Psalm 119:124

I ain gonna tell you what octave we are going through in Psalm 119, as that should be obvious.

Psalms 119:124  Deal with thy servant according unto thy mercy, and teach me thy statutes.

Let us begin by again defining the word mercy as this will shed light on the psalmist’s prayer.

Mercy - Forbearance and compassion shown by one person to another who is in his power and who has no claim to receive kindness; kind and compassionate treatment in a case where severity is merited or expected.

As in other places in Psalm 119, the psalmist when speaking to the Lord refers to himself as thy servant.  He served God so faithfully that he could say in verse 121 that he had “done judgment and justice.”  But a true servant of God, no matter how faithfully he serves, still recognizes his need of God’s mercy since the best service he can offer the Lord is flawed by his sinfulness and weakness.  Even though we serve the Lord the best that we can, we still have no claim to God’s kindness.  We deserve His severity instead.  And if the Lord dealt with us according to His severity, He would mark every flaw and condemn us for them.  It takes only one act of disobedience to constitute us as transgressors and deserving of God’s judgment.

James 2:10  For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

But, thanks be to God,

Psalms 103:10  He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

11    For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.

Psalms 130:3  If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?

4  But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.

And remember that according to this octave the psalmist was undergoing oppression and that his eyes were failing for God’s salvation. In this low condition, he begged his God to deal with him according unto His mercy, something he certainly was not receiving at the hands of his oppressors.  Note above that mercy is defined as “kind and compassionate treatment.”  Compassion is “pity that inclines one to spare or to succour.”  The psalmist needed the Lord to pity him and to be moved by his distress so as to help and deliver him. 

So this brings me to an important conclusion.  Whether you are serving God as faithfully as you can, or whether you have sinned, or whether you are being oppressed by enemies, or whether you have reached a point of exhaustion in whatever you are doing or going through, the one thing you need most of all is the mercy of God.  A prayer for mercy is a prayer for something that will cover all the bases.  This prayer:  deal with thy servant according unto thy mercy is one of the most comprehensive prayers you can pray. 

Now the psalmist added this other request to his prayer that the Lord would deal with Him according unto His mercy:  teach me thy statutes.  We met with this request in verse 64 when the psalmist acknowledged that the earth “is full” of God’s mercy.  It is interesting how the thought of God’s mercy awakened within the psalmist a desire to learn his duty as laid down in the Scriptures.  Commenting on this verse Matthew Henry wrote:  “In difficult times we should desire more to be told what we must do than what we may expect….”  I cannot say it better.  Too often we want to know the outcome of our difficulty rather than our duty in our difficulty!  If you are learning your duty to God from His word, the Lord is dealing with you according unto His mercy, no matter how bad things are.  And you have much cause to be thankful, because this shows you to be one of God’s elect, one of “the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory” (Romans 9:23).  You have some good times ahead of you!

Psalm 119:123

As we come to today’s verse of Psalm 119, we encounter the psalmist experiencing again something he expressed in verse 82:  the failing of his eyes.

Psalms 119:123  Mine eyes fail for thy salvation, and for the word of thy righteousness.

In verse 82 his eyes were failing for God’s word as a source of comfort.  Here his eyes were failing for God’s salvation and for His word.  The psalmist was obviously in the throes of trouble.  In verse 82 he was looking for some comfort.  In today’s verse he was looking for deliverance.  His trouble has dragged on so long and he looked for relief for so long that his eyes were losing their power to look any longer.  His eyes were failing. 

And his eyes were also failing for the word of God’s righteousness.  He read in his Bible and heard from his teachers the promises of God to deliver His people.  And he knew that the word He read and heard was the word of God’s righteousness, the word of a God Who is Himself righteous and Who is, therefore, righteous in all that He says and does.  He is a God Who never errs and Who cannot lie.  His judgments are “true and righteous altogether” (Psalm 19:9) and worthy of our complete confidence.  If He promises to saves us, He will save us.  But where was the promised salvation?  Why was deliverance so long in coming?  Commenting on this verse Matthew Henry wrote:  “It is often the infirmity even of good men to be weary of waiting God’s time when their time has elapsed.” 

