Qoph - Psalm 119:145-152 Series

QOPH

March 28, 2012

Oak Park Baptist Church – Wed Bible Study Series

Psalm 119:145-152 (HCSB) – 19 of 22

Qoph[K’off]–19th letter of theHebrew Alphabet

Read/show ALL verses b4 verse by verse teaching…

[ESV]

145With my whole heart I cry [out]; answer me, O Lord! I will keep Your statutes. 146I will call to You; save me, that I may observe Your testimonies.

[NLT]

145I pray with all my heart; answer me, Lord! I will obey Your decrees. 146I cry out to You; rescue me, that I may observe Your laws.

Here the psalmist cries out simply for God to ‘save’ him… we can also see that his cry is accompanied with a request for God’s acknowledgment of his request!

This simple, yet very profound prayer from the psalmist requests affirmation or confirmation that God hears his prayer and that God would simply save him…

His request for salvation from what is not mentioned here, but the psalmist’s has written so much about his enemies closing in on every side and being oppressed by others… it could be to save him physically.

However, there is another option here! It would be that the psalmist is praying for deliverance from his sin and for God to save him spiritually and eternally… to grant him forgiveness and mercy for his sin.

The Hebrew word used here for “cry [out]” or “pray” means to call, to cry, or to utter a loud sound or call unto, or cry (for help)… specifically a cry out to a deity for help!

This is the cry of desperation from someone who realizes he cannot help himself but seek help from the One he believes who can.

Matt Henry says that that the psalmist prayer was ‘inward’ in that he was praying with his heart… possibly a silent prayer unknown to the world around him.

The term the psalmist uses here is “whole heart” and it is a term that literally reflects the entire ‘seat of emotions’ or basically ALL of who the psalmist is as a person…

Another aspect we can gather from this prayer that the psalmist was persistent in his prayer! He cried out in earnest and with fervor and a holy passion and vigor of desire. But just ‘how persistent’ was he…

He was seeking after an “Answer” – he was desiring a response from God… a response to his prayer, a response to cry for God’s guidance…

Have you ever been there in your prayer life? Have you ever prayed that type of prayer to God? The prayer where you say something like “God let me know you are THERE!”

I know I have… we do this because there are times when we literally feel so alone and abandoned because of this world… that we can lose sight of God in our lives and we cry out for His presence and we desire to hear an acknowledgement from Him to our prayer!

In this prayer we find the psalmist using a term that the Jews hardly ever used. It was a term that translates as “Lord”, but it was and still is the Hebrew word “Yahweh” which is the proper name for God.

Now, this name was highly respected and out of the fear of God and based on the 2nd commandment the Hebrew nation simply did NOT use this name. They were afraid that the slightest slip of the tongue or mispronunciation could be interpreted as profaning God’s name!

So from this we can deduce 2 things about this prayer. First it was a serious and heartfelt prayer, this was important and somber to the psalmist!

The 2nd thing is that the psalmist, because of how important this prayer was to him… was focused on the prayer and what he was going to say!

This was not a prayer of REFLEX… but a prayer from the heart and one that he agonized over…

When move to v.146 we see a word similar to the word in v.145 this word means to “Keep” or “Obey” and it is the Hebrew word naw-tsar which means to observe or guard with fidelity…

When we look at this prayer by the psalmist we can see his sincerity! The psalmist was not seeking salvation and safety to gain ease and comfort in his life, but he was seeking peace with God!

Likewise, our cry for salvation cannot be so we have ease and comfort in this life, but it must be so that we can have the blessed opportunity to serve God in a greater way… so that our soul will be at peace with God!

In this verse we can also see that the psalmist uses the term “Statutes” or “decrees” which is the Hebrew word khoke which is a form of one of the nine words I gave to you at the beginning of this study. I have also passed these out tonight as a reminder for you… This is used by the psalmist to reflect the law of God… the WORD of God to his readers.