Psalm 119:161-176 “I Hope for Your Salvation, O LORD” May 25, 2008
We have come to the end of our journey through Psalm 119.
In the first sermon I read a quote from David Powlison.
In this last sermon, I would like to remind you of what he said Psalm 119 is all about:
“Psalm 119 is where I go to learn how to open my heart about what matters,
to the person I most trust.
I affirm what I most deeply love.
I express pure delight.
I lay my sufferings and uncertainties on the table.
I cry out in need and shout for joy.
I hear how to be forthright without self-righteousness.
I hear how to be weak without self-pity.
I learn how true honesty talks with God:
fresh, personal, and direct;
never formulaic, abstract, or vague.
I hear firsthand how Truth and honesty meet and talk it over.
This Truth is never denatured, rigid or inhuman.
This honesty never whines, boasts, rages, or gets defensive.
I leave the conversation nourished by the sweetest hope imaginable.
I hear how to give full expression to what it means to be human,
in honest relationship with the Person who made humanness in his image.”
(David Powlison, Speaking Truth in Love, p11)
I hope that as we have worked through the 22 stanzas of the Psalm
these things have sunk deeper and deeper into your hearts.
As we come to the concluding pair of stanzas,
we find a word that we have not heard much in the whole Psalm:
“Praise”
in verses 164, 171, and 175.
In all of the intimate conversation between the Psalmist and the LORD,
the word “praise” only arises here at the end.
Even as the Psalter as a whole ends with a crescendo of praise (Psalms 146-150),
so also Psalm 119 ends with praise as well.
Another unique phrase is found in verses 166 and 174:
“your salvation, O LORD.”
The word “salvation” has been used a couple of times in the Psalm,
and the name of Yahweh has frequently occurred.
Last week we saw that the Psalmist
cried out to the LORD to save him (v145-146),
and pled with the LORD for mercy in the context of talking about salvation (v155-156).
But only here does “your salvation, O LORD” become the central theme.
The connection between stanza Shin and stanza Taw
is made especially clear because this phrase “your salvation, O LORD”
occurs in the sixth line of each stanza (verses 166 and 174).
And so Psalm 119 concludes with the Psalmist praising the LORD.
The persecutors have not gone away.
But together with his cries for help he also mingles songs of praise.
Princes persecute me
without cause, but my heart stands in awe of your words.
I rejoice at your word like one who finds great spoil. (161-162)
I know that it looks like the same word is used in these two verses: “words” and “word,”
but in fact these are two different Hebrew words!
There was once a typesetter in
and thought it looked like a “t” –
and since he thought it was a “t” he assumed that there was an “r”
in between the “e” and the “s.”
The end result was that they printed a whole batch of King James Bibles that read for v161:
“Printers have persecuted me without
cause.”
It
has since been called “the Printers’ Bible”
and
some have suspected that the typesetter himself felt persecuted by his boss,
the printer!
But whether it is princes or printers,
we
have all felt the unjust persecution of those around us.
When you are persecuted, how do you respond?
When others mistreat you, what do you think?
The Psalmist says, “but my heart stands in awe of your words.”
I don’t worry about what the princes say.
I don’t concern myself with the printers.
My heart does not stand in awe of the press,
nor of the potentate,
nor of my peers.
Rather, my heart stands in awe of your words.
What makes your heart stand in awe?
Ed Welch has written a nice book called,
“When People Are Big and God Is Small”
And that is often how we live.
What matters in life is what my husband thinks of me!
My goal is to try to get my colleagues to like me!
Or for that matter, we can say the opposite:
I don’t care what anyone thinks of me!
(The person who says that is still letting what others think drive him.
“My heart stands in awe of your words.”
When I hear you speak, O LORD,
“I rejoice at your word like one who finds great spoil.”
In the chaos of the crisis at work,
or in the midst of the meltdown at home,
“I rejoice at your word.”
James says, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.” (James 1:2)
Why do you rejoice in your trials?
Because there in your trials –
there in the midst of the misery –
you hear God’s word:
you behold God’s Word,
as you see Jesus Christ enduring the wrath and curse of God.
God’s purpose in suffering
is to help you learn how to hear his voice.
Stop paying attention to falsehood!
Stop listening to lies!
As the Psalmist says in verses 163-164:
I hate and abhor
falsehood, but I love your law.
Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous rules. (163-164)
In the temple there were three hours of prayer (morning, noon and night).
But the Psalmist says that he praises God seven times a day.
In other words, I do not merely praise you in the “normal” times for prayer.
I praise you all day long!
The
Rule of
seven times each day.
Even so, my love for God’s law is to draw me back time after time all day long.
-- not just to pray – notice that the Psalmist does not say that he “prays”
seven times a day –
but rather that he praises God seven times each day.
We normally think that we do well to pray seven times a day.
But how often in the course of our daily lives do we praise God?
If all you do is discipline yourself to pray – to bring your petitions – seven times a day,
what have you accomplished?
If your prayer life consists of a steady stream of “help me, Lord,”
“O God, I don’t know I’m going to handle this,”
and “Lord, please help that person,”
then you are missing the heart and soul of prayer.
Because you are missing God himself!
Psalm 119 has lots of expressions of “help me” “save me” “give me understanding!”
it also has expressions of delight in God and in his word:
“How sweet are your words to my taste,”
“your testimonies are the joy of my heart,”
“your law is my delight.”
And so seven times a day I praise you.
And when your heart is set upon praising God seven times a day,
verse 165 follows:
Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble. (165)
The one who tries to walk in this age without the law of God
will stumble and fall continually.
But the one who loves the law of God need not stumble.
Notice though that the Psalmist does not say that the one who loves God’s law
will never stumble –
rather he says that “nothing can make them stumble.”
