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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>because they were rebellious against His spirit, he spoke rashly with his lips-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Moses was willing to give his physical and eternal life for Israel's salvation (<a href='B:20 32:32'>Exo 32:32</a>). In a sense, his desire was heard. Because of the sin of a moment, caused by the provocation of the people he loved, God decreed that he could not enter the land of promise. For their sakes he was barred from the land; this is the&nbsp; emphasis of the Spirit (<a href='B:50 1:37'>Deu 1:37</a>; <a href='B:50 3:26'>Deu 3:26</a>; <a href='B:50 4:21'>Deu 4:21</a>); and <a href='B:230 106:32-33'>Psa 106:32-33</a> says that Moses was provoked to sin because Israel angered God, and that therefore "it went ill with Moses for their sakes". Truly, God by grace works through sinful man to achieve His glory. Thus Moses says that he must die “Because ye [plural] trespassed against me” (<a href='B:50 32:51'>Deu 32:51</a>). This all helps explain why the Lord Jesus Christ had to die, apart from the fact that He was mortal. He died the death of a sinner for our salvation, He felt all the emotions of the rejected, the full weight of God's curse; for "cursed is every one that hangs on a tree" in crucifixion (<a href='B:550 3:13'>Gal 3:13</a>). Moses is a superb and accurate type of the Lord Jesus. Therefore Moses in his time of dying must grant us insight into the death of our Lord, the prophet like him (<a href='B:50 18:18'>Deu 18:18</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They didn’t destroy the peoples as Yahweh commanded them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Moses ‘prophesied’ that Ephraim would “push the people [Gentile inhabitants of the land] together to the ends of the earth / land” (<a href='B:50 33:17'>Deu 33:17</a>). And yet <a href='B:350 7:8'>Hos 7:8</a> cp. <a href='B:230 106:34-36'>Psa 106:34-36</a> criticize Ephraim for failing to push the people out of the land. Moses’ prophecies about the tribes sound like predictions; but they were actually commands which those tribes had the freewill to obey or not. Despite the promise of the Kingdom, Israel didn't use that potential. And now at this point they were in exile amongst the Gentiles, because they had actually liked those peoples and chose their idols.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>but mixed themselves with the nations, and learned their works-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>And the exiles had done just the same, and even at the restoration they likewise "mingled" with the nations through intermarriage (s:w. <a href='B:150 9:2'>Ezr 9:2</a>). Israel simply refused to learn from their history. "Learned their works" refers to their eager learning the ways of idolatry (:36); these are the "works" of :39.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They served their idols, which became a snare to them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In fulfilment of the warning of <a href='B:20 23:33'>Exo 23:33</a>. Idolatry itself leads to further failure- as part of a downward spiral. The figure of a snare suggests they were led to the point of being caught and slain by the snare. The idea of riches being a snare (<a href='B:610 6:9'>1Ti 6:9</a>) connects with copious OT references to idols as Israel's perpetual snare (<a href='B:20 23:33'>Exo 23:33</a>; <a href='B:50 7:16'>Deu 7:16</a>; <a href='B:70 2:3'>Jdg 2:3</a>; <a href='B:70 8:27'>Jdg 8:27</a>; <a href='B:230 106:36'>Psa 106:36</a>; <a href='B:350 5:1'>Hos 5:1</a>). Paul's point is surely that the desire of wealth is the equivalent of OT idolatry.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yes, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I noted on :36 that the figure of a snare suggests the idols killed them; and here we have this developed, in that they literally killed their children in the name of idols. Demons refer to idols (:36). Demons or idols have no real existence (<a href='B:530 8:4'>1Co 8:4</a>; <a href='B:530 10:20'>1Co 10:20</a>). Therefore when we read of demons being cast out in the Gospel records, this is the language of the day used for healing various illnesses rather than any evidence that demons actually exist.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. The land was polluted with blood-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But they continued doing so, and it was for shedding innocent blood like this that they went into captivity (s:w. <a href='B:300 2:34'>Jer 2:34</a>; <a href='B:300 19:4'>Jer 19:4</a>). And the impenitent exiles did the same in their persecution and murder of the restoration prophets (<a href='B:290 59:7'>Isa 59:7</a>). Again the point is being made that despite hardening themselves against the voice of history, God still had a willingness to try to work with them towards repentance:&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Thus were they defiled with their works, and prostituted themselves in their deeds-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "works" are the idolatry of :35; the "works" of the Gentiles (:35) had become "their own works" (:39 AV). They had fully adopted the Gentile ways as their very own. They were thus unfaithful to Yahweh who was their husband; they were morally and sexually defiled and therefore liable to be stoned to death, burnt or at least divorced. These were the Mosaic law options for a husband whose wife was unfaithful or a prostitute. But the grace of it all is that like Hosea with Gomer (representing God and Israel), they were not destroyed as a people. God as it were broke His own law by seeking to have them back even after the great divorce:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Therefore Yahweh burned with anger against His people-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the burning anger which arises from the abuse of love; it was their prostitution which made God so furious (:39). But truly "the wrath of God is the love of God", as Emil Brunner observed. The extent of His anger was a reflection of the extent of His love for them which had been so abused. The kindling of Yahweh's anger begins a series of allusions to the book of Judges, here to <a href='B:70 2:14'>Jdg 2:14</a>; <a href='B:70 2:20'>Jdg 2:20</a> etc.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He abhorred His inheritance-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is a mutuality between God and man. God and His Kingdom are our inheritance (<a href='B:230 78:55'>Psa 78:55</a>); but we are His inheritance. A man's inheritance was the essence of Himself, all He had in the world. And this is how we are to Him.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He gave them into the hand of the nations. Those who hated them ruled over them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Into the hand of::." is the term repeatedly used in the Judges record (<a href='B:70 3:10'>Jdg 3:10</a>; <a href='B:70 3:12'>Jdg 3:12</a>; <a href='B:70 3:31'>Jdg 3:31</a>; <a href='B:70 4:2'>Jdg 4:2</a>; <a href='B:70 6:1'>Jdg 6:1</a>; <a href='B:70 10:7-18'>Jdg 10:7-18</a>; <a href='B:70 13:1'>Jdg 13:1</a>). Even the restored exiles were still "ruled over" by the "nations" (s:w. <a href='B:160 9:37'>Neh 9:37</a>). The restoration wasn't the degree of restoration of the Kingdom of God and His people which the restoration prophecies had presented as potentially possible.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Their enemies also oppressed them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Oppressed" is a common word in the record of the Judges (s:w. <a href='B:70 1:34'>Jdg 1:34</a>; <a href='B:70 2:18'>Jdg 2:18</a>; <a href='B:70 4:3'>Jdg 4:3</a>; <a href='B:70 6:9'>Jdg 6:9</a>; <a href='B:70 10:12'>Jdg 10:12</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They were brought into subjection under their hand-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This again continues the allusion to the situation in the book of Judges (<a href='B:70 4:3'>Jdg 4:3</a>; <a href='B:70 4:6-11'>Jdg 4:6-11</a>; <a href='B:70 10:8'>Jdg 10:8</a>). The grace of it all is that time and again they were saved by Yahweh's "saviours", the judges, who looked ahead to Yehoshua, 'Yah's salvation', in the Lord Jesus. But the raising up of these saviours was by grace alone.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Many times He delivered them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The grace of it all was that each time, God said 'this is the last time', and Israel responded later 'Yes, but please, just this once, have mercy on us just once more'. And this went on many times. Each time God showed them special grace.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But they were rebellious in their ways, and were brought low in their iniquity-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Flesh must be humbled- either we do it now, we humble ourselves that we may be exalted in due time; or it will have to be done to us through the terror of rejection. Time and again ‘bringing low’ or ‘humiliation’ is the result of condemnation (<a href='B:50 28:43'>Deu 28:43</a>; <a href='B:140 28:19'>2Ch 28:19</a>; <a href='B:220 40:12'>Job 40:12</a>; <a href='B:230 106:43'>Psa 106:43</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Nevertheless He regarded their distress, when He heard their cry-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :43. Their lack of penitence was overlooked because God was simply so sensitive to the distress of His wayward people. This was the grace of it all.