Psalm 119:129-136
129 Your testimonies are wonderful;
therefore my soul keeps them.
130 The unfolding of your words gives light;
it imparts understanding to the simple.
131 I open my mouth and pant,
because I long for your commandments.
132 Turn to me and be gracious to me,
as is your way with those who love your name.
133 Keep steady my steps according to your promise,
and let no iniquity get dominion over me.
134 Redeem me from man's oppression,
that I may keep your precepts.
135 Make your face shine upon your servant,
and teach me your statutes.
136 My eyes shed streams of tears,
because people do not keep your law.
Message: When Others Don't Keep God's Law
Time: The psalms were written by many different people across a period of a
thousand years in Israel's history. They are thought to have been
compiled and put together in their present form by some unknown editor
shortly after the captivity ended about 537 B.C.
What the Lord is Saying: Your testimonies are wonderful;Full of wonderful revelations, commands and promises. Wonderful in their
nature, as being free from all error, and bearing within themselves
overwhelming self-evidence of their truth; wonderful in their effects as
instructing, elevating, strengthening, and comforting the soul. Jesus
the eternal Word is called Wonderful, and all the uttered words of God
are wonderful in their degree. Those who know them best wonder at them
most. It is wonderful that God should have borne testimony at all to
sinful men, and more wonderful still that his testimony should be of
such a character, so clear, so full, so gracious, so mighty. therefore my soul keeps them. - Their wonderful character so impressed itself upon his mind that he kept
them in his memory, their wonderful excellence so charmed his heart
that he kept them in his life. Some men wonder at the words of God, and
use them for their speculation; but David was always practical, and the
more he wondered the more he obeyed. Note that his religion was soul
work; not with head and hand alone did he keep the testimonies; but his
soul, his truest and most real self, held fast to them.
The unfolding of your words gives light;No sooner do they gain admission into the soul than they enlighten it,
what light may be expected from their prolonged indwelling! Their
very entrance floods the mind with instruction, for they are so full, so
clear; but, on the other hand, there must be such an "entrance," or
there will be no illumination, The mere hearing of the word with the
external ear is of small value by itself, but when the words of God
enter into the chambers of the heart then light is scattered on all
sides. The word finds no entrance into some minds because they are
blocked up with self-conceit, or prejudice, or indifference; but where
due attention is given, divine illumination must surely follow upon
knowledge of the mind of God. Oh, that thy words, like the beams of the
sun, may enter through the window of my understanding, and dispel the
darkness of my mind! it imparts understanding to the simple. The sincere and candid are the true disciples of the word. To such it
gives not only knowledge, but understanding. These simple-hearted
ones are frequently despised, and their simplicity has another meaning
infused into it, so as to be made the theme of ridicule; but what
matters it? Those whom the world dubs as fools are among the truly wise
if they are taught of God. What a divine power rests in the word of God,
since it not only bestows light, but gives that very mental eye by
which the light is received - '"It gives understanding." Hence the
value of the words of God to the simple, who cannot receive mysterious
truth unless their minds are aided to see it and prepared to grasp it.
I open my mouth and pant,So animated was his desire that he looked into the animal world to find a
picture of it. He was filled with an intense longing, and was not
ashamed to describe it by a most expressive, natural, and yet singular
symbol. Like a stag that has been hunted in the chase, and is hard
pressed, and therefore pants for breath, so did the Psalmist pant for
the entrance of God's word into his soul. Nothing else could content
him. All that the world could yield him left him still panting with open
mouth. because I long for your commandments. Longed to know them, longed to obey them, longed to be conformed to
their spirit, longed to teach them to others. He was a servant of God,
and his industrious mind longed to receive orders; he was a learner in
the school of grace, and his eager spirit longed to be taught of the
Lord.
Turn (look) to me A godly man cannot long be without prayer.
During the previous verses he had been expressing his love to God's
word, but here he is upon his knees again. This prayer is specially
short, but exceedingly sententious, "Look thou upon me." While he stood
with open mouth panting for the commandments, he besought the Lord to
look upon or turn to him, and let his condition and his unexpressed longings plead
for him. He desires to be known of God, and daily observed by him. He
wishes also to be favored with the divine smile which is included in
that word - '"turn." If a look from us to God has Saving efficacy in it,
what may we not expect from a look from God to us.
and be gracious (merciful) to me - Christ's look at Peter was a look of mercy, and all the looks
of the heavenly Father are of the same kind. If he looked in stern
justice his eyes would not endure us, but looking in mercy he spares and
blesses us. If God looks and sees us panting, he will not fail to be
merciful to us.
as is your way with those who love your name.
