Psalm 119:57

“Thou art my portion, O LORD” is the confession the whole stanza stands on. The Hebrew chêleq means an allotted share or inheritance, the part a person receives when something is divided, and the word carries a piece of Israel’s history. When the land of Canaan was divided among the tribes, the priestly tribe of Levi received no territory, and the LORD himself was declared their inheritance and portion (Numbers 18:20). The other tribes had fields and towns. The Levites had God, and they found their security and provision in him.

The psalmist takes that priestly word for himself, and with it he shows that the LORD is the inheritance of everyone who trusts him. God is the highest good and the one lasting inheritance, worth more than any land, wealth, standing or power. Another psalm calls God the strength of the heart and its portion for ever (Psalm 73:26), and the same confession, that the LORD is my portion, is made in Lamentations 3:24. The name the psalmist calls on, “O LORD”, is God’s own name, Yᵉhôvâh, the self-existent and eternal God, so this is a personal word spoken to God himself.

The second half of the verse is a promise. In “I have said”, the verb ʼâmar is the everyday word for saying, and it can also mean to tell, to command or to think. The resolve lies in what he says: he has spoken, whether aloud or in his heart, that he will keep God’s words. The word for “words”, dâbâr, means a word or speech, and in a separate sense a matter or thing. Here “thy words” gathers up everything God has spoken to his people, his commandments, statutes, testimonies and promises. To keep them, shâmar, is to guard them, watch over them and observe them in daily life. The same verb stands behind “keep” in verses 60 and 63.

The order of the verse matters. God is his portion first, and the promise to obey follows from that, so obedience grows out of belonging to God. Moses joined the two when he told Israel to love the LORD with all the heart and to keep his words in the heart (Deuteronomy 6:5–6). Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15), and he spoke of abiding in his love by keeping his commandments (John 15:10).

Psalm 119 is the longest psalm in the Bible. It is an acrostic poem of 22 sections, one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet, with eight verses in each, and every verse of a section begins with that section’s letter. CHETH (ח) is the eighth letter, so this is the eighth stanza, verses 57–64. Hebrew letters sometimes carry symbolic meanings, and in this psalm each letter’s main work is to carry the pattern, which keeps the long poem orderly, helps the memory, and walks through the whole alphabet in praise of God’s word.

The psalm names no writer. It has traditionally been linked with David, and its love for the Law of Moses has led many to place it after the exile, in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, when the people rebuilt their life around that Law.

Verse 58 turns the promise of verse 57 into prayer. “I intreated thy favour” uses châlâh, a verb whose usual meaning is to be weak or sick. With “favour” it means to entreat someone’s favour, which one lexicon explains as literally weakening the face of the one entreated, and Strong’s as stroking it in flattery. The picture fits the custom of the time, when people sought the favour, or the face, of a king by bowing low before him with their petitions, and sometimes with gifts, in the hope of his goodwill and protection. The psalmist comes to God in that humble way.

He does it “with my whole heart”. The Hebrew lêb is the inner person, taking in the feelings, the will, the mind and the moral character. To seek God with the whole heart is to come with complete sincerity and an undivided mind, holding nothing back. It is the same wholeness that the great commandment asks for, to love God with all the heart (Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22:37).

“Be merciful unto me” translates chânan, which Strong’s explains as to bend or stoop in kindness to an inferior, and so to favour and to be gracious. Used of God, it speaks of his readiness to show grace and pity to those who humbly ask. It shares the English word “mercy” with verse 64, where the Hebrew word is a different one, cheçed.

The plea rests on “thy word”. The psalmist leans on what God has said, his promises and the character he has made known, and he brings no merit of his own. God proclaimed himself merciful and gracious (Exodus 34:6–7), and his word accomplishes what he sends it to do (Isaiah 55:11). The plea for mercy in Psalm 51:1 and Daniel’s prayer for mercy in Daniel 9:18 come to God on the same ground.

Verse 59 describes repentance in two steps. “I thought on my ways” uses châshab, to think, consider or reckon, to weigh something up with care. His “ways” (derekh) are his whole course of life, his habits, his conduct and his character. He brings his own life under review against God’s standard and faces honestly where it has gone astray. Scripture calls us to the same review: “Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD” (Lamentations 3:40). Proverbs warns that a way can look right to a man and still end in death (Proverbs 14:12).

