Scripture Daily

Context No. 1037 of 4322 · Psalms

Context · Reflection

Psalms 119:17-32: in context

17Do good to your servant. I will live and I will obey your word. 18Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things out of your law. 19I am a stranger on the earth. Don’t hide your commandments from me. 20My soul is consumed with longing for your ordinances at all times. 21You have rebuked the proud who are cursed, who wander from your commandments. 22Take reproach and contempt away from me, for I have kept your statutes. 23Though princes sit and slander me, your servant will meditate on your statutes. 24Indeed your statutes are my delight, and my counselors. 25My soul is laid low in the dust. Revive me according to your word! 26I declared my ways, and you answered me. Teach me your statutes. 27Let me understand the teaching of your precepts! Then I will meditate on your wondrous works. 28My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word. 29Keep me from the way of deceit. Grant me your law graciously! 30I have chosen the way of truth. I have set your ordinances before me. 31I cling to your statutes, LORD. Don’t let me be disappointed. 32I run in the path of your commandments, for you have set my heart free.

This section of the long psalm about God's word is a string of prayers. Deal bountifully with your servant that I may live and keep your word. Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. I am a stranger on the earth; do not hide your commandments from me. My soul is consumed with longing for your rules. My soul clings to the dust; revive me according to your word. My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word. And at the end, I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart.

The prayers here recognize that we do not naturally see or love God's word; we need him to open our eyes. Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law, the psalmist asks, admitting that the same words can be lifeless on the page or ablaze with wonder depending on whether God unveils them. Reading is not enough; we need him to show us what is there. And notice how the psalmist's condition keeps sinking, my soul clings to the dust, my soul melts away for sorrow, and each time the remedy is the same, revive me according to your word, strengthen me according to your word. When he is flattened by grief and half-dead in the dust, he does not first pray for circumstances to change; he prays to be revived by the word, as if scripture itself carries the reviving power he needs. And the section ends with an image of freedom, I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart, obedience not as a grim trudge but as running, once God has widened the heart to want it. The word he asks to see and be revived by is the very thing that sets him running free.

Do I ask God to open my eyes to the wonder in his word and to revive me by it when I am in the dust, or do I read it flatly and expect nothing to happen?

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