Gimel
The psalmist here is PRAYING a prayer… reaching out to God for help and assistance in living FOR Him. His prayer is that God’s word would be ever more important and the focus of his life…let’s look at what he says over the next 8 verses…
17Deal bountifully with your servant, that I may live and keep your word.
The psalmist begins this section with a request for God’s help… the term he uses here for God’s actions toward him is translated here as ‘Deal bountifully’ and it is the Hebrew word gaw-mal’ which means to ripen or mature. What the psalmist is asking of God is to make him mature… to establish his life thru the word of God!
In the 1st 16 verses we have seen how intimate the psalmist has become with the Law of God and here is yet another example of his yearning for the Law of God… for the Word of God!
He is asking God to ripen him and mature him in his word, so that he can live a life that will honor His law… that his life would be a witness FOR His word and law… that his example would point others TO God!
Deal bountifully here means to mature, but it also means to wean (as a child)… now we all know that the weaning process of a child from his mother or from the bottle is a very difficult time… but it is also a time of necessity for the growth and maturation of the child!
The request that the psalmist makes here is noble in its gesture, but it is also a request that will place him in a difficult and unwanted position. Our flesh wants and desires comfort, NOT struggle! But we know that the human condition only moves forward in struggle… when we have nothing but comfort, apathy and complacency seep in and our spirit is spoiled and ruined!
The psalmist is calling for God to keep him on his toes… to hold his feet to the fire [so to speak]… Now I want you to think about how YOU are praying in your quiet times… Is your prayer, God hold me accountable? God keep me in line? God hold my feet to the fire?
OR is your prayer, God deliver me and make things better… God provide for me where I don’t know struggle or pain… You see there is NONE of us who WANT pain or struggle, but without pain and struggle, our spirit will be broken and ruined!
Have you ever heard the phrase, “No pain! No gain!” It is a term used by athletes in many sports and it is a reference to working hard and struggling to BETTER themselves, the work is hard and painful, but the gain is worth it!
Struggle in the Christian walk is something God uses to grow and mature us… In the book of James we read:
2Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
The NIV reads like this…
2Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Here the psalmist is seeking maturity from God through God holding him accountable to how he lives… and he says he desires to live according to the Law of God.
So what is YOUR desire today? Is it to mature in your faith and grow… because that can and will be a painful and uncomfortable journey, but we KNOW that even in the pain, discomfort and inconvenience… we will be better for it because we will GROW and mature and be a better witness for God!
The psalmist realizes his human frailty and sinful nature and he understands that without God’s word to guide him, he is lost and that only when God takes charge and reveals Himself that he will grow… so his prayer is NOT “God I want to see” it is really a cry for God’s intervention… He knows that without God’s intervention that he would never KNOW about the Word of God NOR understand its rich meanings NOR experience its great wisdoms…
Look what he says here in v.18…
18Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.
He says, “Open my eyes…” which is a phrase that asks for God to reach down and intervene. The word used here is the Hebrew word gaw-lah’ and it literally means to capture or to carry away into exile…
The implication from the writer here is that his desire is that God would captivate his eyes… his vision… his sight… to help him… to guide him… to lead him to see the glorious parts of God’s law! Captivate my sight, capture my thoughts, and help me to see your law as you desire me to see it…
Are we asking God to carry our sight and thoughts away into HIS captivity? Do we want to be captured by God? The psalmist is asking God to do just that… capture HIS sight… his vision… his ‘eyes’ so that he may ‘see’ the great things God is doing and is going to do… through His word.
What ‘wondrous’ things could the psalmist be speaking about here in this context? Well the word used here is the Hebrew word paw-lah’ which means something extraordinary… something beyond your ability… with the implication it is only something God can do. The psalmist is crying out for supernatural revelation about the Law of God… soul altering revelation that will literally rock his world!