This is what Augustine meant when he said that in Christ
we are posse non peccare “able not to sin.”
It is not that Christians don’t sin.
It is that Christians don’t have to sin.
Nothing can make you stumble.
You may stumble – but the only reason why you stumble
is because you take your eyes off of Jesus!
Why can nothing make you stumble?
As Paul puts it,
“since we have been justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom 5:1)
It is hard to find direct quotes of Psalm 119 in the New Testament.
But as you dig into the Psalm, you start to realize that the tone of the Psalm
is all over the New Testament!
And so the Psalmist remembers the importance of Jesus:
I hope for your salvation, O LORD, and I do your commandments. (166)
Jesus’ name means: “The LORD saves.”
I hope for your salvation, O LORD –
I hope in Jesus.
The Psalmist didn’t know that –
but we do!
(And the Holy Spirit ensured that it would be there for us to see!)
I hope for your salvation, O LORD, and I do your commandments.
And in verse 167, for the third time in this stanza,
the Psalmist declares his love for God’s word:
My soul keeps your
testimonies; I love them exceedingly.
I keep your precepts and testimonies, for all my ways are before you. (167-168)
These last two lines begin with “shamar” (“to keep”).
We see in these lines that law-keeping is not a morose, joyless thing.
Rather, I keep your testimonies because I love them!
I keep your precepts because you guard all my ways!
I live my life before the God of heaven;
therefore I orient my life around his word.
The last stanza, “Taw,” begins where “Shin” ended:
“before you.”
Let my cry come before
you, O LORD; give me understanding according to your word!
Let my plea come before you; deliver me according to your word. (169-170)
Both Shin and Taw begin with the same two different words for “word” (cf. v161-162)
We have hear a very familiar theme in Psalm 119:
Hear me, O LORD, give me understanding/deliver me
“according to your word.”
We have come to the end of Psalm 119
and the Psalmist still faces the same trials and tribulations.
His circumstances have not improved.
Three months ago we began our series in Psalm 119.
Have your circumstances improved?
Some of you have lost jobs – some of you have found jobs.
But odds are that for most of you,
your life is pretty similar to the way it was three months ago.
What changes for the Psalmist is that where he once nearly despaired,
now he has confidence that the Word of the LORD will endure forever.
And so while his enemies continue to lay snares for his feet,
now the Psalmist declares:
My lips will pour
forth praise, for you teach me your statutes.
My tongue will sing of your word for all your commandments are right. (171-172)
What are you doing with your lips?
What do you do with your tongue?
Do you sing of God’s word?
Do your lips pour forth praise?
James warns us that the same fountain cannot produce both sweet water and salt water.
What pours forth out of your lips?
If your speech towards others is salty,
then do not expect sweetness to pour forth towards God.
Rather, discipline your heart to pour forth praise toward God,
because as you learn to sing of his word,
you will also find yourself speaking rightly to others.
Let your hand be ready
to help me, for I have chosen your precepts.
I long for your salvation, O LORD, and your law is my delight. (173-174)
In stanza Shin/Sin the Psalmist said “I hope for your salvation, O LORD” –
and verse 166 is the sixth line of the stanza.
Now the Psalmist says, “I long for your salvation, O LORD” –
also in the sixth line of the stanza (v174).
But what does it mean to “long for your salvation, O LORD”?
Aren’t we already saved?
Romans 8 connects to this passage in so many ways!
Paul says that “the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly,
but because of him who subjected it,
in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay
and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together
in the pains of childbirth until now.
And not only the creation, but we ourselves,
who have the firstfruits of the Spirit,
groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons,
the redemption of our bodies.
For in this hope we were saved.
Now hope that is seen is not hope.
For who hopes for what he sees?
But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” (Rom 8:20-25)
Yes, we were saved.
But we are also eagerly waiting for our “adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”
I long for your salvation, O LORD!
I eagerly wait for that adoption –
the day when this mortal flesh will put on immortality!
We have received salvation – deliverance from sin, death, and the devil.
And yet we still hope for that salvation –
we still long for it –
because we do not yet see it.
Now we walk by faith:
we are saved by faith,
we are justified by faith,
we are sanctified by faith.
But we do not yet see the salvation of our God.
We hope.
We long.
We earnestly and eagerly wait for what God has promised!
And so the Psalmist concludes:
Let my soul live and
praise you, and let your rules help me.
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant, for I do not forget your commandments. (175-176)
Verse 175 makes it sound like Psalm 119 is going to conclude with a bang –
with a triumphant crescendo of praise!
But instead verse 176 concludes the Psalm with a whimper.
The only way that I will be included among the “blameless”
who are blessed by God (v1-3)
is if you, O LORD, come and seek your lost sheep.
My praise of you will only arise before your throne
if you seek your servant and deliver me.
At the beginning of the Psalm we thought that we detected a triumphalist note,
but that note has given way to a deep and abiding confidence in the mercy of God.
I do not forget your commandments.
My heart is set on you, O LORD, and your Word.
But still, if I am honest with you, my God and Creator,
I have gone astray like a lost sheep.
David Powlison closes his meditation on Psalm 119 by asking,
“Where do you need Psalm 119 to help you?
Is it sleepless nights?
Does some form of lovelessness repeatedly punctuate your life –
worry, fears, sexual lust, bitterness, lying, temper, procrastination?
Where do you need real help, not good intentions or quick fixes?
I am yours. Save me. Teach me.”
Psalm 119 teaches us how to pray –
how to open up to God,
not in the selfish, whining, shaking a fist at the sky sort of “opening up,”
but an opening up before the living and true God –
the God who has spoken once for all in our Lord Jesus Christ!