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He remembered for them His covenant, and relented according to the multitude of His graces-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Israel kept their Passovers throughout the wilderness years, one would assume- but they never remembered the day that God brought them out of Egypt (<a href='B:230 78:42'>Psa 78:42</a>)- although notice how although Israel didn't remember God, yet He remembered them in His grace (<a href='B:230 106:7'>Psa 106:7</a>; <a href='B:230 106:45'>Psa 106:45</a>). We can read of the cross, speak of it, memorialize it as Israel did the exodus through the Passover ritual; and yet totally fail to realize the powerful imperatives which abound in its’ message. God's covenant is here demonstrated to be unilateral, from Him to man, by grace. The covenant in view is that with Abraham made in Genesis 15, which featured God making unilateral promises whilst Abraham was incapacitated and unable to do anything in response. Neither was there any clause added making it conditional upon his obedience. This is in sharp contrast with the law of Moses, the old covenant. Jeremiah, Zechariah and Ezekiel all make the point to the exiles that they had broken the old covenant, and therefore they could only be saved by reaffirming their part in the new covenant. For it was this covenant which is rightly paralleled here with the multitude of God's great grace, "graces" being an intensive plural for His great grace.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He made them also to be pitied by all those who carried them captive-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The book of Esther reveals the relative popularity and success of the Jews in Babylon / Persia. The descriptions of the exiles as captives groaning in a prison house must therefore be understood in spiritual terms. For the exiles were not under physical abuse. But they failed to realize their awful spiritual environment, and therefore spurned the opportunity for deliverance from it; and that is the reason so many reject the message of God's Kingdom today. The exiles particularly were shown "pity" by the powers of their day, allowing them to return to Zion and rebuild it (s:w. <a href='B:160 1:11'>Neh 1:11</a> "mercy"). This "pity" or "mercy before them that lead you captive" was specifically predicated upon their repentance (s:w. <a href='B:140 30:9'>2Ch 30:9</a>). But they didn't repent; and yet they were shown this mercy / pity. That was the grace of it all. This "pity" was the pity of God who would according to that pity / mercy regather them (s:w. <a href='B:290 54:7'>Isa 54:7</a>; <a href='B:450 1:16'>Zec 1:16</a>). He showed them that pity despite their impenitence; and yet most of them preferred to spurn it by remaining in exile.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Save us, Yahweh, our God, gather us from among the nations, to give thanks to Your holy name, to triumph in Your praise!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These last two verses are quoting from David's Psalm of thanksgiving when the ark was brought to Zion (<a href='B:130 16:35-36'>1Ch 16:35-36</a>). But the inspired Psalmist in <a href='B:230 106:47'>Psa 106:47</a> makes a slight change because he was using this Psalm in the context of the exiles wanting to be restored: "Gather us together and deliver us from the nations" is changed to "Gather us from among the nations". The ark was lost; it was the Jews themselves who were to come to Zion. The exile brought them to realize that the box called "the ark" was mere religion; the essence of it was that the dwelling place of God was no longer a box of acacia wood, but God's own repentant people.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Book V-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Although this begins a new book, this Psalm appears to follow on from Psalms 106, which concludes with the exiled psalmist thanking God in the past tense for having delivered His people from exile. But we must understand that this doesn't mean that this is a Psalm of praise once the exiles had returned; for Psalms 106 is an appeal for God's grace to be shown in restoring the exiles. What is yet future is spoken of as having happened; it is a statement of faith in the deliverance which the faithful believe will happen. Psalms 107 is similar; it praises God in the past tense for the deliverance and reestablishment of His Kingdom in Judah which the [few] faithful exiles were praying and hoping for, in accordance with the restoration prophecies. And those prophecies are often alluded to in this Psalm.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Give thanks to Yahweh, for He is good, for His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>His eternal grace is the theme of <a href='B:230 106:45'>Psa 106:45</a>. Psalms 107 continues the praise of this grace, and on that basis, expresses confidence that the restored Kingdom would indeed come about. People are invited to thank God for it as if it has happened- as an expression of faith in the final fulfilment of the restoration prophecies.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let the redeemed by Yahweh say so-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is appealing to the restoration prophecies about the exiles being redeemed from captivity and returning to Zion (<a href='B:290 62:12'>Isa 62:12</a>; <a href='B:290 35:9-10'>Isa 35:9-10</a>; <a href='B:290 51:10-11'>Isa 51:10-11</a>; <a href='B:290 63:4'>Isa 63:4</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Just as God had historically redeemed His people from "trouble", so He would from the "adversary" of Babylon / Persia (s:w. :6). But the problem was that the exiles were comfortable in their exile, as the book of Esther demonstrates; and didn't perceive their environment as their "adversary".</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>and gathered out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This was what had been prayed for in <a href='B:230 106:47'>Psa 106:47</a>, and was according to the restoration prophecies (<a href='B:300 32:37'>Jer 32:37</a>; <a href='B:330 20:34'>Eze 20:34</a> etc:). The tragedy was that the exiles didn't want to return. The ten tribes assimilated into the lands of their exile, and the peoples of Judah preferred to stay where they were, for the most part. Only a small percentage of the Jewish exiles returned. The regathering from all points of the compass also didn't really happen; these things have been reinterpreted and reapplied, so that they will come true in essence but not in literal detail. The clear fulfilment is in the gathering of willing Gentile converts from all points of the compass to the spiritual Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They wandered in the wilderness in a desert way, they found no city to live in-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea is that as God's people were preserved through the wilderness journey, so would the exiles be. But most didn't even start the journey. And so these things have been reapplied and reinterpreted. Therefore the LXX of this phrase is quoted about the Christian believers in <a href='B:650 13:14'>Heb 13:14</a>. We too are on a wilderness journey after our Red Sea baptism, and find no place we can call home in that journey. Our place of rest and settling down isn’t in this life, but in the Kingdom which is to come at Christ’s return. The implication could be that Israel wanted to settle in the wilderness. They didn’t want to return to Egypt (although they did at times), they didn’t really desire the unknown promised land</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> so, they wanted to just settle down there in the wilderness. And so it can be with us. We can be happy with the way to the Kingdom, it can be that the social aspect of the Christian life suites us</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> we are content with it, and yet it can be that for all that, we lack a real sense of direction towards the Kingdom. We are going some place. The Christian life is but a path leading towards an end, and the end destination is the Kingdom:&nbsp;If we believe surely that we will be there, we will live lives which reflect this sense of concrete direction and aim.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Perhaps we can infer from this that Israel in the wilderness initially wanted to return to Egypt, and yet it is also true that they sought for a city to live in whilst in the wilderness. They wanted to just stay there in the wilderness. They didn’t want to return to Egypt, they didn’t really desire the unknown promised land</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>so, they wanted to just settle there in the wilderness. And so it can be with us. We can be happy with the way to the Kingdom, it can be that the social aspect of the Christian life suites us</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> we are content with it, and yet it can be that for all that, we lack a real sense of direction towards the Kingdom. We are going some place. The Christian life is but a path leading towards an end, and the end destination is the Kingdom. If we believe surely that we will be there, we will live lives which reflect this sense of concrete direction and aim.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Israel in the wilderness were made to suffer hunger so that they would come to realize that man doesn't live by bread alone, but by the words of God which went forth to create manna for them (<a href='B:50 8:3'>Deu 8:3</a>). Their soul "fainted" in that they refused to perceive thIsa. And so it was with the complaints of the exiles. Their experiences were intended to bring them to God.