Psalm 119:20

We continue to work our way through the longest chapter in the Bible, Psalm 119.

Psalms 119:20 My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times.

Longing is the action of the verb long, which we would do well to define.

Long – To think long; to have a yearning desire; to wish earnestly.

When you have a yearning desire for someone or something, you tend to think long about that person or thing. This explains why the word long can be connected with desire.

Desire can be an overwhelmingly powerful emotion, even to the point of becoming psychologically crushing. Any parent who has longed for the healing of a child who is dangerously ill, or any parent who has longed for the return of a son gone off to war, knows exactly what I am talking about. A yearning desire to achieve a certain goal, to find a mate or a friend, or to have a child can sometimes press a soul to the point of breaking. This kind of yearning desire is what the psalmist was expressing in today’s verse. But in this case, the crushing desire was toward God’s judgments.

God judgments are those decrees that our righteous Judge has laid down in His word for our obedience. They are also the accounts given in His word of His dealings with the sons of men as the Rewarder of good and the Avenger of evil. The whole course of His government is wrapped up in those words thy judgments. And the psalmist yearned to know and understand these things so far as God has revealed them to us. His longing to hear, to know, and to understand God’s judgments was so great, it exerted such a pressure upon him, that it broke his soul.

Some of my readers can perhaps relate to this when you have been away from church. You feel a pressing desire to get back to the assembly and to hear the word of God expounded. Or if the cares of this life have demanded too much from you, you have a heavy longing to get back into your Bible and to get the Bible back into you. It can be downright depressing to read the Bible and yet glean nothing from it. This is an instance of the breaking of your soul for the longing that it hath unto God’s judgments. Perhaps as you read this, you are smitten in your heart because you fear that you do not have such a powerful yearning for God’s word. But the fact that this fear presses itself upon you may itself be evidence that you do indeed long for God’s judgments. Were that desire not there, these words might make little impression upon you.

But observe that this longing was not an occasional, hit and miss thing with the psalmist. The longing was constant and habitual. “My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times.” Whether he was in times of prosperity or times of adversity, the powerful longing of the psalmist unto God’s judgments remained the same. Those things you most long for will form the trend and habit of your soul. I close with these words of Charles Bridges taken from his excellent exposition of this verse: “The longing of the soul can never over-reach its object. The cherished desire, therefore, will become the established habit – the element in which the child of God lives and thrives.” Amen!

Psalm 119:19

The verse for today’s meditation describes the attitude of the spiritually minded believer regarding his life in this earth.

Psalms 119:19 I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me.

Of course, let’s begin by defining that word stranger.

Stranger – One who belongs to another country, a foreigner; chiefly (now exclusively), one who resides in or comes to a country to which he is a foreigner; an alien.

God’s people are citizens of another country. This world is not their home. They have been chosen out of it.

John 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

If God’s children embrace what they are taught in the word of God, then they, like the psalmist, confess that they are strangers in this earth. They seek another country. This was the confession of the fathers of our faith.

Hebrews 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

Even when the nation of Israel was settled in the land of Canaan that God had given them to inherit in this earth, they recognized that as only a temporary lodging place. They still confessed themselves to be strangers in this earth. They knew their permanent home was somewhere beyond this world. These are David’s words spoken on behalf of the Israel while they were dwelling in Canaan’s land:

1 Chronicles 29:15 For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.

And this can be connected with the way Peter addressed believers in the New Testament:

1 Peter 2:11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;….

It will never do for a Christian to feel to at home in this world. He should hold everything in this world with a loose hand realizing that his permanent possession lies in what the Scriptures call “the world to come.” So if you go through this earth feeling like you haven’t arrived yet, you haven’t! You are a stranger “just a passin through,” as the old song says.

Because the psalmist was a stranger in this earth, He asked God not to hide His commandments from him. Now this is really the same petition that we studied in the previous verse. There the psalmist asked God to open his eyes to behold the wondrous things of God’s law. If our eyes are open to see something, then that something will not be hidden from us.

Now there are three things that greatly assist a stranger as he makes his way through a strange place. Those three things are a guide to point the way, a guard to keep him safe, and a companion to keep him company. God’s commandments provide all three of these things as the following passage clearly shows:

Proverbs 6:22 When thou goest, it shall lead thee (a guide); when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee (a guard); and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee (a companion).
23 For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:…

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The psamist asks God not to hide His commandments from him. This word commandments not only refers to those things that God has commanded us to do, which certainly provide direction for us as we travel through this strange country; but that word also refers to God’s government of this universe. Everything in this universe is subject to the command of God. It was created and continues to function by the commandment of God.

Psalms 148:4 Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens.
5 Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created.

Isaiah 45:12 I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.

Job 37:11 Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud: he scattereth his bright cloud:
12 And it is turned round about by his counsels: that they may do whatsoever he commandeth them upon the face of the world in the earth.
13 He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy.

Job 38:12 Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place;….

Psalms 107:25 For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.

