Resh
April 4, 2012
Oak Park Baptist Church – Wed Bible Study Series
Psalm 119:153-160 (HCSB) – 20 of 22
Resh – 20th letter of the Hebrew Alphabet
Read/show ALL verses b4 verse by verse teaching…
[HCSB]
153Consider my affliction and rescue me, for I have not forgotten Your instruction.
154Defend my cause and redeem me; give me life as You promised.
155Salvation is far from the wicked because they do not seek Your statutes.
156Your compassions are many, LORD; give me life according to Your judgments.
157My persecutors and foes are many. I have not turned from Your decrees.
158I have seen the disloyal and feel disgust because they do not keep Your word.
159Consider how I love Your precepts; LORD, give me life according to Your faithful love.
160The entirety of Your word is truth, and all Your righteous judgments endure forever.
[HCSB]
153Consider my affliction and rescue me, for I have not forgotten Your instruction. 154Defend my cause and redeem me; give me life as You promised.
[NLT]
153Look upon my suffering and rescue me, for I have not forgotten your instructions. 154Argue my case; take my side! Protect my life as you promised.
The first thing we see in this verse is that the psalmist is crying out here for God’s attention… he wants to know that God acknowledges his plight. This is a normal human reaction to suffering…
When we suffer, we want others to know what we have been thru… however macabre it may sound, we want to tell someone OR we want to show someone just what we have been thru…
Spiritually it is the same with God; we want God to know our plight. Of course, we also know that this is what God wants us to do…
It is His desire for us to come to Him with all our cares and anxieties because He loves us and cares for us… but it is NOT like we are informing Him of something He is unaware of!
You see… when we go to God and share our heart and share our affliction, it is NOT for God’s sake we do this… but it is for our own! We are comforted when we go to Him… when we sense His presence and attention to our need. We seek His comfort and deliverance, but more than anything we seek His face and presence in our lives!
But let’s look at another part of this prayer by the psalmist, look with me at the end of v.153 and all of v.154 where the psalmist writes:
[NLT]
“…rescue me, for I have not forgotten your instructions 154Argue my case; take my side! Protect my life as you promised…”
When looking at this part of the prayer from the psalmist one could consider him to be presumptuous or even demanding in respect to God.
One could almost interpret this statement from him as the psalmist having the belief that he is ‘owed’ a blessing from God because of his obedience… that he had ‘earned’ God’s blessing.
This type of attitude was warned against as sinful in the Book of Job, and it is the WRONG way to approach the blessing/obedience situation.
However, one can also see what the psalmist is saying from an entirely OTHER perspective and that would be that the psalmist is NOT being presumptuous or demanding in respect to God’s blessing…
It could be that that he was NOT of the mindset that God actually ‘owed’ him anything, but RATHER that he had been fully compliant and submissive to God’s Law and that he had full faith that God would be pleased with that obedience and would bless those who honored Him in obedience…
So when we look at this verse I believe we must SEE that this is NOT the psalmist presuming anything upon God, but that it is his expression of full faith and trust in God to fulfill His promises… this is a leap of faith on his part!
We know this because we know God has promised in His word that He will bless those who submit and serve Him. But what we must understand is that this ‘blessing’ is NOT something that can ever be earned, but that it is simply that… a blessing bestowed by God upon us at HIS pleasure!
Today we know that Jesus is our ‘advocate’… the One who stands in defense of us in the spiritual courtroom! He is our defender and protector… this is His promise!
[HCSB] 155Salvation is far from the wicked because they do not seek Your statutes.
[NLT] 155The wicked are far from rescue, for they do not bother with your decrees.
Here is, 1. Here the psalmist gives us an accurate description of wicked men. NOT only do they not do God’s Law, but they are fully satisfied in life and they do not seek them either!
This means that they do not acquaint themselves with God’s law, and that they have NO desire to know their duty regarding God’s Law.
The wicked do not think the law of God because to them it is NOT worth seeking after, it is foolishness in their eyes!
So what is the consequence of them NOT be acquainted with OR not seeking after God’s law in their lives, well Matthew Henry tells us that this becomes their doom:
Look at what the verse tells us here: Salvation is far from them. They have NO good ground to stand upon to assure God’s promise for themselves because they do NOT seek Him or His law! One thing is for sure, eternal salvation is certainly far from them.
[HCSB]
156 Your compassions are many, LORD; give me life according to Your judgments.
[NLT]
156 Lord, how great is your mercy; let me be revived by following your regulations.
We find the psalmist proclaiming TRUE and real admiration here for the grace of God! Matthew Henry tells us that God is rich in mercy to all that call upon him and here the psalmist had already spoken of the miserable plight of the wicked (Ps. 119:155); but even so God is good! There are tender mercies sufficient in God to save them, if they turn to Him!
Those that are delivered from the sinner’s doom are bound for ever to own the greatness of God’s mercies which delivered them.
The 2nd thing I see the psalmist doing here is that he is actually pleading for the grace of God! He is asking God to provide a refreshing grace… this would be likened unto what we have in view of the new covenant in Christ! Because of Christ we have the grace of God given freely and provided for our sin…
The psalmist would not have known this type of arrangement but would have only known to seek after God’s grace constantly! However, IN CHRIST, we are justified and God’s grace is freely given! We don’t have to beg or plead with God to bestow grace upon us, but it is given freely!
This does not mean that God is somehow holding out on those who served Him before Christ came… but it was part of the Old Covenant, whereas now we are under the New Covenant established by our Savior, Jesus Christ!
