Psalm 119:171

Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, an acrostic poem of twenty-two stanzas, one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet (Psalm 119). Each stanza has eight verses, and in Hebrew every verse of a stanza begins with that stanza’s letter. That is why the KJV prints “TAU” over verse 169. Tau is the twenty-second letter, so this stanza brings the whole long meditation to its close, and the psalmist gathers into it the prayers he has been praying all along.

Nearly every verse of the psalm speaks of God’s word under one of its names, and the psalmist uses at least eight of them: law (torah), judgments (mishpatim), testimonies (edot), precepts (piqqudim), commandments (mitzvot), word (davar and imrah) and statutes (chuqqim). Each name brings out a different side of the one revelation God has given, and all eight verses of this stanza use one or more of them.

The date of the psalm is uncertain. It may come from during or after the exile in Babylon, when God’s people held the written law especially dear while the temple lay in ruins or had only just been rebuilt. Whenever it was written, it comes from a people whose life with the LORD was shaped by his law, which they received as his gracious instruction and the guide for their worship, their conduct and their hope.

“Let my cry come near before thee, O LORD.” The word for cry, rinnâh, is a raised voice. It can be a shout, a ringing cry of joy, or, as here, a cry in prayer. The psalmist calls on the LORD, Yᵉhôvâh, the covenant name by which God made himself known to his people, so he is appealing to the God who has bound himself to Israel and is faithful to them. He asks for his cry to “come near before thee”, in the way a petitioner asks to be brought into a king’s presence. Scripture speaks of God here in human terms, as a King who lets his people approach and gives them his attention, and another psalm rejoices that “verily God hath heard me” (Psalm 66:19).

Verse 170 asks the same thing in other words: “Let my supplication come before thee.” Tᵉchinnâh, “supplication”, comes from the root chanan, to be gracious, and means a plea for favour. It is the request of someone in need who appeals to the kindness of the one he asks, and to have it “come before” God is to have it received and considered.

“My lips shall utter praise, when thou hast taught me thy statutes.” The verb nâbaʻ means to gush forth or bubble up, as a spring does, and so to pour out words. The psalmist pictures praise welling up freely from his lips once God has taught him. His lips stand for his whole voice in worship, and the praise he promises is spoken aloud.

The teaching comes first. Lâmad means to learn, and in the form used here it means to teach, to instruct or train, to cause another to learn. Strong’s gives “to goad” as the first sense of the root. The weight of the clause falls on “thou”: God himself is the teacher, and the praise answers to what he has taught. As we come to know more of his character, his faithfulness and his ways, our praise grows fuller and truer. This is the worship Jesus spoke of, in spirit and in truth (John 4:23–24), and Paul calls a whole life given to God a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1–2).

The statutes, chôq, are things God has prescribed: a law, a decree, a custom, an appointed task or a set limit. They are his enactments for the life of his people. Israel was told to keep God’s words in their hearts and to teach them diligently to their children (Deuteronomy 6:6–7), and the blessed man of the first psalm delights in the law of the LORD and meditates in it day and night (Psalm 1:2–3).

Verse 172 carries praise into speech: “My tongue shall speak of thy word.” Lâshôwn is the tongue, and by extension language. Here it stands for the psalmist’s speaking, and “my” makes it his own resolve. The word for “word” is ʼimrâh again, the same word as in verse 170. To speak of God’s word takes in teaching it, testifying to it, praising God for it and sharing its wisdom in ordinary talk, the kind of talk Deuteronomy describes “when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way”. Paul tells believers to let the word of Christ dwell in them richly, teaching and admonishing one another (Colossians 3:16).

The reason follows with “for” (Hebrew ki): “all thy commandments are righteousness”. Tsedeq means rightness, righteousness and justice, the rightness that belongs in conduct, in judgment, in speech and even in honest weights. Every one of God’s commandments is right, because each comes from his own just and holy character. Moses asked Israel what other nation had statutes and judgments as righteous as the law God set before them (Deuteronomy 4:8). Another psalm says, “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul” (Psalm 19:7–11), and Paul calls the law holy, and the commandment holy, just and good (Romans 7:12). The word “all” matters. The psalmist trusts the whole of God’s instruction, and so he is glad to speak of it.

“Let thine hand help me; for I have chosen thy precepts.” God’s hand, yâd, stands for his power at work, reaching into a person’s life to protect and to act. Israel saw that great work at the Red Sea (Exodus 14:31), and the psalms call God “a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). After all his devotion, the psalmist knows he still needs that hand, as Jesus said, “without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5). Earlier in the psalm he prayed, “Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law” (Psalm 119:34), and the same dependence is here.

His reason is his choice. Bâchar means to try, and so to select: a deliberate act of choosing. Piqqûwd is a precept, something appointed, a charge God has given, and in the plural it stands for the law. The psalmist has made God’s precepts his own by a conscious decision, and he brings that decision to God as he asks for help.

“I have longed for thy salvation, O LORD; and thy law is my delight.” The verb ta’av means to long for, an earnest yearning. Yeshuw’ah is salvation or deliverance, and it takes in rescue, help, victory and welfare. Scripture uses it of rescue that God brings through people as well, and it traces every salvation back to the LORD. Here it is “thy salvation”, the rescue God himself gives. The psalmist’s longing covers rescue from present trouble and reaches toward the full redemption God has promised his people. He waits as another psalm waits for the LORD and hopes in his word (Psalm 130:5), and he thirsts for God as the deer pants for water (Psalm 42:1–2). Believers today wait for the same God, looking for “that blessed hope” of Christ’s appearing (Titus 2:13) and for the Saviour from heaven, where our citizenship is (Philippians 3:20).

