Psalm 119:39

Psalm 119 is an acrostic poem of 176 verses in 22 sections, one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Each section has eight verses, and each of those verses begins with the section’s letter. Verses 33 to 40 are the section for He, the fifth letter. The whole psalm is a meditation on God’s word, which it calls by at least eight names, and this stanza uses a different one in each verse: statutes, law, commandments, testimonies, way, word, judgments and precepts. The psalmist speaks to God the whole way through, and the careful order of the poem honours the word it praises. Its date is debated. One view places it during or after the exile in Babylon, when the law became even more central to Israel’s life.

The stanza carries on the prayers of the one before it, where the psalmist’s soul cleaved to the dust and he asked to be quickened according to God’s word (Psalm 119:25) and to be made to understand the way of God’s precepts (Psalm 119:27–30). Every request here comes from a man who already loves God’s word. He delights in it (verse 35), longs for it (verse 40) and is devoted to God’s fear (verse 38), and still he asks God for the teaching, the desire and the very life he needs to walk in it.

The stanza opens with “Teach me, O LORD”. “LORD” stands for Yᵉhôvâh, God’s covenant name, so this is a man speaking to the God who has bound himself to his people. The verb for teach, yârâh, has a wide range. It can mean to throw or shoot, to water as rain does, and to point out, as if aiming a finger, which is how it comes to mean to instruct. The psalmist asks God to point out the way to him.

What he wants to learn is “the way of thy statutes”. The way, derek, is a road or a journey, and it stands for a whole course of life and conduct. A statute, chôq, is something prescribed: a law, a decree, a task or an allotted portion. So he is asking to know how God’s decrees are to be lived out day by day, in his decisions and in his character.

Asking God to teach us is where wisdom begins, because the things of God are revealed by his Spirit and taught by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:10–14). James gives the promise for every such prayer: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James 1:5). Moses told Israel to keep God’s words in their hearts and to teach them diligently to their children (Deuteronomy 6:6–7), and here the psalmist asks God himself to be his teacher.

The promise that follows is “I shall keep it unto the end.” To keep, nâtsar, is to guard: to protect, maintain and obey. It is a watchful word, the care of someone who means to hold on to what he has been given. “Unto the end” translates ʻêqeb, a word for the last of anything, the final outcome. He means to keep God’s way for the rest of his life, through every trial and temptation. Jesus said, “he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Matthew 24:13), and Hebrews says that “we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end” (Hebrews 3:14). Our hope of lasting rests on God, who has begun a good work in us and will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6). Jesus compared the one who hears his sayings and does them to a wise man who built his house on a rock, and it stood when the rain and floods and winds came (Matthew 7:24–25).

Verse 34 asks for the same thing from another side: “Give me understanding”. The verb bîyn means to understand or discern, to tell one thing from another. It is practical insight, the kind that grasps what God’s instruction means and how to act on it. Proverbs, a book that prizes this understanding throughout, tells us where it comes from: “For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding” (Proverbs 2:6).

With it, he says, “I shall keep thy law.” Law here is tôwrâh, which means instruction or teaching. It covers the whole of what God has revealed: his commandments, statutes and precepts, and the account of his dealings with his people. For Israel it was the foundation of the covenant and the path to blessing, and keeping it was meant to be a loving answer to God’s grace, as the great command says: “thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” (Deuteronomy 6:4–5).

Then the promise grows: “yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.” The verbs for keeping and observing in these verses, nâtsar and shâmar, both carry the sense of guarding and preserving. The heart, lêb, is the innermost person, the seat of thought, will, feeling and moral character. To obey with the whole heart is to obey from love, with an undivided loyalty that reaches our thoughts and motives as well as our deeds. Moses asked Israel to serve the LORD “with all thy heart and with all thy soul” (Deuteronomy 10:12). Jesus blessed the pure in heart, “for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8), taught that a lustful look is adultery committed in the heart (Matthew 5:28), and said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).

In verse 35 the psalmist asks, “Make me to go in the path of thy commandments.” The verb dârak means to tread or walk, and also to guide, and here it is causative: “cause me to walk”, or “lead me” (in Hebrew, hadrikheni). He asks God both for direction and for the strength to follow it. The path, nâthîyb, is a path or track, from a root meaning to tramp, and it is used both of a real track and of a person’s conduct. A life lived by God’s commandments has a road and a direction, and he wants to be on it.

