Context No. 3971 of 4322 · Psalms

Psalms 119:145-160: in context

145I have called with my whole heart. Answer me, LORD! I will keep your statutes. 146I have called to you. Save me! I will obey your statutes. 147I rise before dawn and cry for help. I put my hope in your words. 148My eyes stay open through the night watches, that I might meditate on your word. 149Hear my voice according to your loving kindness. Revive me, LORD, according to your ordinances. 150They draw near who follow after wickedness. They are far from your law. 151You are near, LORD. All your commandments are truth. 152Of old I have known from your testimonies, that you have founded them forever. 153Consider my affliction, and deliver me, for I don’t forget your law. 154Plead my cause, and redeem me! Revive me according to your promise. 155Salvation is far from the wicked, for they don’t seek your statutes. 156Great are your tender mercies, LORD. Revive me according to your ordinances. 157Many are my persecutors and my adversaries. I haven’t swerved from your testimonies. 158I look at the faithless with loathing, because they don’t observe your word. 159Consider how I love your precepts. Revive me, LORD, according to your loving kindness. 160All of your words are truth. Every one of your righteous ordinances endures forever.

This section of the great psalm on God's word overflows with a passionate love for it and a deep dependence on it. I rise before dawn and cry for help; I hope in your words, the psalmist says; my eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promise. He seeks God early in the morning and stays awake in the night, and what fills his prayers and meditations is God's word.

Two things stand out. The psalmist makes God's word the first thing and the constant thing. He rises before dawn to seek it and lies awake at night meditating on it; it is not a marginal interest but the center of his devotion. And his confidence in it: you are near, O LORD, and all your commandments are true; the sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever. His love for God's word rests on the conviction that it is true, near, and eternal. There is a model here for our own relationship to Scripture: to seek God early in his word, to meditate on it in the wakeful hours, and to trust it as true and enduring.

Do I treasure God's word as this psalmist did, seeking it early, meditating on it through the night, and trusting it as true and enduring, making it the center of my devotion rather than a marginal interest?

Sources

Psalm 119:147: "I rise before dawn and cry for help. I put my hope in your words."
Psalm 119:151: "You are near, LORD. All your commandments are truth."
Psalm 119:160: "All of your words are truth. Every one of your righteous ordinances endures forever."