distinct meanings, apparently, as follows:
1. Law (torah) occurs twenty-five times — the law of Moses as a whole.
2. Commandments (mitsrah), occurs twenty-two times — the ten moral laws.
3. Testimonies (edal or eduth), used twenty-three times — the law as bearing witness to God.
4. Precepts (piqqudion), used twenty-one times — the law as a charge upon man.
5. Statute (choq), used on twenty-two occasions — the permanent written law in contrast to a customary law.
6. Judgments (mishpat), used twenty times — that which is ordained by authority.
7. Way (orah), occurs five times — an ordinary path (Ps 119:9, 15, 101, 104, 128).
8. Way (derek), used thirteen times — a trodden path.
9. Word (dabar, or 'logos'), used twenty-three times — the matter or substance of what is said.
10. Word (imrah), used nineteen times — the actual saying or speech (Ps 119:11, 38, 41, 50, 58, 67, 76, 82, 103, 116, 123, 133, 140, 148, 154, 158, 162, 170, 172).
DIVISION 1 (Aleph) PSALM 119: 1-8 The blessedness of the undefiled in the way.
(Ps 119:1-3) The opening verses present the theme of the whole psalm — the blessedness of those who walk through this world in “the way” marked out by the Lord in His law, who “keep” His testimonies, and seek Him with the whole heart. The law cherished in the heart leads to a practical walk in which iniquity is refused. Thus the godly are delivered from their own wills to do God's will.
(Ps 119:4-8) With the blessedness of God's way before his soul, the psalmist turns to God in prayer, admitting the authority of God to “command,” and our responsibility “to keep” His precepts. Moreover, there is the longing desire that the responsibility should be met; and, conscious of human weakness, the godly man looks to God to so direct his ways that God's statutes may be kept (Ps 119:5). Thus walking, a good conscience will be maintained (Ps 119:6); and, when the conscience is good, praise flows, not from formal lips, but from an upright heart (Ps 119:7). Having cast himself upon God, the psalmist can say with confidence, “I will keep thy statutes,” though recognizing past failure, which leads to the cry, “O forsake me not utterly.”
DIVISION 2 (Beth) PSALM 119: 9-16 The desire of the godly man to enjoy the blessedness of the undefiled in the way. How this is effected and the result.
(Ps 119:9-12) The desire being awakened, the question is asked, How can a young man cleanse his path, and enjoy the blessedness of the undefiled in the way? The answer follows.
First, by watchful care to bring all his ways under the searchlight of God's Word (v. 9).
Second, by casting himself upon the power of God to be kept from wandering in paths of his own lust and will. Conscious of his weakness and that right and honest desires will not in themselves keep him in the path of blessing, he whole-heartedly casts himself upon God (Ps 119:10).
Third, by hiding the Word in his heart, and thus being kept from sinning against God in secret (cp. 1 John 2: 14).
Fourth, by owning the blessedness of the Lord and thus in confidence looking to be taught of the Lord (Ps 119:12).
(Ps 119:13-16) The way of the young man having been cleansed, he can bear testimony of others (v. 13), from a heart that is in the enjoyment of God's testimonies (v. 14), meditates upon them (v. 15), delights in them, and keeps them in mind (v. 16).
DIVISION 3 (Gimel) PSALM 119: 17-24 The servant of the Lord an outcast stranger in an evil world.
(Ps 119:17-18) The young man who cleanses his way is prepared and meet for the service of the Lord (2 Tim. 2: 21). He confesses that with God are the issues of life: he looks to the bountiful mercy of the Lord to spare him, to keep him walking in obedience, and to open his eyes to behold wondrous things out of the law. This is more than discovering in the law a rule of life. The natural man can do this much; only the servant with the opened eyes will behold “wondrous things.”
(Ps 119:19-24) The remaining verses present the effect of an obedient walk as a servant of the Lord in a world of sin.
