Psalm 119: 129- 136

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

The Theme of Psalm 119

is

The Word of God

129.  Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them.

130.  The entrance of Your Words give light; It gives understanding to the

         simple.

131.  I opened my mouth and panted, for I longed for Your commandments.

132.  Look upon me and be merciful to me, as Your custom is toward those who

         love Your name.

133.  Direct my steps by Your Word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me.

134.  Redeem me from the oppression of man, that I may keep Your precepts.

135.  Make Your face shine upon Your servant, and teach me Your statutes.

136.  Rivers of water run down my eyes, because men do not keep Your law.

129.  Your testimonies are wonderful.  They are full of wonderful revelations, commands, and promises. They are wonderful in their nature, free from all error, and bear over-whelming evidence of their truth.  They are wonderful in their effects, instructing, elevating, strengthening, and comforting the soul.  Jesus, the eternal Word is called Wonderful (Isaiah 9:6), and all God's Words are wonderful in their degree. Those who know them the best, wonder at them the most. It is wonderful that God brought testimony to sinful people and still more wonderful that His testimony should be clear, so full, so gracious, and so mighty.


Therefore my soul keeps them.  Their wonderful character so impressed itself on David's mind that he kept them in his memory. Their wonderful excellence so charmed his heart that he kept them in his life.  Some wonder at the Words of God and use them for their speculation. But David was always practical, the more he wondered, the more he obeyed.  David's religion was soul work.  Not with head and hand alone did he keep the testimonies; his soul, his truest and most real self, held fast to them.


130.  The entrance of Your Words give light.  No sooner do the words gain admission into the soul than they enlighten it.  What light may be expected from their prolonged indwelling!  Their entrance floods the mind with instruction, for they are so full, so clear.  Yet there must be an entrance, or there will be no illumination.  The mere hearing of the Word with the external ear is of little value by itself, but when Words of God enter the chambers of the heart, light is scattered on all sides. The Word finds no entrance in some minds because they are blocked with self-conceit, prejudice, or indifference. But where due attention is given, divine illumination must surely follow upon knowledge of he mind of God.  May Your Words enter the window of my understanding like sunbeams and dispel the darkness of my mind!


It gives understanding to the simple.  The sincere and candid are the true disciples of the Word, for, to these, it gives not only knowledge, but also understanding.  These simple-hearted ones are frequently despised, and their simplicity is ridiculed.  But what does it matter?  Those who the world dubs as fools are the truly wise, if they are taught by God! 


The entrance of Your Words gives light.   A profane shop worker crams into his pocket a page of a Bible after reading Daniel's last words, "But you, go your way till the end; for you shall rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days" (Dan. 12:13), and he begins to think what his own lot will be when his days are ended.  A Gottingen professor opens a large printed Bible to see if he has eyesight enough to read, and his eyes fall on the passage, "I will bring the blind by a way they did not know" (Isaiah 42:16), and in reading this, the eyes of his understanding are enlightened.  One of Cromwell's soldiers opens his Bible to see how far the musket ball has pierced, and he finds it stopped at the verse, "Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes; but know that for all these God will bring you into judgment"  (Eccl.11:19).  And, in frolic, a Kentish soldier opens the Bible that his brokenhearted mother had sent him.  The first sentence that shows up is a familiar text.  "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matt 11:28), and the weary sinner flees to Jesus Christ for rest.
(James Hamilton, 1617-1679)

131.  I opened my mouth and panted.  Like a deer that has been hunted, hard pressed in the chase, panting for breath, the psalmist panted for the entrance of God's Word into his soul.  Nothing else would satisfy.


For I longed for Your commandments.  He longed to know them, longed to obey them, longed to be conformed to their spirit, and longed to teach them to others. David was a learner in the school of grace, and his eager spirit longed to be taught by the Lord.  This is a desire that God will satisfy.  "Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it" (Psalm 81:10).


132.  Look upon me.  A godly person can not live without prayer. During the previous verses David had been expressing love for God's Word, but here, he is again on his knees.  This prayer is especially short but exceedingly energetic.  Look upon me.  while he stood with open mouth panting for the commandments, he asked the Lord to look upon him.  David let his condition and his unexpressed longings plead for him. He wants to be known by God and observed by Him daily.


As Your custom is toward those who love Your name.  Look on me as You look on those who love You. Be merciful to me as You are to those who truly serve You.  There is a customary way that God observes toward those who love Him, and David craved that he might experience it.  He would not have the Lord deal better or worse with him than with His other saints.  In effect, he prays, "I am Your servant, so treat me as You treat Your servant.   I am Your child, so deal with me as a son."  It is obvious from the context that David wanted an entrance of the Word and the clear understanding that God gives according to the promise, "All your children shall be taught by the LORD" (Isaiah 54:13). 

133.  Direct my steps by Your Word.  This is one of the Lord's customary mercies to His chosen, "He will guard the feet of His saints" (1 Sam 2:9).  His grace enables us to put each foot step by step in the place that His Word ordains.  This prayer seeks a choice favor, namely, that every distinct act, every step might be arranged and governed by God's will.  This does not stop short of perfect holiness, and the believer's desires will not be satisfied with anything less.


