Psalms 119:137. Righteous art thou, O LORD, and upright are thy judgments.
It is well to be able to say this when you are being tried, when the hand of God lies heavy upon you; it is hard to kick against the pricks, but it is very sweet to submit, and to say, «Righteous art thou, O Lord, and upright are thy judgments.»
Psalms 119:138. Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful.
«Righteous» for the present, «faithful» for the future. There is no mistake about God's Word, it will never fail, we may trust it implicitly, and we shall never be disappointed.
Psalms 119:139. My zeal hath consumed me,
The psalmist had such zeal for God's Word that he seemed like a sacrifice consumed with the fire upon the Lord's altar.
Psalms 119:139. Because mine enemies have forgotten thy words.
First, they despised them, then, they neglected them, at last, they got as far as even to forget them. Forgetfulness of God's Word is a very dreadful stage of disease in the heart.
Psalms 119:140. Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.
To love God's Word for its purity, is an index of a pure heart. Some love it for its poetry, some love it for its doctrine, some love it for its mercy; but he is an advanced man in the kingdom of grace who loves it for its purity.
Psalms 119:141. I am small and despised: yet do not I forget thy precepts.
Others may, but I am not following their example. It is well when a Christian man is a contrast to other men. When they call him a mere nobody, he adopts their words, and says, «Yes, I am nothing, ‘I am small and despised,' yet I do not forget the Lord's precepts.»
Psalms 119:142. Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.
Pilate asked, «What is truth?» Here is the best possible answer: «Thy law is the truth.» Not only does it contain the truth, but it is the truth. The Word of God is not only true, that is its quality; but it is the truth, that is its essence. It is the cream of all truths. «Thy law is the truth.»
Psalms 119:143. Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: yet thy commandments are my delights.
«Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me:» like two fierce dogs they had fixed their teeth in him; yet even then he could say, «yet thy commandments are my delights.» What a riddle is the man who knows God! He has great trouble and is full of anguish, yet he is delighted; how can these things be? The child of God knows what it is to be troubled on every side, and yet not to be troubled within.
Psalms 119:144. The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting: give me understanding, and I shall live.
As if he could not live without it, he did not call it true living except as he understood and enjoyed the precepts of his God.
Psalms 119:145. I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O LORD: I will keep thy statutes.
Here we have both a prayer and a resolve; but the resolution grew out of the prayer, and was connected with it. The psalmist prays to God to help him to keep his statutes. Are any of you hard put to it just now by strong temptation? I commend this verse to you: «Hear me, O Lord: I will keep thy statutes.» Cry unto God, «Do help me, O Lord; let not strong temptation drag me away from thee! I do long to be holy, my whole heart's desire is to keep Thy ways; O help me, I pray thee!» This verse begins with «I cried,» and the next verse begins in the same way:
Psalms 119:146. I cried unto thee;
It is good when you can cry. The living child cries, and it is the man of God whose prayer is a cry of almost inarticulate utterance and grief: «I cried,» «I cried.» What did he cry?
Psalms 119:146. Save me, and I shall keep thy testimonies.
David had no notion of salvation without obedience; so he prays, «Save me, and I shall keep thy testimonies.» Is that the salvation you desire, salvation from sin? If so, you shall have it. God, the Holy One, delights to bestow holiness; and he will speedily hear and answer such a prayer as that.
Psalms 119:147. I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried:
The psalmist was still crying, crying early in the morning; before the sun was up, he was up, and crying unto God.
Psalms 119:147. I hoped in thy word.
It is well when hope goes with prayer, when you begin to see daylight even before the sun is up. «I hoped in thy Word.» Not in any enthusiastic impression of his own, but in God's Word itself, the psalmist placed all his confidence.
Psalms 119:148. Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word.
As he was up before the sun, so he was praying before they set the guards for the night-watch; and when they were changing guards, and he heard the cry of the hour from the watchman, he was still crying to God; and at the same time he was meditating: «that I might meditate in thy Word.» Ah, that is the way to cry! Meditation is very much neglected nowadays; we read, perhaps, too much, we meditate, for certain, too little; and meditation is to reading like digestion after eating. The cows in the pasture eat the grass, and then they lie down, and chew the cud, and get all the good they can out of what they have eaten. Reading snips off the grass, but meditation chews the cud. Therefore, «read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest.» In this matter we often fail; we shall be wise to imitate David, who devoted the early morning to prayer, and the night watches to meditation.
Psalms 119:149. Hear my voice
So the psalmist used to pray aloud. It is a very great help in prayer if you can do the same. If we pray aloud to be heard of men, it is a sin; but if we pray aloud that we may hear ourselves, so that our devotion may be excited, we shall often find it very profitable, and if people hear us by accident, so much the better; they are not hearing anything that will do them hurt, they are hearing that which may do them good.
Psalms 119:149. According unto thy lovingkindness:
That is, do not hear it to judge it, to censure it, to criticize it, but hear it as a father hears his child, loving to hear its little voice speaking in broken accents.
Psalms 119:149. O LORD, quicken me according to thy judgment.
Just now, the psalmist prayed, «Hear me, O Lord!» In the 146 th verse, he cried, «Save me;» now his prayer is, «O Lord, quicken me!» When God puts more life into us, then we have more strength to bear our burdens, and having more spiritual life, we have more power to resist temptation. Quickening is an essential mercy, containing within itself a multitude of blessings: «Quicken me according to thy judgment.»
Psalms 119:150. They draw nigh that follow of after mischief:
He could hear the sound of their feet behind him; they were running after him, and he could detect the pit-pat of their malicious footsteps.
Psalms 119:150-19. They are far from thy law. Thou art near, O LORD;
What a comfort that is! They are trying to get near, but thou art near. I can hear the tread of their feet behind me, but I can see thy face close to me. How comforted is the psalmist in the time of trouble! His adversaries may be as keen of scent as bloodhounds, but God is with him, therefore he fears them not.
Psalms 119:151-19. And all thy commandments are truth, Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever.
So that this Psalm was written by David when he was an old man. He had known the Lord's commandments when he was young, and now, in his declining days, he can say, «I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever.» O young men, if you want to be happy old men, begin by knowing God's Word! If you have known that God has founded his Word of old, you know that which will comfort you when you grow old. In fact, you have found a perpetual spring within your heart, if from your youth up you have known in the fullest sense the Word of the Lord. Some are changing their creed every day in the week, as the weather changes, but blessed is that man who has so learned Christ to begin with that he keeps in the old way all his life. He is the man who can truly grow. Transplant a tree six times a year, and you will not get any fruit from it; but blessed are they that are planted in the courts of the Lord, for they shall flourish there, and shall still bring forth fruit in old age.