Psalm 119: 153- 160

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

 

The Theme of Psalm 119

is

The Word of God

153.  Consider my affliction and deliver me, for I do not forget Your law.

154.  Plead my cause and redeem me; revive me according to Your Word.

155.  Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not see Your statutes.

156.  Great are Your tender mercies, O Lord; revive me according to Your

         judgments.

157.  Many are my persecutors and my enemies, yet I do not turn from Your

         testimonies.

158.  I see the treacherous, and am disgusted, because they do not keep Your

         Word.

159.  Consider how I love Your precepts; revive me, O Lord, according to Your

         loving kindness.

160.  The entirety of Your Word is truth, and every one of Your righteous

         judgments endures forever.

153-160.  In this section the psalmist draws near to God in prayer.  He states his case and invokes divine help with great boldness and expectation. It is a pleading passage, and the key word is consider.  He pleads with much boldness that his intimate union with the Lord's cause is a reason why he should be helped.  The special aid that he seeks is personal reviving, for which he cries to the Lord again and again, Revive me.

 

153.   Consider my affliction and deliver me.  The writer has a good case, though it is a grievous one.  David is ready, even anxious, to submit it to divine arbitration. His matters are right, and he is ready to lay them before the supreme court.  His manner is that of one who feels safe at the throne. Yet, there is no impatience.  he does not ask for hasty action but for consideration.  In effect, he cries, "Look into my grief, and see if I need to be delivered.  From my sorrowful condition, judge as to the proper method and time for my rescue."


The psalmist wants two things blended; first, a full consideration of his sorrow, and, second, deliverance, and then that his deliverance should consider his affliction.  It should be the desire of every gracious person in adversity to have the Lord look on their needs and relieve them for His divine glory and their benefit.  The words my affliction are picturesque.  They seem to portion of a special spot of woe as the writer's inheritance.  David possesses it as no one else had ever done, so he begs the Lord to have that special spot under his eye, just as a farmer looking over all his fields may take double care of a selected plot.  His prayer is highly practical; he seeks to be delivered, brought out of the trouble, and preserved from sustaining any serious damage. For God to consider is to act in due time.  People consider and do nothing, but this is never the case with God.


For I do not forget Your law.  His bitter affliction was not sufficient to drive God's law from his mind, nor could it lead him to act contrary to the divine command. David forgot prosperity, but he did not forget obedience.  This is a good plea when it is honestly urged. If we are faithful to God's law, we may be sure that God will remain faithful to His promise.  If we do not forget His law,
the Lord will not forget us.  He will not leave that person in trouble whose only fear in trouble is that he would leave the way of right.



154.  Plead my cause and redeem me.  In the previous verse, David prayed, "Deliver me."  Here, he specifies a method by which to grant deliverance; this is the advocacy of his cause.  In providence, the Lord has many ways of clearing the slandered of the accusations brought against them.  God can make it clear to everyone that the slandered had been falsely represented, an in this way, He can plead their cause practically.  God can raise up friends for the godly who will leave no stone unturned until the characters of the slandered are cleared.  Or, He can strike their enemies with such fear that they will be forced to confess their falsehoods.  Thus the righteous will be delivered without striking a blow.  Alexander reads it, "Strive my strife and redeem me."  Stand in my stead, bear my burden, fight my fight, pay my price, and give me liberty. When we feel silent before the foe, this prayer is made for us.  What comfort, that if we sin we have an advocate!  And if we do not sin, the same pleader is on our side.


Revive me.  We had this prayer in the last section, and we will have it again and again.  It is a desire that cannot be too often felt and expressed.  The soul is the center of everything, so to be revived is the central blessing.  It means more love, more grace, more faith, more courage, more strength.  If we get these, we can hold our heads up before the adversaries.  God alone can give this reviving.  But to the Lord and giver of life, this work is easy, an He delights to perform it.  According to Your Word.  David found this blessing among the promised things, or at least he perceived that it was according to the general tenor of God's Word.  Tried believers want to be revived and raised from the dust. Thus, he pleads the Word and asks the Lord to act according to the Word.


