Taw - Psalm 119:169-176 Series

TAV

May 02, 2012

Oak Park Baptist Church – Wed Bible Study Series

Psalm 119:169-176 (ESV) – 22 of 22

Tav – 22nd letter of the Hebrew Alphabet

Read/show ALL verses b4 verse by verse teaching…

[ESV] [show verses here]

169Let my cry come before You, O Lord; give me understanding according to Your word! 170Let my plea come before You; deliver me according to Your word.171My lips will pour forth praise, for You teach me Your statutes. 172My tongue will sing of Your word, for all Your commandments are right. 173Let Your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen Your precepts. 174I long for Your salvation, O Lord, and Your law is my delight. 175Let my soul live and praise You, and let Your rules help me. 176I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for I do not forget Your commandments.

[ESV] [show verses here]

169Let my cry come before You, O Lord; give me understanding according to Your word!

[NLT]

169O Lord, listen to my cry; give me the discerning mind you promised.

Here the psalmist cries out for God to hear him… this is a cry we ALL utter in our own lives! The psalmist wants to know that God is listening to his prayer.

[show highlighted verse] But look what the psalmist says… ‘give me understanding according to your word…’ What this means is that the psalmist knew what God had promised in His covenant with His people… and he wants to know that God is honoring that promise!

The discerning mind he is crying out for is a mind that sees God at work… and that discerns God’s presence in the situations of life.

How often do we look at a situation and think to ourselves or even cry out to God because we don’t see God ‘in it’… only to realize at a later time that God was there all the time, and we just did not SEE him…

The psalmist wants a discerning mind so that he can be comforted in the knowledge of God’s presence in his life, regardless of what is happening…

Wouldn’t YOU like that? To KNOW that God is there, even when it ‘seems’ as if he is NOT. That you will have both a knowledge of His presence and a peace about His involvement in your life… no matter what the world throws your way!

But here is another aspect we may overlook… this ‘discerning mind’ the psalmist is praying for not only desires to be in tune with God and God’s will… but it is a mind that is in tune with our own human nature!

So many times we lift up prayer to God based on our sinful desires… we may not see it as sinful desire, but with a discerning mind in Christ, we will be able to make that distinction! So are you willing to pray for a discerning mind…

so that you will know both YOUR own motives for praying and then you will be comfortable that God will move in His timing… in His perfect plan… to that prayer you have lifted up?

[show verse here]

[ESV]

170Let my plea come before You; deliver me according to Your word.

[NLT]

170Listen to my prayer; rescue me as you promised.

In v.169 we find the psalmist crying out for the affirmation of God’s presence by giving him a discerning mind to know that God is there…

Here the psalmist gets a bit more specific… not only does He seek God’s presence, but he desires MORE than anything that God hear his request…that God would listen to his prayer AND then move in his life!

The prayer here is a prayer of confidence… The psalmist lifts up his prayer to a God he BELIEVES will keep him and love him…

The psalmist claims a promise that comes from God to deliver His people… he says, [show highlighted verse]

“rescue me as YOU have promised…”

In other words, is not really wondering IF God will rescue him, but this is an expression of faith that God WILL rescue him at the right time!

This is God’s promise to us… that He will take care of us… not that he will meet our desires and wants, but care for our needs.

When we look at BOTH of these verses [v160-170] we can see this is a running theme not only throughout this chapter, but all of Psalms as well… that theme of a requested audience with God…seeking deliverance!

With these 2 verses we can see that this is passionate prayer, but also we can see the humility of his heart in his constant submission to the lordship of God in his life…as well as the high regard he expounds for the Law of God.