We now come to the last verse in this octave of Psalm 119 entitled Caph. Recall that Charles Spurgeon named this octave “the midnight of the psalm.” But he said that this “last verse gives promise of the dawn.” And so it does.
Psalms 119:88 Quicken me after thy lovingkindness; so shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth.
We have already encountered this prayer to be quickened in
verses 25, 37, and 40. Let’s recall the
definition of quicken.
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.
It seems the psalmist sometimes felt dead and in need of
quickening. Commenting on this verse and
its application to God’s children William Cowper wrote:
“So desirous are they to live unto God, that when they fail in it and find any inability in their souls to serve God as they would, they account themselves but dead, and pray the Lord to quicken them.”
As we saw in the previous verses of this octave, the
psalmist was very beaten down by adversity.
His enemies had almost consumed him upon earth. When a believer has been as worn down as the
psalmist was, he needs to be revived. He needs added vigour if he is going to stay
the course of obedience to God’s word and not lose heart. And this was precisely the psalmist’s
objective is asking the Lord to quicken him:
so shall I keep the testimony of
thy mouth. If you are feeling
lacklustre, down in the dumps, drained by the adversities of life and you want
God to give you a boost, ask yourself why
you want that. Do you want renewed
vigour to serve Him or to serve your own interests? Is it for His pleasure or yours?
Now he prays to be quickened after thy lovingkindness. To
understand this prayer we need to understand the meaning of lovingkindness.
Lovingkindness - Affectionate tenderness and consideration; kindness arising from a deep personal love, as the active love of God for his creatures.
If God quickens us in answer to our prayer, it is after or according to His
lovingkindness. He quickens us in
keeping with His deep personal love for us.
It was after His lovingkindness toward us that God sent His Son into
this world to die to save us from our sins.
1 John 4:9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
It was after His lovingkindness toward us that God quickened
us from death in sin unto eternal life with Christ. And it is God’s purpose to continue to
display His lovingkindness toward us throughout the ages to come.
Ephesians 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Therefore, being the objects of God’s lovingkindness we can
appeal to Him on that basis to quicken us, to reinvigourate us as we struggle
through this life. If God’s
lovingkindness was great enough to move Him to send His Son to die for us to
save us for eternity, His lovingkindness is great enough to reach us in our
present distress and revive our fainting hearts.
As noted above, the psalmist’s objective in praying this
prayer was that he might keep the testimony of
thy mouth. Every word of our Bible "proceedeth out of the
mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). As you
read the Scriptures, notice how many times you read “thus saith the Lord.” They are the very speech of the Lord coming
out of His mouth. So when you read the
Scriptures, read them for what they are:
God speaking to you out of His mouth.
As of this verse we have reached the halfway mark of this
great psalm. We have eighty-eight more
verses to go to complete our study of it.
There are eighty-eight more verses extolling the written word of
God. It certainly appears from this that
the Lord answered the psalmist’s prayer to be quickened so that he might keep
the testimony of God’s mouth.
Now you have before you what I have been able to caph up from this octave. I pray that you have been blessed by these
meditations thus far. We started these
blogs on Psalm 119 on 17 August 2010. It
has taken over three years to come halfway.
A lot of work has gone into what I have submitted thus far. I would like to see this through to
completion so as to have my own commentary on this great psalm. But I ask you, my readers, are you for going
further or are you ready to hang it up?
I would appreciate some feedback.
Thank you.
3 comments:
As you say, even in one book (or in this case, chapter), we cover a variety of information. I don't want to be left hanging, wondering what insights we would have received from the second half. :) I vote to press on, but I'll be thankful for whatever topic we pursue.
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:" 2 Timothy 3:16
Well you knew I was going to respond.
When you stated this Psalm I actually rolled my eyes and thought “Oh No!”. I mentioned before that I did a bible study many years ago under a Pastor that just repeated himself with every verse. Where I found his previous studies so wonderful; when he began this Psalm it became repetitive and even boring. For this reason, I have avoided this particular Psalm in my studies. You brought it back to life for me.
I have your blog setup on my computer as a feed - which means that a button lights up whenever you add to it.
I look forward to that button lighting up. I usually save it for my Saturday study when I have more time. First I read the previous one again, to refresh my memory, and then after your blog, most times I read the Mathew Henry commentary about it as a companion to what you have written. My mind is getting dull so I find this more and more necessary to keep it with me.
Please keep it up. I do wonder if it could be published when you are done.
Thanks!
Terry from Detroit Church
I am catching up so I apologize that it is late in coming, but my feedback is that I will continue to read these blogs for as long as you wish to continue them. They are a blessing to me and I have been reading along with Charles Bridges' exposition so as to get a double dip of each verse. :) Thank you for your study and efforts in bringing us these rich meditations.
Post a Comment