Psalm 119:33

We now come to the fifth octave of Psalm 119 bearing the title of the Hebrew letter Hë. The pronunciation of this letter is close in sound to our words hay or hey. I would like to begin today’s meditation with this Hebrew letter. Hë! Are you ready to study Psalm 119:33? Okay, I know it’s not the greatest joke. But I think it’s cute. And it is original. Could you tell?

Psalms 119:33 HE. Teach me, O LORD, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end.

This is the third time in this psalm that the psalmist petitions the Lord to teach him. He seasons his prayer with that interjection O, which expresses emotion. This psalmist is in earnest about this. He really wants to learn the way of God’s statutes. The following words of D. H. Mollerus give us an insight into why the psalmist repeats this prayer so often and so earnestly. Read this carefully. It is powerful!

“And the prayer is full of the most ardent longings, which is manifest from the same resolve being so frequently repeated. For the more he knows the ignorance, obscurity, doubts, and the imbecility of the human mind, and sees how men are impelled by a slight momentum, so that they fall away from the truth and embrace errors repugnant to the divine word, or fall into great sins, the more ardently and strongly does he ask in prayer that he may be divinely taught, governed, and strengthened, lest he should cast away acknowledged truth, or plunge himself into wickedness.”

The psalmist asks the Lord to teach him the way of His statutes. This petition agrees with the one we found in verse 27: “Make me to understand the way of thy precepts.” As we noted then, so we note again: all God’s precepts or statutes cohere together to form a single way. People tend to think of the many different ways one can choose to believe, the different ways one can interpret the Bible, the many different ways one can live. But all the different ways really distill down to just two ways: the right way and the wrong way. Or, as we saw in Psalm 119:29-30, the way of truth and the way of lying. Of course, the right way is the way that falls within the guidelines of God’s statutes. And remember that the way that seems right to you is not necessarily the right way.

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

You need to always consult with God and not just with yourself to discover the right way. S. Bernard said, “He who is his own pupil, has a fool for his master.”

Now our Saviour described these two ways as the broad way and the narrow way.

Matthew 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

In this passage our Lord teaches us that most people choose the wrong way. This is even true with respect to the choices people make in the realm of professing Christianity, as Christ later taught in this same chapter.

Matthew 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Now our psalmist desperately did not want to make the wrong choice. That is why he so earnestly asked God to teach him the way of His statutes.

As we noted in a previous meditation, God uses instruments when He teaches us. We pointed out that He uses the Scriptures themselves as we read and study them. He also uses tribulation to teach us patience (Romans 5:3) and chastening to correct us (Proverbs 3:11-12). He uses parents to teach children. He uses the pastors and teachers He has given to His churches to teach us. And He uses our fellow believers to teach us as we teach, comfort, edify, admonish, and exhort one another. And, as we learned last Sunday, God uses creation to teach us. But remember that all these are God’s instruments. It is God that is teaching you. Always look beyond the instrument to God. If you would learn the right way, pray to the right One to teach you.

Now the psalmist adds this to his petition: and I shall keep it unto the end. The psalmist tells the Lord that if He will teach him the way of his statutes, he will keep that way with a constancy that will endure to the end. That end could be the end of one’s life or the end of the world, whichever comes first. Matthew Henry said it well: “It will not avail the traveler to keep the way for a while, if he do not keep it to the end of his journey.” God is not honoured by starts and stops in His service. Our obedience must not be tied to the fickle ups and downs of our ever changing emotions. The Lord wants constancy, stedfastness, endurance to the end. Said Christ:

Matthew 24:13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

Shakespeare put it so well:

“O heaven! were man
But constant, he were perfect: that one error
Fills him with faults; makes him run through all th’ sins:
Inconstancy falls off ere it begins….”

If you would have God to teach you the way of His statutes, be sure that you are sincere in your resolve to keep that way unto the end. And be sure you do just that, even if you fail in everything else.