155.  Salvation is far from the wicked.  They have persevered in evil and have almost put themselves out of the pale of hope.  The wicked talk about being saved, but they do not know anything about it, or they would not remain wicked.  Every step they take in the path of evil  moves them further from the kingdom of grace.  They go from one degree of hardness to another, until their hearts become as stone. When they fall into trouble it will be without remedy. Yet they talk as if they do not need salvation or as if they can save themselves.


For they do not seek Your statutes.  They do not try to be obedient, just the opposite, they seek themselves, they seek evil, and they never find the way of peace and righteousness.  When people break the Lord's statutes, the wisest course is to repent, seek forgiveness, and by faith seek salvation.  Then salvation is near, so near that they will not miss it.  But when the wicked continue to seek mischief, salvation is further and further away.  Salvation and God's statutes go together.  Those who are saved by the King of grace love the statutes of the King of glory.


156.  This is similar to verse 149, but it is not a useless repetition. There is a difference in the main idea.  In the former, he mentions his prayer but leaves the method of its accomplishment with the wisdom of God.  In the latter, he pleads no prayer of his own but simply the Lord's mercies, and he begs to be revived by judgments rather than to be left to spiritual lethargy.  An inspired author is never so short of thought that he has to repeat himself.  When we think we have the same idea in this Psalm, we are misled by our neglect of study.  Each verse is a distinct pearl.  Each blade of grass in this field has its own drop of heavenly dew.


Great are Your tender mercies, O Lord.  The psalmist pleads the magnitude of God's mercy and the immensity of His tender love.  He speaks of mercies, mercies many, mercies tender, and mercies great.  With the glorious Jehovah, he makes this a plea for his leading prayer, the prayer for reviving.  Reviving is a great and tender mercy; it is many mercies in one.  Can One so great and good permit His servant to die?  Will not One so tender breathe new life into him?


Revive me according to Your judgments.  A measure of awakening comes with God's judgments. They are startling and arousing, and thus the believer is revived. David would have every severe blow and every tender mercy sanctified for his benefit.  The first clause of this verse may run, "Many are Your compassions, O Jehovah."  This he remembers in connection with the "many persecutors" of whom he will speak in the next verse.  With all these mercies, he pleads for reviving grace and so adds many strings to his bow.  We will never be short of arguments if we draw them from God and urge both His mercies and His judgments as reasons for Him to revive us.


157.  Many are my persecutors and my enemies.  Those who actually assail me, or who secretly abhor me, are man.  He sets this against the many tender mercies of God.  It seems strange that David, a truly godly man, should have many enemies.  But that is inevitable.  The disciple cannot be loved where his Master is hated.  The seed of the serpent must oppose the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15).


Yet I do not turn from Your testimonies.  He did not deviate from God's truth but proceeded in the straight way, despite the many adversaries that attempted to block his path.  some have been led astray by one enemy, but here is a saint that held on in the teeth of many persecutors.  There is enough in the testimonies of God to reward us for pushing forward against all the hosts that may combine against us.  So long as they cannot drive or draw us into a spiritual decline, our foes have done no great harm; they have accomplished nothing by their malice.  If we do not decline, they are defeated.  If they cannot make us sin, they have missed their mark.  Faithfulness to the truth is victory over our enemies.


158.  I see the treacherous.  I see the traitors, and I understood their character, their object, their way, and their end.  I could not help seeing them, for they pushed themselves into my way.  Since I was forced to see them, I fixed my eyes on them to learn what I could and am disgusted.  I was sorry to see such sinners.  I was sick, disgusted, and could not stand them.  I found no pleasure in them. They were a sad sight, however fine their clothing or witty their speech.  Even when they were happy, the sight of them made my heart heavy.  I could not tolerate either them or their doings.


Because they do not keep Your Word.  My grief was caused more by their sin against God than my their enmity against me.  I could stand their evil treatment of my words but not their neglect of Your Word, which is so precious that those who will not keep it move me to indignation.  I cannot keep the company of those who will not keep God's Word.  That they do not love is a trifle, but to despise the Lord's teaching is abominable.


