Psalm 119:173

We come to the next verse of this last octave of Psalm 119 entitled Tau.

Psalms 119:173  Let thine hand help me; for I have chosen thy precepts.

This petition of the psalmist echoes one of the petitions of the prayer of Jabez recorded amidst the genealogies of 1 Chronicles.

1 Chronicles 4:10  And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.

That God’s hand be with us and help us is a thing to be sought. Consider what we are asking when we ask Almighty God: let thine hand help me. The hand of God is big enough to contain all the waters in the earth and skies in its hollow so as to measure them. This hand when outstretched is so large that it can measure the entire universe. This is the hand that “hath laid the foundation of the earth.”

Isaiah 40:12  Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span (the distance from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger when the hand is fully extended)….

Isaiah 48:13  Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.

This hand became flesh and blood in the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. When this hand of God in Christ touched a fevered woman, the fever departed; when it touched a leper, the leprosy departed; when it touched the ears of a deaf man, he heard; when it touched the eyes of a blind man, he saw; and when it touched the body of a dead man, he came to life again (Mark 1:30-31, 40-42; 7:31-35; 8:22-25; Luke 7:11-15). This is the hand that rescued Peter when he began to sink in the boisterous sea (Matthew 14:29-31). I point all this out to show you the exceedingly great power of the hand of God to help! There is no greater help than the help of that hand for whatever your need might be because it is the help of Omnipotence.

But if you would have that hand help you, then you need to also be able to advance this as a plea: for I have chosen thy precepts. When it comes to the eternal salvation of God’s children, that does not depend upon their choice, but rather upon God’s choice of them (Ephesians 1:4; 2Thessalonians 2:13). But the quality of their lives in this earth and the help of God in their pilgrimage is conditioned upon their choice. Just consider how much of your life is shaped by the choices you make. If we would have God help us, then we need to choose His precepts to govern the course of our lives. It is as simple as this: “The LORD is with you, while ye be with him” (2Chronicles 15:2).

Think of it like this: in His precepts God is stretching His hand out to you. If you choose those precepts you are taking His hand in yours. In this way God’s hand will help you as you muddle your way through this fallen world. In fact, God has promised you the help of His hand when enemies arise against you. Note the words I have italicized in the following passage that lines up with today’s verse.
 

Isaiah 41:10  Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

11  Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish.

12  Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought.

13  For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.

14  Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

But if you do not choose God’s precepts and if you refuse their counsel, then God’s hand will not be there to help you, even though you seek it.

Proverbs 1:20  ¶Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:

21  She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,

22  How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?

23  Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

24  Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;

25  But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:

26  I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;

27  When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.

28  Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:

29  For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:

30  They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.

Note the words I have italicized above. The Lord stretched out His hand and they refused; they did not choose to fear Him. If you refuse the hand of God outstretched to you in His precepts, He will refuse the help of His hand in your calamity. What a fearful thought!

Psalm 119:172

We come to the next verse of this last octave of Psalm 119 entitled Tau.

Psalms 119:172  My tongue shall speak of thy word: for all thy commandments are righteousness.

The psalmist was not only going to learn his Bible, he was not only going to obey the commandments of his Bible, he was going to talk about it: my tongue shall speak of thy word. And in talking about God’s word, he would be saying the right thing for all thy commandments are righteousness. If you are ever unsure of what is the right thing to say about something, then say what the Bible has to say about it, and you will be saying the right thing for you will be speaking righteousness.

All God’s commandments are righteousness. They are not only righteous, as the psalmist stated in Psalms 119:138, they are righteousness itself. And this is true of all the Scriptures in everything they say. When you hold a King James Bible in your hand, which is the preserved word of God in the English language, you are holding righteousness itself. It is not to be tampered with, altered, or taken lightly. It is to be heeded and reverenced with godly fear.

The very fact that the psalmist would speak of God’s word shows that the word of God was dwelling in him abundantly as our Lord Jesus said: “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Matthew 12:34). When the word of God is dwelling in us richly, it will manifest itself in the things that come out of our mouth as this verse makes plain:

Colossians 3:16  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Or consider this instruction taken from the book of Proverbs:

Proverbs 22:17  Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart unto my knowledge.