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Then they cried to Yahweh in their trouble and He delivered them out of their distresses-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Just as God had historically redeemed His people from "trouble", so He would from the "adversary" of Babylon / Persia (s:w. :2). But the problem was that the exiles were comfortable in their exile, as the book of Esther demonstrates; and didn't perceive their environment as their "adversary".</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He led them also by a straight way, that they might go to a city to live in-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The same word as in :4; the "way" the Israelites were led through the desert after the exodus could have corresponded to how the exiles were led from Babylon back to Zion. But although God gave Israel a straight way, it took them 38 years of wandering. For they didn't use the potential He gave them. And so it was with the exiles, and with many attempted journeys towards God's Kingdom. Likewise Ezra prayed for a "straight way" from exile to Zion (s:w. <a href='B:150 8:21'>Ezr 8:21</a>). But although it was provided, few of the exiles wanted to even begin the way. Their journey from Babylon to Zion was "that they might go to a city to live in", as if Babylon was not in fact a city they could live in. But sadly, many of the exiles preferred it to Zion. "A straight way" is a phrase used more frequently of walking before God in a "right way" (<a href='B:90 12:23'>1Sa 12:23</a> and very often). The "way" back to Zion was not just a physical journey, but a walking in God's ways. And the Biblical historians of the 'restoration' indicate that this was not the path which the returning exiles walked in. The intention was that the exiles would enter the new covenant and "be caused to walk in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble" (<a href='B:300 31:9'>Jer 31:9</a>). But the exiles who returned did stumble (<a href='B:460 2:8'>Mal 2:8</a>). The potential spiritual strength to keep them in the way was not used. Potentially, the cherubim which departed from Zion in Ezekiel's vision would have returned with "straight feet" (<a href='B:330 1:7'>Eze 1:7</a>). The way back was plain and clear, with every blessing along it. But the exiles preferred Babylon. And so these things are reapplied to the new Israel, who are to walk in a straight way towards God's restored Kingdom (<a href='B:650 12:13'>Heb 12:13</a>). See on :40.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let them praise Yahweh for His grace, for His wonderful works to the children of men!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This was the intended picture of the joy of the returned, restored exiles. But they didn't perceive their sinfulness nor His grace, and so their praise was not at all so ecstatic as envisaged here. "His grace", His unending forgiveness and patient desire to save, was to be perceived as His greatest "work". This ultimately came to full articulation in the death of His Son.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For He satisfies the longing soul, He fills the hungry soul with good-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Satisfying::. with good" quotes the restoration prophecy of <a href='B:300 31:14'>Jer 31:14</a> (s:w:). This Psalm is an expression of faith in the fulfilment of the restoration prophecies; but it was not yet fulfilled. Those "longing" for grace and true spiritual restoration (:8) would be given it. But finally this 'filling' was to be through the Lord Jesus. And therefore Mary quoted this verse about how she had been filled with good things (<a href='B:490 1:53'>Luk 1:53</a>); but Zacharias quoted the next verse, :10, shortly afterwards (<a href='B:490 1:79'>Luk 1:79</a>). Surely Mary had gotten him thinking in the same paths as she did. Our spirituality can influence others positively, consciously and unconsciously. This is why it’s important to mix in spiritual company.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This alludes to how Joseph in Egypt was bound in iron (<a href='B:230 105:18'>Psa 105:18</a> s:w:), and Israel in Egypt are similarly described. The situation of the exiles in Babylon was not so physically awful. But they were expected to perceive that the opulence of Babylon was in fact "darkness and the shadow of death" (s:w. <a href='B:290 9:2'>Isa 9:2</a>; <a href='B:300 13:16'>Jer 13:16</a>). Because they didn't perceive that, the good news of exodus and deliverance from that wasn't so attractive to them. And so it is with people today. See on :14.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>because they rebelled against the words of God, and condemned the counsel of the Most High-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is one of a number of Biblical verses which suggest that we as it were stand in judgment upon God when we encounter His word. He overcomes every claim that His word is untrue and therefore He is condemned (<a href='B:520 3:4'>Rom 3:4</a>). That we mere humans should judge God the judge of all is an arresting concept; but this is what we are in effect doing when we consider His claims, His promises of saving us which are throughout His word.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "most high God" could suggest that they believed in many gods, but in their desperate moments, recognized Yahweh as the "most high" of them all. And this was why they ultimately rebelled against Yahweh's words, probably a reference specifically to the words of the covenant. Let us remember that Israel carried the tabernacle of their god Remphan through the desert as well as that of Yahweh.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Therefore He brought down their heart with labour, they fell down-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Fell down" is the word translated "feeble": "There was not one feeble person among His tribes" (<a href='B:230 105:37'>Psa 105:37</a>), but prior to this the Israelites had indeed been "feeble" before their Egyptian captors (s:w. <a href='B:230 107:12'>Psa 107:12</a>). This means that the feeble were made strong; and this was exactly the promise to the exiles, that they who were "feeble" in Babylonian exile would be strengthened so that they could&nbsp; leave Babylon and be restored to the land (s:w. <a href='B:290 35:3'>Isa 35:3</a>). The word for "feeble" is often translated "cast down" and is used of how Judah had been at the time of their exile into Babylon (<a href='B:300 6:21'>Jer 6:21</a>; <a href='B:300 8:12'>Jer 8:12</a>; <a href='B:300 18:15'>Jer 18:15</a>; <a href='B:310 1:14'>Lam 1:14</a>; <a href='B:350 5:5'>Hos 5:5</a> and often). But they would be led out of Babylon in a straight way and without stumbling / being feeble (s:w. <a href='B:300 31:9'>Jer 31:9</a>); the "feeble" would be strengthened (<a href='B:450 12:8'>Zec 12:8</a> s:w:). Yet when they returned to the land, they were "feeble" (s:w. <a href='B:160 4:10'>Neh 4:10</a> "decayed"; <a href='B:460 2:8'>Mal 2:8</a> "stumbled"). The potential strengthening wasn't used by them:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>And there was none to help-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"None to help" is the phrase used in prophecy of the Lord's crucifixion in <a href='B:230 22:11'>Psa 22:11</a> "Don’t be far from me, for trouble is near; for there is none else to help". The same words are used for how Israel and the exiles were under persecution with none to help apart from God (<a href='B:310 1:7'>Lam 1:7</a>). The paradox was that God saved His people through the Lord Jesus exactly because they had "none to help" (<a href='B:290 63:5'>Isa 63:5</a> s:w:). But He Himself had to go through that experience of having none to help (<a href='B:230 22:11'>Psa 22:11</a>). Their salvation was achieved through His being their total representative.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Then they cried to Yahweh in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Although the allusion may be to the Red Sea deliverance, the plural "distresses" suggests that this 'crying to Yahweh' occurred many times. And the identical phrase is a key phrase in the Judges record (<a href='B:70 3:9'>Jdg 3:9</a>; <a href='B:70 3:15'>Jdg 3:15</a>; <a href='B:70 6:6-7'>Jdg 6:6-7</a>; <a href='B:70 10:10'>Jdg 10:10</a>). The Judges record has been alluded to in <a href='B:230 106:40-42'>Psa 106:40-42</a> as a parade example of God's saving grace to Israel. The grace of it all was that each time, God said 'this is the last time', and Israel responded later 'Yes, but please, just this once, have mercy on us just once more'. And this went on many times. Each time God showed them special grace. Time and again they were saved by Yahweh's "saviours", the judges, who looked ahead to Yehoshua, 'Yah's salvation', in the Lord Jesus. But the raising up of these saviours was by grace alone.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke their bonds in sunder-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The deliverance from Egypt could have been replicated in deliverance from Babylon. But the difference was that the Jews were not being abused in Babylon; rather were they being ensnared by the soft life. And they didn't want to perceive that they were in a spiritual prison, despite its opulence in secular terms. Most of the exiles spurned this great salvation. And yet it will be fulfilled for God's new Israel in their redemption from death and the grave. "The land of darkness and the shadow of death" refers so often to the grave (<a href='B:220 10:21'>Job 10:21</a>). Egypt and Babylon were figuratively the land of death; but the prophecies of the deliverance of God's people from them will come ultimately true in our redemption from death through the resurrection of the body to eternal life in the restored Kingdom of God on earth.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let them praise Yahweh for His grace, for His wonderful works to the children of men!