Psalm 119:145-160 “Give Me Life!” May 18, 2008
At the end of stanza Tsadhe, in verse 144, the Psalmist says,
“give me understanding that I may live.”
As we draw near to the end of Psalm 119 –
and you know that you are getting close,
because you are coming to the end of the Hebrew alphabet! –
the Psalmist makes it clear that the point of this prayer is a matter of life and death.
A dozen times in Psalm 119 the Psalmist says “give me life.”
Four of those times are in these two stanzas:
verses 149, 154, 156, and 159.
God created Adam after his image and breathed the breath of life into him.
But in his rebellion Adam forfeited life.
And ever since the sin of Adam and Eve
death has haunted all of humanity.
Death stalks you, too.
It lurks around every corner,
waiting to ensnare you.
Your time here is limited.
It is running out.
Will you spend it seeking after vain and empty pleasures?
Or will you spend it seeking after the One who has conquered death
and gives life to those who seek him?!
The key words in the first half of stanza qoph (v145-148) are all about calling to God
and being ready to meet him:
With my whole heart I
cry; answer me, O LORD! I will keep your statutes.
I call to you; save me, that I may observe your testimonies.
I rise before dawn and
cry for help; I hope in your words.
My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promise.
The first two lines actually start with the same word, qara (I call):
I call with my whole heart… (v145)
I call to you; save me… (v146)
Then the next two lines start with qadam (I meet):
I meet the dawn and cry for help… (v147)
They [my eyes] meet the watches of the night… (v148)
In other words, when dawn comes, I am awake.
When the watches of the night arrive, I am there waiting to meet them.
What do you see here in these four verses?
You see one whose heart is set on knowing God.
Does this describe you?
If you are like me, reading this convicts me that I am a sluggard.
Far from rising before dawn to cry for help,
and meditating on your promises before the watches of the night,
I give in to sloth and believe that such devotion to God is unrealistic.
Walter Cantilupe in the 13th century wrote that
“sloth…is a kind of apathy of body
and a melancholy of the spirit and mind…
Sloth makes a man fainthearted so that he will not undertake anything for God;
it makes him timid, so that he dares not suffer for God’s sake…
It makes a man so negligent that if he begins to do anything good,
without fail he gradually gives it up.”
Stanza Qoph rebukes our slothfulness and calls us to fix our eyes on Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith.
Why do I say that stanza Qoph calls us to fix our eyes on Jesus?
What does the Psalmist say?
Answer me, O LORD!
Save me, that I may observe your testimonies.
And why is he awake?
“That I may meditate on your promise.”
The Psalmist asks Yahweh to save him.
And he meditates upon God’s promise.
The very name of Jesus means “Yahweh saves” (Yah – shua).
And if you meditate on the promise of God,
then you are meditating on the promise that Yahweh will save his people.
There is another key word in this stanza –
found at the center of v145, v149, and v151 –
Yahweh.
We have seen throughout the Psalm that ‘you’ refers to Yahweh in all but one verse.
The Psalm is dominated by ‘you’ and ‘your’ word.
But this stanza is the only one to use the name of Yahweh three times.
So as the Psalmist cries out to the LORD,
rising early so that he may meditate on the promises of God,
so that he may cry for help in the midst of his troubles,
now he turns and in the second half of the stanza,
he asks God to hear:
Hear my voice
according to your steadfast love; O LORD, according to your justice give me
life.
They draw near who persecute me with evil purpose; they are far from your law.
But you are near, O
LORD, and all your commandments are true.
Long have I known from your testimonies that you have founded them forever. (149-152)
At the heart of this half of the stanza is the theme of drawing near.
Those who are far from your law draw near to persecute me with evil purpose.
But you are near, O LORD, and all your commandments are true!
Look at your circumstances.
What looks “near”?
Disease.
Uncertainty.
Pain.
Death.
When you feel the nearness of your enemies –
do not for a moment
think that your enemies can be conquered by positive thinking.
They draw near.
They are coming.
The world, the flesh and the devil conspire against you with evil purpose.
But when you see them draw near,
remember that the LORD also draws near.
That is why the Psalmist can say in v149:
Hear my voice according to your steadfast love; O LORD, according to your justice give me life.
Give me life according to your justice!
How can the Psalmist pray for justice?!
Would not God’s justice bring condemnation?
But remember the first part: “according to your steadfast love” – your hesed.
Hesed refers to God’s covenant faithfulness.
The Psalmist has been meditating on God’s promise:
and God’s promise to Adam was that the seed of the woman
would crush the seed of the serpent;
God’s promise to Abraham was that his descendents
would be like the stars of heaven;
God’s promise to David was that his son
would sit on God’s throne forever.
If God is just,
then he must fulfill his promise.
And so the Psalmist, who has spent the last 148 verses extolling the truthfulness of God’s word,
says, “O LORD, according to your justice give me life.”
After all, as he concludes the stanza in verse 152:
“Long have I known from your testimonies that you have founded them forever.”