18  For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee; they shall withal be fitted in thy lips.

If you get the word of God “within” you, it will be “fitted in thy lips,” that is, you will be able to speak it forth. And it is a sign of spiritual growth when you not only know the truth, but when you are “speaking the truth in love.”

Ephesians 4:15  But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ….

If we are the Christians we should be, our tongue will be “as choice silver” (Proverbs 10:20); it will be “health” (Proverbs 12:18); our lips will “feed many” (Proverbs 10:21) and will “disperse knowledge” (Proverbs 15:7). Don’t you want your mouth to be a source of rich, healing, nourishing instruction to others rather than a fountain of destructive foolishness and non-sense? Well, if you get into your Bible and let it get into you, that will help! We would all be so much better off is we spoke more often of the words of God and less of the words of men. Alas, too many can expound extensively on what they hear in the news; read online or in a novel; or see on YouTube or in a movie; but grow strangely silent when the subject of the teaching of the Scriptures comes up.

When you are speaking of the Holy Scriptures, you have an inexhaustible subject for discussion. Charles Spurgeon said of the Scriptures: “the tale is for ever telling, yet untold.” How true! I have been preaching the story for going over 46 years and yet I feel I am but skimming the surface of all there is to tell.

Psalm 119:171

We continue making our way through the last octave of Psalm 119.

Psalms 119:171  My lips shall utter praise, when thou hast taught me thy statutes.

In this psalm we find seven verses before today’s verse in which the psalmist prayed to the Lord to teach him His statutes (verses 12, 26, 33, 64, 68, 124, 135). As we noted in our introduction to this psalm, God’s statutes are His laws and decrees. Praying to be taught God’s statutes, the psalmist was praying to learn the laws of God given to govern human conduct, and the decrees of God that affect the course of this world and the destinies of men. In verse 66 the psalmist prayed to be taught “good judgment and knowledge,” which come from God’s statutes; and in verse 108 he prayed to be taught God’s “judgments,” which entail His statutes. In short, the psalmist wanted the good Lord to teach him the Scriptures. He wanted to learn his Bible.

When commenting on verse 12 of this psalm, we pointed out that God uses instruments to teach us His statutes, instruments such as the Scriptures themselves, parents, pastors and teachers, fellow believers, tribulation, and chastening. But even though these instruments are used of the Lord, it is the Lord that is teaching us by them and, therefore, He is to be praised for the lesson learned. And that is precisely what the psalmist is doing in today’s verse.

When the Lord answered the psalmist’s prayer to be taught His statutes, the psalmist resolved this in response: “My lips shall utter praise.” The psalmist would verbally and audibly worship God for this answer to his prayer. And well it is that God should be praised for this blessing, for to have God’s words and to learn them is the chief blessing of all.

God bestowed many favours upon the nation of Israel. This following passage lists some of them:

Deuteronomy 6:10  And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, 

11  And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full;

12  Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

The were miraculously delivered from oppressive slavery in Egypt; they were miraculously sustained in the wilderness for forty years; and then they were led into the land of Canaan, a land of plenty available for the taking. But above all these advantages was the advantage granted to them of the revelation of God in His word, which was written and preserved for their learning. It was this advantage that made Israel a truly great nation.

Romans 3:1  ¶What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?

2  Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles (the revelation) of God.

Psalms 147:19  He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.

20  He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the LORD.

Deuteronomy 4:8  And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?

So if God has committed to you a copy of His pure, preserved word, you have the chief advantage. But in order to profit from that advantage, that word must be learned because it is “the entrance of” God’s words that give light and understanding (Psalm 119:130). You must be taught the statutes of the Lord. What is written on the page must find its way into your understanding if it is to benefit you.

Proverbs 2:10  ¶When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;

11  Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee….

Therefore, with Bible in hand we must pray to God to teach it to us, to give us understanding of it. And when He does, we must praise Him for the gift of His instruction. Furthermore, we ought to praise Him chiefly for this since, as we have seen, it is the chief advantage we have from Him. So, do you thank God for what you learn in a sermon as much, or more, than you thank Him for food, health, family, and friends?

In conclusion, it is a sign we have learned God’s statutes when we are about the business of praising Him, since those statutes frequently instruct us in that business. As Matthew Henry wrote: “We have learned nothing to purpose if we have not learned to praise God.”