While he waits, he already delights. Sha’ashua means delight, enjoyment and pleasure. Torah, “law”, is God’s instruction and teaching, all that he has revealed of his will. The psalmist enjoys it and finds his heart fed by it, as Paul delighted in the law of God in his inner man (Romans 7:22). The two halves of the verse hold together. Hope for what God will do and joy in what he has already said belong to one faith, and each strengthens the other.

Nephesh, “soul”, comes from a word meaning to breathe, and it means a breathing creature, life, soul, self or person. “Let my soul live” is a prayer for the psalmist’s whole self. Châyâh means to live, and in its causative sense to revive, so he asks God to keep him alive and to restore him from weakness or danger. In the Old Testament, life in its fullest sense was bound up with faithfulness to God’s covenant, a life of blessing in God’s presence.

He gives the purpose at once: “and it shall praise thee.” He asks for life so that he can spend it in praise, which is the end the psalms return to again and again, because the LORD is great and greatly to be praised (Psalm 145:3). Life is God’s gift, and its highest use is to glorify the Giver.

“And let thy judgments help me.” Mishpâṭ is a verdict pronounced by a judge, and so a sentence, a decree or an ordinance. God’s judgments are his just decisions and the order he has set for life. The psalmist asks them to help him by guiding him, steadying him and giving him a sure standard to live by. The verse shares the English word “help” with verse 173: there he asked for God’s hand, and here he asks for God’s judgments. Paul says that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable, so that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16–17).

After 175 verses in praise of God’s law, the psalm ends with a confession: “I have gone astray like a lost sheep.” Tâʻâh means to reel or stray, to wander out of the way, and it can describe sin while keeping the picture of wandering. The verb is in the perfect tense, “I have gone astray”, a thing done whose effects remain. ʼÂbad, “lost”, means to wander away and lose oneself, and by implication to perish. A lost sheep is a sheep in danger of dying.

Everyone in Israel knew sheep. A sheep wanders easily, loses its way and is defenceless away from its shepherd, so the picture speaks of helplessness, confusion and danger. With it the psalmist owns that he needs someone to come for him.

So he prays, “seek thy servant.” Bâqash means to search out, to look for something in earnest. He asks God to take the initiative and come after him, and he calls himself God’s servant, one who belongs to God and is loyal to him. The LORD is the shepherd who restores the soul (Psalm 23:3). Isaiah says of all of us, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6). Jesus told of the shepherd who leaves the ninety and nine to go after the one that is lost and rejoices when he finds it (Luke 15:4–7, Matthew 18:12–14). Peter tells believers, “For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls” (1 Peter 2:25).

Every prayer in this stanza is answered in Jesus Christ. The word the psalmist loved has come to us in person: “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1), and “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). God, who spoke by the prophets, has spoken to us by his Son (Hebrews 1:1–3), grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (John 1:17), and Jesus came to fulfil the law and the prophets (Matthew 5:17–20).

The psalmist asked for understanding, and in Christ “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). After his resurrection Jesus opened his disciples’ understanding, that they might understand the scriptures (Luke 24:45). The Spirit he sent guides believers into all truth (John 16:13), teaches them all things (John 14:26) and reveals the deep things of God (1 Corinthians 2:10–16).

The psalmist asked for deliverance and for God’s hand to help him. God commends his love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8), and he has delivered us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of his dear Son (Colossians 1:13–14). Christ is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30). God made him to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21), the righteousness of God which comes by faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:21–22). Through the Spirit, the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in those who walk after the Spirit (Romans 8:1–4), so that believers can truly choose God’s precepts and delight in his law.

The psalmist chose God’s precepts, and Jesus chose the Father’s will perfectly. He came down from heaven to do the will of him that sent him (John 6:38), he said that his meat was to do that will (John 4:34), he sought the Father’s will above his own (John 5:30), and in Gethsemane he prayed, “not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). He glorified the Father on the earth and finished the work he was given (John 17:4).

The psalmist longed for salvation and asked to live. The name Jesus, Yeshua, means “the LORD saves”. He is the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world (John 1:29), God’s salvation to the end of the earth (Isaiah 49:6). He is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6), and he came that we might have life more abundantly (John 10:10). We pray in his name (John 14:13–14), he makes intercession for us at the right hand of God (Romans 8:34), and all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen (2 Corinthians 1:20).

The psalmist ended by asking God to seek him, and Jesus said, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). He is the good shepherd who gives his life for the sheep (John 10:11), and the great shepherd of the sheep whom God brought again from the dead (Hebrews 13:20).

This last stanza shows us a God who lets a crying voice come near, who teaches his people his statutes, whose hand helps, whose salvation is worth every longing, and who goes looking for a servant who has wandered. It gives us words to pray when we need understanding, rescue, help or life, and each of those prayers rests on what God has already said. The psalmist could ask “according to thy word” because God had spoken, and his word still stands.

The stanza also gives an honest place to end. The man who wrote the longest song in praise of God’s law closes with a confession and a request to be found. For anyone who has wandered, verse 176 is a prayer already written, and the Shepherd it calls on came to seek and to save the lost.