Psalm 119: 169- 176

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

 

The Theme of Psalm 119

is

The Word of God

169.  Let my cry come before You, O Lord; Give me understanding according to

         Your Word.

170.  Let my supplication come before You; deliver me according to Your Word.

171.  My lips shall utter praise, for You teach me Your statutes.

172.  My tongue shall speak of Your Word, for all Your commands are righteous.

173.  Let Your hand become my help, for I have chosen Your precepts.

174.  I long for Your salvation, O Lord, and Your law is my delight.

175.  Let my soul live and it shall praise You; and let Your judgments help me.

176.  I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for I do not forget

         Your commandments.

169- 176.  The psalmist is approaching the end of the Psalm, and his petitions gather force and fervency.  He breaks into the inner circle of divine fellowship and falls at the feet of the great God whose help he is imploring.  This nearness creates the most lowly view of himself and leads him to close the Psalm on his face in deep humiliation, begging to be found like a lost sheep.

169.  Let my cry come before You, O Lord.  David is afraid that he will not be heard.  He is conscious that his prayer is nothing better than the cry of a poor child or the groan of a wounded animal.  The psalmist fears that his cry will be shut out from the ear of the Most High.  He boldly prays that it will come before God, in His sight, under His notice, and looked on with His acceptance.  David goes further and pleads, Let my cry come before You, O Lord.  He wants the Lord's close consideration to his prayer. He uses a figure of speech to animate this prayer.  Picture his prayer like Esther venturing into the royal presence, pleading for an audience (Esth.5:2) and finding favor in sight of the blessed and only Potentate.  It is sweet when our prayer has obtained an audience, when it has trodden the sea of glass before the throne and comes to the footstool of the glorious seat around which heaven and earth adores God.  It is to Jehovah that this prayer is expressed with trembling earnestness.  Our translator, filled with holy reverence, translated the Word, O Lord.  We crave an audience from no one else, for we have confidence in no one else.


Give me understanding according to Your Word.  This is the prayer that the psalmist is exceedingly anxious about.  With all his getting he would get understanding; whatever else he misses, he is resolved not to miss this priceless blessing.  He wants spiritual light and understanding as it is promised in God's Word, as it goes from God's Word, and as it produces obedience to God's Word.  David pleads as if he had no understanding of his own and needs it to be given to him. Give me understanding.  David had understanding acccording to human judgment, but what he sought was an understanding according to God's Word.  This is quite different. To understand spiritual things is the gift of God.  to have judgment enlightened by heavenly light and conformed to divine truth is a privilege that only grace can give.  Many who are wise in the ways of this world are fools according to the Word of the Lord.  May we be among those happy children who will be taught by the Lord.

170.  Let my supplication come before You.  It is the same earnest petition but with a slight change of words.  David humbly calls his cry a supplication, a beggar's petition.  Again, he asks for an audience and an answer.  There might be hindrances in the way to getting an audience, and so he begs for their removal, saying, let it come before You.  Other believers are heard, so let my supplication come before You. 

Deliver me according to Your Word.  Rid me of adversaries, clear me of slanderers, preserve me from temptations, and bring me out of affliction, as Your Word has led me to expect.  It is for this that he seeks understanding.  His enemies would succeed through his folly, if they succeeded at all.  but if he exercised a sound discretion, they would be baffled, and he would escape.  The Lord, in answer to prayer, frequently delivers His children by making them wise as serpents and harmless as doves (Matt. 10:16).


171.  My lips shall utter praise, for You teach me Your statutes.  David will not always be pleading for himself; he will rise above selfishness and give thanks for the benefits received.  The psalmist promises to praise God when he has obtained practical instruction in the godly life.  This is something to praise God for; no blessing is more precious.  The best possible praise proceeds from people who honor God not only with their lips but also with their lives.  We learn the music of heaven in the school of holy living.  Believers whose lives honor the Lord are sure to be people of praise.  David would not only be grateful in silence but also would express gratitude in appropriate terms.  His lips would speak what his life had practiced.  Eminent disciples speak well of the master who instructed them. And this holy man, when taught the statues of the Lord, promises to give all the glory to whom is is due


