Psalm 119:17–24 NKJV
17 Deal bountifully with Your servant, That I may live and keep Your word. 18 Open my eyes, that I may see Wondrous things from Your law. 19 I am a stranger in the earth; Do not hide Your commandments from me. 20 My soul breaks with longing For Your judgments at all times. 21 You rebuke the proud—the cursed, Who stray from Your commandments. 22 Remove from me reproach and contempt, For I have kept Your testimonies. 23 Princes also sit and speak against me, But Your servant meditates on Your statutes. 24 Your testimonies also are my delight And my counselors. Today I want to focus on just one of the themes found in this stanza. These words are a prayer lifted directly to the Lord. David opens with … Psalm 119:17 Deal bountifully with Your servant, That I may live and keep Your word. David here asks for a plentiful portion of God´s help. Why? So that David could live and keep God´s Word! To most this seems a narrow focus on life. Was not David to be much more than “one who kept (practiced) the Word of God”?
But David could not be the caring shepherd, noble soldier, godly husband and father, nor a wise and righteous king unless in each of those roles he “kept God´s Word.” And neither can we, no matter the roles to which God calls and leads us or the paths on which He causes us to walk. We only do things correctly and in a way that pleases the Lord by doing them according to His Word. This is why Jesus prayed for us (yes, specifically for us who trust and follow Him after the age of the apostles). Jesus prayed, John 17:17 NKJV Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. Sanctify means to make holy, to make in the likeness of God. Jesus wanted His followers of every historical age to do all God set them to do as He Himself would if He were there! And then Jesus spilled the beans on the secret. He prayed, “Father make them holy as I am through Your truth. Your Word, God, is truth.” So David goes on to pray … Psalm 119:18 Open my eyes, that I may see Wondrous things from Your law. He asks God to illumine the Scriptures God has already inspired, so that David might see the wondrous things in the Word of the Lord. My, what wonderful things are to be found in God´s Word.
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