“O how I love thy law!  It is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97).

In driving, cooking, and even reading, at some point, the mechanic becomes the artist.  Gone are the step-by-step procedures.  Gone are the frustrations over buttons and levers, precise calculations, and the sounding out of words.  Instead, all concentration now is given to the drive, the flavor, and the story.  At that point, the fundamentals have been absorbed into the bigger process.  They are still there, but they are no longer the conscious focal point.  This process mirrors a person’s entrance into the world of wisdom.

For many, their experience of the law of God remains on the pedantic level.  “Tell me the rule,” says their attitude, “and I will obey it.”  This is not wisdom.  The psalmist loved the law of God because it gave him wisdom, along with understanding and discernment (vv. 97-100).  Not content with a paint-by-numbers approach, he saw in the law of God wonders that fascinated him, even glory that reflected back to him the characteristics and attributes of God (cf. v. 18).  Through this divine law, he became wiser than his enemies, more successful than his teachers, and more discerning than his elders (vv. 98, 99, 100).  No wonder he loved this law, and mulled it over daily (v. 97)!

Which man do you most resemble: the pedantic rule-keeper or the wise psalmist?  If left without a rule, could you discern from first principles your right and wise course of action, or are you Read the rest of this entry »

“For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven” (Psalm 119:89).

“Get your head in the game,” he yelled, and the players knew exactly what the coach meant.  Daydreaming, young Johnny had let the ball go past him into right field.

“Get your head out of the sand,” he warned, and the wife knew exactly what the counselor meant.  Her husband had been ignoring their child’s unruliness for years, and it showed.

“Get your head out of the clouds,” his dad advised.  Unrealistic and full of pipe dreams, the boy needed a reality check before heading out into the real world.

Three sayings.  Which is the wisest?

It depends which one is the most real–the game, the sand, or the clouds.  For most of us, Read the rest of this entry »

“My soul fainteth for thy salvation: but I hope in thy word” (Psalm 119:81).

What do you do when your soul is at the point of exhaustion?  Having held out for some time, your strength is now gone, and you cry out in desperation, “How long, O Lord?  When will you comfort me?”  Perhaps you are persecuted, or maybe it is your finances, health, family, or personal sin that has drained your energy and led you say, “I’m done!  I can’t go on anymore!”  What do you do?

In this stanza, the psalmist has been persecuted to the point of exhaustion–both exhausted in waiting for deliverance and almost exhausted in physical life itself.  This theme word exhausted occurs three times, and literally means “to finish,” that is, to bring a process to completion, either positively (through filling to the full) or negatively (through emptying to exhaustion).  In this stanza, the negative sense dominates:

“My soul fainteth for thy salvation” (v. 81a).
“Mine eyes fail for thy word” (v. 82a).
“They had almost consumed me upon the earth” (v. 87a).

Added to this word-theme, the psalmist drives home his point with two other literary effects.  First, for the first time in Psalm 119, the psalmist employs direct speech.  It is as if he has been silent for so long–waiting, waiting, WAITING–until now, at the point of exhaustion, his power to plug the pressure gives way Read the rest of this entry »

“Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments” (Psalm 119:73).

Affliction is often used by God to correct us; and used in this way, affliction makes the most sense to us: “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word” (v. 67; cf. v. 71).  But what if affliction does not come as correction?  What if we are mature Christians, who walk with God?  How should we, as mature Christians, consider and respond to affliction? This stanza gives us an outlook (vv. 73-76) and a prayer of response (vv. 77-80).

The outlook of stable faith is learning, waiting, and knowing (vv. 73-76). Even though the psalmist is stable (“Thy hands have made me and established me”), he still asks for greater discernment that he might learn God’s commandments (v. 73).  The goal of learning is not mere stability, although that should be achieved early (cf. 1 Thessalonians 3:2; Ephesians 4:11-14); rather, one goal of stability is greater learning.  Once the foundation is set, real learning can begin, just as a stable marriage lays the platform for a healthy, growing relationship.  Therefore, mature Christian, Read the rest of this entry »

“Let thy mercies come also unto me, O LORD, even thy salvation, according to thy word” (Psalm 119:41).

Easily unnoticed, this stanza begins with the Hebrew letter waw, which implies is a continuation of the prayers of the previous stanza: “Let thy mercies come also unto me” (v. 41).  For this reason, we should see both stanzas as part of a larger unit, with the first stanza giving the prayers for causing-grace and the second stanza giving the prayers for the resultant-grace.  In other words, the second stanza answers the question: Having emerged from the vanities and reproaches of this world, what is the reward of dependent obedience and worship?

