Pe

Introduction:

What evidence in our lives points toward trust in God?

Who rules your life?

Your schedule?

Your personal obligations?

Your spouse?

God?

Part of what we have learned in this study so far must be that trust in God’s person leads to a willingness to entrust to God the authority to teach us, through His Word, how we should live our lives.

Those who hold God in light esteem will likewise take a low view of the reliability of His Word.

Do we look for ways around the Word of God?

Do we look to excuse our own behavior instead of yielding our lives? (Romans 6)?

Statement #1: Wonder at God through His Word

The writer describes God’s word as miraculous or wondrous.

“Wonder” according to the TWOT for the verb says: “in the Bible the root pl’ refers to things that are unusual, beyond human capabilities. As such, it awakens astonishment (pl’) in man. Thus, the “real importance of the miraculous for faith (is)-not in its material factuality, but in its evidential character…it is not, generally speaking, the especially abnormal character of the event which makes it a miracle; what strikes men forcibly is a clear impression of God’s care or retribution within it”” (TWOT 2:723).

People often mistake events recorded in the scriptures as evidence for what God can do instead of who He is.

Thinking through the meaning in this context, by its combination with a word that refers to the scriptures as witnesses to God’s character, the Psalmist would be extolling the scriptures as wonderful because of what he finds revealed about God therein. He learns from the scriptures of God’s abnormal person.

He is not human especially in His qualities of care and retribution.

It is the God revealed in Scripture that gives it its value and makes it so worthy of our amazement. The Bible apart from the God revealed therein is just a book.

He states a conclusion or an effect from this.

What this realization causes is a deep desire to live in fidelity to the God revealed therein. Such reciprocated loyal love looks like is a life within the boundaries of the Word of God so as to be loyal to God’s person.

His soul “guards with fidelity” God’s word.

Statement #2: Illumination through God’s Word

At this point, the Psalmist provides a mental picture.

“Unfolding” refers to opening or unfurling.

We are probably meant to picture the unrolling of a scroll.

We probably should attach explanation or seeking to understand the meaning of the scripture to this.

In other words, apart from the act of opening the scriptures, reading them, and meditating on their meaning in a effort to grasp them, the words offer no value.

However, it is when we open the scriptures that a different dynamic may transpire with the words of God providing illumination.

Specifically, the Psalmist has in mind what he describes using the Hifil participial phrase at the end of Ps. 119:130.

“Simple” comes from Hebrew word that means “open-minded.” It is the person who is so “naive” that they will believe anything. But, like “folly” itself in Proverbs, this type of naivety results, eventually, in moral and spiritual deviance. For, it requires the rejection of God and his wisdom to travel down the path of moral degeneracy caused but such “open-mindedness.”

The word of God causes insight or understanding.

The person who has bina has the ability to discern wisely based on the information learned. This has a moral component because the person with “insight” is able to take a real life situation and use the Word of God to make a proper moral choice or decision.

Personal Statement: I Long for Your Commandments.

We have a very vivid picture of someone with mouth opened and panting or breathing with difficulty.

The gasp, however, is not for air, water, or food.

It is a longing for God’s commandments.

Introduction: Part 2

In Psalm 119 God has been:

Creator

Law giver

Vindicator

Judge

Deliverer/Redeemer

Teacher

He essential characteristics:

Faithful (Trustworthy, reliable)

Loving

Gracious

Immutability

Following up on Part One, we will see a very personal view of God expressed.

There is a genuine sense of longing.

Personal Statement: I Long for Your Commandments.

We have a very vivid picture of someone with mouth opened and panting or breathing with difficulty.

The gasp, however, is not for air, water, or food.

It is a longing for God’s commandments.

Personal Statement: Be Gracious to Me

The writer calls upon God to “face toward him.”

The corollary thought to that is the desire for God to make him the object of His grace/kindness.

Such a demonstration of God’s grace is consistent with righteous judgment for those who love God’s person.

This does not appear to be a mushy, sloppy request. Instead, the Psalmist has in mind the certainty and protection offered by God with His Word.

Ps. 119:133: “Firm up my steps with your word.” Here, God’s promise is His word, and the Psalmist wants God’s word to establish his steps.

What that means is that “complete evil” will not domineer or gain mastery over him.

Paul: Romans 7 and the mastery or dominance of sin.

He also has in mind liberation from human oppression.

What is meant here could be understood legitimately from two points of view:

He is being oppressed (this one has been established and has the least complications).

Because he says : human oppression could be a characteristic he sees himself as capable of engaging in. Rather than being held by sin, see Ps. 119:133, he wants to be able to obey God’s precepts.

Given the person nature of this section, this may be the meaning.

Ps. 119:135 restates Ps. 119:132 in the language of Numbers 6:27.

He wants God to teach him. This is 6/7 times when he makes this request.

A statement of personal grief completes the thoughts in this section.

While he has expressed hatred for false ways and those who live in them, he is not resentful or embittered.

He is genuinely grieved because “they do not keep your law.”

Our society sees us as hate-filled people. Perhaps we give them that impression at times based on how we behave.

We long for people to learn of God what we have learned about Him.

We long for them to have the relationship with Him that we too learned we needed.