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The salvation of Israel historically was by grace alone; for when they cried to Him in desperation, their faith and repentance was hardly very deep because they immediately returned to their own ways once they were rescued. And yet given this pattern of grace, the psalmist can confidently exhort Judah and the exiles to again pray and throw themselves upon this grace; but they must perceive it as grace, and make it real and permanent. His "wonderful works" were not so much in His material saving of them, but in the amazing grace He showed to them.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For He has broken the gates of brass and cut through bars of iron-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This seems to allude to the famed gates and bars of Babylon, and is imagining the fulfilment of <a href='B:290 45:2'>Isa 45:2</a>. But Babylon didn't fall as potentially envisaged in the prophets; for Judah didn't repent, and Cyrus who was to break the gates didn't live up to his potential. Therefore the gates weren't broken or cut; a different scenario played out when the Medes took Babylon.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Fools are afflicted because of their disobedience and because of their iniquities-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is as close as we get to an admission of sin; a confession of iniquity, disobedience and foolishness, and an acceptance of the consequences ['affliction']. The "afflictions" of David are presented as a pattern for those of the exiles (<a href='B:230 132:1'>Psa 132:1</a>). They too denied their sin initially and struggled to accept its consequences; but David's path of repentance and restoration was to be theirs. But for the most part they refused to follow thIsa. LXX "He helped them out of the way of their iniquity" hints at the psychological help from the Holy Spirit which was available potentially, just as it is for the new Israel who wish to leave Babylon for Zion.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Their soul abhors every kind of food, they draw near to the gates of death-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This seems to be one of a number of allusions to Job (here to <a href='B:220 33:20'>Job 33:20</a>), whose book would have been one of the early scriptures available to David and the psalmist who has used David's earlier psalm here. Drawing near to the gates of death was how David felt (<a href='B:230 9:13'>Psa 9:13</a>; <a href='B:230 88:3'>Psa 88:3</a>).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Then they cry to Yahweh in their trouble, He saves them out of their distresses-</p><h2>The cry to Yahweh is made at the point of death (:18). The exiles failed to perceive that they were facing spiritual death in Babylon. For they were popular and prosperous there, and were not at all at knife point as they had been in Egypt. And therefore they failed to cry to Yahweh for deliverance as they should have done.</h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He sends His word and heals them, and delivers them from their graves-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This repeats the promise of the revived dry bones in Ezekiel 37; the exiles were to be as it were resurrected from their graves. This was the potential degree of revival possible for the exiles. It was prefigured in the "word" sent to Hezekiah to heal him of his sickness (<a href='B:120 20:4'>2Ki 20:4</a>; <a href='B:290 38:4'>Isa 38:4</a>).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let them praise Yahweh for His grace, for His wonderful works to the children of men!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The exiles are bidden praise God ahead of time for His grace, as if it had already been experienced. This is the essence of faith, to see things from God's perspective, believing and feeling at the point of asking that we receive what we have requested (<a href='B:480 11:24'>Mar 11:24</a>).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let them offer the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare His works with singing-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This Psalm may well have been used in the temple services, and at this point there was an invitation to the community to join in the singing. The exiles had no temple, priesthood or altar; they are being invited to understand that the essence of sacrifice is not the blood of animals, but the words and thoughts of God's people.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business in great waters-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalm envisages God's prophetic word of restoration as coming gloriously true, and the thanksgiving offered was to be as sailors might thank their God after a deliverance from certain death in a storm. The allusion is to the restoration prophecy of <a href='B:290 42:10'>Isa 42:10</a>, which the psalmist praises as if it has been fulfilled. The "great" or "many waters" (AV) refer to the many nations, who for all their apparent power were to be stilled by God in a moment to prepare the way for His restored Kingdom.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>these see Yahweh’s works, and His wonders in the deep-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Just as God did wonders in "the deep" of the Red Sea, so He in fact had done upon "many waters" (:23 AV). See on :23. "The deep" refers to the literal bottom of the sea. The waves of the surface water were imagined to be caused by monsters of evil who were in the "depths" of the sea. The sea was seen as mysterious and the abode of the forces of evil. These ideas are deconstructed here. God is all powerful; there is no 'Satan' being which is a source of radical evil, outside of God's control. Even if such things were believed in, Yahweh was able to do His wonders in the very lair of these supposed beings.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For He commands, and raises the stormy wind which lifts up its waves-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The storm waves arise not because of any monster of evil, but at God's command. The Hebrew words for "wind" and "spirit" are the same; and God makes His Angels winds / spirits (<a href='B:230 104:4'>Psa 104:4</a>). The seas represent the nations, from whom the exiles had been saved. Their storm against God's people had been raised up at God's command, operationalized through the Angels.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They mount up to the sky; they go down again to the depths. Their soul melts away because of trouble-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The salvation of Jonah in a similar storm represented that of the exiles, if they were willing to perceive it. But the exiles didn't want to accept that the opulence of Babylon was in fact a storm amongst the seas of nations which was driving them to cry to Yahweh for deliverance (:27). The deliverance of the disciples from storms was clearly a fulfilment of this kind of language about danger at sea, desperate cries to God, and then sudden calm. But the significance of the connection is that the exiles had precluded the possibility of salvation from the "seas" of the Gentile world at their time; and so these things were reapplied to the Lord Jesus and His people.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They reel back and forth and stagger like a drunken man, all their wisdom disappears-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Salvation from the storm of the Gentile seas was not by human wisdom. There was no way out from death in the storm. They were driven to a point where they had to cry to Yahweh (:28). But the exiles were not materially driven to such a point. God in His kindness and mercy to them in exile didn't allow them to be maltreated. And yet the result was that the desperate cry for deliverance wasn't elicited from the majority.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Then they cry to Yahweh in their trouble and He brings them out of their distress-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :27. This phrase is a refrain throughout the Psalm (:6,13,19,28):&nbsp; God would have brought the exiles out of the spiritual distress of the captivity; but the majority preferred to remain, and the few who did return did so, it seems, motivated by what land and homes they could carve out for themselves. So this redemption from distress was spurned by the exiles, and is reapplied to the great salvation offered now in the Lord Jesus. The day of "distress" was that of their judgment for their sins by the Babylonian invasion (s:w. <a href='B:430 1:15'>Zep 1:15</a>). But God would bring them out of that consequence for sin. That was the psalmist's hope and confidence. But the tragedy was that the exiles didn't want to know.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He makes the storm a calm, so that its waves are still-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This may mean that the ideal intention was that the nations where God's people were exiled would repent and also accept Yahweh. They would then be still and at peace with Him. But this didn't happen at the time as envisaged. Therefore the image of still seas after storm is used of how things shall finally be at the last day (<a href='B:730 15:2'>Rev 15:2</a>).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Then they are glad because it is calm, and so He brings them to their desired haven-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on <a href='B:230 106:24'>Psa 106:24</a>. The idea of God stilling a storm and getting terrified sailors immediately to their port clearly had fulfilment in how Christ stilled the storm on the lake of Galilee (<a href='B:500 6:18-21'>Joh 6:18-21</a>). This doesn’t mean that He is God Himself, but rather that Old Testament statements about God were fulfilled in His Son, who manifested the Father to perfection. But the significance of the connection is that the exiles had precluded the possibility of salvation from the "seas" of the Gentile world at their time; and so these things were reapplied to the Lord Jesus and His people.