Psalm 119:56

We come today to the last verse of the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Zain.

Psalms 119:56 This I had, because I kept thy precepts.

The opening word this is a demonstrative pronoun. Here is its meaning:

This – Indicating a thing or person, present or near (actually in space or time, or ideally in thought, esp. as having just been mentioned and thus being present to the mind).

The psalmist is referring back to something he had just mentioned. In the previous verse he had written: I…have kept thy law. Then he wrote: this I had. The thing the psalmist had was the ability to say that he had kept God’s law. That is a great thing to have to one’s account. But why did he have this? He had this, as he wrote, because I have kept thy precepts. God’s law, singular, is made up of precepts, plural. Therefore, when one has kept God's precepts, one has kept God's law.  One can say he has kept God’s law because he has kept God’s precepts.

Furthermore, keeping the Lord’s precepts enables us to keep the Lord’s precepts. Each act of obedience to God’s law leads to further obedience. Or put it this way: obedience begets more obedience. On the other hand, each act of sin leads to another act of sin unless we “break off thy sins by righteousness” as Daniel counseled King Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:27).

Commenting on today’s verse Simon de Muis (1587-1644) wrote:

“The Rabbins have an analogous saying, - The reward of a precept is a precept; or, A precept draws a precept. The meaning of which is, that he who keeps one precept, to him God grants, as if by way of reward, the ability to keep another and more difficult precept. The contrary to this is that other saying of the Rabbins, that the reward of a sin is a sin; or, Transgression draws transgression.”

The apostle Paul conveyed the same thought in this verse:

Romans 6:19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

Iniquity leads to iniquity and righteousness leads to holiness. So you can say you have kept God’s law because you have kept God’s precepts. As you obey the Lord, He gives you more grace to obey Him yet more. As our Saviour taught, the branch that bears fruit brings forth more fruit (John 15:2). You have been obedient because you have been obedient. This you have. And this, above anything else, you want to make sure you continue have!