That little word olam (forever) keeps coming back.
Ever since stanza 12 – at the very heart of the Psalm –
“forever” has continued to pop up in key place.
Both halves of stanza 12 began with “forever”:
“Forever, O LORD, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens” (v89)
“Forever I will not forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life” (v93)
Stanzas 13-14 opened and closed with “forever”:
“Your commandment…is forever with me” (v98)
And so therefore,
“I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end.” (v112)
And “forever” was at the conclusion of stanza 18:
“Your righteousness is righteous forever…” (v142)
“Your testimonies are righteous forever…” (v144)
Because the word of the LORD is forever fixed in the heavens,
where the Word who became flesh is seated at the right hand of the Father,
therefore I may have confidence in the steadfast love of the LORD.
But we live with a tension between God’s promise of blessing for those who obey him,
and the reality of our experience of suffering and affliction.
Look on my affliction
and deliver me, for I do not forget your law.
Plead my cause and redeem me; give me life according to your promise!
Salvation is far from
the wicked, for they do not seek your statutes.
Great is your mercy, O LORD; give me life according to your rules. (153-156)
I love that final line:
“Great is your mercy, O LORD; give me life according to your rules.”
If you have not been convinced yet that the Old Testament is full of the gospel,
this line should remove all doubt!
“Give me life according to your rules”
should flow from a statement of my sinless perfection!
“Because I have obeyed you perfectly,
therefore I deserve life”
But no, while the Psalmist does claim that he loves God’s law, keeps God’s law,
and does not swerve from God’s law,
he also knows that God’s law only brings life through his mercy.
And in his mercy God has ordained a law that not only requires obedience,
but also provides a way to deal with disobedience.
And so the Psalmist cries out for God to do something:
“Look on my affliction and deliver me,
for I do not forget your law.”
“Plead my cause and redeem me;
give me life according to your promise!”
I should add a note here –
that while the Psalmist plainly has a strong eschatological focus—
in other words, he has a sense of “forever” –
that in the end God will make all things right—
nonetheless, he pleads with God to do something now!
As we heard in verse 126:
“It is time for the LORD to act.”
Within this eschatological perspective – that in the end God will make all things right –
there is a proper emphasis on
“thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Because you will make all things right in the end,
therefore, O LORD, please let me see a sign of that here and now!
Many of the Psalms use historical examples:
remember,
O LORD, what you did to
Please do it again!
But Psalm 119 takes the eschatological approach:
because your righteous rules endure forever,
demonstrate that now!
Because you have raised up Jesus Christ to your right hand,
where he reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords,
therefore demonstrate that now!
Since one day every tongue will acknowledge that Jesus is Lord,
let those tongues start now!
Many are my
persecutors and my adversaries, but I do not swerve from your testimonies.
I look at the faithless with disgust, because they do not keep your commands. (157-158)
We’ve seen hatred and weeping for those who rebel against God.
Now we see disgust.
Why does the Psalmist look at the faithless with disgust?
Because it’s so simple!
If you would only love God and his commands,
then you would live!
And so those who profess to know God and yet live in rebellion against him
fill me with disgust because they are hypocrites.
Consider how I love your precepts! Give me life according to your steadfast love. (159)
I find it interesting that in the three pleas “give me life” in these two stanzas,
the first two were “according to your justice” (v149)
and “according to your rules” (v156).
But also the first two started:
“Hear my voice according to your steadfast love” (v149)
and “Great is your mercy, O LORD” (v156).
So the first two started with the premise of God’s steadfast love and mercy,
and then asked God to be just according to his rule
by which he shows mercy to those who trust in him!
Now the third cry “give me life” starts with me:
“Consider how I love your precepts.”
You, O LORD, have promised that you will bless those who love you.
I love you, LORD, and I love your precepts.
Therefore, give me life – but this time, not according to your rules, or your justice,
but “according to your steadfast love” – according to your hesed
(your covenant faithfulness).
And God’s hesed has been fully revealed in Jesus Christ.
For if God gives life according to his steadfast love,
then truly we can say with John,
“In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:4)
The Life-giving hesed of God – his steadfast love and covenant faithfulness,
his lovingkindness and tender mercies,
have been revealed in the one who had life in himself,
and yet gave his life for the life of the world.
As John says in 1 John 1
“That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard,
which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked upon an have touched with our hands,
concerning the word of life –
the life was made manifest and we have seen it,
and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life,
which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.”
God has been faithful to his covenant.
He has done what he promised,
and he sent the life-giving Word,
so that we might indeed have life “according to your steadfast love.”
But long before John,
Psalm 119 had connected the idea of “life” and “word”
with God’s “righteousness” and his “steadfast love.”
The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever. (160)
The sum of your word is truth.
When the Word became flesh and dwelt among us
he said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6)
Think back over Psalm 119 –
“way, truth, and life” have echoed throughout this Psalm.
Jesus is the fulfillment of Psalm 119.
And in Jesus “every one of your righteous rules endures forever.”