“And turned my feet” uses shûwb, to turn back or return. The same verb can describe things that simply pass, such as anger turning away, and in this verse the purpose comes from the psalmist, who turns his own feet. Feet stand for the whole person on the move, so the change reaches what he does as well as what he thinks. The Hebrew word for repentance, teshuvah, comes from this root. The New Testament word, metanoia, means a change of mind, and in Scripture repentance brings mind, heart and action together. It is the call to depart from evil and do good (Psalm 34:14), Peter’s call to repent and be converted so that sins may be blotted out (Acts 3:19), and the call with which Jesus began his preaching, to repent and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15).

The turn has a destination, “thy testimonies”. The word ʻêdâh means God’s solemn declarations, the terms of his covenant, which bear witness to his holy character and his will. The psalm opened by calling blessed those who walk in the law of the LORD (Psalm 119:1), and here the psalmist steps back onto that road.

This thinking and turning is a lifelong practice for God’s people. James pictures the word of God as a mirror that we look into and then obey (James 1:22–25), and Paul prays that believers will walk worthy of the Lord and please him in everything (Colossians 1:10).

Having turned, the psalmist moves at once. “I made haste” is chûwsh, to hurry, a quick and willing movement toward a goal, and “delayed not” uses mâhahh, to hesitate or be reluctant, to linger or tarry. The verse says the same thing from both sides, so that his readiness is beyond doubt. What he hurries to keep are God’s commandments, mitsvâh, and the verb for keeping is shâmar again.

His speed comes from love. He finds God’s law a joy and a source of life, as the psalm says elsewhere (Psalm 119:97), and he trusts the LORD who gave it (Proverbs 3:5–6). Moses told Israel to walk in all the way the LORD had commanded (Deuteronomy 5:33) and set out the blessings that come with obedience (Deuteronomy 28). James says the same thing plainly: “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22).

Verse 61 brings trouble into the stanza. “Bands” is chebel, which first means a rope or cord and by extension a company or gang of people, as though tied together. The bands of the wicked are groups of ungodly men acting together to harm him, whether gangs, corrupt officials or foreign invaders. Since the word first means a cord, the line can also be heard as the cords of the wicked closing around him. “Have robbed me” uses ʻûwd, a verb that Strong’s gives the main sense of to repeat, and so to protest or bear witness, and for this verse the KJV renders it “robbed”. He has suffered loss and wrong at their hands.

Faithfulness to God brings no exemption from such things. Job lost everything in one day (Job 1), Jeremiah poured out his complaint to God (Jeremiah 20), and the wicked plot against the just (Psalm 37:12).

“But I have not forgotten thy law.” The word tôwrâh covers the whole of God’s instruction and teaching, all that he has revealed of his will. While others take what is his, the psalmist keeps God’s law in mind and goes on living by it. That is the law laid up in the heart, as Moses commanded Israel (Deuteronomy 6:6–9), and elsewhere the psalmist says that God’s law was his delight and kept him alive in affliction (Psalm 119:92).

God’s word holds a person steady under injustice. It gives a sure standard of right and wrong when justice is twisted, so that we overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21) and leave vengeance to the Lord (Romans 12:19). It also gives hope, because God works all things together for good to those who love him (Romans 8:28), and trials, met in faith, produce patience (James 1:2–4).

“At midnight” is châtsôwth, the middle of the night, from a root meaning to divide. Israel had its times of prayer, evening, morning and noon (Psalm 55:17), and midnight was no set hour of prayer, so this is the psalmist’s own free devotion. “I will rise” is qûwm, to rise, stand up or get up. He leaves his bed and gives up his rest while the world sleeps, in order to thank God.

His reason is “thy righteous judgments”. The word mishpâṭ means a verdict, a sentence, a decree, and justice itself, and here it is joined with tsedeq, righteousness. These are God’s ordinances and also his just acts in the world, the whole of his righteous rule. Moses asked what other nation had statutes and judgments so righteous (Deuteronomy 4:8), and he sang of God’s perfect and just ways (Deuteronomy 32:4). Paul calls the law holy, just and good (Romans 7:12). The blessed man of the first psalm delights in God’s law and meditates in it day and night (Psalm 1:2), and in this psalm God’s word is the psalmist’s comfort in his affliction (Psalm 119:50). So the man who has just told of being robbed gets up in the night to thank God for his judgments.

Scripture records other prayer in the night. Jesus continued all night in prayer before he chose his disciples (Luke 6:12), and at midnight in prison Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God (Acts 16:25).