His reason is “for therein do I delight.” The verb châphêts means to like, to be pleased with or to desire, and it describes the heart’s attachment to something it loves. He takes real pleasure in God’s commands. This is the delight of the blessed man of the first psalm, whose “delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night” (Psalm 1:2). Proverbs says of wisdom, “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace” (Proverbs 3:13–18), and promises that God will direct the paths of those who trust him with all their heart (Proverbs 3:5–6). God gave Israel his law as a gift that set them apart among the nations (Deuteronomy 4:5–8), and David praised the law of the LORD as perfect, converting the soul, and more to be desired than gold (Psalm 19:7–11).

Verse 36 moves from the feet to the heart: “Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.” To incline, nâṭâh, is to stretch out or spread out, and so to bend or turn. The heart, lêb, is again the center of the whole person, and Proverbs says, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). The heart left to itself wanders, so the psalmist asks God to bend it the right way. This is exactly what God promised in the new covenant: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33).

The testimonies, ʻêdûwth, come from a root meaning to witness. They are God’s solemn declarations and the terms of his covenant, and they bear witness to who he is and what he asks of his people. Moses set life and death before Israel and urged them to choose life by loving the LORD and obeying his voice (Deuteronomy 30:19–20).

Against them stands covetousness, betsaʻ, a word for greedy gain, often gain taken unjustly. It is the grasping desire for more, and it leads on to theft, oppression and injustice. The tenth commandment forbids coveting (Exodus 20:17), Israel’s history shows its cost from Achan’s sin onward (Joshua 7), and the prophets condemned the injustice that grew out of greed. Jesus warned, “Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth” (Luke 12:15).

Verse 37 turns to the eyes: “Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.” The eyes stand for what we give our attention to and what we desire, and to behold is to dwell on something. Vanity, shâvᵉʼ, means emptiness, worthlessness, falsehood and deceit, and it is used of idols. Strong’s traces it to a sense of desolating. It names whatever lacks substance and fails to give what it promises, and whatever draws us away from God. Israel lived among idols, the empty rites of false gods and the passing promises of power and pleasure, and all of it was vanity beside the living God. Proverbs says, “Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee” (Proverbs 4:25), and Paul tells us to think on whatever is true, honest, just, pure, lovely and of good report (Philippians 4:8).

The second request is “quicken thou me in thy way.” The verb châyâh means to live, to revive, to restore to life or to keep alive, and in the KJV to quicken is to make alive. The psalmist feels his need of fresh life from God, and he wants it “in thy way”, for walking in God’s path, the same derek as in verse 33. The two halves of the verse belong together, since turning from what is empty and being made alive in God’s way are one movement. He prays for this life again in verse 40, and elsewhere in the psalm he says where he finds it: “This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me” (Psalm 119:50). Paul says that the Spirit who raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies (Romans 8:11), and Jesus said that he came so that we “might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

In verse 38 the psalmist asks, “Stablish thy word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear.” The verb qûwm means to rise or stand, and in the causative form used here, to raise up, set up or make stand. Said of a word, it means to confirm it and bring it to pass. He is praying that God’s promises and decrees would stand firm and come true in his own life, and he asks with full confidence in God’s truthfulness. “God is not a man, that he should lie” (Numbers 23:19). When Israel came into the land, “There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass” (Joshua 21:45). Moses called him “the faithful God, which keepeth covenant” (Deuteronomy 7:9).

He calls himself God’s servant, ʻebed, a word for a servant or bond-servant. To be God’s servant is an honour. It means belonging wholly to God, living in submission to his will and depending on his care within the covenant he has made. The blessings and curses of Deuteronomy 28 taught Israel that faithfulness to God’s word brought stability and blessing.

He describes himself as “devoted to thy fear”, and the words “is devoted” are supplied in English to make the sense clear. Fear, yirʼâh, means fear, awe, reverence and respect. Toward God it is worshipful awe at his holiness and authority, and it is the wellspring of obedience and wisdom. “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7), and “the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). The psalmist’s reverence is the setting in which he asks God to confirm his word, and every promise God has made is safe to lean on.

Verse 39 is a prayer about shame: “Turn away my reproach which I fear: for thy judgments are good.” The verb ʻâbar means to cross over or pass over, and in this form it means to make something pass by or to remove it. He asks God to make the disgrace pass him by. Reproach, cherpâh, is disgrace, scorn and contempt, the shame of being mocked or falsely accused. In Israel honour and good name mattered greatly, and reproach was a public wound with real consequences. The reproach he dreads could be ridicule for his devotion to God’s law, false charges from his enemies, or being shut out because his life ran against the ways around him. Jeremiah knew the same, and complained that he was in derision daily and that everyone mocked him (Jeremiah 20:7). The psalmist admits his fear honestly and brings it straight to God.

