Psalm 119: 33-40

Psalm 119 is called the Alphabet of Divine Love, the Paradise of all Doctrines, the Storehouse of the Holy Spirit, and the School of Truth.

The Theme of Psalm 119

is

The Word of God

33.  Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, and I shall keep it to the end.

34.  Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law; indeed, I shall observe

       it with my whole heart.

35.  Make me walk in the paths of Your commandments, for I delight in it.

36.  Incline my heart to Your testimonies, and not to covetousness.

37.  Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in Your

       way.

38.  Establish Your Word to Your servant, who is devoted to fearing You.

39.  Turn away my reproach which I dread, for Your judgments are good.

40.  Behold, I long for Your precepts;  revive me in Your righteousness.

A sense of dependence and a consciousness of extreme need pervades this section, which is made up entirely of prayer and plea.

 

33.  Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes.  The psalmist will have the Lord for his teacher; he feels that his heart will not learn from a less effective instructor.  The holy man would not only learn the statutes but also the way of them, their daily use, tenor, spirit, direction, habit, and tendencies.  He wants to know the path of holiness, which is hedged by divine law, along with the Lord's commands; these are signposts and milestones of information to guide and to mark our progress.  The desire to learn this way is an assurance that we will be taught.  He who made us desire to learn will be sure to gratify that longing.

And I shall keep it to the end.  Perseverance to the end is predicted to those whose beginning is God, and with God, and by God.  Those who begin without the Lord's teaching soon forget what they learn, and they leave the way they professed.  People cannot boast that they will hold the way in their own strength, for that depends on the continuous teaching of the Lord.  We will fall like Peter (John 18:27) if we presume on our own firmness.


According to this, our perseverance rests not on any force or compulsion but on the Lord's teaching.  Whoever the teacher, it requires learning on the part of the student.  No one can teach a person who refuses to learn.   Let us drink earnestly, then, in divine instruction so that we may hold fast to our integrity right up to the last hour of our life.  If we receive the living and incorruptible seed of the Word of God, we will live.  Apart from this we have no life eternal.



34.  Give me understanding and I shall keep Your law.  David prayed for understanding, for spiritual discernment. He not only wanted teaching but also the power to learn discernment.  The sure result of regeneration, or the gift of understanding, is a devout reverence for the law and a resolute keeping of it.  The Spirit of God makes us know the Lord and understand some of His love, wisdom, holiness, and majesty.  The result is that we honor the law and yield our hearts to the obedience of the faith.


Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart.  Understanding operates on the affections, it convinces the heart of the beauty of the law so that the soul loves it with all its power.  They alone obey God who can say, "My Lord, we would serve You with all our hearts."  But people cannot truly say this until they have received the inner illumination of the Holy Spirit. To observe God's commands with all our heart we must have a teachable spirit to be taught by the Lord.



35.  Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, for I delight in it.  You have made me love the way, now make me move in it.  This is the cry of a child who longs to walk but is too weak; it is the cry of a pilgrim who is exhausted but wants to be on the march. It is a blessed thing to delight in holiness, and surely He who gave this delight will work the higher joy of our possessing and practicing it.    May God work in us, so that we may both will and do His good pleasure. (Eph. 1:9).  The holiness we seek is not forced compliance;  it is the indulgence of a whole-hearted passion  for goodness, which will conform our life to the Lord's will.


Can you say, I delight in it?  Is practical godliness the jewel of your soul, the coveted prize of your mind?  If so, the path of life, however rough, will be clean, and it will lead your soul to indescribable delight.  Those who delight in the law should not doubt that they will be able to run in its ways.  Where the heart finds joy, the feet are sure to follow.

36.  Incline my heart to Your testimonies.  After asking for active virtue, David prayed that his heart would be in all that he did.  What would his action be if his heart did not go with it?  Perhaps David felt a wandering desire, an inordinate leaning of his soul to worldly gain.  It possibly intruded into his meditations, and so immediately he cried for more grace.  The only way to cure a wrong leaning is to have the soul bent in the opposite direction.  Holiness of heart is the cure for covetousness.  The leaning of the heart is the way life will lean, the force of the petition is, Incline my heart.  Our hearts must have some object of desire.  If we are inclined one way, we will be turned from the other.

37.  Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things.  Sin first entered man's mind by the eye, and it is still a favorite gate for Satan's allurements.  It is proof of the psalmist's weakness and dependence on God that he asks to have his eyes turned away from worthless things.

And revive me in Your ways.  Give me so much life that dead worthless things will have no power over me.  The prayer shows our greatest need:  more life in our obedience.  It shows the preserving power of increased life, which keeps us from the evils that are around, and it tells us that increased life must come from the Lord alone.  If we would be full of life, regarding the things of God, we must keep away from sin and folly, or the eyes will soon captivate the mind.

38.  Establish Your Word to Your servant.  Make me sure of Your sure Word.  Make it sure to me, and make me sure of it.  Establish me in Your truth.  Establish us in the faith, for You would have all Your servants instructed and confirmed in Your Word.  We must make sure we are the Lord's servants, or else we will not be sound in His truth.  Practical holiness is a great help toward doctrinal certainty.  If we are God's servants, He will confirm His Word in our experience.  "If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine. (John 7:17)

Who is devoted to fearing You.  A sure faith in the divine promise is the fountain and foundation of godly fear.  People will never worship a God in whom they do not believe.  More faith will lead to more godly fear.  We cannot look for the fulfillment of promises in our experience unless we live under the influence of the fear of the Lord.  Establishment in grace is the result of holy watchfulness and prayerful energy.  We will never be rooted and grounded in our belief unless we daily practice what we believe.  Full assurance is the reward of obedience.  Answers to prayer are given to those whose hearts answer to the Lord's command.   Skepticism  is the parent and the child of impurity, but strong faith brings holiness.

39.  Turn away my reproach which I dread.  David feared just reproach, dreading that he would cause the enemy to blaspheme through his inconsistency.  We should fear this and avoid it.  Persecution in the form of slander may be prayed against; it is a difficult trial, perhaps the hardest trial for sensitive minds.

For You judgments are good.  He is anxious that no one will speak evil of God's ways because someone heard a bad report about him.  If people would be content to attribute evil to us and go no further, we might bear it, for we are evil.  But our sorrow is that they slur the Word and the character of God.

40.  Behold, I long for Your precepts.  David is deeply bowed by a sense of weakness and a need of grace;  he wants to conform to the divine will.  Where our longings are, there are we in God's sight.  Your precepts are grievous to the ungodly.  When we are changed so much that we long for them, there is clear evidence of conversion.  Then we may safely conclude "that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil.1:6).

Revive me in Your righteousness.  Give me more life to follow Your righteous law.  Give me more life because You have promised to hear prayer, and it is Your righteousness to keep Your Word.  David offers pleas for reviving, but never too often.  We need reviving every hour of he day.  It is the Holy Spirit who can pour new life into us, so let us never stop crying to Him.  Let the life we already possess show itself by longing for more of it.

I long for Your precepts.  We are sometimes unconsciously led to long after the promises more than after the precepts.  We forget that is is our privilege and safety to have an equal regard to obey His precepts in dependence on His promises, and to expect the accomplishment of the promises in the way of obedience to the precepts.  (Charles Bridges, 1794-1869)

Commentary taken from The Treasury of David (Charles Spurgeon).

If you would like to share a personal insight into anything you have learned from this section of the Psalms, please do so in the comments section. Thank you.


~Annie~