If you find yourself feeling like the psalmist, let me give you this word of comfort:  even though your eyes fail for God’s salvation and His word of righteousness, His word of righteousness will never fail.  The failing is happening on your end, not on His.  He has said in the word of His righteousness:  “I will not fail thee” (Joshua 1:5).  He has said He will not suffer His faithfulness to fail (Psalms 89:33).  And it is written of Him that “His compassions fail not” (Lamentations 3:22).  Therefore, His salvation is sure, even though it be delayed.  So if your eyes are failing for God’s salvation, here is what you need:

Hebrews 10:36  For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

37  For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.

Habakkuk 2:3  For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.    

Furthermore, if you are in such a state as the psalmist was, let me give you this advice:  When you pray tell the Lord that you are waiting for the word of His righteousness.  Pit His righteousness against your doubts and despair.  Always acknowledge that He is right, no matter what may be wrong in your life.  This is putting everything on Him and what He has promised to do about it. 

And may you find comfort in these words taken from a psalm that is a prophecy of the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ:

Psalms 69:3  I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.

That is Jesus talking, dear reader.  His eyes also failed as He waited for God’s salvation.  And look where He is today!  He is even “at the right hand of the throne of God” where there are “pleasures for evermore” (Hebrews 12:2; Psalm 16:11).  And so shall you be.

Revelation 3:21  To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

Psalm 119:122

Today we take up the second verse of the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Ain.  This verse continues the theme of the preceding verse in that it too is a prayer to be delivered from oppression.

Psalms 119:122  Be surety for thy servant for good: let not the proud oppress me.

Let it first be noted that this is one of the four verses of Psalm 119 that does not use one of the ten words used in the Psalm to refer to God’s written word.  The other verses are verses 89, 90, and 132.  But as we shall show, the instruction of this verse extends out to the overall theme of the written revelation of God to man, the Holy Scriptures.

In today’s verse the psalmist prays to God:  be surety for thy servant for good.  Now just what is a surety?

Surety – A person who undertakes some specific responsibility on behalf of another who remains primarily liable; one who makes himself liable for the default or miscarriage of another, or for the performance of some act on his part.

The psalmist adds to this request:  let not the proud oppress me.  To oppress another is to press him down, overwhelm him, trample upon him, or tyrannize him.  Now it stands to reason that the proud are just the kind of people who will oppress others.  The proud take delight in asserting their superiority, real or supposed, over others, whether it be superiority in rank, wealth, strength, or intelligence.  By putting down others the proud reinforce their feeling of superiority. 

In making his petition, the psalmist presented himself to the Lord as His servant.  A servant of God is one who seeks to do God’s will rather than his own.  And, of course, the will of God for His servants is expressed in the Holy Scriptures.  Therefore, the overall theme of Psalm 119 is found in this verse also.  And being a servant of God, he stood in stark contrast to the proud who are stuck on themselves and their will.  The proud strive to assert their will above all even when it means oppressing others, as is often the case.

Now the psalmist realized that if he was to be delivered from being oppressed by the proud, he would need someone to undertake for him that was greater than both himself and the proud.  Thus, he prayed to the Almighty God to be his surety.  The psalmist would have the Lord take up his cause as the Lord’s own cause and stand up for him.  Furthermore, he prayed that the Lord would be his surety for good, to do for him the good he could not do or had failed to do.  If the Lord does not undertake for us, then our enemies will capitalize on our faults, failures, and weaknesses in order to run us down.  This is a major ploy of our archenemy, the devil.  He is called “the accuser of our brethren” in Revelation 12:10.  But as our Surety, the Lord stands good for our debts to His justice; He imparts to us His righteousness; and He comes to our defence against our adversaries.  Even in those areas where we have failed so miserably in our battle with sin, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who was “made a surety of a better testament” (Hebrews 7:22), secures our pardon.  Thus we can rise up from our defeat and continue to be the servants of the Most High God, Who undertakes to maintain us in that honourable employment.  So it is written of our brethren that the devil accuses:  “And they overcame him (the devil) by the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 12:11).  The following words of Paul declare the Lord as our Surety for good:

Romans 8:31  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

32  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

33  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.

