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.