Psalm 119:170

We come to the second verse in this last octave of Psalm 119 entitled Tau.

Psalms 119:170  Let my supplication come before thee: deliver me according to thy word.

In this verse the psalmist does the same as he did in the first verse: he prays to God to let his prayer come before Him. In the last verse he called his prayer a cry. In today’s verse he refers to it as his supplication. A supplication is the act of supplicating. Therefore, in order to know what a supplication is, we need to define the word supplicate.

Supplicate - To beg, pray, or entreat humbly; to present a humble petition.

Simply stated, a supplication is a prayer in which one humbly begs God for something. The psalmist is praying to be admitted into the presence of God as a beggar. In praying thus, the psalmist assumes a humble posture before God, which pleases Him. Had he not been humble, his prayer would not have come before the Lord as the next two verses make plain:

James 4:6  But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

Psalms 138:6  Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.

Matthew Henry’s comments on this verse are worth noting:

“His prayer that his supplication might come before God implies a deep sense of his unworthiness, and a holy fear that his prayer should come short or miscarry, as not fit to come before God; nor would any of our prayers have had access to God if Jesus Christ had not approached to him as an advocate for us.”

Thank God for the Lord Jesus Christ through Whom we “have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Ephesians 2:18).

Then the psalmist brought this request before the Lord: deliver me according to thy word. This is the sixth time in this psalm that he prayed to be saved or delivered (see verses 94, 134, 146, 153, 154). In this prayer he does not specify from what or from whom he prays to be delivered. But when you consider that believers are locked in a battle with the devil and his angels (Ephesians 6:11-12); and that they live in a world that hates them (John 15:19); and that they live in corruptible bodies of flesh in which there “dwelleth no good thing” (Romans 7:18); then you understand that believers always need deliverance. Hence, they need to be always praying deliver me.

Since we are finite creatures with very limited knowledge, there are many things that threaten us that we are not even aware of. There are things that will look very good to us that are in reality very bad; but because of our shortsightedness, we just don’t see the bad. Therefore, we need an infinite Mind to look out for us and deliver us from that which we do not, yea, cannot see. Of course, that infinite Mind is our God Whom we should ever supplicate to deliver us. For there will always be something we need to be delivered from, whether we know it or not.

And notice that the psalmist sought the deliverance that is according to God’s word. He wanted the deliverance that is promised in God’s word in the way that God has promised it. He prayed for that deliverance that would make him more holy, more in conformity to the commandments of God, and would thus be to the glory of God. If that deliverance came through the path of suffering, then let it be. He wanted that salvation that fulfills the desire of a heart that is right with God, a heart that continually says: “The LORD be magnified.”

Psalms 40:16  Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.

Philippians 1:19  For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,

20  According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.

In that last reference were the words of the apostle Paul. If Christ was magnified in his body, that was salvation for Paul, even if it meant death. Is that the kind of deliverance you seek from God? Do you seek a deliverance that centers in God’s glory, or one that centers in your personal ease and ambition? In other words, do you seek to be delivered according to God’s will as expressed in His word or do you want to be delivered according your will as you may too often express in your words? His will or yours? His word or yours? Which is it?

Psalm 119:169

Today we come to the last octave of Psalm 119. I feel a sense of awe that we have come this far in our meditations on this great psalm. It seems surreal to be so close to the end.

This last octave of Psalm 119 bears the title of the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet pronounced Tau. The pronunciation guide in my Bible shows that the au in this letter is pronounced the same as the au in our word maul or the letter a in our words all, hall, tall. I have listened to some pronunciations of the Hebrew alphabet online and I have heard the au in Tau pronounced like our word of so that it has a slight v sound at the end. Anyway, tau tau, chaps! This is enough of the Hebrew lesson from someone who does not speak Hebrew.

Psalms 119:169  ¶TAU. Let my cry come near before thee, O LORD: give me understanding according to thy word.

This is the only verse in the psalm where we find the word cry in its noun form. Let’s define it.

Cry – 1. The loud and chiefly inarticulate utterance of emotion; esp. of grief, pain, or terror. An exclamation expressive of any emotion. 2. Shouting, calling in a voice loud and uttered with effort. 3. An importunate (persistent and pressing) call, a prayer, entreaty; an appeal for mercy, justice, etc.