Look on me as thou looks on those who love thee; be merciful to me as
thou art accustomed to be towards those who truly serve thee. There is a
use and wont which God observes towards them that love him, and David
craved that he might experience it. He would not have the Lord deal
better or worse with him than he was accustomed to deal with his saints -
worse would not save him, better could not be. In effect he prays, "I
am thy servant; treat me as thou treats thy servants. I am thy child;
deal with me as with a son."
Keep steady my steps according to your promise, This is one of the Lord's customary
mercies to his chosen, - '"He keeps the feet of his saints." By his
grace he enables us to put our feet step by step in the very place which
his word ordains. This prayer seeks a very choice favor, namely, that
every distinct act, every step, might be arranged and governed by the
will of God. This does not stop short of perfect holiness, neither will
the believer's desires be satisfied with anything beneath that blessed
consummation.
and let no iniquity get dominion over me. This is
the negative side of the blessing. We ask to do all that is right, and
to fall under the power of nothing that is wrong. God is our sovereign,
and we would have every thought in subjection to his sway. Believers
have no choice, darling sins to which they would be willing to bow. They
pant for perfect liberty from the power of evil, and being conscious
that they cannot obtain it of themselves, they cry unto God for it.
Redeem me from man's oppression, David had tasted all the
bitterness of this great evil. It had made him an exile from his
country, and banished him from the sanctuary of the Lord: therefore he
pleads to be saved from it. It is said that oppression makes a wise man
mad, and no doubt it has made many a righteous man sinful. oppression is
in itself wicked, and it drives men to wickedness. We little know how
much of our virtue is due to our liberty; if we had been in bonds under
haughty tyrants we might have yielded to them, and instead of being
confessors we might now have been apostates. He who taught us to pray,
"Lead us not into temptation," will sanction this prayer, which is of
much the same tenor, since to be oppressed is to be tempted.
that I may keep your precepts. When the stress of oppression was taken off he would
go his own way, and that way would be the way of the Lord. Although we
ought not to yield to the threatening of men, yet many do so; the wife
is sometimes compelled by the oppression of her husband to act against
her conscience - children and servants, and even whole nations have been
brought into the same difficulty. Their sins will be largely laid at
the oppressor's door, and it usually pleases God ere long to overthrow
those powers and dominions which compel men to do evil. The worst of it
is that some persons, when the pressure is taken off from them, follow
after unrighteousness of their own accord. These give evidence of being
sinners in grain. As for the righteous, it happens to them as it did to
the apostles of old, "Being let go, they went to their own company."
When saints are freed from the tyrant they joyfully pay homage to their
king.
Make your face shine upon your servant, Oppressors frown, but do thou
smile. They darken my life, but do thou shine upon me, and all will be
bright. The Psalmist again declares that he is God's servant, and he
seeks for no favor from others, but only from his own Lord and Master.
and teach me your statutes This is the favor which he considers to be
the shining of the face of God upon him. If the Lord will be exceeding
gracious, and make him his favorite, he will ask no higher blessing
than still to be taught the royal statutes. See how he craves after
holiness; this is the choicest of all gems in his esteem. As we say
among men that a good education is a great fortune, so to be taught of
the Lord is a gift of special grace. The most favored believer needs
teaching; even when he walks in the light of God's countenance he has
still to be taught the divine statutes or he will transgress.
My eyes shed streams of tears,because people do not keep your law. He
wept in sympathy with God to see the holy law despised and broken. He
wept in pity for men who were thus drawing down upon themselves the
fiery wrath of God. His grief was such that he could scarcely give it
vent; his tears were not mere drops of sorrow, but torrents of woe. In
this he became like the Lord Jesus who beheld the city, and wept over
it; and like unto Jehovah himself, who hath no pleasure in the death of
him that dieth, but that he turn unto him and live. The experience of
this verse indicates a great advance upon anything we have had before:
the Psalm and the Psalmist are both growing. That man is a ripe believer
who sorrows because of the sins of others. In
Psalm 119:120
his flesh trembled at the presence of God, and here it seems to melt
and flow away in floods of tears. None are so affected by heavenly
things as those who are much in the study of the word, and are thereby
taught the truth and essence of things, Carnal men are afraid of brute
force, and weep over losses and crosses; but spiritual men feel a holy
fear of the Lord himself, and most of all lament when they see dishonor
cast upon his holy name.
Promise: We believe that God's testimonies are wonderful and we likewise mourn when we see people around us following their own ways and not the will of the Lord.
