Psalm 119:37

Today’s meditation will be a bit longer than others. But the thoughts contained in the verse we consider are too important to be glossed over. So relax, read, and ponder what I say.

The prayer we find in this next verse of Psalm 119 not only numerically follows upon the preceding verse, but logically follows upon it as well.

Psalms 119:37 Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.

Having prayed to God to deal with his heart in verse 36, the psalmist now prays to God to deal with his eyes. He asks the Lord to turn away his eyes from beholding vanity.

Behold – To hold or keep in view, to watch; to regard or contemplate with the eyes; to look upon, look at (implying active voluntary exercise of the faculty of vision).

When we behold something, we are not just seeing it. We are also directing our attention to what we are seeing. We are focusing on it. The prayers of verses 36-37 fit together because the heart will tend to bend in the direction of whatever the eyes are focused upon. When Eve contemplated the forbidden fruit with her eyes, she convinced herself to eat of it (Genesis 3:6). After it was found out that Achan had taken and hidden the spoils of Jericho, which God had forbidden, Achan gave forth this telling confession:

Joshua 7:20 And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done:
21 When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.

It was when Achan’s eyes beheld the spoils that his heart was inclined to covet them. Before committing adultery with Bathsheba, King David looked upon her as she was washing herself (2 Samuel 11:2). Beholding her with his eyes, his heart inclined to lust after her and the rest is history.

Now the psalmist prays that the Lord will turn away his eyes from beholding vanity. Vanity is that which is vain. So to understand vanity we need to define the word vain.

Vain – Devoid of real value, worth, or significance; idle, unprofitable, useless, worthless; of no effect, force, or power; fruitless, futile, unavailing.

The following verse defines vain things as things “which cannot profit nor deliver.”

1 Samuel 12:21: And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain.

False gods are vanities whether those gods be man-made objects, angels, devils, or men. However useful any creature may otherwise be to us, as a god it can neither profit nor deliver us. There is no substitute for the living God!

Jeremiah 10:14 Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
15 They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

When the people of Lystra tried to treat Paul and Barnabas like gods Paul registered this protest:

Acts 14:15 And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein…

Or consider another example of vanity. Compared to the living God and the eternal life He gives us by His grace, the longest life in this world with the most material wealth that can be had is vanity. This thought comes through clearly in the following passage:

Psalms 39:5 Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.
6 Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.

King Solomon, who could afford anything he wanted, looked at all he had acquired and judged it to all be vanity (Ecclesiastes 2:1-11). So many fix their eyes on the riches of this world and think that having them is living the good life. But their eyes are only beholding vanity. And beholding that vanity their hearts incline toward it and they covet it. The advertising industry capitalizes on this human weakness. And with screens portraying the vanities of this world constantly in our faces, how relevant does our verse become! If we would not have our hearts incline to covetousness, let us pray God to turn away our eyes from beholding vanity. When we see these vanities, let us pray to God to remind us not to behold them, not to regard them. Over against all that is brought before your eyes for you to covet, hear this simple yet profound warning of our Lord:

Luke 12:15 And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.

In this prayer the psalmist not only sought grace from God to control the direction his eyes, he also prayed for grace to stir him up in the word of God: Quicken thou me in thy way.

Quicken – To give or restore life to; to make alive; to vivify or revive; to animate. To give, add, or restore vigour to (a person or thing); to stimulate, stir up, rouse, excite, inspire.

Charles Spurgeon expanded on this prayer in these words:

“Give me so much life that dead vanity may have no power over me. Enable me to travel so swiftly in the road to heaven that I may not stop long enough within sight of vanity to be fascinated thereby. The prayer indicates our greatest need, - more life in our obedience. It shows the preserving power of increased life to keep us from the evils which are around us, and it, also, tells us where that increased life must come from, namely, from the Lord alone. Vitality is the cure of vanity (emphasis mine).”

This prayer explains how God turns our eyes away from beholding vanity. God does not reach down and turn our heads for us. What He does do is He stimulates us with something better. That is, He quickens us in His way. Charles Bridges captured the thought when he wrote:

“What will most effectually ‘turn my eyes from vanity?’ Not the seclusion of contemplative retirement – not the relinquishment of our lawful connexion with the world; but the transcendent beauty of Jesus unveiled to our eyes, and fixing our hearts. This will ‘turn our eyes from vanity’ in its most glittering forms.”

Learning about Jesus and following Him, Who is God’s way (John 14:6), should excite us. The more stirred up we are about the Lord Jesus Christ, the less the things of this world will capture our sights and seize our hearts. The apostle Paul was one whom God had quickened in His way.

Philippians 3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ….

Whenever you see the vanities of this world and remembering that they are but vanity you direct your attention to God’s way, the Lord is answering your prayer to turn away your eyes from beholding vanity. If you have experienced the words of this song, then you have experienced the answer to the prayer of today’s verse.

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face;
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.”