It should comfort us strangers in our pilgrimage through this earth to know that everything in this world is subject to the command of the God Who loves and cares for us. And because He loves us, from time to time He exercises His power of command to deliver us.

Psalms 44:4 Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob.

Whatever be the crisis that you are caught in, God has but to utter His word of command and you will be delivered. Well might you commit yourself to the care of such a faithful Creator, Who has all things at His command.

1 Peter 4:19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

And, of course, the sweetest of all is to see His commandment of our everlasting salvation. This assures us of a safe arrival home.

Psalms 133:3 As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.

John 12:50 And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.

Let me close with this precious thought: God has given to our personal Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the Shepherd of our souls, the command of this universe. He still has the same power today that He had when he walked on this earth and had all things subject to His command. As the disciples of old, let us wonder and worship Him.

Luke 8:25 ….And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this! for he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him.

Fellow stranger in this earth, may God not hide His commandments from you.

Psalm 119:18

In today’s meditation we light upon a prayer I frequently pray when I approach the Scriptures.

Psalms 119:18 Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.

To behold a thing is to see it. If a person has not been born again, if he does not possess the gift of spiritual life; he has no capacity, no spiritual eyes with which to behold, to see, to know, and to understand the things of God’s word. He is blind and in darkness.

John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Ephesians 4:17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:....

But when a man is born again and given spiritual life, he has the ability to behold the things of God’s law. He has spiritual eyes with which to see spiritual things. But the regenerate man is still saddled with a carnal nature called in the Scripture the flesh. And this carnal nature is opposed to the word of God as Paul clearly states in the following passage:

Romans 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

If this carnal nature is not kept in check, it will blind the child of God so that he does not see and understand the Scriptures. If the desires, thoughts, and emotions of our flesh are allowed to dominate us, they will distract us from the word of God so that we do not see what it is saying. We may read the words, but they will be just words. We will glean nothing, learn nothing, behold nothing. And too much of that will discourage any attempt to read and profit from the Bible. Or, something else may occur if the flesh has the upper hand and that is, when we read the Bible, even though the word is speaking clearly, by the time it enters our minds our carnal nature will pervert its message. We will interpret it according to what we want it to say, rather than seeing what it actually says. And thus we will miss the wonder of it. It was with an awareness of this fact that the psalmist prayed to God to open his eyes to behold the wondrous things out of God’s law.

We need the continued help of the Holy Spirit to keep our carnal nature in subjection, to give us repentance to see our sins and errors, and to strengthen our inward man so it may see what God is teaching in His word.

This prayer of the psalmist quite agrees with Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians.

Ephesians 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling,….

So when you sit down to read your Bible, do so with an awareness of your natural propensity for blindness. Ask God to open your eyes to behold its wondrous things.

Now the psalmist asks for God to open his eyes to behold wondrous things out of His law. The word wondrous means wonderful and wonderful means full of wonder. So let’s define the word wonder.

Wonder – Something that causes astonishment. A marvellous object; a marvel, prodigy. A deed performed or an event brought about by miraculous or supernatural power; a miracle.

The following quote taken from the writings of John Ker are very insightful.

“The great end of the Word of God in the Psalmist’s time, as now, was practical; but there is a secondary use here referred to, which is worthy of consideration, - its power of meeting man’s faculty of wonder. God knows our frame, for he made it, and he must have adapted the Bible to all its parts. If we can show this, it may be another token that the book comes from Him who made man.”

It is true that man yearns to behold astonishing and wonderful things. This can be seen from early childhood and it continues throughout life. We crave the spectacular. And the Bible is designed by our Maker to satisfy that craving.

The word wonder is used in Scripture to refer to miracles. The miracles that Moses performed in Egypt were called wonders (Exodus 4:21; 11:10). The miracles performed by Christ and His apostles were called wonders (Acts 2:22; 15:12). Now when God opens your eyes and you really behold what is in God’s law, you find that the Scriptures themselves are miraculous. You see that this is no ordinary book. It is given by the supernatural power of God. Although the Bible consists of 66 books written over a period of about 1500 years by over 40 authors in different places and different circumstances, yet there is an amazing harmony and unity in its message. It tells us of things in our universe long before science ever discovered them. It is historically accurate. It is prophetically accurate. It clearly describes the world we live in, why it is the way it is, and what will become of it. It tells us what man is, how he thinks, how he feels, what he will say, and what he will do. As we study it, it broadens our intellect, fortifies our hearts, and brings us exquisite pleasure. The more you see in the Bible, the more astounded you will be at the relevance, the truth, and the depth of its message. And, of course, it greatest wonder is the Saviour it presents, even our Lord Jesus Christ Whose name is called Wonderful (Isaiah 9:6). The Bible is a collection of miracles you can embrace in your hand at any time of the day, any day of the week. You need look no further than its pages to discover wonder upon wonder. If this is not your experience with the Bible, it is because your eyes are closed. Oh, that God may open our eyes to “behold wondrous things”out of His law.