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let them praise Yahweh for His grace, for His wonderful works for the children of men!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This phrase is a refrain throughout the Psalm. See notes on :8,15,21,31.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let them exalt Him also in the gathering of the people, and praise Him in the seat of the elders-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Note the parallel between elders and the assembly / gathering of the general congregation. All alike were to be awed by God's grace. Likewise <a href='B:510 15:22'>Act 15:22</a> parallels the elders and the whole congregation: “The apostles and elders with the whole church” agreed a solution. It wasn’t a top down decision imposed upon the congregation. They all participated.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He turns rivers into a desert, water springs into a thirsty ground-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This continues the allusions to the restoration prophecies. The restored Kingdom of God could have come at the restoration, complete with a Messiah figure. But it was precluded by the failures of the various potential Messiahs like Zerubbabel, and by the impenitence of the exiles.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>and a fruitful land into a salt waste because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The envisaged restitution was to be a radical inversion of all things. It was Babylon which was to be turned into a salt waste. The prophecies of her fall speak of supernatural Divine judgment ruining the land surrounding Babylon, akin to the scale and nature of Sodom's destruction. But this didn't happen. Babylon didn't fall suddenly, as envisaged; the prophetic scenario was reapplied and recalculated to the fall of the latter day Babylon in Revelation 18, which alludes to all those prophecies of Babylon's fall which didn't come about as potentially possible at the time.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:330 47:11'>Eze 47:11</a> likewise envisaged some places in the restored Zion as being still "a salt waste". But the exiles didn't rebuild Zion according to the commandments in Ezekiel 40-48 and so this didn't come about as it then could have done.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He turns a desert into a pool of water, and a dry land into water springs-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This kind of radical inversion of all things, socially and also in the natural creation, was to be the hallmark of the restored Kingdom of God. But the deserts weren't transformed when the exiles returned, and the restoration prophets record how they suffered terribly with drought, disease, pests, famine and poor harvests. What could have been just didn't come about- at that time. It has all been reinterpreted with reference to the restoration of the Kingdom of God at the return of the Lord Jesus.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There He makes the hungry live, that they may prepare a city to live in-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The picture of the returned exiles arriving hungry but preparing Zion their city, with the waste areas made miraculously fertile (:35), enjoying great harvests and mushrooming livestock (:37,38) just didn't happen. They returned in weak faith, seeking only their own personal advantage, and therefore they suffered terribly with drought, disease, pests, famine and poor harvests. And most didn't want to "prepare a city", to rebuild Zion; they were prepared to leave it broken down whilst they built their own houses and farmsteads, as Haggai laments.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>sow fields, plant vineyards, and reap the fruits of increase-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The psalmist was rejoicing in faith the restoration prophecies which spoke of these things (<a href='B:290 65:21'>Isa 65:21</a>; <a href='B:300 31:5'>Jer 31:5</a>) would surely come true. But they didn't come true at the pathetically small 'restoration' which occurred. See on :36. The famine was so severe that the returned exiles had to mortgage their vineyards and fields just to get food to eat (<a href='B:160 5:3-5'>Neh 5:3-5</a>).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He blesses them also, so that they are multiplied greatly; He doesn’t allow their livestock to decrease-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The language of blessing and 'multiplying greatly' is all that of the promises to Abraham (<a href='B:10 17:2'>Gen 17:2</a>; <a href='B:10 17:8'>Gen 17:8</a>). Those promises are the basis of the new covenant, which was offered to the exiles because they had broken the old covenant. But they refused the offer, and instead kept trying to keep parts of the old covenant. And so the exiles who returned didn't experience this great multiplication of blessing which was potentially possible. 'Multiplication' is repeatedly a theme of the restoration prophecies (<a href='B:300 30:19'>Jer 30:19</a>; <a href='B:330 36:11'>Eze 36:11</a>; <a href='B:330 36:29'>Eze 36:29</a> etc:).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again, they are diminished and bowed down through oppression, trouble, and sorrow-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Bowed down" is the word used of how in repentance over Bathsheba, David was "bowed down greatly" (<a href='B:230 38:6'>Psa 38:6</a>). The word can mean 'to humble'; and this is the required response to sin. David was representative of Israel in their sinfulness; they were intended to follow his path of penitence. If the exiles had done so, then they would have been restored as he was; but they didn't.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He pours contempt on princes, and causes them to wander in a trackless waste-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is what could have happened to the leaders of Babylon. As it happened, the princes of Babylon were largely onside with the Medes when they took the city, and only Belshazzar was slain. They could have suffered the condemnation of Israel, wandering in the desert- in contrast to the way that the exiles potentially had been given a "straight" path back to Zion, and could have had a straight path through the wilderness to Canaan when they first left Egypt. See on :7. Condemnation is here pictured as wandering without a "way"; the condemnation of the wicked at the last day will likewise be a reflection of their aimless lives, for all their talk of career paths and milestones of achievement.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yet He lifts the needy out of their affliction, and increases their families like a flock-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>AV "maketh him families". The Israelites were likewise set in families when they left Egypt (<a href='B:230 68:6'>Psa 68:6</a>). The allusion is to how Israel in Egypt were saved through uniting in family units around the Passover lamb. Those without families were set together with families, and were delivered as families. And God was willing to repeat the Exodus deliverance for the captives in Babylon / Persia. But just as people effectively spurn family life today, and dislike the discipline of life in a church family, so they will find the condemnation process to be so unbearably lonely.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The upright will see it, and be glad. All the wicked will shut their mouths-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idiom of shutting the mouth could imply that they accept the rightness of God's ways and their wrongness. For the intention of the judgment upon Babylon was always ultimately that they should repent, and join with repentant Judah in forming a new multiethnic people of God in the land.</p>


text:
<h2>A Song. A Psalm of David-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Psalms 108 is very similar to Psalms 60, which is a prayer at the time of the war with Edom. There were some reverses in that campaign, lamented in Psalms 44, 60. But here we have the song of final praise for the victory, although remembering the reverses suffered.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My heart is steadfast, God. I will sing and I will make music with my soul-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Literally, 'made steadfast'. David had earlier understood that for the humble and righteous, God can "prepare their heart" (<a href='B:230 10:17'>Psa 10:17</a>). This is evidence enough that God works directly upon the human heart and psychology, which He does today through the work of His Spirit upon the human spirit. For it is men who must prepare their heart in prayer and relationship toward God (s:w. <a href='B:140 12:14'>2Ch 12:14</a>; <a href='B:220 11:13'>Job 11:13</a>; <a href='B:230 7:9'>Psa 7:9</a>). But God can also do this for the humble. Hence David later asks God to create in him a 'prepared' heart (s:w. <a href='B:230 51:10'>Psa 51:10</a>). And God heard; for the same phrase is used of how God 'prepared' or (AV) "fixed" / NEV 'made steadfast' his heart (<a href='B:230 57:7'>Psa 57:7</a>; <a href='B:230 108:1'>Psa 108:1</a>; <a href='B:230 112:7'>Psa 112:7</a>). In allusion to this, Solomon was to later reflect that God can direct or 'prepare' (s:w:) the heart of man, even if he is thinking to direct his steps elsewhere (<a href='B:240 16:9'>Pro 16:9</a>). </p>


text:
<h2>Wake up, harp and lyre! I will wake up the dawn-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Or as AV "I myself will awake early". The Psalms continually stress the importance of starting each day with the Lord; David gives the impression his heart was bursting with praise as he awoke, and he instinctively wanted to grab his harp and play and sing praise.</p>


text:
<h2>I will give thanks to You, Yahweh, among the nations, I will sing praises to You among the peoples-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>How did David achieve his aim of praising Yahweh to the surrounding nations, as a means of witness to them of the God of Israel? Surely through his Psalms being distributed as popular music to them.</p>


text:
<h2>For Your grace is great above the heavens, Your faithfulness reaches to the skies-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalm is praising God for the victorious campaign against Edom. But as noted on :1 and on the related <a href='B:230 60:9'>Psa 60:9</a>, there had at times been reverses in the campaign, because Israel hadn't been obedient to the covenant. And so David recognizes that the overall victory had been by Divine grace. Grace / mercy and truth / faithfulness often refer to the Abrahamic covenant. He recognizes that victory over enemies was because of God's covenant faithfulness; even though at times they had broken that covenant.</p>


text:
<h2>Be exalted, God, above the heavens! Let Your glory be over all the earth-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The earth / eretz promised to Abraham was still largely in the hand of non-Israelites who were not in covenant with Yahweh. David's desire was that through his music ministry (see on :3), all the eretz would lift up Israel's God as exalted. There is surely nobody else recorded in the Old Testament who had such passion to witness to the Gentiles and convert them.</p>


text:
<h2>That Your beloved may be delivered, save with Your right hand, and answer us-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The parallel is in <a href='B:230 60:5'>Psa 60:5</a>, which has the same words, but concludes "and answer us":&nbsp; "The beloved of Yahweh" was Israel nationally (s:w. <a href='B:50 33:12'>Deu 33:12</a>; <a href='B:300 11:15'>Jer 11:15</a>; <a href='B:300 12:7'>Jer 12:7</a>). But it was also David personally; a Psalm about David's personal deliverance is extended to all Israel. David saw himself as representative of God's people. It could be that Solomon is in view also; for his original name was Jedidiah (<a href='B:100 12:25'>2Sa 12:25</a>), 'the beloved of Yahweh', referred to in that way by David in <a href='B:230 45:1'>Psa 45:1</a>. Perhaps Solomon was involved in the battle against the Edomites and David is asking for his son to be preserved.</p>


text:
<h2>God has spoken from His sanctuary: In triumph I will divide Shechem, and measure out the valley of Succoth-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Presumably there was a direct Divine communication from the sanctuary, perhaps through the mouth of Nathan, encouraging Israel to continue in the Edom campaign despite the reverses experienced (see on Psalms 44, 60). The idea of 'division' and 'measuring' is 'possession' and inheritance (as <a href='B:60 18:10'>Jos 18:10</a>). The idea therefore is that Israel is God's, and He had given it to Israel for inheritance; therefore those seeking to take it from them would be defeated. Perhaps Succoth and Shechem are mentioned because of their connections with Jacob, mentioned together in <a href='B:10 33:17-18'>Gen 33:17-18</a>. As He had been with Jacob, despite allowing him to experience many setbacks and near defeats, so He would be with the later seed of Israel.</p>


text:
<h2>Gilead is mine. Manasseh is mine. Ephraim also is my helmet. Judah is my sceptre-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The emphasis is that the land belongs to God, it "is Mine"; therefore those seeking to take it from God's people. would be defeated. Gilead and Manasseh represent the territory east of the Jordan; and Ephraim and Judah refer to the tribes west of the Jordan. The territories east of the Jordan just as much were God's as those to the west of it; for the Edomites were seeking to take firstly the Israelite territory east of the Jordan.</p>


text:
<h2>Moab is my wash pot, I will toss my sandal on Edom, I will shout over Philistia-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They were to become subservient to Yahweh. And that could imply that the hope was that they would accept Him as their God. For that was what conquered peoples usually did. David had earlier shouted in triumph over the Philistines when he slew Goliath; and that was to prepare him for this later victory. Circumstances repeat in our lives because they are under God's control.</p>


text:
<h2>Who will bring me into the fortified city? Who has led me to Edom?- </h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Strong city" can mean the fortified, strengthened city under siege (<a href='B:120 25:2'>2Ki 25:2</a> s:w:). The reference may be to Sela or Petra, Edom's capital, which claimed to be fortified against any invader (<a href='B:380 1:3'>Oba 1:3</a>).</p>


text:
<h2>Haven’t You rejected us, God? You don’t go forth, God, with our armies-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalm is clearly related to Psalms 44, which appears to be a comment upon a temporary set back and defeat during this campaign against Edom. But despite this, the Psalm glorifies how God had come through for His people, despite the temporary reverses. So this comment that God has rejected them would be looking back to how they once felt; for this Psalm is a victory song over Edom after defeating them as it is so similar to Psalms 60 (see on <a href='B:230 60:1'>Psa 60:1</a>).</p>


text:
<h2>Give us help against the enemy, for the help of man is vain-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Perhaps a reference to some attempt to hire mercenaries to help them in the campaign against Edom.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalm was apparently initially written about his persecution by Saul, but then expanded and reapplied to his experiences with Shimei and Ahithophel at the time of Absalom's rebellion.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God of my praise, don’t remain silent-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The apparent silence of God is the abiding struggle of every true believer. But David juxtaposes this struggle with the statement that he will always praise God. Regardless of our difficulties with the problem of evil and the apparent silence of God, He is still to be the object of our praise. The problem of evil and God's silence is in fact built in to our human experience to test and develop our love and trust in God.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, and fought against me without a cause-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The continued emphasis in David's psalms upon "without cause" surely reflects a self righteousness (<a href='B:230 35:19'>Psa 35:19</a>; <a href='B:230 69:4'>Psa 69:4</a>; <a href='B:230 109:3'>Psa 109:3</a>; <a href='B:230 119:161'>Psa 119:161</a>). For David's righteousness was only impressive relative to the wickedness of his enemies; before God, it was filthy rags. It was true that Saul persecuted David "without cause" (s:w. <a href='B:90 19:5'>1Sa 19:5</a>), but the experience of "without cause" persecution can lead us to an inappropriate self-righteousness. This is what happened to Job, who also suffered "without cause" (s:w. <a href='B:220 2:3'>Job 2:3</a>), and had to be convicted of self-righteousness at the end of the story. And it seems this happened to David. David himself intended to shed blood "without cause" and was only saved from it by grace (s:w. <a href='B:90 25:31'>1Sa 25:31</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Reading through the book of Psalms in one or two sittings reveals that frequent and intense self-examination was a leading characteristic of David:, especially while on the run from Saul and Absalom; as if he began to pick up false guilt from how he was being treated, wondering if it was all in fact justified (<a href='B:230 4:4'>Psa 4:4</a>; <a href='B:230 7:3'>Psa 7:3</a>; <a href='B:230 17:3'>Psa 17:3</a>; <a href='B:230 18:20-24'>Psa 18:20-24</a>; <a href='B:230 19:12'>Psa 19:12</a>; <a href='B:230 26:1'>Psa 26:1</a>; <a href='B:230 39:1'>Psa 39:1</a>; <a href='B:230 59:3'>Psa 59:3</a>; <a href='B:230 66:18'>Psa 66:18</a>; <a href='B:230 77:6'>Psa 77:6</a>; <a href='B:230 86:2'>Psa 86:2</a>; <a href='B:230 101:2'>Psa 101:2</a>; <a href='B:230 109:3'>Psa 109:3</a>; <a href='B:230 139:23-24'>Psa 139:23-24</a>).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In return for my love, they are my adversaries; but I am in prayer-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This clearly applies to David's love for Saul, refusing to kill him when he could have done, and lamenting over him as man mourns for his mother (<a href='B:230 35:14'>Psa 35:14</a>). And likewise of his senseless love for Absalom. And yet again we could note that David speaks so much hatred for Saul in the Psalms; he is choosing to focus upon his own more positive side, rather than seeing that he too in the wider picture of human character and history had not always been so perfect. We recall his murder of his loyal friend Uriah:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :4. Whilst David's lament is understandable, he shows himself out of step with the spirit of the Lord Jesus, who taught that we should love and do good to others without expecting "good" in return from them, and indeed accepting they may continue to do evil to us (<a href='B:490 6:33-34'>Luk 6:33-34</a>). But David has the natural expectation that those we do good to ought to be loyal to us in return, and certainly not hate us:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Set a wicked man over him, let an adversary stand at his right hand-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The plural slanderers and adversaries now become focused upon a singular person. Possibly David is personifying them all as one person. Or if a specific individual is in view, it perhaps was in the first context Shimei as he cursed David as he fled from Absalom. But verse 8 is quoted in the New Testament about Judas. This is not to say that everything about Shimei in this Psalm is true of Judas, indeed the bitter feelings of David as expressed here do not seem appropriate to the saving sorrow which the Lord felt for Judas.