HCSB
157My persecutors and foes are many. I have not turned from Your decrees.
NLT
157Many persecute and trouble me, yet I have not swerved from your laws.
By show of hands; who has ever been where the psalmist is in this verse? When he says, ‘my persecutors and foes are many…” he is stating what many of us feel much of the time…
Have you ever felt like this? Well as we serve Jesus, this is a constant battle we must always face, because when we are serving God, we are enemies of Satan and he is going to do whatever he can to get us off track and persecute us, and sometimes it feels like these ‘attacks’ come from ALL DIFFERENT directions…
Here the psalmist reveals that he is surrounded with difficulties and dangers in his life… this would have been possibly both physically and spiritually!
The psalmist established as his duty to proclaim God’s faithfulness! He says, “…yet I have not swerved from your laws. This was because he knew that while he was obedient to those laws… God would be faithful to him!
And here the psalmist proclaims the same thing as Paul says in Rom 8:31 when he wrote, “What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?”
And so the psalmist’s thoughts and actions were geared to the belief that no matter who is against me… I don’t worry because God is FOR me!”
When we are faithful and obedient to God’s Laws, we do NOT need to worry about the enemy… though he may be able to come against us, God is all powerful and will be there for us to either deliver us FROM or through the trouble!
HCSB
158 I have seen the disloyal and feel disgust because they do not keep Your word.
NLT
158 Seeing these traitors makes me sick at heart, because they care nothing for your word.
Let me ask you a question tonight… when you see the brokenness and sinfulness of this world, does it hurt your heart? Does it turn your stomach?
When we live our life in the righteousness of Christ it seems as if all the world is dirty and fallen… and that is because it IS! In comparison to Christ all are dirty, all are broken, all have fallen!
Here the psalmist is reflecting what many of us feel on a daily basis… we see the sin of this world and it hurts our very hearts… and is SHOULD affect us!
But this affect on our hearts should not lead us to judgment of the world… but to a compassion for the lost of this world! To see them come to know the peace and forgiveness we have in Christ Jesus!
We look around us and we see people like these people who attended the ‘Reason Rally’ in Washington DC a few weeks ago… it was a gathering of Atheists, agnostics and those who believe religion is harmful to society!
These people not only proclaimed that they did not believe in God… but that they were going to make it their policy to not only decry religion but they are going to begin to make fun of and ridicule all believers… Their UNREASONBLE stance is ironic in that this was entitled the ‘Reason rally’ because they believe that all things can and does have a ‘reason’ that can be explained!
They do not believe in the supernatural and are going to make it a point to be belligerent, condescending and biased against any and all who profess belief in God or follow any religious practice!
This sort of attitude is not new, but it is something relatively new to the American landscape. These people have stated publicly that they hate believers and hate what we stand for… and now they are going to openly ridicule us for that belief…
The natural reaction to this stance against us would to become defensive and possibly belligerent in return, however this is NOT our calling! It hurts our heart that their hearts are like this… it pains us to see them deny God and live lives that denounce God! But ours is a calling to reconciliation, even in the face of massive denial and rejection!
Jesus was despised and rejected and faced many days of persecution that ultimately led to his death… but he never wavered and he never lost sight of his mission… to seek and save the lost!
We must not fall prey to condemning those who come against us, but we must remember that Christ desires all to come to repentance and that we are NOT the judge, but we are the witnesses of the Good News… sent to show those who do NOT know or who do NOT believe!
HCSB
159Consider how I love Your precepts; LORD, give me life according to Your faithful love.
NLT
159See how I love your commandments, Lord. Give back my life because of your unfailing love.
Now when we look at this verse we find FIRST the psalmist proclaiming his LOVE of God’s commandments and he wants God to see that he loves God’s commandments!
I think it is important here to notice that the psalmist focuses on his love for the commandments of God, and not his completion of those commands… he is not asking God to look how obedient he is… but God look at my heart, see how I long to serve you and LOVE to serve You!
Matthew Henry says, “Our obedience is pleasing to God, and pleasant to ourselves, only when it comes from a principle of love.”
Then we can see a request being made by the psalmist here… he asks God to restore or give back his life! The meaning here is NOT to suggest that the psalmist has lost his life… but it is more of an attitude of protection he is seeking!
What he is asking God for here is to keep his life safe and allow him to serve God! He asks this because he knows and understands that God loves him! 2
We owe our very lives to the God of creation… He created us and He rules over us, and we seek to know Him better and better… we seek safety as anyone does! We all know that we OWE our lives to God and so we want to serve Him!
HCSB
160 The entirety of Your word is truth, and all Your righteous judgments endure forever.
NLT
160 The very essence of your words is truth; all your just regulations will stand forever.
Here the psalmist is comforting himself with the faithfulness of God’s word/Law! His encouragement and the encouragement of others rely upon God’s Law!
It has always been true from the beginning! Ever since God began to reveal himself to His creation, all He said was true and could be completely trusted.
The church, from its beginning, was built upon this rock of trust. The church has not gained its validity by lapse of time,
All of us must at, every age, receive God’s word in faith and love! I have found that every saying in His word to be faithful and worthy of acceptance.
God’s word will ALWAYS be true and can always be found faithful! Because of God’s righteousness: “Every one of thy judgments remains for ever unalterable and of perpetual obligation, adjusting men’s everlasting doom.”
Let us seek encouragement in the faithfulness of God love and word in our lives… always! Pray!
