Psalm 119:59

As I take up the next verse of Psalm 119, I direct your thoughts to what you think.  Think about what you think about. 

Psalms 119:59  I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.

The psalmist turned his thoughts onto his ways and well ought we to do the same.  Stop and take account of your ways, the way you think, the way you feel, the way you act, the way you worship, the way you pray, the way your spend your time, the way you spend your money, the way you relate to others, to name some of your ways.  Only by thinking on our ways will we discover if we need to redirect any of them.  Of course, the adversary would like nothing more than for us to be so caught up in the rush of living and doing that we take no time to reflect on how we are living or on what we are doing. 

Now when the psalmist turned his thoughts onto his ways, it prompted him to turn his feet unto God’s testimonies.  What began with thought ended in action.  Charles Spurgeon wrote:  “Consideration is the commencement of conversion:   first we think and then we turn.”  That this is so may be seen from the following passages:

1 Kings 8:46  If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near;

47  Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness;

48  And so return unto thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name:

49  Then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause,

50  And forgive thy people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them:

Lamentations 3:40  Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.

Ezekiel 18:27  Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.

28  Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.

God has forgiveness and healing for those who think on their ways and so turn away from their sins and unto His testimonies.  And when we turn our feet to God’s testimonies we are turning to the Lord since the Lord reveals Himself to us in those testimonies and relates to us through them.    

But it bears emphasizing that the psalmist turned his feet unto God’s testimonies.  It is not enough just to hear about God’s testimonies or to think about them or to talk of them, one must put them into practice.  As is sometimes said, we must walk the walk. 

Psalms 119:1  Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD.

1 John 2:6  He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

The prodigal son is a perfect example of one who thought on his ways and then turned his feet in the right direction.

Luke 15:17  And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

18  I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,

19  And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.

When the prodigal son “came to himself,” he was thinking on his ways.  He considered the direction his life had taken and what it was costing him.  It was then he resolved to return to his father.  As the story goes, in returning to his father he was met with ready forgiveness and restoration.  Of course, this is an example for the sons of God to think on their ways, to come to themselves, and return to their Father when they have gone astray.  It is interesting that in order to come to the Lord, we need to first come to ourselves. Think of when you first turned to the Lord.  Didn't that happen as a result of taking stock of something in yourself and your life?  You thought on your ways and turned to the Lord.

So let me urge all of you to step aside from the rush of life and think on your ways.  Come to yourself, reflect on your life and its direction, and then turn unto the Lord and His testimonies, which are there to guide you in the right way. 

Haggai 1:5  Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.

Psalm 119:58

We come to the next verse in the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Cheth.

Psalms 119:58  I intreated thy favour with my whole heart: be merciful unto me according to thy word.

Here we find the psalmist intreating the Lord.  To intreat is to ask, such as we do when we pray for something.  In analyzing this verse, I am going to adopt the method used by Matthew Henry as he commented on it.  Mr. Henry broke this verse down into three parts:  what the psalmist prayed for, how he prayed, and what he pleaded as he prayed. 

First, consider what the psalmist prayed for.  He asked for God’s favour and mercy:  I intreated thy favour…be merciful unto me.  Now the primary meaning of the word grace is favour.  Therefore, the psalmist is asking for God’s grace and mercy.  When God deals with us in grace, He gives us what we do not deserve.  He is doing us a favour.  Grace has been rightly defined as unmerited favour.  When God deals with us in mercy, He does not give us what we do deserve.  In asking for grace and mercy we ask God to grant us kindness, compassion, and blessing instead of the severity and wrath that we deserve.  Mercy takes away what we deserve and grace gives us what we don’t deserve.  And, thank God, there is grace and mercy available to us for the asking at the throne of grace.

Hebrews 4:16  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

God’s mercy removes our many and varied transgressions, and with them He removes His anger. 

Psalms 51:1  Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

Micah 7:18  Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.

God’s grace, His favour, provides us with help and strength for whatever we must deal with in life. 

 2 Timothy 2:1  Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

 Now this fleeting life down here is never going to be a paradise. 

Job 14:1  Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.

In this life you will have your share of personal failures, grief, and pain.  But with mercy to take care of your failures and with grace to strengthen and help you to cope with whatever life throws your way, your greatest needs are provided.  What better could you ask for?

Second, mark how the psalmist asks for favour and mercy.  He does so with his whole heart.  This is no rote, halfhearted prayer.  The psalmist prays for this from the depth of his being, meaning what he says.  It is as if he is asking for his life, which in reality he is when you consider this verse:

Psalms 30:5  For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life….

What would the life of any of us be without the grace of God?  Life without God’s grace is living death!

Lastly, consider the psalmist’s plea as he presents his request:  be merciful unto me according to thy word.  The psalmist does not plead his own merit or goodness as a reason for God to be merciful to him.  Rather he pleads God’s word of promise:  according to thy word.  And God has promised His mercy to His people in His word.

