What can believers do when they live in a land ruled by a government that condones wickedness and promotes iniquity as virtue?
Read morePSALM 124
Your life may be in danger, yet your soul can rest in God.
Read morePSALM 123
Pray faithfully and expectantly to the Lord for His sustaining grace in your life.
Read morePSALM 122
Truly it is God that gives peace to His people, both internally through faith in Christ, and externally according to His will.
Read morePSALM 121
God’s care is now and forevermore.
Read morePSALM 120 – TIRED OF THIS WORLD
Are you weary of the sin and evil in the world around you?
Read morePSALM 119:169-176 — TAV
Life Lived in Accord with God’s Word
The psalmist ends this great acrostic psalm directing his sole attention upon his God. He knows that after all is said, what he desperately needs above all is God Himself. This stanza is a series of prayers with the psalmist crying out to God for Grace, Praise, Help, and Care.
The psalmist begins with a cry for God’s grace (169-170). The psalmist begins by asking God for understanding from His word so that he would be able to think rightly about the circumstances of life (169). He then asks God for His favour in saving him as God has promised His people in His word (170). In both of these prayers he acknowledges that understanding and assurance of salvation come from God’s word.
The psalmist continues with a prayer asking God for praise (171-172). By praying this way he is asking God to give him more reasons to praise His name. The psalmist cannot help but be moved to song by the Lord’s provision of His righteous word to teach him His nature and ways.
Next, the psalmist asks God for help (173-175). The psalmist is asking God to do what he cannot do himself. He has chosen God’s word to guide his life, and depends totally the help that God provides. He longs for God’s salvation promised in God’s word (174). He knows God helps His people continually through His word (175).
Finally, the psalmist asks for God’s care as his Shepherd (176). He confesses that even though he knows the right way he still struggles with sin. By asking for God to seek him he is speaking of a closeness with God that comes only through continual fellowship. Even though his obedience is not perfect his loyalty to God is unchanging.
PSALM 119:161-168 – SHIN/SIN
The believers hope is a fixed assurance that what God has promised will come to pass.
Read moreA WARNING TO THE SAINTS
It is God’s word alone that is truth, everything else is false.
Read morePSALM 119:153-160 — RESH
God’s Mercies According to His Word
Are you feeling down? Are you physically and emotionally tired from the onslaught of the world around you? If you are, then this stanza of Psalm 119 will be of help to you.
The psalmist opens this stanza with five imperatives in his urgent plea to God (119:153-154). He prays that God will have Regard for his situation and Rescue him out of the oppression of the wicked. He asks God for Redress as his advocate, so that he would be Redeemed from his adversity. He asks God to Revive him according to the promises of His word to give life and strength to His people. His prayer for God’s intervention is based off of his continued faithfulness to God’s word.
In his great time of distress he acknowledges the tender mercies of God towards His people (119:155-156). In contrast, God does not listen to or deliver the wicked. They prove their wickedness by refusing to honor God by obeying His word. In the midst of this great evil the psalmist asks God for the strength to remain faithful.
The psalmist calls on God to remember his loving obedience to God’s commands by giving him life in this dangerous situation (119:57-59). The psalmist is surrounded by adversaries, and yet he remains faithful to the Lord. His love for God includes a hatred of the evil around him. He desperately needs God’s life giving help that God promises to His covenant people.
The psalmist concludes with a great declaration about the word of God. God’s word is truth from beginning to end. It brings life and understanding to all situations of life. It is absolutely and eternally reliable because God Himself is truth (John 14:6).