Psalm 119:148

Psalm 119 is the longest psalm in the Bible, an acrostic of 22 sections of eight verses each, and every verse in a section begins with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This section belongs to Koph, the letter that opens each of verses 145 to 152. The pattern helps the memory, and it pictures a meditation on God’s word that runs through the whole alphabet, a devotion that is complete. All through the psalm God’s word goes by many names (law, statutes, precepts, commandments, testimonies, judgments and word), and this section of urgent prayer uses several of them as it moves from a cry for help to settled confidence.

“I cried with my whole heart” opens the section. The verb qârâʼ is the usual word for calling out, or calling on someone by name, and here the psalmist is calling on the LORD. Its force comes from the words that follow it. The heart, lêb, is the whole inner person: mind, will, affections and conscience together. A cry with the whole heart is a prayer with nothing held back and every faculty engaged, the seeking of God with all the heart that Moses called Israel to (Deuteronomy 4:29), and the answer of a heart that loves the LORD with all that it is (Deuteronomy 6:5).

“Hear me, O LORD” uses God’s covenant name, Yᵉhôvâh. The plea is humble and dependent. The psalmist asks for God’s attention and rests his hope on God’s willingness to listen and act.

“I will keep thy statutes” follows at once. The word for statutes, chôq, means something prescribed: a law, a decree, a custom, a task, an allotted portion or a set limit. The vow states the settled purpose of the man who prays. His heart already wants to please God, so his prayer and his obedience belong together. Jesus joins love and obedience in the same way: “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). John ties receiving from God to keeping his commandments (1 John 3:22), and James speaks of the effective prayer of a righteous man (James 5:16).

“I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried” uses the verb qâdam, to project oneself, to go before, to anticipate, to hasten or to meet. The psalmist was up and praying before the first light. In Israel dawn began the day’s work and its dealings with other people, so the hour before it was quiet and his own, and he gave it to God. Other psalms and prophets speak the same way of thirsting for God (Psalm 63:1) and seeking him early (Isaiah 26:9).

The cry of verse 147 is a different verb from the one in verses 145 and 146. Shâvaʻ means to halloo for help, to cry aloud to be freed from some trouble, like the cry “out of the depths” in Psalm 130:1. The psalmist cried before dawn because he needed help.

“I hoped in thy word” tells us what held him up. The verb yâchal means to wait, and so to hope. His hope waits on God to do what he has promised, which is why the psalm can speak of the word “upon which thou hast caused me to hope” (Psalm 119:49). Lamentations speaks of the LORD’s goodness to those who hope in him and wait for him (Lamentations 3:24–25). This hope rested on covenant promises God had already proved in Israel’s history, as at the Passover and the Exodus (Exodus 12).

Verse 148 uses the same verb, qâdam, for the night: “Mine eyes prevent the night watches.” Israel divided the night into watches, marked by the changing of the guard. The Old Testament speaks of a “middle watch” (Judges 7:19), which points to three, and by the time of the Gospels the night could be counted in four (Mark 13:35). The psalmist’s eyes are open before the watch is called. His eyes stand for the whole man, awake by his own choice in the hours others give to sleep.

He wakes “that I might meditate in thy word”. To meditate, sîyach, is to ponder and muse, to converse with oneself and so to speak aloud, and the word also covers praying and talking. It is a slow turning over of God’s word in the mind and on the lips, until it shapes thought and conduct. The word he meditates on is ʼimrâh, something said: a word, speech or commandment, used both of God’s word and of human speech. Scripture calls for this meditation day and night (Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1:2), and wisdom promises that those who seek her early shall find her (Proverbs 8:17). The word is worth those hours because it is quick and powerful (Hebrews 4:12) and given by inspiration of God for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16–17).

“Hear my voice according unto thy lovingkindness” is an earnest request for God’s attentive ear, and it rests on God’s cheçed, more familiar as ḥesed. The word means God’s covenant loyalty, steadfast love, mercy and faithfulness, an active and generous love that flows from his character and is bound to his promises. The psalmist rests his plea on who God is, so any favourable answer is grace. Lamentations sets the same mercy at the start of every day: “It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22–23).

“Quicken me” is the old English for “make me alive”. The verb châyâh (also written ḥāyâ) means to live, to keep alive, to revive or to restore to life. The psalmist is asking for new life and strength in his walk with God, the renewal a believer needs when he is weary, discouraged or oppressed. The psalm has already said of God’s precepts, “for with them thou hast quickened me” (Psalm 119:93), and another psalm prays, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). The New Testament speaks of believers made alive together with Christ (Ephesians 2:5).

“According to thy judgment” sets the pattern of that new life. Mishpâṭ (mišpâṭ) means God’s rulings, ordinances, decrees and justice, the standard of his righteous government. Lovingkindness is why God hears and acts, and judgment is the shape his work takes, so the life he gives is both a gift of grace and a life ordered by his righteous will. “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (Psalm 85:10). Scripture says of the Rock that “all his ways are judgment” (Deuteronomy 32:4), and a little later in this psalm the same man prays, “Plead my cause, and deliver me” (Psalm 119:154).

“They draw nigh that follow after mischief” uses qârab, to approach, to come near or to bring near. The verb says that they are coming closer, and the threat lies in who they are: men who “follow after mischief”, or literally pursue it. The word for mischief, zimmâh (sometimes written zimmah), comes from a root meaning to plan. It is a plan, especially an evil one, and so a heinous crime, lewdness or a wicked device, the same word Leviticus uses for deliberate sexual wickedness (Leviticus 18:17). These men have chosen their evil and planned it.