When is the last time you asked God to ‘rock your world’ with His revelation? So much of the time our prayer is for peace and tranquility! I challenge you to pray this prayer… pray for God to ROCK YOUR WORLD and shake things up… pray that He will reveal to you things that will absolutely shake you to your core… This is what the psalmist is asking God to do in this prayer!
Ripen and mature me… Take control of my sight… and ROCK my world with your revelation… these are the things the psalmist is praying for God to do… He is praying this because he understands WHO he is in the grand scheme of things… He is God’s creation! He is created by God for life here, but he also understands that there is MUCH MORE than this life! Look at v.19 as we read…
19I am a sojourner on the earth; hide not your commandments from me!
I am a sojourner… the word sojourner is defined as one on a temporary journey, one who is staying at a place for a particular amount of time [temporarily]… the psalmist here believes himself to be a stranger… or a foreigner here in this world! In other words, the words of the psalmist sync up with the words of the Apostle Paul when he wrote:
20But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ...
We are but sojourners here in this world and the psalmist understood this… but while we are here we are called to live FOR our God, and to do so we must have instruction! The psalmist cries out for instruction… for guidance… by saying “don’t hide your commandments from me…”
Or a better way of relating this idea is, ‘reveal your commandments to me…’ a further cry by the psalmist to OPEN his eyes!
Again what is OUR prayer life like? Are we crying out for God to open our eyes to his word… to His truth! Do we pray and live like we are sojourners OR do we want to settle in here in this world and be content with what IT has to offer? The psalmist challenges us to understand our transitory nature and NOT to settle for what the world has to offer but cry out for God’s word… for God’s revelation… on how we can serve here in this world!
20My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times.
Here we find the psalmist revealing his innermost desires… he is ‘consumed’ with longing for or seeking after the Law of God. What does this mean? Well the actual Hebrew that is used here is gaw-ras’ which means to be CRUSHED or BROKEN… So with that in mind, we see the mindset of the psalmist as his soul is broken and crushed because of his longing for God’s word…
Are you crushed and broken with the longing of his heart… His longing for God’s word and God’s law is the sole consuming desire of his heart! His focus in entirely on God’s desire and God’s commands… and this is a way of life for the psalmist, as he states that this is the way it is ‘at all times…’
My prayer is that my heart would be consumed and broken in my consuming desire for God’s commands and desires in my life! Far too much we pray for God to bless OUR desires… OUR faith… OUR time… OUR issues… when our focus should be totally consumed in what God desires! What is your desire today? Is it to be consumed with Him?
He desires to be ‘consumed and crushed’ by his searching and yearning for God… and realizes that this is what God desires of ALL His people. After all the psalmist knows that from his instruction as a young boy that God does NOT want to share us with anything…
As a young boy the psalmist was taught the Shema’h which we find in Duet 6:4-7 where God instructs ALL of Israel to know…
4"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
In this command from God, not only are they to understand that God is God and to be the focus of their lives, BUT they are to teach this to their children and to generation after generation… God is to be their focus! With all their heart, soul, and might… an ALL CONSUMING desire to know God!
God wants ALL of us, and for those who refuse, God is not pleased and the psalmist addresses this here in v.21
21You rebuke the insolent, accursed ones, who wander from your commandments.
You here is God… and ‘rebuke’ is a strong word used to describe a punishment… Rebuke is defined as expressing a SHARP and STERN disapproval… a reprimand!
God does NOT approve of those who do not seek after Him exclusively! For those who do NOT focus on Him with ALL their hearts, souls and might… God is displeased!
The psalmist continues and relates what this rebuke means for those who do NOT seek after God with all their heart…
Insolent – Hebrew word – Zayhd’ meaning arrogant or prideful
Accursed – Hebrew word – ah-rahr meaning to be curse OR to become the curse
Wanderers – Hebrew word – shaw-gah’ that literally means to err, to stray, to meander or swerve as a drunk person!