Three rewards are cited:

First, tangible salvation is the true answer to reproach (vv. 41-42). Instead of immediately answering reproach, in a vain attempt to clear his name, the psalmist chose rather to pray for deliverance (v. 39).  Since God’s loyal-love is eternal, salvation must come eventually; and when it does, the psalmist will be given tangible proof of his integrity in the face of his accusers (cf. Psalm 103:17; 13:5).  Therefore, Read the rest of this entry »

“Teach me, O LORD, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end” (Psalm 119:33).

In Hebrew, the letter he (pronounced “hay”) can be added to the front of a verb to speak of causation.  This is foreign to English, but it works something like this.  Take the verb “return”.  Add he and it becomes “bring back” (lit. “cause to return”).  Similarly, adding he to the verb “pass over” makes it “turn away” (lit. “cause to pass over”), which begins verses 37 and 39.  All the verses in this stanza begin with he, as indicated by the heading; many of them refer to causation–a feature the psalmist uses to stress our utter dependence upon God for obedience and worship.

With regard to obedience, consider these requests for causation:

“Direct me, O Jehovah, [regarding] the way of Your statutes, so that I will observe it to the end” (v. 33).
“Cause me to understand, so that I will observe You direction,–so that I will keep it with all [my] heart” (v. 34).
“Cause me to step in the pathway of Your commandments; because in it I take pleasure” (v. 35).
“Stretch out my heart to Your testimonies, and not to extorted-gain” (v. 36; note: no he added on “stretch”).

In each line, the psalmist asks God to cause him to obey.  For some in the church, this language may seem scandalous, Read the rest of this entry »

“Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O LORD, according unto thy word” (Psalm 119:65).

What is good for you? For instance, is it good for you to miss a flight?  Most of us would say no; but what if the plane then goes down?  Within a larger picture, small afflictions often appear good.

This insight must be grasped: The plane called Earth is going down, and few are finding the path of life (Matthew 7:13-14).  Most are oblivious to the danger, even though death surrounds us daily, and threatens to claim us all.  Instead of learning to prepare, we lull ourselves until forced to learn in the School of Affliction.  And yet how do we often consider affliction?  That it is an evil to be avoided, rather than a good to be welcomed.

Listen to the psalmist acknowledge that God did him good in affliction:

“Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word” (v. 67).
“It is good for me that I have been afflicted: that I might learn thy statutes” (v. 71).

To him, true goodness consisted in Read the rest of this entry »

“Thou art my portion, O LORD: I have said that I would keep thy words” (Psalm 119:57).

This stanza has two clear sections: private devotion (vv. 57-60) and public association (vv. 61-64).  In the first section, the psalmist declares that God alone is His portion; therefore, he pledges to keep His words, he entreats His favor, and he returns to His testimonies with thought and haste.  Having thoroughly repented, he announces in the second section that he will not capitulate to the dark bands of wicked men, but will freely associate with those who fear and obey God, declaring that the earth is full of God’s loyal love.  In both the opening and closing lines, obedience is predicated on a radical God-only-ness: “On earth, I own nothing but You and find nothing but Your love everywhere; therefore, teach me Your rules!  I pledge to obey!”

From this analysis, the implications are clear: If you do not have God as Your portion and His love as Your vision, you will not have the resolve to obey–to pray, repent, and persevere in a wicked and dark culture.  Half-hearted love to God will lead to half-footed obedience.  Instead of looking to God alone for favor, Read the rest of this entry »

“Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope” (Psalm 119:49).

Every journey has an element of waiting–the next town, the long stretch of prairie highway, the back-up.  The journey of the Gospel is no different.  Having heard the good word, and having banked everything on the reality of that word, we now wait for heaven, asking God to remember that word for our sake.

But as we wait, what shall we do?  We are afflicted, scorned, and landless, sojourning in the midst of a dark culture that forsakes God’s law.  What shall we do?

Having called upon God to remember His word, we must remember our comfort.

Look ahead.  While sapped and drained now, we must remember that one saying of divine truth gives life.  “This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me” (v. 50).

Look behind.  While tempted to stretch beyond the bounds of God’s law, due to Read the rest of this entry »

“My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word” (Psalm 119:25).

What do you do when you feel close to death–either literally, due to chronic illness or peril, or emotionally, as here, due to grief sapping the moisture from your soul (v. 28)?  What do you do when you feel trapped, like there is no place to run, no option but to disobey, and death itself appears to be the only way out–the unpleasant option you are unfortunately stuck with?  What do you do?

According to this stanza, you need inward renewal and outward resolution, in that order.

First, you need inward renewal (vv. 25-28). In general, the means of this renewal is always the same.  The Holy Spirit uses prayer and the word to revive our souls: “Quicken thou me according to thy word” (v. 25).  As for the word, it is God’s will to give life to each believer (John 6:40).  As for prayer, it is God’s delight Read the rest of this entry »