159.  Consider, or see, how I love Your precepts.   A second time he asks for a consideration. He had said, "Consider my affliction" (v.153), but now he says, consider how I love Your precepts.  David loved the precepts of God. He loved them unspeakably.  He loved them so much that he was grieved by those who did not love them. This is a sure test.  Many have a warm side toward the promises, but as for the precepts, they cannot endure them.  The psalmist so loved everything good and excellent that he loved all that God had commanded.  All of the precepts are wise and holy. Thus, the man after God's heart (1 Samuel 13:14) loved them extremely.  He loved to know them, loved to proclaim them, and loved principally to practice them.  He asked the Lord to remember and consider this, not on merit, but that it should serve as an answer to the slanderous accusations which were the great sting of his sorrow.


Revive me, O Lord, according to Your loving Kindness.  David returns to his previous prayer, "Revive Me" (vv. 154,156).  Here he prays the third time using the same words. David felt like one who was half-stunned from the assaults of the foe; he was ready to faint under their incessant malice.  What he wanted was revival, restoration, and renewal.  Thus, he pleaded for more life. 
"You who revived me when I was dead, revive me again, that I may not return to the dead!  Revive me that I may outlive the blows of my enemies, the faintness of my faith, and the collapse of my sorrow."  This time, he does not say, "Revive me according to Your judgments" (v.156), but, Revive me, O Lord, according to Your loving kindness.  This is the final great gun that he brings to the conflict.  This is his ultimate argument; If it does not succeed, he will fail.  David has long been knocking at the gate of mercy, and with this plea, he strikes the heaviest blow.  When he had fallen into great sin, this was his plea, "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your loving kindness" (Ps.51:1).  And now that he is in great trouble, he uses the same effective reasoning.  Because God is love (1 John 4:8), He will give us life.  Because He is kind, He will again kindle the heavenly flame in us.


160.  The sweet singer finishes this section like he did the last; he dwells on the sureness of the truth of God.  Note the likeness between vv.144,152, 160. The entirety of Your Word is truth.  Whatever the transgressors may say, God is true, and His Word is true.  The ungodly are false, but God's Word is true. They charge us with being false, but God's Word is true.  They charge us with being false, but our solace is that God's true Word has been true from the first moment it was spoken, true throughout history, true from the moment we believed, and true before we were true to it. Some read it, "Your Word is true from the head," true as a whole, true from top to bottom.  Experience has taught David this lesson, and experience is teaching us the same thing.  The Scriptures are as true in Genesis as in Revelation, and the five Books of Moses are as inspired as the four Gospels.


And everyone of Your righteous judgments endures forever.  What You have decided remains irreversible.  Against the Lord's decisions, no writ of error can be demanded.  There will never be a repealing of any acts of His sovereignty.  There is not one single mistake either in Scripture or in the providential dealings of God.  Neither in the Book of Revelation nor in providence will there be any need to put a single note of errata.  The Lord has nothing to regret or retract, nothing to amend or reverse.  All God's judgments, decrees, commands, and purposes are righteous. And, as righteous things are lasting things, everyone of them will outlive the stars.  "For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled" (Matt. 5:18).  God's justice endures forever.  This is a cheering thought. Yet, there is a much sweeter one.  Let the song of the priests in the temple be ours, "His mercy endures forever"  (Ps.118:1).

Commentary by Charles Spurgeon and taken from The Treasury of David


My thoughts on this passage...

160. The entirety of Your Word is truth, and every one of Your righteous

judgments endures forever.

God's Word is the foundation upon which His children stand. His Word is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. It is our Bread for spiritual nourishment and it is our wisdom for daily living.  Through it, we come to know Jesus and trust His love and faithfulness to us.  Through it we come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and through it His Word heals and restores, as the Holy Spirit takes it and encourages and comforts us with it.  The Holy Spirit is our Comforter but He uses the Word of God to do it. The Spirit and the Word always work together, and one will never contradict the other.  Jesus gives us examples how to relate to our Father and how to rely on His will and way. Jesus went before us in all things so that we would know that He understands all, and that He is with us in all things.  His Word gives us hope and teaches us to have an eternal perspective on everything of life.  It teaches us that God is sovereign and knows all things, is in control of all things, and is always waiting for our heart cry to Him. Without His Word, I would be lost.  It is a treasure and it makes me feel alive, hopeful, and encouraged.

~Annie~