Psalm 119:174

We continue into the final stretch of Psalm 119.

Psalms 119:174  I have longed for thy salvation, O LORD; and thy law is my delight.

We begin as we often do by defining key terms in the verse.

Long – To have a yearning desire; to wish earnestly. Const. for.

Delight – Pleasure, joy, or gratification felt in a high degree.

Show me what a man most desires, what he yearns for, and what is his greatest delight, and I will show you what he is. Think about how much of your life is shaped by what you desire and what you enjoy.

The psalmist longed for God’s salvation. Now God saves His people from troubles of all kinds.

Psalms 34:17  The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.

Psalms 25:22  Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.

But the greatest trouble we all have is the trouble of sin. Sin lies at the foundation of all grief. It was not until Adam sinned that trouble entered into the human experience. When you examine the curse that God pronounced upon Adam and Eve because of their sin, you will find mention of sorrow, thorns, thistles, sweat, and dissolution (Genesis 3:16-19). Any trouble you and I have can be reduced down to some kind of sorrow in body or soul, some kind of resistance to our efforts like thorns and thistles, some kind of strain in work that causes sweat, and the dissolution of our bodies in aging and death. That being the case, God’s salvation ultimately centers in salvation from sin, which is the cause of all trouble.

Matthew 1:21  And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.

Psalms 130:8  And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

This fact is brought forth in the incident in which our Lord healed a man sick of the palsy when the disciples let him down through the roof (Mark 2:1-12). At first our Lord said to the sick of the palsy: “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.” Afterward He said to him: “Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.” Healing this man of his palsy demonstrated that Jesus had “power on earth to forgive sins.” This narrative shows that the ultimate cause of the palsy was sin, which Christ addressed first. By taking away the sin which caused the trouble of the palsy, Jesus took away the palsy. I say all that to say this: God’s salvation is salvation from sin! So if you long for God’s salvation, then the thing you most want to be saved from is sin.

But notice that the psalmist longed for God’s salvation. If you have something in your life that you know you need to be saved from such as a bad habit, a weakness, or a fear, and yet you are still trapped in it, it might be that you are not longing for salvation from it. Perhaps you have become too comfortable with it.

But if you find you are not longing for God’s salvation as you ought, then the second half of the verse may identify the problem: and thy law is my delight. Sin is defined as the transgression of the law (1John 3:4). Therefore, if God’s law is your delight, then sin transgresses what you find a high degree of pleasure in. In other words, sin spoils your greatest joy, as well it should! Thus it follows that you long for God’s salvation from sin. And you especially long for the salvation that is to be brought to us at the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ when we shall be forever removed from even the presence of sin.

Hebrews 9:28  So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

2 Timothy 4:8  Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

If you are not earnestly desiring the appearing of Christ, it is likely owing to the fact that you are not finding much pleasure in the word of God. The more you relish learning the Scriptures, the more you long to see the Saviour of Whom they testify (John 5:39).

This longing expressed by the psalmist echoes the longing of our father Jacob as he lay on his death bed.

Genesis 49:18  I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.

May this be our longing as we near the end of our pilgrimage through this world.

As the psalmist nears the conclusion of this great psalm, he repeats something he affirmed eight time previously and that was his delight in the word of God (see verses 16, 24, 35, 47, 70 ,77, 92,143). Any man who delights in God’s word like that is a blessed man. His life has the proper direction, and he is stable, productive, and prosperous in all the ways that count.

Psalms 1:1  ¶Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

2  But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

3  And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.