When a prayer to God is a cry, it is not a mindless, heartless, habitual mumbling of the same words, as many prayers too often are. It is a fervent, emotional, pressing appeal to God. In the case of this prayer of the psalmist, the emotion it conveys is further expressed by the exclamatory word O used when he addresses the Lord, O LORD.

Now this verse is a prayer for a prayer. It is a prayer to God to let his cry come before Him. This acknowledges that there is a possibility that his cry might not get through to God. The idea that God hears all prayers flatly contradicts the clear teaching of Holy Scripture. That God does not hear all prayers is certainly the case when men reject the word of God.

Proverbs 28:9  He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.

Proverbs 1:28  Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:

29  For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:

30  They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.

There are even cries, intense, emotional prayers, that are not heard by the Lord.

Jeremiah 11:11  Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.

If we do not humbly submit to the reproofs of God’s word and repent of our sins, the Lord will not hear us.

Psalms 66:18  If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me….

So considering what sinners we are and considering that so many prayers are not received by the Lord, it is a mark of humility to pray:  let my cry come before thee.

And think about what happens when your cry does come before the Lord. Here you are a puny creature upon this earth pouring out your heart to God in your distress. The sound of your single, little voice rises up through the din of all the noise in this world and is carried all the way from where you are praying, through the skies, through the galaxies, through the gates of heaven, into heaven itself, God’s holy dwelling place and temple, and into the ears of the highest Majesty, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Almighty God of heaven and earth. And you get His attention. He hears you and considers your request.

2 Chronicles 30:27  Then the priests the Levites arose and blessed the people: and their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy dwelling place, even unto heaven.

Psalms 18:6  In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.

How this fact should spur us to pray with much more fervency and earnestness.

This verse reminds me of the story of a blind man whom Jesus healed. Here is the account as it is given in the gospel of Luke.

Luke 18:35  ¶And it came to pass, that as he was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the way side begging:

36  And hearing the multitude pass by, he asked what it meant.

37  And they told him, that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.

38  And he cried, saying, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.

39  And they which went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace: but he cried so much the more, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.

40  And Jesus stood, and commanded him to be brought unto him: and when he was come near, he asked him,

41  Saying, What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee? And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight.

42  And Jesus said unto him, Receive thy sight: thy faith hath saved thee.

43  And immediately he received his sight, and followed him, glorifying God: and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God.

First notice the intensity of the blind man’s prayer. He “cried” and when urged to hold his peace “he cried so much the more.” Like the psalmist in today’s verse, his prayer was a cry. It was an emotional and persistent appeal to the Lord. He wanted the Lord to let his cry come before him. And the Lord in His mercy did just that. He let the cry come before him so that it said that the blind man “was come near.” And coming near he presented his prayer for the gift of sight and Jesus granted him his request.

Now the thing the psalmist cried after was this: give me understanding according to thy word. This request also reminds me of the story we just read from the gospel of Luke. In a very real sense, the psalmist was also asking for sight. Scripture speaks of “the eyes of your understanding” (Ephesians 1:18). Understanding is to the mind what eyes are to body. When we finally understand something, we often say, “I see it now.” Understanding is seeing with the mind. Thus the psalmist cried to God for sight like the blind man cried to Jesus for sight.

But the understanding the psalmist cried for was understanding according to God’s word. This makes sense since it is through God’s word that we get understanding (Psalms 119:104). In order to fully understand, that is, to fully make sense of anything, you need to understand it in the light of the teaching of God’s word. The Bible is the single book that stitches all the branches of knowledge together. And so in order to really understand where everything came from, why things are the way they are, and whereunto they are all tending, you need to earnestly apply to God to give you understanding according to His word. This will carry you much further along the path of understanding than any degree acquired from the most prestigious university could ever carry you.

This is the sixth time in this psalm that the psalmist prays for understanding of God’s word (see verses 27, 34, 73, 125, 144). Now the fact that the psalmist continued to pray for understanding of God’s word shows that he was seeking to grow in his knowledge and understanding of it, which is something all Bible believers should do if they would be truly wise.

Proverbs 1:5  A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels….

1 Peter 2:2  As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby….

2 Peter 3:18  But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.