Psalm 119:143

Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, an acrostic of 22 sections with eight verses each. The eight verses of a section all begin with the same Hebrew letter, and this section belongs to Tzaddi. Its first word is tsaddîyq, “righteous”, and righteousness is the theme it keeps coming back to, in verses 137, 138, 142 and 144. Every one of the eight verses also names God’s word under one of the psalm’s names for it: judgments, testimonies, words, word, precepts, law, commandments, and testimonies once more.

His zeal for God has worn him out, because the people who oppose him have forgotten God’s words, and it grieves him to the point of exhaustion to see God’s word set aside. The word for zeal, qinʼâh, means jealousy, envy or zeal, from a verb meaning to be zealous or jealous. It can name a sinful envy, and it also names a right and godly zeal, in people as well as in God. The LORD’s name is Jealous (Exodus 34:14), and God commended Phinehas for being zealous for God’s sake among the people (Numbers 25:11). The psalmist’s zeal is of that kind, a passion for God’s honour and for his word.

“Consumed” is tsâmath, which means to cut off, destroy or make to vanish. The psalmist means that his zeal has used him up. It is strong language for an inward grief that drains his strength.

“Mine enemies have forgotten thy words.” The verb shâkach is the ordinary word for forgetting. In this verse it describes people who have let God’s words go, and Scripture treats that forgetting as a turning away from God. Hosea says God’s people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, because they have forgotten the law of their God (Hosea 4:6). In Jeremiah God asks whether a maid can forget her ornaments, when his people have forgotten him (Jeremiah 2:32).

The enemies are the people who oppose the psalmist, and the verse marks them out by what they have done with God’s word. The section just before this one carries the same grief, where the psalmist weeps rivers of tears because people do not keep God’s law (Psalm 119:136). Other scriptures speak of the same divide between those who hold to God’s truth and those who reject it: “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” (Psalm 14:1–3), and the upright and the wicked are each an abomination to the other (Proverbs 29:27). The psalmist’s grief stands beside Paul’s great sorrow for Israel (Romans 9:1–3) and beside Lot, whose righteous soul was vexed by what he saw in Sodom (2 Peter 2:7–8). Those who love God’s word grieve to see it forgotten, and they grieve for the people who forget it.

“Thy word is very pure” is mᵉʼôd tsâraph, with the same mᵉʼôd, “very”, as in verse 138. tsâraph means to fuse metal, to refine it, and it is used of silver and gold purified by fire with the dross taken away. God’s word has been tested and proved flawless, free of error and deceit, and its purity comes from God’s own holiness and truth. “Every word of God is pure” (Proverbs 30:5), and “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times” (Psalm 12:6).

“Therefore thy servant loveth it.” The “therefore” gives the reason for his love, and the reason is the word’s purity. ʼâhab means to love, to have affection for, and it is used of affection for a person, an object or a practice. The psalmist calls himself “thy servant” all through the psalm, one who belongs to God and serves him. His love for the word shows itself in delight and in keeping it, as Jesus said: “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Love for God’s word and love for God belong together, since his word expresses his character and his will.

“I am small and despised.” The word for small, tsâʻîyr, means little in several senses: few in number, young in age, or low in worth and standing. bâzâh, despised, means to disesteem, disdain or scorn. So the psalmist is a man of little account, and others look down on him. The phrase can describe his lowliness before the majesty of God, or the scorn of people who despise him for his devotion to God’s law, and the many enemies of this psalm make the second likely. Other psalms speak the same way: the speaker of Psalm 22:6 is despised of the people, and the speaker of Psalm 69:7 has borne reproach for God’s sake.

“Yet do not I forget thy precepts.” The word for precepts, piqqûwd, is used in the plural for God’s particular instructions, and it comes from a root meaning to appoint or to visit. To keep them in mind is to meditate on them and live by them. This verse shares the English word “forget” with verse 139, and the two belong side by side: the enemies forget God’s words, and the small, despised psalmist keeps God’s precepts.

His worth rests on God and his word, whatever others think of him. “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise”, Paul writes, and he goes on to the despised things too (1 Corinthians 1:27–28). God gives grace to the lowly (Proverbs 3:34) and lifts up those who humble themselves before him (James 4:10), and the blessed man is the one whose delight is in the law of the LORD (Psalm 1:2).

“Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me.” The word for trouble, tsar, comes from a verb meaning to cramp. It can mean a narrow place, distress, an adversary, or even flint, and its commonest sense in Scripture is adversary. Here it is distress, the feeling of being hemmed in. Anguish, mâtsôwq, comes from a root meaning to press or constrain, and it speaks of hard straits with no relief in sight. The verb behind “have taken hold on me” is m’tsa’uni, from mâtsâʼ, to find or attain. Trouble and anguish have found the psalmist and caught up with him.

“Yet thy commandments are my delights.” The word shaʻshuaʻ means delight, enjoyment and pleasure. The suffering is real, and alongside it the psalmist has a joy in God’s commandments that the suffering leaves untouched. The commandments show him God’s character, his promises and his purposes, so they hold the soul steady and give it hope beyond present pain. Paul glories in tribulations (Romans 5:3–5), he learned to be content in every state (Philippians 4:11–13), and he knew that all things work together for good to those who love God (Romans 8:28). The joy comes from God himself, revealed in his Word (John 1:1).

After praising God’s everlasting testimonies, the psalmist makes the one request of this section. bîyn means to understand or discern, to see into a matter and grasp what it means, which includes telling right from wrong. He asks God for it because insight into God’s word is God’s gift. Earlier he prayed for his eyes to be opened to the wonders of God’s law (Psalm 119:18), and James tells us to ask God for wisdom (James 1:5). All Scripture is given by inspiration of God to make his people complete (2 Timothy 3:16–17), and understanding it is how it does its work in us.

“And I shall live.” châyâh means to live, and also to keep alive, revive, recover or restore to life. The psalmist asks for life with God in its fullness, kept from error and from death, under God’s blessing. Understanding comes first and life follows from it. Moses set the same choice before Israel, to choose life by loving the LORD and obeying his voice (Deuteronomy 30:19–20), and Jesus said, “the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63).

Everything this section says about God’s righteousness and his word comes to its fullest in Jesus Christ. He is the Word made flesh (John 1:14), and he came to fulfil the law, every jot and tittle of it (Matthew 5:17–18). God set him forth so that God might be just and the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus (Romans 3:21–26). In the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed (Romans 1:17), Christ was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21), and he is made unto us righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30). The upright judgments of verse 137 are carried out through him, for the Father has committed all judgment to the Son (John 5:22). The faithful testimonies of verse 138 meet their Amen in him, for “all the promises of God in him are yea” (2 Corinthians 1:20), and the law that is the truth in verse 142 is embodied in the one who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

The psalmist’s own life is lived out in Christ too. When Jesus cleansed the temple, his disciples remembered that it was written, “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up” (John 2:17), and he wept over Jerusalem because it knew not the time of its visitation (Luke 19:41–44). People asked whether any good thing could come out of Nazareth (John 1:46), and he was “despised and rejected” (Isaiah 53:3), yet he always did what pleased his Father (John 8:29), humbled himself to death on the cross, and was highly exalted (Philippians 2:7–9). His food was to do the will of the one who sent him (John 4:34), in temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1–11), in his agony in Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36–46) and to his last breath on the cross (Luke 23:44–46). He did all this because God so loved the world (John 3:16).

So the delight of verse 143 is ours through him. Our High Priest is touched with the feeling of our infirmities (Hebrews 4:15). God puts his Spirit within us to walk in his statutes (Ezekiel 36:27) and conforms us to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29), and in all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us (Romans 8:37). The prayer of verse 144 is answered in him as well. The risen Lord opened his disciples’ understanding so that they could understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45), he sent the Spirit of truth to guide us into all truth (John 16:13), and he came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly (John 10:10).

These eight verses set two things side by side: a God whose righteousness is everlasting, and a believer who is tired, small, scorned and in anguish. The psalmist’s troubles are real, and he names them plainly. What holds him is outside himself. The LORD is righteous, his word is faithful and pure and true, and it will be the same in every generation. That word is something to love and to delight in when everything else is pressing in, and the God who gave it is the God who gives understanding and life to those who ask. The psalmist’s last word in this section is a prayer, and it rests on the faithfulness of the God he has been praising from its first line.