172.  My tongue shall speak of Your Word.  When he finished singing, he began preaching.  God's tender mercies may be either spoken or sung.  When the tongue speaks of God's Word, it has a fruitful subject.  Ths speaking is the leaves of a tree of life for the healing of the nations (Rev.22:2).  People will gather to listen to such talk, and they will treasure it in their hearts.  Our problem is that, for the most part, we are full of our own words and speak but little of God's Word.  If only we could come to the same result as this godly man, and say, My tongue shall speak of Your Word.  Then, we would break our sinful silence.  we would no longer be cowards and half-hearted, but true witnesses for Jesus.  It is not only of God's works but also of His Word that we are to speak.  We are to extol its truth, wisdom, preciousness, grace, and power, and then tell all that it has revealed, all it has promised, all it has commanded, and all it has affected.  This subject gives us plenty of sea room; we may speak forever.  The tale is forever telling, yet untold.



For all Your commandments are righteousness.  David appears to have been delighted with the perceptive part of the Word of God.  His chief delight lay in its purity and excellence.  When a man can speak this from the heart, his heart is indeed a temple of the Holy Spirit.   David had said, "Your testimonies, which You have commanded, are righteous and very faithful" (v.138).  Here he declares that they are righteousness itself.  God's law is not only the standard of right but the essence of righteousness. This the psalmist affirms on each and every precept, without exception.  He felt like Paul, "The law is holy, and the commandement holy and just and good" (Rom.7:12).  When believers have so high an opinion of God's commandments, it is little wonder that their lips are ready to extol the ever-glorious One.

173.  Let Your hand become my help.  Give me practical comfort.  Do not leave me to my friends or Your friends.  Put Your hand to the work. Your hand has both skill and power, readiness and force; display all these qualities for me. I am willing to do my utmost, but what I need is Your help.  This is so urgently required that if I do not have it, I will sink.  Do not refuse me Your comfort.  Great as Your hand is, let it light on me, even me.  This prayer reminds us of Peter walking on the sea and beginning to sink.  Peter, too, cried, "Lord, save me" (Matt.14:3i). 

For I have chosen Your precepts.  This is a good argument.  You may ask help from God's hand when you have dedicated your hand entirely to the obedience of the faith.  I have chosen Your precepts.  His election was made; his mind was made up.  In reference to all earthly rules and ways, in preference over his own will, he had chosen to be obedient to the divine commands.  Will not God help such a person in holy work and sacred service?  Assuredly, He will.  If grace has given us the heart to will, it will also give us the hand to perform.  Whenever we are under the constraints of a divine call, we are engaged in any high and lofty enterprise, and if we feel that it is too much for our strength, we may always invoke God's right hand in words like these.

174.  I long for Your salvation, O Lord.  David speaks like old Jacob on his deathbed (Gen.49:33).  all the saints, both in prayer and in death, appear as one, in word, deed, and mind.  He knew God's salvation, and yet he longed for it.  He had experienced a share of it and was led to expect something still higher and more complete. There is a salvation to come.   We will be clean delivered from the body of this death and set free from all the turmoil and trouble of this mortal life.  We will be raised above the temptations and assaults of Satan and brought near God, to be like Him and with Him forever and ever.

I long for Your salvation, O Lord, and Your law is my delight.  The first clause tells us what the saints long for, the second clause informs us about their present satisfaction.  God's law, as contained in the ten commandments, gives joy to believers.  God's law, that is the entire Bible, is a continuous source of consolation and enjoyment to all who receive it.  Though we have not yet reached the fullness of our salvation, in God's Word we find so much concerning a present salvation that we are even now delighted. 

175.  Let my soul live. Fill it full of life.  Preserve it from wandering into the ways of death, and allow it to enjoy the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  Let my soul live to the fullness of life, to the utmost possibilities of its newly created being, and it shall praise You.  My soul will praise You for life,  new life,  for You are the Lord and Giver of Life.  The more my soul lives, the more it praises, and when it will live in perfection,  it shall praise You in perfection.  Spiritual life is prayer and praise.

And let Your judgments help me. While I read the record of what You have done, in terror or in love, let me be revived and developed.   While I see Your hand at work on me and on others, chastening sin and smiling on righteousness, let me be helped both to live aright and to praise You.  Let all Your deeds in providence instruct and aid me in the struggle to overcome sin and to practice holiness.  This is the second time in this section that David has asked for help.  He was always in need of help, and so are we.

