Exploring Psalm 119 from a scientist’s perspective: He
Peter Gray-Read BSc MSc
  Psalm 119 He
33 Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes; and I s hall keep it unto the end
34 Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart
35 Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight
36 Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness
37 Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way
38 Stablish thy word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear
39 Turn away my reproach which I fear: for thy judgments are good
40 Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness
We are approaching one of the summits of the Psalm. We have seen the passion and heart of this young man striving to meet the requirements of the law… longing, delighting, praising, declaring, meditating… he is not a casual seeker. And this journey intensifies further in this stanza
In ‘daleth’ we saw how he was transformed from ‘cleaving unto the dust… ‘to a resolution to ‘run the way of thy commandments…’ when the Lord would ‘enlarge his heart’ – change his heart.
Look at the supplications he makes here:
Teach me…
Give me…
Make me…
Incline my heart…
Turn away mine eyes… quicken me in thy way…
These are the prayers of someone training like an athlete to reach the prize… straining to make the qualifying time
Have you spotted the knock out request? The final realisation that it was not in his own power
The request that reverberates throughout scripture…!!!
…QUICKEN ME IN
THY RIGHTEOUSNESS
That is the only way it is going to happen
It has to be you that does it Yahweh. Only your righteousness is good enough.
And how can this happen? The very next verse in Waw has the answer. Verse 41
41 Let thy mercies come also unto me, O Yahweh, even thy salvation, according to
thy word
As in Daleth, it was by grace see verse 29. So here it is only by Yahweh’s mercy. We see in the preceding verses how dependent David was, and his awareness of the help he needed to learn, understand and walk in the ‘path of thy commandments’. That is the PC we should be exercised over… the Path of thy Commandments. He even uses expressions like ‘Make me to go…’ ‘Turn away mine eyes…’ Even averting our eyes from vanity, that simplest and momentary action, yet David asks for help. The eye gate… images can stay with us; we can be enticed by our eyes. It is a sensible prayer! Stay focused. Stay on track. Keep the objective in mind. Like a personal trainer encouraging their trainee… one more rep
We see the full exposition of receiving God’s righteousness in Paul’s letter to the Romans where he refers back to the covenant God made with Abraham. ‘Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness’. Genesis 15:6 Romans 4:3 SO what is our position now?
Later, in Romans 4, we read:
23 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him;
24 but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raise up JESUS OUR LORD
from the dead;
So we see salvation is very much a whole Bible theme – not just a New Testament idea. In the Old Testament salvation points to the coming one who would bring us into this standing with God. The one who is The Way, The Truth, and The Life. We must cleave to Him. Cleave tighter…shine brighter. This is the principle of nuclear fusion in the Sun
Keep shining
the views carried here are those of the author, not of Network Yarmouth, and are intended to stimulate constructive debate between website users
|
Print