Isaiah 55:6  Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:

7  Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Acts 13:34  And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David.

Hebrews 8:12  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

May this meditation prompt all of us to come often to the throne of grace to draw down the mercy and grace that is promised to us, who believe on our Lord Jesus Christ unto life everlasting.

Psalm 119:57

We begin with the next octave of Psalm 119 bearing the title of the Hebrew letter Cheth.

Psalms 119:57  ¶CHETH. Thou art my portion, O LORD: I have said that I would keep thy words.

What is it to have the Lord for our portion?

 Portion – The part (of anything) allotted or belonging to one person; a share.

 Imagine God being allotted to you, belonging to you.  This is just what it means to have God for your portion.  David spoke of the Lord being his portion in the following passage taken from his psalms:

Psalms 16:5  The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.

6        The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.

 Note first that if the Lord is our portion, He is so by inheritance.  We do not merely take the Lord to ourselves at our own will.  He is ours because He has allotted Himself to us to inherit.  And He remains our inheritance because He maintains our lot.  When you consider what God is then you can see why David said the lines were fallen unto him in pleasant places.  Indeed, he had a goodly heritage.  All that God is in all His perfections is our portion.  With God for our portion we have access to unlimited strength, everlasting righteousness, and unfailing goodness, compassion, and mercy.  “The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1).  That being so, our portion is the One Who owns it all and controls it all.  Not a bad lot! 

The following verse shows what David found in having the Lord for His portion.  Pay careful attention to the possessive pronoun my showing that all this belonged to David.

Psalms 18:2  The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

 With a portion like that, what more could he want?  That is why he wrote:

 Psalms 23:1  The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

 In the next psalm David affirmed again that the Lord was his portion.

Psalms 142:5  I cried unto thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.

It is interesting to note that it is written in the superscription of Psalm 142:  A prayer when he was in a cave.  David may have been in a cave, an outcast with no certain dwelling place, but he had a refuge because he had the Lord for his portion.  Like the apostle Paul, David was “as having nothing, and yet possessing all things” (2Corinthians 6:10).  Better to be in a cave and have the Lord than to be in a palace without Him. 

The following verse is a sad commentary on the portion of the men of this world:

Psalms 17:14  From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.

Thank God we have been chosen out of the world and granted a portion in God (John 15:19).  Unlike the portion that the men of the world have in this life, this portion we have in the Lord is forever.  It will provide us with strength when our flesh and heart fail under the stresses of life and the decline of age.

Psalms 73:26  My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

With God for our portion, we have hope and thus we have every reason to be optimistic about what lies ahead of us.

Lamentations 3:24  The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

If you truly grasp what it is to have the Lord for your portion, then what else could you want?   What can Satan dangle before you to tempt you that could begin to compare with the Lord?

Psalms 73:25  Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.

Thomas Brooks had this excellent advice to offer:  “I would counsel every Christian to answer all temptations with this short saying, ‘The Lord is my portion.’”

But let me make something clear so that no soul becomes needlessly discouraged.  I talk about the Lord being our portion and, therefore, wanting nothing else.  Having the Lord for our portion while we live in this world does not mean that we will never suffer need, or the pain of longing and desire.  Paul himself wrote that he had learned “to suffer need” (Philippians 4:12).  There will always be something lacking that we will suffer in this fallen world.  We will never reach fullness and total satisfaction until we see the Lord face to face.

Psalms 17:15  As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

But with the Lord for our portion, we will have the strength to bear need and pain.  We will never want that strength.  We will have sufficient to be content as we abide the passage of time until we arrive at the fullness of our salvation in glory.

2 Corinthians 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Now having God for our portion, the next phrase in the psalm logically follows:  I have said that I would keep thy words.  Matthew Henry wrote:  

“Those that take God for their portion must take him for their prince, and swear allegiance to him; and, having promised to keep his word, we must often put ourselves in mind of our promise.” 

If the LORD is my portion, then the LORD is my God and my King to command.  Having the Lord for my portion is having the Lord for what He is, not for what I can make of Him; and He is a King.  God is not my portion in that I control Him.  Rather He is my portion to control me.  And I need someone to control me, for if I am left to myself I will destroy myself.  My safety is in having a king, a sovereign to command and defend me; and such is the Lord my portion. 

Have you, like the psalmist, said you will keep the Lord’s words?  If you have not, then how can you claim Him for your portion?  I close with the words William Cowper speaking to this very point:

“Many will say with David, that God is their portion; but here is the point:  how do they prove it?  If God were their portion, they would love him; if they loved him they would love his word; if they loved his word they would live by it and make it the rule of their life.”

This blog has been longer than others.  I hope this has not burdened you and that you have received a blessing from it.