Jesus said that those persecuted for righteousness’ sake are blessed, and that the prophets before them were persecuted too (Matthew 5:10–12), and Peter writes, “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye” (1 Peter 4:14). God is the defender of his people. “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper,” Isaiah says (Isaiah 54:17), and Paul says that “all things work together for good to them that love God” (Romans 8:28).

His ground for asking is “for thy judgments are good.” Judgments, mishpâṭ, are verdicts pronounced by a judge, sentences and decrees, and the word also covers justice and a person’s rightful due. God’s judgments come from his perfect character, so they are right and fair, and they lead to what is best. “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul” and “the statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart” (Psalm 19:7–8). Because the psalmist trusts that goodness, he can put his reputation in God’s hands.

The stanza ends with “Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness.” Behold, hinneh, calls attention to what follows and marks how earnestly he means it. To long, tâʼab, is to yearn or desire, and here it is a deep and personal hunger for God’s instructions. Precepts, piqqûwd, comes from a root meaning to visit or appoint, and it names the specific charges God has appointed for his people to live by. Proverbs says that God’s commandments add “length of days, and long life, and peace” (Proverbs 3:1–2), and Moses said that loving God and cleaving to him “is thy life, and the length of thy days” (Deuteronomy 30:19–20).

His longing leads straight back to prayer: “quicken me”, the same châyâh as in verse 37, a request for new life and strength to obey. He asked the same when his soul cleaved to the dust (Psalm 119:25). This time he asks for it “in thy righteousness”. Righteousness, tsedeq or tsedaqah, is God’s justice, his moral uprightness and his faithfulness to his covenant promises. The psalmist rests his request on who God is, trusting that the righteous God will keep his word and give life to the one who seeks him. God’s righteousness is the standard he sets and also the source from which his help flows. “Thy righteousness is like the great mountains” (Psalm 36:6), and Isaiah promises God’s people that “thy righteousness shall go before thee” (Isaiah 58:8).

Every request in this stanza is answered in Jesus Christ. He came to fulfil the law (Matthew 5:17), and he is the way the psalmist asked to be taught: “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). He is God’s own teacher, the only begotten Son who has declared the Father (John 1:18), the Word who was with God and was God (John 1:1), who was made flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

He walked the path of the commandments with perfect delight and kept the law with his whole heart. He said that his meat was to do the will of him that sent him and to finish his work (John 4:34), and “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” (John 6:38). His heart was wholly inclined to the Father’s testimonies, and he lived content and trusting, free of covetousness. He was the perfect servant, who took the form of a servant and became obedient unto death (Philippians 2:7–8), who offered up prayers with strong crying and tears and “was heard in that he feared” (Hebrews 5:7–8). He bore reproach beyond any the psalmist knew, “despised and rejected of men” (Isaiah 53:3). He endured the cross, despising the shame (Hebrews 12:2), obedient “even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8). By bearing the shame of our sin he took away our reproach, and his resurrection showed that God’s judgments are good and that they triumph over sin and death.

In him God’s word is established: “all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20). He is made unto us righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30), and he is the author and finisher of our faith, so the one who teaches us also brings us safely unto the end.

The psalmist’s prayers for a taught, willing and living heart are the promises of the new covenant. God said, “I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts” (Hebrews 8:10), and “I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes” (Ezekiel 36:27). The Spirit writes on “fleshy tables of the heart” (2 Corinthians 3:3). “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1–4), and the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us who walk after the Spirit (Romans 8:3–4). The prayer “quicken me” is answered by the one who said, “I am the resurrection, and the life” (John 11:25), and “It is the spirit that quickeneth” (John 6:63). When we were dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1–5), God “hath quickened us together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:5), and his Spirit bears fruit in us that lasts (Galatians 5:22–23). The God who frees us from covetousness also promises, “my God shall supply all your need” (Philippians 4:19).

This stanza gives us words for asking God for what only he can give. We can pray “Teach me, O LORD” whenever we open the Scriptures, and ask him for understanding before, while and after we read. Where we feel the pull of wanting more, we can ask him to bend our hearts toward his testimonies. Where our attention drifts toward what is empty, we can ask him to turn our eyes and give us life in his way. When we are mocked or misjudged for following him, we can bring that fear to him and leave our name in the hands of the God whose judgments are good. And when our longing for his word runs ahead of our strength to keep it, we can say with the psalmist, “quicken me in thy righteousness”, trusting the God who began this work in us to keep us in his way unto the end.