First, the one who serves, and is subject to God, in the midst of a rebellious world, will of necessity find himself “a stranger in the earth.” But earth's strangers are God's friends; hence the desire of the soul to walk in closest intimacy with God, — “Hide not Thy commandments from me” (cp. Gen. 18: 17). Such an one values the intimacies of God. They fill his soul, not with occasional desire, but continual longing (Ps 119:20).
Second, the servant of God finds he is, not only a stranger in the earth, but opposed by the wicked, who in their pride and princely prosperity heap reproaches and contempt upon the one who walks in lowly obedience of God. The godly man forms a just estimate of such. He sees they are rebuked of God and under a curse. There is no need to answer those whom God rebukes, and hence the psalmist is silent in the presence of their hard speeches, finding his delight and counsel in the testimonies of God.
DIVISION 4 (Daleth) PSALM 119: 25-32 The Lord the alone resource in the time of trouble.
(Ps 119:25) With the power of evil pressing upon his spirit, the godly man looks only to the Lord for relief. He does not seek to find relief by escaping from the pressure. He seeks God in the pressure, praying that God would raise his drooping spirits according to the comfort of the word.
(Ps 119:26) This confidence in God is the outcome of confession to God. The soul having made known all its ways to God was conscious of having been heard, “I have declared my ways and thou heardest me.”
(Ps 119:27-28) Having confessed his own ways, the psalmist desires to be taught God's way, and God's wondrous works, and thus find relief from his felt weakness by God's strength.
(Ps 119:29-32) Desiring God's way the soul prays to be delivered from man's way — the way of lying. He has confessed his way (Ps 119:26), learned God's way (Ps 119:27), refused man's way (Ps 119:29), and chosen God's way (Ps 119:30) — the way of truth. In the confidence that springs from this definite choice of the way of truth, the soul intreats the Lord that he may not be put to shame. Moreover, being 'enlarged,' or 'set free' from heaviness, he desires with renewed energy to run the way of the Lord's commandments.
DIVISION 5 (He) PSALM 119: 33-40 A prayer for divine teaching, and an opened understanding, “to go in the path” of the Lord, apart from covetousness and vanity.
(Ps 119:33-34) The desire of the soul to be taught by the Lord the way of His statutes — “Teach me, O Lord.” Teaching, however, is not enough; we need the opened heart as well as the opened Scriptures, hence the prayer, “Give me understanding” (cp. Luke 24: 27, 45; 2 Tim. 2: 7).
(Ps 119:35) Further we are dependent upon the Lord for any practical results that may follow divine teaching. So the prayer follows, “Make me to go.” Well indeed for every saint to pray these three prayers, and in their divine order, “Teach me O Lord,” “Give me understanding,” and “Make me to go.”
(Ps 119:36-37) Following upon these requests, the psalmist remembers the two great hindrances to a walk of practical godliness: — the root of evil within — covetousness; and the incitement to evil from without, the vanity on every hand. The godly man prays that his heart may be kept from covetousness, and his eyes from beholding vanity.
(Ps 119:38-40) Thus kept from evil within and vanity without, he prays to be established in the truth, and devoted to God, walking in His fear, and kept from any occasion of reproach in himself. In the knowledge that God's judgments are good, the godly man, with deep longing after the Lord's precepts, desires to be energized in the path of righteousness.
DIVISION 6 (Vau) PSALM 119: 41-48 A prayer for the Lord's deliverance, that the godly man may silence the reproaches of the wicked.
(Ps 119:41-43) The psalmist looks to the Lord for deliverance from his enemies according to the Word. Thus will there be an answer to those who reproach him with being forsaken of God. He had put his trust in God's Word; if abandoned of God the Word of truth would be utterly taken out of his mouth. He would have no answer to the reproaches of the wicked. He has confidence in delivering grace, for his hope is in God's judgments.