Let no iniquity have dominion over me.  This is the negative side of the blessing.  We ask to do all that is right and not to fall under the power of anything that is wrong.  God is our Sovereign, and we would have every thought in subjection to His sway.  Believers have no special darling sins to which they willingly bow. They pant for perfect liberty from the power of evil, and conscious that they cannot obtain it by themselves, they cry to God.


134.  Redeem me from the oppression of man.  David had tasted all t he bitterness of this great evil.  It made him an exile from his country and banished him from the Lord's sanctuary.  Thus, he pleads to be saved from it.  It is said that oppression makes the wise mad, and, no doubt, it has made many righteous.  Oppression is wicked and drives many to wickedness.  We little know how much of our virtue is due to our liberty. Had we been in bonds under haughty tyrants, we might have yielded, and, instead of being confessors, we might have been apostates.  He who taught us to pray, "Do not lead us into temptation" (Matt 6:13), will sanction this prayer, since to be oppressed, is to be tempted.

That I may keep Your precepts.  When the stress of oppression was taken off, he would go his own way, and that way would be the way of the Lord.  Although we should not yield to people's threats, many do.  A wife is sometimes compelled by her husband's oppression to act against her conscience. Children, employees, and even nations have been brought into the same difficulty.  Their sins will be largely laid at the oppressor's door, and it uses pleases God before long to overthrow those powers and dominions that compel people to do evil.  the worse is that some people, when the pressure is taken off, follow unrighteousness of their own accord.  These people give evidence of being sinners in nature.  As for the righteous, it happens to them as it did to the apostles, "Being let go, they went to their own companions" (Acts4:23). When saints are freed from their tyrants they joyfully pay homage to their King.

135.  Make Your face shine upon Your servant.  Oppressors frown, but You smile. They darken my life, but if Your face shines on me, all will be bright.  The psalmist again declares that he is God's servant. He seeks no favor from others, but only from His Lord and Master.


And teach me Your statutes.  This the the favor that he considers the shining of God's face on him.  If the Lord will be exceedingly gracious he will ask no higher blessing than to be taught the royal statutes.  David craves holiness, which is the choicest of all gems.  We say that a good education is a good fortune, but to be taught by the Lord is a special grace.  The most favored believers need teaching. Even when they walk in the light of God's countenance, they still have to be taught the divine statutes, or they will transgress.

 
136.  Rivers of water run down from my eyes, because men do no keep Your law.  He wept in sympathy with God to see the holy law despised and broken.  He wept in pity for the people who drew down God's fiery wrath.  His grief was such that he could scarcely vent it; his tears were not drops of sorrow but torrents of woe.  In this, he became like the Lord Jesus, who wept over the city (Luke 19:41), and like Jehovah, who has "no pleasure in the death of the  one who dies.  Therefore, turn and live" (Ezekiel 18:32).  The experience of this verse shows a great advance; the psalm and the psalmist are both growing.  That person is a ripe believer who sorrows because of the sins of others.  The spiritual feel a holy fear of the Lord and lament when they see dishonor cast on His holy name:


Lord, let me weep for nought but sin,
And after none but thee,
And then I would, O that I might!
A constant weeper be.
Comments are by Charles Spurgeon, taken from the Treasury of David.

My thoughts on verse 136...

There is more than one verse I would like to put my thoughts to, but the post is already long, so I will choose this one because of the signs of the times.   Today we are finding out that the publishers of history textbooks for grades six to twelve have revised the facts of 9/11/2001.  Even though most of us remember, children under fourteen aren't likely to.  When we are gone and the younger generation is grown the truth of 911 will be gone. 

This young generation is pretty much all connected...connected to their ipods, cell phones, facebook, twitter, videos online, and to much vulgar language and deflamation of God's character and goodness in the comments sections of videos and news stories.  They spend much time playing video games, even little pre-schoolers!  There is online gambling which targets the young generation, and also porn.  Even television and movies are full of instant sex and violence and no respect for elders or anyone.   Schools are teaching things that are immoral as being natural and good. Pro-Life demonstrators are being labeled as "terrorists" while the killing of babies is promoted and supported by government.   Think about the percentage of time kids spend at school, with their friends on video games, face book, twitter, television, movies, and on their cell phones or ipods, all added up.  How much time, or what percentage of the time is left for parent/child interaction and conversation?   What healthy, nourishing food are you feeding their souls to counteract against the junk food of the day?  What about ourselves? 

There are exceptions to this, as some families have seen this danger and have pretty much avoided it.

What will the future be like for this generation?  It is so sad to see this evil that lurks everywhere wanting to have the children.  There are traps/snares  set everywhere for them and people inviting/seducing them to walk into them.  No one is really seeing these traps because most people live in denial of the harm these things can cause as they get a grip on the hearts of the young.

Maybe life is too fast and busy for the older generation to catch what is happening to the young?  Please stop. Look. Listen. What are your children learning while they are at school, online?  What are their views on what they have learned at school, online?  What are their views on God, Jesus?   Do we know what is going on in their minds after feeding on all the junkfood and poison they encounter daily?  Maybe it's time we should investigate.  Take the time to speak to, and listen to your young ones.  Ask God what changes need to be made, for your children's sake.

Are we feeding on God's Word daily? Are we praying for our children daily? Are we praying for their teachers and all those they regularly connect with? If you are like me, you intend to, but are not totally consistent with it. We all need to realize the importance and ask God to help us be more consistent in our own time alone with God and His Word, so we can pour out what we have taken in.


~Annie~