176.  This is the finale, the conclusion of the whole matter, I have gone astray like a lost sheep---often willfully, wantonly, and even hopelessly except for Your intervening grace.  In times past, before I was afflicted, before You had fully taught me Your statutes, I went astray from the practical precepts, from the instructive doctrines, and from the heavenly experiences that You set before me.  I lost my road!  I lost myself!  Even now, I am prone to wander and have already roamed.

Lord, restore me. Seek Your servant. David was not like a dog that somehow or other always found its way back.  He was a lost sheep that goes further and further from home.  Yet, he was the Lord's sheep.  He was God's property, precious in His sight, and so he hoped to be sought in order to be restored.  However far he might have wandered, he was still not only a sheep but also God's servant, he had the power to pray.  David cries, Seek Your servant, and hopes to not only be sought but also forgiven, accepted, and taken into work again by his gracious Master.  Notice this confession.  Frequently, David defended his innocence against foul-mouthed accusers, but when he comes into the Lord's prescence, he is ready to confess his transgressions.  Here, he sums up not only his past but also his present life under the image of a sheep that has broken from its pasture, forsaken the flock, left the shepherd, wandered into the wilderness, and became lost.  The sheep bleats, but David prays. Seek Your servant.

His argument is forcible, For I do not forget Your commandments.  I know the right, I approve and admire the right.  And what is more, I love the right, and long for it.  I cannot be satisfied to continue in sin. I must be restored to the ways of righteousness.  I have a homesickness for God!  I long after the ways of peace.  I do not and cannot forget Your commandments or cease to know that I am always happiest and safest when I scrupulously obey them and  find all my joy in doing so.  If God's grace enables us to maintain the loving memory of God's commandments in our hearts, it will surely restore us to practical holiness.  That man cannot be utterly lost whose heart is still with God.  If he is gone astray but is still true to his soul's inner desires for God, he will be found and fully restored.  Remember the first verse of this Psalm while you read the last verse.  The major blessing does not lie in being restored from wandering but in being blamelessly upheld to the end.  It is ours to keep the crown of the causeway, never leaving he King's highway for Bypath Meadow or for any other flowery path of sin.  Lord, uphold us to the end.  Yet, even then, we will not be able to boast with the Pharisee, but we will pray with the publican, "God be merciful to me a sinner" (Luke 18:13) and with the psalmist, Seek Your servant.

175-176.  Though like a sheep estranged I stray,

                  Yet have I not renounced Your way.

                  Your hand extend, Your own reclaim;

                  Grant me to live, and praise Your name.

                  (Richard Mant, 1776-188)

Commentary by Charles Spurgeon and taken from The Treasury of David

169. Let my cry come before You, O Lord; Give me understanding according to Your Word.

My thoughts on verse 169...

There are times in all our lives when we will be so angered, or confused, or hurting, and we know we need to deal with this matter, but don't know how, or do not want to, but know we must.

It could be a matter of having to forgive someone, but not wanting to because their heartless, planned actions caused our dying loved one to die sooner than he had to, because someone else wanted to play god.  And we are feeling a lot of anger and even hatred toward them because of it.  We feel robbed of precious time with our loved one and even worse, we were unknowingly helping the nurse by following her instructions.  Not until after the death of the loved one, did we find out she used our trust in her to hasten the death of our loved one.

When something that brings such strong emotions against another arises in us we cannot just let it simmer and boil. As a child of God, we know we must forgive.  This isn't always possible without God's help.  In Psalm 62, He tells us to pour out our heart to Him. When we do this, when we tell Him exactly what we are feeling, and even that we don't feel we can even want to forgive this person, but know we must.  He will speak to our heart.  He will remind us of all that His Son forgave even though none of us deserved it.

God is gentle when we cry out to Him and pour out our pain and are totally honest about what we are feeling.  He reminded me, that "she doesn't know Me."  I felt I needed to pray for her salvation, and her family's.   I have poured out my heart on other occasions and remember God has spoken to me in the same way.  He is always gentle, always speaks into my heart not in verbal words but like thoughts He puts into my heart.  I have learned something by this and that is that one cannot keep hating the one whose salvation they are praying for on a regular basis.  I still hate with a passion euthanasia and abortion but the people doing these things do not know Jesus as their Savior, or they wouldn't be doing these things.  I think we should all pray for the salvation of all those involved in the taking of lives for any reason.

~Annie~