(Ps 119:44-48) In the confidence of an answer to his prayer, the psalmist anticipates the blessedness of God's deliverance. The delivered man, free from the opposition and reproaches of the enemy, would continually keep the law and walk in liberty. In freedom of soul he would have no shame in speaking of God's testimonies before the greatest on earth. This, surely, is ever God's order from His servants: first, to “keep” the Word in the soul; followed by a right “walk” — the Word having its practical effect in the life; finally, to “speak” to others, the lips speaking of that which is expressed in the life. Further, the heart of the godly man delights in that of which he speaks. Loving the Lord's commandments his lips find no shame in speaking of that which fills his heart (cp. Ps. 14: 1). He would openly avow his allegiance to God's commands — for such is the force of lifting up the hands — with no mere lip profession, but as an avowal of the law that he loved. Moreover, that which he loves would be the theme of his meditations.
DIVISION 7 (Zain) PSALM 119: 49-56 Confidence in the Word of the Lord in the presence of the derision of the wicked.
(Ps 119:49-50) God has caused His servant to trust in His Word; therefore, with the utmost confidence, he can look to God to fulfill His Word. He knows that God must be true to His Word. This confidence in the stability of God's Word had been his comfort in the midst of affliction. His confidence in the Word was the outcome of being quickened by it.
(Ps 119:51) Nevertheless, confidence in the Word of God made the servant of the Lord an object of derision to the proud men of the world — those who had thrown off allegiance to God and His Word. In spite of derision the soul was not moved from its confidence.
(Ps 119:52-53) In the face of derision the godly man was comforted and strengthened in steadfastness, by the remembrance of God's judgments upon the wicked in the days of old. God's past judgments lead the soul to shrink with horror from those who had forsaken God's law.
(Ps 119:54-56) Nevertheless, while waiting for God to fulfill His word — while yet in the house of pilgrimage and surrounded by the darkness of night — the godly man found his joy in the Word and the Name of the Lord. This confidence was the outcome of obedience to the Word.
DIVISION 8 (Cheth) PSALM 119: 57-64 Blessing through having the Lord for the portion of the soul.
(Ps 119:57-58) The godly man acknowledges that the Lord is the portion of his heart. The immediate result being that he desires to do the will of the One who is his portion — “I have said that I would keep Thy words.” Moreover he desires to be in the favour of the One whose Word he obeys, “I intreated thy favour with my whole heart.”
(Ps 119:59-60) The desire to obey the Word, and enjoy the favour of the Lord, of necessity leads to exercise of heart as to his ways. Are they suited to one who has the Lord for his portion? Therefore, he says. “I thought on my ways;” with the practical result that he turned his feet unto the testimonies of the Lord, not reluctantly, but with diligent haste.
(Ps 119:61-62) The one who is set to obey the Lord will at once find that the wicked are against him; but having the Lord for his portion, he is steadfast and unmoved. However much evil presses upon him he does not forget the Word. At midnight — the darkest moment — he can rise to praise the Lord.
(Ps 119:63-64) Freed from the bands of the wicked he finds that having the Lord for his portion brings him into fellowship with others that fear the Lord and keep His Word. Thus in the midst of evil he discerns the mercy of the Lord, to find that it is greater than man's evil, “The earth, O Lord, is full of thy mercy.”
DIVISION 9 (Teth) PSALM 119: 65-72 Blessing through the chastening of the Lord.
(Ps 119:65-67) The servant of the Lord justifies God in His dealings, however painful. “Thou hast dealt well with thy servant.” Time was when the servant dealt ill with God, for he says, “I went astray.” Then God, in mercy, dealt with him in chastening — “I was afflicted.” His will broken by affliction, he now submits to God's will.
(Ps 119:68) He recognizes that behind all God's dealings in chastening there is the goodness of God, so that he can say, “Thou art good, and doest good.” God being good he desires to be taught of God.
(Ps 119:69-70) When going astray the wicked were indifferent to the godly man: now that he has returned to the path of obedience, they speak lies concerning him. But the lies of the enemy only energize the psalmist to keep the truth with his whole heart. The wicked in their prosperity are perfectly indifferent to God's law; the restored soul delights in it.
(Ps 119:71-72) He has learned in affliction to value the Word above the thousands of gold and silver in which the proud boast; hence he can say, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted.”
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