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The contrast is with how Yahweh stands at the right hand of the righteous (:31), i:e. as his guide. A satan at the right hand is a similar situation to the description of the court of Heaven which we meet in Zechariah 3. I suggest that all human situations on earth are reflected in the court of Heaven, and vice versa. David wished that an Angel adversarial to Shimei would be actively involved in his life, and that Angel [a righteous one] would be represented by the actions of a "wicked man" on earth leading Shimei [or Judas] to destruction. So perhaps it was a Satan-Angel that stood at Judas' right hand (i. e. to influence him), confirming him in the way he had chosen to go, as God hardened Pharaoh's already hard heart. The question is, who was this individual on earth in the life of Shimei, and perhaps also of Judas? Perhaps it was the High Priest in the case of Judas.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The book of Job is frequently alluded to by David (see on :24); it was likely about the only scripture he had access to apart from the Pentateuch. So it is unsurprising that he should apparently hold the same idea of a Satan-Angel, under God's control, which we find in Job. That Angel represented and was manifest through adversaries on earth, who may themselves have been evil. Perhaps David thought in terms of a wicked man on earth, controlled by the Satan-Angel in Heaven.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When he is judged, let him come forth guilty, let his prayer be turned into sin-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is clearly wishing for the person in view to be condemned at the last day, and for God to consider this person's prayers as sin. David seems totally lacking in any desire for repentance and salvation for his enemies, but rather wishes their absolute condemnation from God.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let his days be few, let another take his office-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Although quoted about Judas, the initial application would have been to the likes of Saul, Ahithophel and Shimei. And on :19 I will suggest Joab may also be in view. Their "office" would have respectively been as king, chief adviser and head of Saul's herdsmen, and in Joab's case, head of the army. In the application to Saul, David's desire to see "another take his office" would have been a request for himself to be made king after Saul, as he had been promised.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A quotation from <a href='B:20 22:24'>Exo 22:24</a>, of God's especial condemnation of those who abuse the stranger, the poor and weak. David feels he is in that situation whilst persecuted by Saul, often describing himself as a stranger and "poor and needy" (:16):&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>may his children be wandering beggars, let them be sought from their ruins-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the application to Saul, this would have included David's best friend Jonathan. He seems to have been far too quick in his wishing of the worst condemnation on his enemies. Perhaps he is using standard phrases of condemnation, without thinking of their implication. We can take a warning here; we can all use standard forms of cursing another, the implications of which we need to think through.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let the creditor seize all that he has, let strangers plunder the fruit of his labour-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Mosaic law forbad the exercise of such usury (s:w. <a href='B:20 22:25'>Exo 22:25</a>). But what is envisaged is a man in debt to Gentiles ("strangers", paralleled with "the creditor"). As noted on :10, this is perhaps a standard curse which David is appropriating perhaps without undue thought as to the implications (see on :10).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let there be nobody to extend kindness to him, neither let there be anyone to have pity on his fatherless children-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is God who 'extends kindness', for the phrase is alone used of Him (<a href='B:230 36:10'>Psa 36:10</a>; <a href='B:300 31:3'>Jer 31:3</a>). David wishes this person to be outside the realm of God's grace; and we reflect why ever David felt the need to say this about anybody. Perhaps his grief over the deaths of Saul and Absalom was partly because he realized he had cursed them too deeply in prayers like thIsa.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let his posterity be cut off, in the next generation may their name be blotted out-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :10, David is not thinking of the implications of this with regards to Saul. David does all he can to ensure that the name of Saul and Jonathan was not blotted out, showing extraordinary grace to their descendants. Perhaps he did this aware that such prayers as this had been going far too far:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered by Yahweh, don’t let the sin of his mother be blotted out-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Blotted out" is the word David used when begging for his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah to be blotted out: "And blot out all of my iniquities" (<a href='B:230 51:9'>Psa 51:9</a>). We note with concern that in this Psalm written apparently after this time concerning the time of Absalom's rebellion, David asks that the sins of his enemies not be blotted out. Again we wonder as to whether David maintained an awareness of the enormity of God's grace to him.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let them be before Yahweh continually, that He may cut off their memory from the earth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again we note that there is not a word of desire for the repentance and salvation of the person, but rather verse after verse expressing a desire for their eternal condemnation:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>because he didn’t remember to show kindness, but persecuted the poor and needy man, the broken in heart, to kill them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David had seen himself as "poor and needy" and broken hearted, needing grace after his sin with Bathsheba and its consequences (<a href='B:230 40:17'>Psa 40:17</a>; <a href='B:230 70:5'>Psa 70:5</a>; <a href='B:230 86:1'>Psa 86:1</a>; <a href='B:230 109:16'>Psa 109:16</a>; <a href='B:230 109:22'>Psa 109:22</a>), and also during his persecution by Saul. We noted on :9 that David felt himself to be the "poor and needy" who had been abused by Saul. He wished Solomon to likewise have pity on the "poor and needy" amongst the Gentiles, those who had likewise repented (<a href='B:230 72:13'>Psa 72:13</a>). And David was especially desirous to himself see the "poor and needy" blessed and accepted as he had been (<a href='B:230 82:3-4'>Psa 82:3-4</a>; <a href='B:230 113:7'>Psa 113:7</a>). It is our personal experience of needing grace which leads us to have a heart for those like us, the poor and needy. Any other motivation will ultimately not abide. Solomon appears to glorify his mother Bathsheba for likewise pitying the poor and needy (<a href='B:240 31:9'>Pro 31:9</a>; <a href='B:240 31:20'>Pro 31:20</a>). But we have to note that David had received grace when he was broken and needy, as a result of his sin with Bathsheba. But he doesn't want to reflect that to this adversary, who had likely been raised up by God (at least in the application to Ahithophel, Shimei and Absalom) as a consequence for his sin. We note too that Nathan had likened Uriah to a "poor man" abused by David (<a href='B:100 12:1'>2Sa 12:1</a>). But David here asks God to eternally condemn those who persecuted the "poor" (see on <a href='B:230 109:9'>Psa 109:9</a>; <a href='B:230 109:16'>Psa 109:16</a>). And it seems Psalms 109 was used by David not only about his persecution at the time of Saul, but also of his sufferings at the time of Absalom's rebellion, after the time of his sin. So it seems David didn't maintain his sense of humility before Nathan.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yes, he loved cursing, and it came to him. He didn’t delight in blessing, and so it was far from him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This points towards Shimei, whose cursing of David at the time of Absalom's rebellion clearly hurt David very deeply. At the time, David forgave him. But he didn't maintain that intensity of forgiveness, because on his deathbed he asks Solomon to ensure Shimei even as an old man is slain because of it. His statement here that the cursing "came to him" may be a 'future perfect', stating the future as if it has already happened, as a way of stating intention. And David expressed this intention to Solomon to ensure Shimei was cursed with death for his cursing. We too struggle to maintain levels of forgiveness we grant to people, and we perceive how God's "frank" and permanent forgiveness (<a href='B:490 7:42'>Luk 7:42</a>) is of an altogether higher quality and nature than our forgiveness.