Psalms 119:145-160: a reflection

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 throbs with earnest prayer. I call with my whole heart, answer me, Lord. I rise before dawn and cry for help; my eyes are open through the night watches. Here is someone who does not treat God casually but seeks him urgently, rising early and lying awake, all so that he might hope in God's words and meditate on his promise. Prayer and Scripture are woven together in the dark hours.

Notice where his confidence rests. Enemies who pursue wickedness draw near, he says, but then, in the same breath, you are near, Lord, and all your commandments are truth. Whatever presses in on him, God is nearer still. Again and again he prays, revive me, according to your loving kindness, according to your ordinances, according to your promise. He asks God to breathe fresh life into him, and he anchors that request on God's own word, which he knows endures forever.

This psalm models a way of praying through hard and sleepless times. When trouble presses and you cannot rest, do as the psalmist does: seek God with your whole heart, feed on his word in the night, and ask him again and again to revive you. And hold onto his quiet assurance, you are near, Lord. Whatever draws close to trouble you, God is nearer, and his word, which endures forever, is a sure place to put your hope.

Lord, teach me to seek you with my whole heart, to rise early and lie awake putting my hope in your word. When trouble draws near, remind me that you are nearer still, and that all your commandments are truth. Revive me according to your loving kindness, and let your word, which endures forever, be the sure ground of my hope through every sleepless hour. Amen.