Psalm 119:154

We take up the next verse of this octave entitled Resh and we find the psalmist repeating the request of the previous verse:  deliver me. 

Psalms 119:154  Plead my cause, and deliver me: quicken me according to thy word.

The psalmist brings three requests before the Lord.  The first request is plead my cause. 

Plead – To maintain (a plea or cause) by argument in a court of law.  Also transf.

The psalmist obviously had one or more opponents striving against him, as one might have an opponent suing him in a court of law.  In asking the Lord to plead his cause he is asking the Lord to stand up for him and argue his case, to be his defense against his adversary.  We see David making this request in the following passage:

Psalms 35:1  <> Plead my cause, O LORD, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me.

2  Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for mine help.

3  Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute me: say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.

God is the Supreme Judge of the universe.  There is no appeal beyond Him.  If He takes up your cause and pleads it, you are sure to win the case.  After all, with the Judge for your Attorney, how can you lose?  He will throw your adversary out of court and make him suffer the judgment that he sought against you.

Isaiah 51:22  Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again:

23  But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.

Jeremiah 50:33  Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The children of Israel and the children of Judah were oppressed together: and all that took them captives held them fast; they refused to let them go.

34  Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name: he shall throughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

Note that the Lord even defines Himself as God that pleadeth the cause of his people.  So it follows that we can count on Him to do according to what He is.  And when He pleads the cause of His people He does so throughly or thoroughly so that there remains no objection whatsoever that can be raised against them. 

And even if our adversary has a just claim against us because of our sin, God the Judge has taken care of that in sending His Son to be the propitiation by His blood for our sins.

1 John 2:1  My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

2  And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Revelation 12:10  And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

11  And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

If you are bearing the wrath of the Lord because you have sinned and you have confessed your sin, do not despair.  The Lord will plead your cause even though your cause arises from having offended Him.

Micah 7:9  I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.

Then we have the second request made in today’s verse:  deliver me.  Of course, if you have a cause to plead, it follows that you need deliverance.  But notice from Jeremiah 50:34 that we referenced above, the One Who “throughly” pleads the cause of His people is also called “their Redeemer.”  So it turns out that the Supreme Judge and our Advocate is also our Redeemer to deliver us.  The court is definitely tipped in our favour! 

And then we have the third request in today’s verse:  quicken me according to thy word.  This is the first of three times in this octave that the psalmist will ask the Lord to quicken him.  So as we beg the Lord to plead our cause and deliver us, let us also ask Him to quicken us so that we do not lose heart, which we are so prone to do under the weight of affliction.  May God, according to His word of promise, quicken all you who look to Him for help so that you may maintain an active faith, an abounding love, and a stedfast hope whilst you await the hour of His deliverance.

Thomas Manton nicely summed up these three requests made to God this way: 

“Or, in short, with respect to the injustice of his adversaries, ‘Plead my cause;’ with respect to the misery of his own condition, ‘Deliver me;’ with respect to the weakness and imbecility of his own heart, ‘Quicken me.’”