Psalm 119:129-136
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Introduction
Introduction
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
129 Your testimonies are wonderful; Therefore my soul observes them.
The testimonies of God are wonderful. Because they are, the psalmist observes them (i.e., he obeys them) from his soul. His inner being is engaged in obeying God’s word. It is not a superficial obedience but an obedience from the core of the psalmist.
It is the wonder of God’s word that motivates the soul’s obedience.
Q: What can we do if we don’t find God’s testimonies so wondrous?
If we do not find God’s testimonies so wondrous, we can pray as the psalmist does in Psalm 119:18...
18 Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Your law.
[ILLUS] You remember Jesus healing the blind man who after the first touch saw people walking around but his vision wasn’t clear. He said, “They look like trees.” But then after a second touch, his vision was clearer and clearer.
Wondrous things in God’s word may be unclear to us at first but if we keep asking, God will fix our sight so that we can behold wonderful things in his word with clarity.
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130 The unfolding of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple.
Proverbs 6:23 says…
23 For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light; And reproofs for discipline are the way of life
Likewise, earlier in Psalm 119 we read…
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.
But notice the word ‘unfolding’ in Psalm 119:130. The CSB uses the word ‘revelation,’ which is also good.
[ILLUS] We might think of a folded paper map that we used before GPS on our phones. You would unfold the map a section at a time, and as you did, it revealed the directions to where you wanted to go.
God’s word is like that. As they are unfolded, they reveal the direction we need to go.
Specifically, these words lead us to understanding.
Apart from God’s word we are all simple. One of the great lies of the modern age is that to believe the Bible makes you dumb. But the opposite is actually true: you can’t understand things without the Bible.
Psalm 19:7 says...
7 The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
Q: What do you think the Bible helps us to understand?
God, His holiness, ourselves, our sinfulness, what’s good and true, what’s bad and false, our need for salvation, the destructive power of sin, the Savior Jesus, how it all ends, etc.
James tells us that if any of us lacks, we should ask God. I think God might often respond with “The wisdom, the understanding you seek is found in the Bible.”
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131 I opened my mouth wide and panted, For I longed for Your commandments.
[ILLUS] When you run long distances, you try to control you breathing. But at some point, you’re so exhausted you just begin to gasp for air. You open your mouth wide pulling in all the air you can and pant for more.
Here the psalmist says that he pants for God’s word, longs for God’s commandments.
Psalm 42:1 says...
1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God.
To pant for the commandments of God is to pant for God for they are His commands.
Q: Why don’t we pant for God, pant for His commands, as we should?
Filled up on the world, filled up on sin, not desperate enough, not rested in the body, etc.
If we lack the desire, we can always pray, “Lord, increase my desire for your commandments. Lord, increase my desire for you.”
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132 Turn to me and be gracious to me, After Your manner with those who love Your name.
God’s word is full of testimonies of God’s grace toward those who love His name. This is God’s manner, His pattern of behavior toward those who are His.
Like the commandments of God, the name of God represents God. If we love His name, we love Him.
But notice that the psalmist doesn’t expect grace from God apart from love for God. God is gracious to all people in some way or another. He makes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust alike. But the unjust, those who have no love for God have no right to expect God’s grace. Those who love God, however, have every assurance that God will turn to them, show His favor to them, and pour out His grace on them.
Christians know this because God has sent the Son to die on the cross for our sins. If God has given us His grace in Jesus Christ, how will He not give us all things along with Him?
Q: But what do we do if we do not love Him as we should? Can we still expect His grace?
We never love God as we should. That’s why we rely on the perfect love that Jesus had for God. As God the Son, He had perfect love for God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. All that Jesus did, He did in obedience to God the Father. All that Jesus did, He did by the power of God the Spirit.
And it’s His perfect love that secures God’s grace for us if we trust in Jesus.
So through Jesus, even when we do not love His name as we should, we can still expect God to turn to us and be gracious to us.
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133 Establish my footsteps in Your word, And do not let any iniquity have dominion over me.
The first request admits that God’s way is the right, stable way and asks to be established in that way.
We will not ask to be established in His word if we do not believe that His word is best.
But the psalmist understands that to be established in God’s word will mean separation from iniquity (i.e., sin). Essentially we can be mastered by the word of God or by sin but not both.
And one will have dominion over us.
The psalmist recognizes that God’s word is a benevolent master leading to life.
But sin leads to death.
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Psalm 119:134 (NASB95)
134 Redeem me from the oppression of man, That I may keep Your precepts.
As we have seen, the psalmist was desperate to be delivered from his oppressors whoever they may have been. We know they unjustly attacked him with lies.
But as we have also seen, the psalmist doesn’t desire to be delivered for the sake of more convenience or comfort. He desires to be delivered so that may keep God’s precepts.
[ILLUS] As I have mentioned, it may have been that the author of Psalm 119 was David when his son Absalom tried to overthrow him and take the kingdom for himself.
David was forced to run and this would’ve meant that he was not able to worship God in the tabernacle as commanded by God.
If that was the case, then David’s desire for deliverance from Absalom is tied to his desire to worship in the tabernacle once again. He wanted to be redeemed from the oppression so that he could keep your precepts.
‘Freedom’ is a word that we talk about a lot in our country. We are always (and sometimes rightly) concerned about someone infringing upon our freedoms.
But why do we desire freedom? What can of freedom are we after? Is it freedom to do what we want? Or is it freedom to do what God wants?
The psalmist wants freedom from his oppressors not so he can get back to doing what he wants but so he can get back to doing what God wants—worshipping/obeying God in the way He demands.
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135 Make Your face shine upon Your servant, And teach me Your statutes.
‘Make Your face shine upon Your servant’ has the same meaning as ‘Turn to me’ in v. 132—it means ‘show me favor’.
But the favor the psalmist requests from God is instruction—‘teach me Your statutes.’
Because we are too materialistic, we tend to think of God’s favor in material terms. We want God to favor us with riches and comfort and power.
But if we thought like the psalmist—i.e., if we thought and felt correctly—we would desire favor from God in the form that the psalmist desires it.
We would desire to learn from God the treasures of His word.
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136 My eyes shed streams of water, Because they do not keep Your law.
The psalmist is in tears because they (his oppressors) do not keep God’s law. Breaking God’s law dishonors God and the psalmist doesn’t want to see God dishonored. He values God’s honor above a desire for revenge.
Here’s what I mean: If the oppressors continue to break God’s law, they will face God’s judgment, which we would assume would be just fine with the victim of their oppression. In other words, we would think that the psalmist would want them to continuing rebelling so they’d suffer God’s judgment.
But the psalmist desires no such thing. He desires that they repent and keep God’s law so that God will be honored.
Does it grieve us to see someone sinning because it dishonors God? Or, when we see someone sinning, do we think to ourselves, “Well, they’re gonna get what’s coming to them one day!”
When we see others—especially in the church—living contrary to God’s word, we should be heart-broken. Our eyes should well up with tears.
We should pray, “God, cause them to repent so that you might be honored once again.”
Conclusion
Conclusion