34  Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

I adjoin the prayer of today’s verse with this acknowledgement of the Lord Jehovah (LORD) as our Surety for good:

Psalms 94:16  Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?

17  Unless the LORD had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence.

18  When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O LORD, held me up.    

Psalm 119:121

With the New Year begun, we now begin a new octave in our mediations on Psalm 119.  This octave bears the title of the Hebrew letter Ain.  The ai is pronounced like the ai in the word aisle.  Now I ain gonna spend a lot of time tryin to think up somethin funny.  I just ain gonna do it.

Psalms 119:121  ¶AIN. I have done judgment and justice: leave me not to mine oppressors.

We usually think of confession as something one does when one has sinned.  But today’s verse is an example of confessing to God something good that one has done:  I have done judgment and justice.  So that we may know what it is to do judgment and justice¸ we need to define the terms.

Judgment - The action of trying a cause in a court of justice; trial. The sentence of a court of justice; a judicial decision or order in court.

Now the psalmist may have been a judge in a court of justice.  If so, he was a good judge.  But it is not necessary to occupy the office of judge in a court of law in order to do judgment and justice.  Every one of us exercises judgment in the court of our own thoughts and decisions.  Following is the definition of judgment as it pertains to our personal judgments.

Judgment - The formation of a deliberate opinion or notion concerning something by exercising the mind upon it; an opinion, estimate.

But if our judgment of something is to be a right judgment, it must be accompanied with justice. 

Justice - The quality of being just (which is defined as “righteous in the sight of God”). The quality of being (morally) just or righteous; the principle of just dealing; the exhibition of this quality or principle in action; just conduct; integrity, rectitude.

For a judicial decision of a judge to be a just decision, it must be righteous in the sight of God.  And the same is true of the judgments that we all personally make when we judge what others say and do, or when we judge what we say and do.

Notice that inherent in the definition of justice is a standard of righteousness, which is a law.  Now there is only one lawgiver and that is God.

James 4:12  There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

Isaiah 33:22  For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.

This explains why a judgment must be righteous in the sight of God in order to be an act of justice.  And, of course, God’s law is given in His word, the Holy Scriptures, which is the theme of this psalm.  Any law that men make or any decision a judge makes that violates the Holy Scriptures may be a judgment, but it is not a just judgment.  And if it is not a just judgment, it is not justice! 

Isaiah 10:1  Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;

2  To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!

The same holds true of our personal judgments.  This is why our Lord taught us:

John 7:24  Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.

We must be very careful that when we judge the words and actions of others we do so justly, in accord with the Scriptures.  When we judge others as evil simply because they cross our standards, or our expectations, or our plans, then we are not doing judgment and justice.  We are usurping the place of God by setting up ourselves as lawgivers.  We are judging God’s law as though it is not sufficient as a judge of others and we are treating our personal law as supreme.

James 4:11  Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.

Being able to say that he had done justice and judgment, the psalmist could then make this request:  leave me not to mine oppressors.  There is nothing like a clear conscience when one is being persecuted and feeling the weight of oppressors.  Take the apostle Paul for an example.

Acts 25:10  Then said Paul, I stand at Caesar's judgment seat, where I ought to be judged: to the Jews have I done no wrong, as thou very well knowest.

It was the want of doing judgment and justice that provoked the Lord to leave Israel to their oppressors time and again, as we read in the Old Testament.  They foolishly thought they could get away with injustice by appearing before God in His temple, observing holy days, and bringing sacrifices (see Isaiah 1:10-17 and Jeremiah 7:4-7).  Not so! 

Proverbs 21:3  To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.

Micah 6:6  Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?

7  Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

8  He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

To engage in the ordinances of God’s house is a good thing indeed.  But it is never a substitute for just and fair dealings with our fellow man!

So if we wonder why we are seeing a steady erosion of freedom in our nation and why we feel the weight of an ever-expanding, oppressive hand of bureaucracy, we can trace it to this: 

Isaiah 59:14  And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.

15  Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.

