Psalms 119:40 Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness.
The psalmist calls upon the Lord to behold.
Behold – To hold by, keep, observe, regard, look.
There is something about his life that the psalmist would have God to observe, to direct His attention to. The thing that he wants the Lord to observe in him is that he has longed after His precepts.
Long - To think long, desire. To have a yearning desire; to wish earnestly. Const. for (after, occas. at, to) or to with inf.
Your life will generally tend to move along the line of your strongest desires. Charles Spurgeon wrote: “Where our longings are, there are we in the sight of God.” In the verse we consider today we find the psalmist had a yearning desire for God’s precepts. As believers, we certainly long after God’s promises, promises such as the promise of eternal life, the promise of goodness, the promise of strength, and the promise to supply all our need. But it tells something about the level of our spiritual growth when we long after God’s precepts as well as after His promises. Consider what a precept is.
Precept – An authoritative command to do some particular act; an order, mandate. A general command or injunction; an instruction, direction, or rule for action or conduct; esp. an injunction as to moral conduct.
If you long after God’s precepts, you long to do the will of God. You want Him to direct you by His commandments, to instruct you from His word. You have a yearning desire to be obedient to your Lord. Whatever else you may achieve or not achieve in your life, you want above all to serve your God by doing His will. The person who longs after God’s promises longs after the good God can do for him. But the person who longs after God’s precepts longs after the good he can do for God. And can you really lay claim to God’s promises if you refuse His precepts?
Now the psalmist had such a longing after God’s precepts that he asked the Lord to quicken him. For even though we may have a desire after God’s precepts, we have a host of other desires in us that conflict with those precepts. These other desires too often weaken our longing after God’s precepts. Therefore, we are in constant need of being quickened, that is, of being revived, stimulated, roused, and stirred up. And for such revival we ought constantly to pray. It is interesting to note in this psalm how many times the psalmist asks the Lord to quicken him.
But observe that he asks the Lord to quicken him in thy righteousness. We all want to be stirred up and energized. But in what do you want to be stirred up? The psalmist prayed to be energized in God’s righteousness, in those things that are right in the sight of God. Too many want to be stirred up and stimulated in those things that will please themselves or other men rather than in those things that please the Lord. Have you ever lamented a lack of desire to work your job, to exercise your body, or to study a school lesson? Of course you have. But a far more important question is: have you ever lamented a lack of desire to serve the Lord?
Can you honestly say that this verse describes the yearning desire of your heart to such an extent that you would have God to behold it and to be a witness to it? You might fool somebody else with regard to your longings, but you cannot fool the living God. Now if you truly have such a longing to do what God commands of you in His word, your longing will not go unfulfilled. We have the promise of our Lord Jesus Christ for this.
Matthew 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Well, it is time now to say goodbye to Hë. It has been good for us to hang around his octave for awhile. But Vau is just around the corner and he has some great things to tell us. So we will part with Hë until sometime in the future when he calls to us again with his characteristic Hë!
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