“I am a companion” is châbêr, an associate, a fellow or friend, someone joined with others in a shared way of life. The psalmist counts himself one of “all them that fear thee”, and the word “all” makes his fellowship as wide as the company of God’s people. “Fear” is yârêʼ. The second line says who these people are: they “keep thy precepts”. The word piqqûwd means God’s particular instructions, from a root meaning to appoint or to visit, and “keep” is shâmar again. Their reverence shows itself in obedience.

The company we keep shapes us. Proverbs says that whoever walks with wise men will be wise, and that a companion of fools comes to harm (Proverbs 13:20). Paul warns that evil company corrupts good character (1 Corinthians 15:33), and Hebrews calls believers to stir one another up to love and good works and to keep meeting together (Hebrews 10:24–25). The psalmist who has stood against the bands of the wicked has a fellowship of his own, and it is with those who fear God.

The stanza ends by lifting its eyes to the whole world. “Mercy” here is cheçed, God’s loyal love, his covenant faithfulness, his steadfast kindness and pity. He shows it above all to his covenant people, and the psalmist sees it filling the earth as well, in the care that sustains every living thing. Another psalm says that the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD (Psalm 33:5), and another that the LORD is good to all (Psalm 145:9). The God who made the world in Genesis 1 is the God whose kindness keeps it, and Paul says that his invisible power and Godhead are clearly seen in the things he has made (Romans 1:20).

Then comes the prayer, “teach me thy statutes”. The word chôq, from a root meaning to engrave or to decree, means something prescribed: a law, a decree, a custom, a task, an allotted portion or a set limit. The verb lâmad means to learn, and in the form used here to teach, to cause another to learn. Strong’s gives “to goad” as the proper sense of the root. The psalmist asks God himself to be his teacher, as David does in Psalm 25:4–5, for the LORD gives wisdom (Proverbs 2:6). The next stanza begins by saying that God has dealt well with his servant according to his word (Psalm 119:65), and soon after, the psalmist says that before he was afflicted he went astray, and now he keeps God’s word (Psalm 119:67).

The New Testament shows God giving himself to us as our portion in his Son. God has made believers fit to share in the inheritance of the saints in light (Colossians 1:12), and in Christ we have obtained an inheritance (Ephesians 1:11).

Jesus also kept God’s words as no one else has. He was about his Father’s business as a boy of twelve (Luke 2:49), he came down from heaven to do the will of the one who sent him (John 6:38), he always did what pleased the Father (John 8:29), and he was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:8). He knew no sin (2 Corinthians 5:21), so his feet were always on God’s road. He was robbed of far more than goods, falsely accused, betrayed and put to death by the people he came to save, and he was wounded for our transgressions (Isaiah 53:5). Through it all he held to his Father’s will, and he has overcome the world (John 16:33).

He came to fulfil the law and the prophets (Matthew 5:17). Grace and truth came by him (John 1:17), and through faith in him God’s righteousness is given to us (Romans 3:21–26). He is the Word who was with God and was God (John 1:1), in whom all God’s promises are yea and amen (2 Corinthians 1:20), and the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). So when we ask for mercy “according to thy word”, we come through him boldly to the throne of grace, to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16). The mercy that fills the earth was shown most fully when God so loved the world that he gave his Son (John 3:16), the image of the invisible God, by whom all things were created and in whom they hold together (Colossians 1:15–17).

The prayer “teach me thy statutes” is answered in the new covenant, where God writes his law on the hearts of his people (Jeremiah 31:33) and the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in those who walk after the Spirit (Romans 8:4). Our turning is a turning to Christ, who raises us to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4) and is himself the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). The companions of verse 63 are found in him as well. Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son (1 John 1:3), together we are the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27), and he gives us the new commandment to love one another as he has loved us (John 13:34–35).

This stanza begins with God giving himself and ends with God teaching, and everything between shows who he is. He is the lasting inheritance of those who trust him, and the bands of the wicked who took the psalmist’s goods left him with his portion still. He shows mercy on the ground of his own word, so a person who asks rests on God’s promise. He receives the one who thinks on his ways and turns, and he gives a heart that hurries to obey. His judgments are righteous, so he is worthy of thanks even at midnight. He gathers all who fear him into one company, and his mercy fills the whole earth. Whoever can say “Thou art my portion, O LORD” has the Teacher himself, and the prayer “teach me thy statutes” goes to a God who delights to answer it.