“They are far from thy law” tells us why. The law, tôwrâh, comes from yârâh, to teach, and it is God’s whole instruction: his teaching, his revealed will and his wisdom for living, the covenant at the heart of Israel’s life and worship. The verse sets its two halves against each other. The wicked are near to the psalmist and far from God’s law, and their distance from his instruction leaves them without the standard by which good and evil are known. Proverbs warns against entering the path of the wicked (Proverbs 4:14–19) and says, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 14:12). Paul calls the carnal mind enmity against God (Romans 8:7–8), John defines sin by the law it breaks (1 John 3:4), and Proverbs says of the man who keeps the law, “happy is he” (Proverbs 29:18).

The psalm does not name these enemies. They may be people inside Israel who had left God’s covenant, or men from the nations around, and their mischief could be anything from injustice in the courts to open threats. Faithful people met such opposition again and again, as Nehemiah did when he rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 4), and the New Testament shows the spiritual battle behind it (Ephesians 6:12).

“Thou art near, O LORD” is the psalmist’s answer. The word qârôwb means near in place, time or kin, and it comes from qârab, the verb for the enemies drawing near in verse 150. They have come close, and the LORD is near. His nearness is that of the covenant God, Yᵉhôvâh, who hears and acts for his people. Moses asked what nation had a God so near to it (Deuteronomy 4:7), a psalm says the LORD is near to all who call on him (Psalm 145:18), God promised Moses that his presence would go with him (Exodus 33:14), and Jesus promised the Spirit of truth to be with his disciples (John 14:16–17).

“And all thy commandments are truth.” The commandments, mitsvâh, are God’s binding instructions, given with his authority as Lord, and the plural takes in the whole of his revealed will. Truth, ʼemeth, is stability, certainty and truth, so the commandments are firm and dependable. The word “all” leaves no exception. The enemies are far from the law, and the psalmist holds that every command in it is true. Elsewhere Scripture calls the words of the LORD “pure words” (Psalm 12:6), and Jesus prays, “thy word is truth” (John 17:17). The two halves of verse 151 belong together. The God who is near is the God who speaks, and what he says can be trusted.

Verse 152 closes the section with what the psalmist has known for a long time. “Concerning thy testimonies” brings back ʻêdâh, from ʻêd, a witness or evidence. God’s testimonies are his solemn declarations, which bear witness to his character, his will and his covenant, and the word recalls the tablets given at Sinai as a lasting witness to his covenant.

“I have known of old” uses yâdaʻ, to know, properly to know by seeing, a word that covers observing, recognising and caring. The psalmist’s knowledge is old and tested. He has watched God’s faithfulness over many years, through the meditation and obedience the psalm describes, and what he has seen has confirmed what God said.

“That thou hast founded them for ever” names God as the one who laid them down. The verb yâçad means to set, found or establish, as one lays the foundation of a building. Their lasting comes from the God who founded them and from the words “for ever”, l’olam. Earlier the psalm says, “For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven” (Psalm 119:89). Isaiah says the word of our God shall stand for ever (Isaiah 40:8), Peter that the word of the Lord endures for ever (1 Peter 1:25), and Jesus, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31). Because God founded his word, Israel was to keep it as he gave it, adding to it and taking from it nothing (Deuteronomy 4:2). The section that opened with a cry for help ends here, on ground that holds.

Every part of this prayer finds its fullness in Jesus Christ. He kept the hours of verses 147 and 148, rising before day to pray. The vow “I will keep thy statutes” he kept perfectly. He came to fulfil the law (Matthew 5:17) and all righteousness (Matthew 3:15), and he was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:8). His whole heart was always given to his Father’s will.

The cry “save me” is answered in him. He is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), and he died for us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8). The plea “quicken me” is answered by the one who said, “I am the resurrection, and the life” (John 11:25). He gives life to those who were dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1), through the Spirit of life (Romans 8:2). The prayer “hear me” is heard through him, for he ever lives to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25). Our own keeping of God’s statutes is his gift too. The Spirit fulfils the righteousness of the law in those who walk after him (Romans 8:4), and the new covenant writes God’s law on our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33, Hebrews 8:10).

“Thou art near, O LORD” came true in a new way when God came near in the flesh as Immanuel, God with us (Matthew 1:23). “All thy commandments are truth” meets the one who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), who spoke what the Father commanded him (John 12:49–50) and sends the Spirit to guide his people into all truth (John 16:13). The men of verse 150 who drew near with mischief have their counterpart in those who plotted his death as one who made himself the Son of God (John 19:7).

The word the psalmist hoped in and meditated on is fulfilled in the Word who was God (John 1:1) and was made flesh (John 1:14). All the Scriptures speak of him (Luke 24:27, Luke 24:44), all God’s promises are yes in him (2 Corinthians 1:20), and our hope is a living hope through his resurrection (1 Peter 1:3). The testimonies founded for ever have their foundation in him, for Jesus Christ is the one foundation (1 Corinthians 3:11), the same yesterday, today and for ever (Hebrews 13:8).

This short section of the psalm runs from evening to morning and back: a cry with the whole heart, a prayer before dawn, wakeful hours before the night watches, a plea for new life, and an honest look at enemies coming close. Through all of it the psalmist holds to the LORD who hears, who saves, whose lovingkindness is the ground of every request, and whose judgment gives that new life its shape.

What these verses show of God is steady. When the wicked draw near, the LORD is near. When the night is long, his word is there to hope in and to turn over in the mind. When everything else shifts, his commandments are truth and his testimonies stand on the foundation he laid for ever. The psalmist’s prayers, “hear me”, “save me” and “quicken me”, are words a believer can take up in the dark before morning, resting on the same word the psalmist hoped in.