Psalm 119:135

It has been over two weeks since I submitted my last meditation online.  Some extra things are going on this summer, which is not unusual for me.  I write and edit these blogs as I am able.  So off we go with today’s meditation as we near the end of the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Pe. 

Psalms 119:135  Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; and teach me thy statutes.

Now just what is the psalmist asking of the Lord when He prays: make thy face to shine upon thy servant?  As usual, we define our terms. 

To shine upon:  to look favourably upon, be favourable to, said of a star, or (in biblical language) of the face of God.

This definition I have cited is taken from a secular dictionary.  Hence, it includes both pagan and Christian usages of the terms.  Being Bible believers, we immediately dismiss any notion of being looked upon favourably by a star.  We are not pagan stargazers.  But we do covet being looked upon favourably by the face of God. Therefore, this prayer is a prayer for God’s favour, which is a synonym for God’s grace. 

This prayer is echoed in Paul’s prayer for the churches:

Galatians 1:3  Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ....

The priests of ancient Israel were commanded to bless the people with the following words:

Numbers 6:24  The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:

25  The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:

26  The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

Observe in this passage that connected with the Lord making His face shine upon us is His blessing and keeping of us, His graciousness unto us, His light and peace upon us.  What better could be desired than to have all that from the Most High God? 

Psalms 4:6  There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? LORD, lift thou up the light of thy countenance (face) upon us.

7  Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.

The shining face of God is a good that exceeds in value and brings greater joy than the most abundant harvest or the most robust financial gains. 

And if God make His face to shine upon us, we shall be saved.  The following petition is found in verses 3, 7, & 19 of Psalm 80:

Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

If in whatever condition you find yourself you would be saved, plead for the favour and grace of God and you shall be saved, for His grace “is sufficient for thee” and is able “to help in time of need” (2Corinthians 12:9; Hebrews 4:16).

As we have noted in several other verses of this psalm, the psalmist speaks of himself as thy servant when he addresses his Lord.  Being God’s servant his chief delight was the favour of his Master, a favour to be desired far above the favour of men.  As God’s servants our greatest happiness is in the shining of God’s face upon us, whereas our greatest misery is in the hiding of His face from us.

Then notice the thought that the psalmist connected with his prayer for God’s favour:  and teach me thy statutes.  When the Lord is teaching us His statutes and we are increasing in His knowledge, this is one of the clearest evidences of His face shining upon us.  If the Lord is favouring you with instruction and growth in His word of truth, then you will have the means to cope with any situation life throws at you, for God’s “truth shall be thy shield and buckler” (Psalms 91:4).  This is what Peter calls growing “in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2PE 3:18).

And these things I write unto you are not just flowery, nice-sounding platitudes.  These things are the actual experience of those who seek the favour of the Lord and the knowledge of His word.  I write out of my own experience and the experience of others.  Right now I have a man under my ministry who has been in a battle with colon cancer.  This brother in the Lord is drawing his comfort from his Bible and rejoicing in the realization that the face of God is shining upon him, his cancer notwithstanding. 

I close today’s meditation with another prayer taken from the psalms:

Psalms 67:1  God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.

2  That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.

When God’s face is shining upon us, He is dealing mercifully with us and blessing us.  The favour of God upon His people is the health that saves them and the witness they have among all nations upon the earth.

   

Psalm 119:134

As with the previous verse, I often pray using the words of today’s verse from Psalm 119.  This is especially the case as I see the freedoms that we have enjoyed in our nation receding before an ever expanding civil government and judiciary that are no friends to Biblical Christianity.

Psalms 119:134  Deliver me from the oppression of man: so will I keep thy precepts.

The essence of this prayer is found in a number of other places in the psalms.  Here is but a sampling:

Psalms 17:8  Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,

9  From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about.

Psalms 56:1  Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up; he fighting daily oppresseth me.

Psalms 142:6  Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I.

7  Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me.

If the Lord would answer the psalmist’s prayer and deliver him from the oppression of man, so, in this way, he would keep God’s precepts.  That is, he would keep God’s precepts as a free man, not restrained by any other man.  Commenting on this verse Charles Spurgeon wrote:

“We little know how much of our virtue is due to our liberty; if we had been in bonds under haughty tyrants we might have yielded to them, and instead of being confessors we might now have been apostates.  He who taught us to pray, ‘Lead us not into temptation,’ will sanction this prayer, which is of much the same tenor, since to be oppressed is to be tempted.”

The psalmist prayed for freedom from man’s tyranny not simply that he might pursue his own happiness, but rather, that he might keep the commandments of God.  Freedom to obey God’s precepts is the greatest and purest freedom there is.  Examples of such freedom would be the freedom to preach the gospel in obedience to Christ’s commandment; the freedom to worship God in an assembly of believers as God commands; the freedom to train up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; the freedom to work, save, and provide for our own as God’s law requires.  Throughout history there have been times when the oppression of man has hindered God’s people in keeping some of God’s commandments.  Preachers have been imprisoned and/or killed for preaching the truth (Acts 12:1-3).  Churches have been destroyed and congregations scattered (Acts 8:1-3; Galatians 1:13).  Children of God-fearing parents have at times been coerced into schools that teach things that contradict and deny the word of God.  In times of oppression men have been deprived of their livelihoods and their properties confiscated because of their political views or their faith.  And so on we could go. 