Those who don’t focus on God with their whole heart, whole soul and all of their might… they see themselves as self-sufficient and pride rules their heart, believing they can solve any issue or problem they face, and they refuse to submit to the Lordship of God!
Those who don’t focus on God are cursed because of their rejection of God… those who reject Christ are doomed to an eternity without God and away from His presence… but those who reject God also BECOME the curse and lead others away from God and into an eternity of separation from their creator!
Those who don’t focus on God are wanderers… those who swerve, meander and stray in their walk. They are acting like a spiritually drunk person… weaving and bobbing, swaying and swerving in their walk with God and service TO God… one day they are on the right track and living as they should and the next, they are off in the gutter… they have WANDERED away!
God is calling us through the words of this psalmist to remain true and to focus on HIM and Him alone and to seek Him relentlessly…
22Take away from me scorn and contempt, for I have kept your testimonies.
Take away… Hebrew phrase gaw-lahl’ which means to remove or roll away… get out of one’s presence! The psalmist here is praying for God to get rid of all the scorn and contempt in his heart…
Scorn and contempt… both are terrible things for us to have harboring our hearts!
Scorn is defined as an open disdain for something, an objection that is very public and divisive!
Contempt is very similar as it is defined as considering a thing to be worthless… to despise a thing… to dishonor a thing…
Remove my open objections to you law… take away my disdain for your commandments… roll away my worthless thoughts of your instruction!
The psalmist understood his humanity and his capacity to ‘hate’ the things of God because of his human and sinful nature. He is praying that God would remove these things from his heart so that he can serve Him even better.
Now I want us to understand that this man is NOT asking God to do something while he just sits there and does NOTHING… this verse ties closely together with v.11 that speaks of storing up God’s law in his heart… here the psalmist says, “…for I have kept your testimonies…” in other words, I have been faithful and obedient so help me to be rid of these feelings I do not want!
23Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes.
But the psalmist understands that his battle to be pure and serve God faithfully not only rests on him submitting and surrendering… He knows that there is an enemy that is out to destroy him…
He understands that the basis of ANY survival as a follower of God rests solely in their reliance upon God’s Word. Without God’s word there can be no revelation on how to live or deliverance from that which puts our hearts in bondage. God’s word was the deliverance for the psalmist…
In John 1 we find that Jesus is proclaimed as the Logos… the Word was with God and the Word WAS God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us… God’s Word wrapped in flesh became the perfect sacrifice for our sin… bringing with it ultimate revelation of God’s heart and deliverance from the bondage in which we find our hearts to be trapped!
Meditate on God’s word for us today is a two fold thing… taking Scripture and putting in our hearts is one thing, but also focusing on Christ, what He has done, what He has promised and what He is doing in our lives… all revealed through the Scripture that God has provided for us!
Peter mentions that our enemy, the devil, is like a lion who seeks our total destruction, but promises our deliverance when we abide in the living and abiding Word of God… When we focus on Jesus, God opens up His heart and mind to ours… and we are enlightened through His revelation and delivered through His mercy and grace!
24Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors..
Once again we have this word ‘delight’ if you remember last week we looked at the VERB which is the Hebrew word shah-ah’ but this is the noun version of this word… shah-shoo’-ah which means it is the OBJECT of one’s delight… the verb shah-ah’. God’s Word is the object of the psalmist’s delight… it is the focus on his joy…
He goes on to reveal that in God’s word he relies on it for Counsel and wisdom! His healthy reverence and fear of God reveals his ultimate wisdom and trust in God for living life…
His prayer here is that God’s deliverance through His word is what he believes because he trusts in the counsel of God’s word! And because he trusts in God’s word so much, he delights in that trust… that security he has in God’s word!
How secure are you in your trust for the Word of God? Do you trust God’s word… have you made it the focus of your life? If not, you will never experience true joy until you do… place His word foremost in your life and He will bless and keep you!
What is YOUR prayer today?
