ה HE.
“Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes, and I will keep them to the end. Give me understanding that I may obey Your law, and follow it with all my heart. Direct me in the path of Your commandments, for there I find delight.
Turn my heart to Your testimonies and not to covetous gain. Turn my eyes away from worthless things; revive me with Your word. Establish Your word to Your servant, to produce reverence for You. Turn away the disgrace I dread, for Your judgments are good. How I long for Your precepts! Revive me in Your righteousness.”
ו VAU.
“May Your loving devotion come to me, O LORD, Your salvation, according to Your promise. Then I can answer him who taunts, for I trust in Your word. Never take Your word of truth from my mouth, for I hope in Your judgments. I will always obey Your law, forever and ever. And I will walk in freedom, for I have sought Your precepts.
I will speak of Your testimonies before kings, and I will not be ashamed. I delight in Your commandments because I love them. I lift up my hands to Your commandments, which I love, and I meditate on Your statutes.”
“Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes, and I will keep them to the end. Give me understanding that I may obey Your law, and follow it with all my heart. Direct me in the path of Your commandments, for there I find delight.” We might read this statement and say, “Huh?” There are many things that give us delight-friends, family, hobbies, sports, good food. But how many of us even think about God’s commandments, let alone delight in them? And yet, many of the things that give us delight are evanescent, fleeting. Recently, one major college football team had 30 of its highly-compensated players sit out a major bowl game because they were eyeing professional careers and didn’t want to get injured, disappointing all the loyal fans who had been supporting them. God’s word is more solid and reliable than anything else.
“Turn my heart to Your testimonies and not to covetous gain. Turn my eyes away from worthless things; revive me with Your word. Establish Your word to Your servant, to produce reverence for You. Turn away the disgrace I dread, for Your judgments are good. How I long for Your precepts! Revive me in Your righteousness.” The psalmist has no illusions; he fully realizes that he might be easily misled and wind up pursuing something worthless. The requests in this section are heart-felt, the pleas of someone who knows that without God, he will wind up in disgrace for following worthless things.
“May Your loving devotion come to me, O LORD, Your salvation, according to Your promise. Then I can answer him who taunts, for I trust in Your word. Never take Your word of truth from my mouth, for I hope in Your judgments. I will always obey Your law, forever and ever. And I will walk in freedom, for I have sought Your precepts.” We don’t know when the writer of this psalm is living; however, it is obvious that the society around him is deteriorating rapidly. Righteous people are being taunted and abused. Ironically, the idol worshipers are the aggressors in this situation. No wonder that the psalmist is begging God to deliver him and give him the right words at the right time. The psalmist also realizes that God allows him to walk in freedom while his tormentors cannot.
“I will speak of Your testimonies before kings, and I will not be ashamed. I delight in Your commandments because I love them. I lift up my hands to Your commandments, which I love, and I meditate on Your statutes.” We don’t know the kings to whom the psalmist is referring, but this writer must have sufficient status to be admitted to a royal court as an advisor. Perhaps the writer is one of the high priests or scribes. This man promises to be faithful to God in the presence of rulers; would we do as much? Are we willing to testify to our faith, or are we chameleons, assuming protective coloration that depends on the situation in which we find ourselves?
APPLICATION: At one point in my surgical training I was the Pediatric Surgery Fellow for a famous cancer center in New York City. I came off a farm in the Middle West and my home town had a smaller population than the apartment building in which we were living. I had completed my general surgery training in a community hospital-based program in West Virginia, a far cry from the big-name programs from which many of my fellow trainees were coming. I could have attempted to hide my humble origins; however, I felt no need to do so. I believed that God had led me to this program and that God loved me and was there for me; therefore, I had no need to pretend to be something I was not. God gave me favor in that situation; my boss announced at the annual banquet that I was the best-loved pediatric surgery fellow they had ever had.
I do not tell this story to boast, but to affirm that God is the One who can lift us up when we will diligently study His Word and keep His commandments. Reading Psalm 119, you might feel that the psalmist repeats himself a great deal; however, this is a writer who has seen it all, a man well-acquainted with the intrigue of royal courts and the disgrace of idolatry. If the writer appears to repeat himself, it is because he knows that only God can keep him from falling into the same spiritual traps as those around him.
I began writing these Bible studies more than two years ago and wound up working my way through the entire Bible. I am nearing completion, with only part of Psalms and the Book of Proverbs left. Before beginning these efforts, I had read the Bible through innumerable times. I thought I knew the Bible fairly well and loved it as well as I could. But the efforts of writing these Bible studies have given me a new appreciation for God’s Word and it is more precious to me now than it ever was before.
The Bible is different from every other book because no matter how many times you read it, you will always gain something fresh and new. Verses you might have memorized years ago may suddenly spring to life in a new way. The more you read the Bible, the more it opens up to you. The Bible is like Dr. Who’s TARDIS ship for traveling in time and space, (TARDIS-Time and Relative Dimension in Space)-it’s bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, give us a hunger for Your Word, a passion to study it, and the will to memorize it so that it will remain with us forever. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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