In the halls of government, in the courts of the land, and in the opinion of citizens there is an ever decreasing amount of judgment and justice.  Courts uphold the killing of innocent babies by abortion and claim that sodomites have a right (?) to be married.  Multitudes of men and women are cohabiting in a sexual union without marriage.  And the man that stands against this tide of evil is judged as being a perpetrator of hate and injustice.  He becomes the criminal in such a perverted society.   And it was into just such a society that our Saviour came.  He stands as the perfect Example of one who did judgment and justice.  Said He of Himself:

John 5:30  I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

Yet He was judged a criminal and nailed to a cross.  Nevertheless, He was not left to His oppressors for God raised Him from the dead on the third day! 

So no matter how evil the time is, do judgment and justice.  Or, as Jim Ruma put it:  “Do the next right thing.”  Furthermore, you parents, one of the most important lessons you can teach your children is to do judgment and justice.  Let it be said of you as it was said of Abraham:

Genesis 18:19  For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.

And even if you feel the hand of oppression for awhile, know that the Lord will not leave you there.  He will arise; He will plead your cause; and He will deliver you.

Psalms 37:32  The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him.

33  The LORD will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged.

34  Wait on the LORD, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.

I did not set out for this blog to go on for so long.  I trust I have not wearied you.

Psalm 119:120

We now arrive at the last verse of the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Samech. 

Psalms 119:120  My flesh trembleth for fear of thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments.

The Bible is the most comforting book in the world to those who receive it as it is in truth, the word of God.  But it can also be the most terrifying book if you consider the judgments that God has pronounced in it.  In just the two verses that go before this one we read that God has trodden down all those that err from His statutes and puts away all the wicked of the earth like dross.  Right there are two judgments that should strike terror in anyone who has ever erred from the word of God.  The God of the Bible is certainly no Being to be trifled with.  He is to be greatly feared for it is written:

Hebrews 10:31  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

When the judgments of God were made known to the prophet Habakkuk, he responded like the psalmist. 

Habakkuk 3:16  When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops.

When the good king Josiah heard out of the book of the law the great wrath that was pronounced against his nation for their transgressions against that law, “he rent his clothes” (2Kings 22:11).  He, too, was afraid of God’s judgments.  Now it speaks well of the psalmist, the prophet, and the king that they had a fear of God and His judgments.  Far better is it to have such a fear than to be like those who have no fear of God, His word, or His judgments.  We read of such persons in the following passages. 

Psalms 36:1  The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes.

2 Peter 3:3  Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

4  And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

5  For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:

6  Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

7  But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

When Jehudi read the prophecy of Jeremiah before the king and his servants, look at the reaction.

Jeremiah 36:23  And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.

24  Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words.

Now as for those whose flesh trembleth for fear of the Lord and who are afraid of his judgments, the Lord has His eye upon them and takes delight in them.

Isaiah 66:2  For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

Psalms 147:11  The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.

Those who fear the Lord even to the point of trembling are those who can also hope in His mercy, because His mercy is upon those who fear Him.

Psalms 103:17  But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children;

18  To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.

One of the reasons those who fear God keep His commandments is that they are afraid not to since they know the judgments that befall those who do not. 

To be sure, we do not obey the Lord only because we fear Him.  We also obey Him because we love Him.  Hence our service to God arises from a balance of fear and love.  We know that “we love Him because He first loved us” (1John 4:19).  But we also know that “whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth” (Hebrews 12:6).  Therefore, we fear Him.  And when you consider how prone to err we are, you understand that we need both fear and love to keep us in line.  As George H Horne sounded off: 

“Encompassed with a frail body, and a sinful world, we stand in need of every possible tie; and the affections both of fear and love must be employed, to restrain us from transgression; we must, at the same time, ‘love God’s testimonies, and fear his judgments.’”

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Anyone that shares the sentiments of the psalmist in fearing God and His judgments may also take great comfort in all the reassuring promises that God has made to those who fear Him.  That is why Habakkuk, even though he trembled for fear, could “rest in the day of trouble.”  He knew that as one who feared God the Lord would take care of him in that day.  Thus it is that we read of the early churches that they were “walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 9:31). 

As the end of 2014 is upon us, let me take this opportunity to wish all of my readers who fear the Lord a most blessed New Year.