But, sadly, for many freedom from the oppression of man means the freedom to indulge in amusements no matter how vile or destructive they are, freedom to have sex any way one wants it, freedom to sell or purchase pornography, in short, freedom to indulge the vices of the flesh without restraint.  Such freedom as this is no freedom at all but rather an oppressive bondage.

John 8:34  Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.

Proverbs 5:22  His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.

When man’s idea of freedom is the freedom to sin, he will find himself under a government that will grind him in the end to humiliating servitude and poverty as the following passage describes would happen to Israel if they would not observe to do all God’s commandments:

Deuteronomy 28:28  The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:

29  And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.

30  Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.

31  Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof: thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee: thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them.

32  Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: and there shall be no might in thine hand.

33  The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway:

34  So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

So when we pray for deliverance from the oppression of man, when we pray for our freedom, let us be sure to qualify that request with this resolve:  so will I keep thy precepts. 

Psalm 119:133

Today’s verse from our meditations on Psalm 119 is a prayer that I use often for reasons that should be clear as I comment on it.

Psalms 119:133  Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.

When we consider the usage of the word order in the first clause of this verse as it is applied to ordering the psalmist’s steps, the word is speaking of regulating, directing, or governing his steps.  This becomes evident by the usage of the word dominion in the second clause of the verse.  If the Lord orders my steps in His word, He will not let any iniquity have dominion over me.  To understand what the psalmist is asking we need to understand the meaning of the word dominion.

Dominion - The power or right of governing and controlling; sovereign authority; lordship, sovereignty; rule, sway; control, influence.

The first verse of this psalm sets forth the blessedness of those who walk in the law of the Lord.  The psalmist was one of those blessed souls in that his steps were in the word of the Lord.  His walk was regulated by the teachings of his Bible.  However, if his steps were to continue to be in the word of God, he needed the Lord to exercise a controlling influence over those steps.  In calling upon the Lord to order his steps he was submitting to God to govern him.  If he tried to order his steps on his own, he would falter.  He needed the enabling and keeping power of God in his life if he was to stay his course.

Psalms 17:5  Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.

Psalms 37:23  The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.

24  Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.

Psalms 119:10  With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.

Commenting on this verse Charles Spurgeon wrote:  “By his grace he (the Lord) enables us to put our feet step by step in the very place which his word ordains.” 

Furthermore, the psalmist needed the Lord to wield a restraining influence over iniquity so that it would not gain dominion or control over him.  This dominion of iniquity to which the psalmist makes reference can refer to the iniquity that is without us and around us.  We live in a world that “lieth in wickedness” (1John 5:19).  It is called by Paul “this present evil world” (Galatians 1:4).  We live “in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation” (Philippians 2:15).  Considering some of the perverse policies of the civil government we live under, we could well describe this government as “the throne of iniquity.”

Psalms 94:20  Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law?

How this was forcibly driven home to us just last week when the United States Supreme Court legalized same sex marriages, which, by the way, are not marriages at all since marriage by definition is between a man and a woman.  This ruling is a classic example of the throne of iniquity framing “mischief by a law.”  As Christians, we wonder how such a ruling will be used as leverage against us.  And so it is that each of us must pray:  let not any iniquity, including “the throne of iniquity,” have dominion over me.  Or to put in another way:

Psalms 25:2  O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me.

But a far greater threat arises from the iniquity that lurks within us seeking to wield dominion over us.  Paul described it thus:

Romans 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

We must have nothing short of the power of almighty God restraining the evil in our flesh and giving our inward man divine strength to withstand the warring of sin in the members of our fleshly bodies.  And thus we pray regarding iniquity without and iniquity within:  Order my steps in the word; and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.

We need the Lord to so order the temptations we are exposed to that they be not more than we can bear.

Matthew 26:41  Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

1 Corinthians 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

God has absolute sovereignty over everything, evil included.  No temptation in whatever form or from whatever source can touch us without God’s permission.  It is He that can forbid any iniquity to have dominion over us.  And if God does not intervene to restrain iniquity, it will surely have dominion over us and draw our steps away from His word.  As our Saviour said, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

This prayer is echoed in the petition our Saviour taught us to pray: 

Matthew 6:13  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

This is a prayer for the dominion of God to overpower the dominion of iniquity in our lives.

Finally, it is comforting to know that this prayer finds it ultimate answer in the grace of God.

Romans 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

God’s grace assures us that no iniquity will gain the final victory over us.  Were it left up to us under the law to overcome sin in our own strength, iniquity would be our ruin.  But thanks be to God, we are saved by grace!