Psalm 119:121-128 New American Standard Bible
Ayin
121 I have done justice and righteousness;
Do not leave me to my oppressors.
122 Be a guarantor for Your servant for good;
Do not let the arrogant oppress me.
123 My eyes fail with longing for Your salvation,
And for Your righteous [a]word.
124 Deal with Your servant according to Your graciousness,
And teach me Your statutes.
125 I am Your servant; give me understanding,
So that I may know Your testimonies.
126 It is time for the Lord to act,
For they have broken Your Law.
127 Therefore I love Your commandments
Above gold, yes, above pure gold.
128 Therefore I carefully follow all Your precepts concerning everything,
I hate every false way.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
In this section of Psalm 119 we find some of the most memorable words in the entire psalm, as the writer declares that he loves God’s Word “more than gold, more than pure gold.”
But if we lift this Psalmist’s beautiful confession out of its context, we miss a more subtle truth in these verses: the psalmist’s plea to understand God’s Word.
In declaring how he deeply treasures all of God’s Word, the psalmist is not merely offering a beautiful sentiment. He offers this like evidence in a court of law, as if he is testifying like a plaintiff. Because he loves God’s words above all else and seeks to follow them all, God should rescue him from his oppressors.
Knowing that we sinfully tend to see only our own point of view and that we often fall short, most of us would hesitate to put God on trial in a way like this.
Nevertheless, we can learn so very much from the psalmist’s wise request. He acknowledges his 100% need for help in understanding God’s precious Word.
Though we may not all dare to call God to account in pleading for his help, we all 100% need guidance in discerning the authentic truth of God’s Word. We hear God’s voice most clearly when we wholeheartedly ask him to remove our distractions and as far as the east is from west, reveal himself and his will to us.
And when God does speak to us through his Word—as he certainly will—we must then strive to wholeheartedly apply God’s teaching unto our daily lives.
Hiding God’s Word In Our Hearts
The first half of this stanza showed one reason that the psalmist was certain that God would deliver him. The rest of this passage gives two more reasons.
Take a look at this passage in Psalm 119:125-128:
God is a loving God. Of course, that goes hand in hand with his holiness and the need for righteousness in our lives. As the psalmist has discovered and revealed in this stanza of Psalm 119, God will deliver his people because of his love; and, in fact, God will deliver the psalmist because of that love.
The psalmist definitely has enemies, and his enemies are the enemies of God.
When we consider the whole of this Psalm, this is perhaps the lowest point in the entirety of Psalm 119, and we see the writer cry out for deliverance. His first reason for requesting that deliverance is because of God’s love, in verse 124.
The second reason the psalmist gives here is because he is God’s servant. The writer is basically declaring, “I belong to you, God! Help me because of that!”
And like any good earthly master, who cares deeply for that which belongs to him, should God do any less than completely care for those who belong to him?
The psalmist also seems to understand that God’s deliverance can be seen in the Word. He asks for deliverance, and he asks for it in the form of discernment to understand God’s statutes completely. You can see this clearly in verse 125.
Finally, the third reason the psalmist gives, in verse 126, is simply because it is time for God to act.
This has nothing to do with the writer’s timeline, or because time is somehow running out before the psalmist will be overwhelmed by those who are against him. No, here, the writer is more concerned with God’s reputation than his own temporary needs. His cry is that God should act because his law is being broken.
This is a quality that is rare in our world.
We tend to place our own needs and values ahead of all else.
But the writer here has shown in what order the priorities should be.
Our desire should be for God, and for his Word, above our own needs.
In the closing verses of this stanza, the writer gives a contrasting statement, one that depicts a deep hatred of what is wrong against a love for what is right.
In our age of relativism, this is a hard statement for many to accept.
We would rather believe that what is right for you may not necessarily be right for me.
We would rather not have a definitive right and wrong, a moral, ethical absolute because it brings with them guilt and conviction.
But that is what the writer gives us here. He states that there is a definite right path and a definite wrong one. There is the whole truth and there is the whole lie. There are things that God detests, that we should detest as well. And there are definitely things that God deeply loves that we should seek after to love also.
There is an absolute truth, and we must hold to it firmly. We must avoid every wrong path and cling to the one thing that is true above all else. We must hate what God hates, or we will never learn to love God fully. And the best way to know what God hates and what God values can be found by reading his Word.
I strongly encourage you the reader to 100% take the time daily to invest in the pursuit of God’s heart. I strongly urge you to spend quality time in his Word on a daily basis. It’s the only way that we can discover the truth and grow in it fully.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 19 New American Standard Bible
The Works and the Word of God.
For the music director. A Psalm of David.
19 The heavens tell of the glory of God;
And their expanse declares the work of His hands.
2 Day to day pours forth speech,
And night to night reveals knowledge.
3 There is no speech, nor are there words;
Their voice is not heard.
4 Their [a]line has gone out into all the earth,
And their words to the end of the world.
In them He has placed a tent for the sun,
5 Which is like a groom coming out of his chamber;
It rejoices like a strong person to run his course.
6 Its rising is from [b]one end of the heavens,
And its circuit to the [c]other end of them;
And there is nothing hidden from its heat.
7 The Law of the Lord is [d]perfect, restoring the soul;
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
8 The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
9 The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether.
10 They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much pure gold;
Sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
11 Moreover, Your servant is warned by them;
In keeping them there is great reward.
12 Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults.
13 Also keep Your servant back from presumptuous sins;
Let them not rule over me;
Then I will be innocent,
And I will be blameless of great wrongdoing.
14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 