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He clothed himself also with cursing as with his garment; it came into his inward parts like water, like oil into his bones-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :17, David graciously overlooked Shimei's cursing, promising him that he would not die because of it (<a href='B:100 16:10-11'>2Sa 16:10-11</a>; <a href='B:100 19:23'>2Sa 19:23</a>). But he didn't keep up that level of grace to the end: he later asked Solomon to ensure that Shimei&nbsp; was killed for that incident (<a href='B:110 2:8-9'>1Ki 2:8-9</a>). And one wonders whether it was Shimei’s words which so broke David’s heart that he later wrote these words.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let it be to him as the clothing with which he covers himself, like the belt that is always around him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Whoever the individual is in view, he was known for always wearing the same belt. The only person in David's life whose belt is noted is Joab (<a href='B:100 20:8'>2Sa 20:8</a>; <a href='B:110 2:5'>1Ki 2:5</a>). See on :8. Perhaps this Psalm began with reference to Saul, but was reapplied to Ahithophel, Absalom, Shimei and then finally to Joab when Joab rose up against David. In the previous verses, David has himself wished cursing upon this person, but now he appears to try to justify it by saying that the person who has cursed him will simply receive his own curses.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the reward of my adversaries from Yahweh, of those who speak evil against my soul-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David had himself spoken evil against innocent people (s:w. <a href='B:90 25:17'>1Sa 25:17</a>). But David was so sensitive to words spoken against him that he breathes out the deepest condemnation upon those who had spoken them. Again we get the impression that David is not adequately aware of the huge grace he himself had received. Otherwise there would have been at least some desire for the repentance and salvation of his enemies. This is so markedly lacking in the Psalms of David. See on :21.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But deal with me, Yahweh the Lord, for Your name’s sake; because Your grace is good, deliver me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :20, David appears totally lacking in any grace toward his enemies; but he here and in :26 begs for grace to be shown to him, aware at least subconsciously of his own desperate need for deliverance / salvation by grace. He rightly perceives God's Name to be essentially "grace". The Name of Yahweh is essentially His characteristics (<a href='B:20 34:5-7'>Exo 34:5-7</a>), and they are epitomized in "grace".</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>for I am poor and needy. My heart is wounded within me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :16, where David appeals to God's anger with those who abuse the "poor and needy" to condemn any who had not had pity upon him. He is acting just like Saul whom he condemns here, for he too breathed curses upon any who didn't feel sorry for him (<a href='B:90 22:8'>1Sa 22:8</a>).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I fade away like an evening shadow, I am shaken off like a locust-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's feelings at this time are also appropriate to Hezekiah, whose feelings were responded to by God by making the shadow of the sundial reverse. The same words are used in <a href='B:120 20:10'>2Ki 20:10</a>. The locust was an unclean animal, and this is how David felt.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My knees are weak through fasting, my body is thin and lacks fat-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Here again is another indication that David has the book of Job in mind, for this is how Job describes himself. See on :6,25.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have also become a reproach to them; when they see me, they shake their head-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again the allusions to Job continue (see on :6,24); this time to <a href='B:220 16:4'>Job 16:4</a>; <a href='B:220 19:5'>Job 19:5</a>; <a href='B:220 20:3'>Job 20:3</a>. The situation here seems more appropriate at this point to the plans of Absalom, Ahithophel, Shimei and Joab. For Saul rarely "saw" David at the time of his persecution of him. </p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Help me, Yahweh, my God. Save me according to Your grace-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :20, David appears totally lacking in any grace toward his enemies; but he here and in :21 begs for grace to be shown to him, aware at least subconsciously of his own desperate need for deliverance / salvation by grace.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>that they may know that this is Your hand; that You, Yahweh, have done it-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Although David seeks for personal salvation by grace (:26), his motivation for that salvation was still not totally pure. For here he states that he wants that salvation in order to demonstrate that his sufferings were the result of God's hand rather than his own sins. Even though his sufferings at the hands of the likes of Joab, Ahithophel and Shimei were all the consequence of his own sins. But he so struggled with a sense of wrongful shame, when he ought to have finally accepted that his shame was a consequence of his sins regarding Uriah and Bathsheba.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They may curse, but You bless. When they arise, they will be shamed, but Your servant shall rejoice-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Frequently the rejected are threatened with both shame and anger / gnashing of teeth; shame and anger are going to be connected in that awful experience. They will "curse [in anger]::. and be ashamed". The final shame of the rejected is going to be so great that "they shall be greatly ashamed::. their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten" (<a href='B:300 20:11'>Jer 20:11</a>). Seeing they will be long dead and gone, it is us, the accepted, who by God's grace will recall the terrible shame of the rejected throughout our eternity. "When they arise" would be a reference to resurrection. David clearly expected a future day of resurrection and judgment, when shame, cursing and blessing would all be ultimately and eternally articulated.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let my adversaries be clothed with dishonour, may they cover themselves with their own shame as with a robe-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Although David has wished condemnation upon his enemies, he likes to imagine that actually their condemnation and shame is a direct result of their own actions in this life. And this is true enough. They had clothed themselves with cursing in this life (:18), as Shimei had; and David sees this as related to their clothing themselves with shame at the last day (:28). And yet David seems remarkably uncritical of himself; for he himself is clothing himself with cursing against his enemies in this Psalm. And what if he were wrong? What if the likes of Joab are to be finally saved:::?</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will give great thanks to Yahweh with my mouth, truly I will praise Him among the multitude-</p><h2>This is the same idea as often in the Psalms; David imagines himself surrounded by the "multitude" of the righteous, praising God at the last day (:28 "when they arise"), when the wicked are destroyed and he is finally justified (<a href='B:230 22:22'>Psa 22:22</a>; <a href='B:230 22:25'>Psa 22:25</a>; <a href='B:230 35:18'>Psa 35:18</a>; <a href='B:230 40:10'>Psa 40:10</a>). We too can look forward to eternal salvation not simply on a personal level; but seeing our eternal place amongst the true people of God.</h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For He will stand at the right hand of the needy, to save him from those who judge his soul- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :6. David rightly perceives that there is a higher hand in human life, someone or something standing at our right hand. And he wishes this to be God's influence toward condemnation for his enemies, and God's influence toward salvation in his own case. This is the difference between the evil spirit from the Lord, and the Holy Spirit.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Psalm of David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is a tendency amongst some personality types to turn every disagreement over interpretation of Scripture into a right : wrong, truth : error scenario. Matters relating to basic doctrine are capable of being dealt with like thIsa. But to turn the interpretation of every Bible verse into a conflict area is a recipe for ecclesial disaster. So often the debate becomes personal, with a brother sure that he is right and the other wrong, and the other must be shown to be wrong. This leads inevitably to pride, and there is the possibility that the other party is degraded and feels abused by the other. We simply have to accept that much of Scripture is open to various levels of interpretation, which if placed side by side would appear to be contradictory. Consider, for example, how many different applications the NT gives to Psalms 2, 110. Psalms 110 is quoted or alluded to multiple times; to prove the Lord Jesus is greater than David (<a href='B:490 20:41-44'>Luk 20:41-44</a>), in heaven at God's right hand (<a href='B:480 12:36'>Mar 12:36</a>; <a href='B:480 14:62'>Mar 14:62</a>), waiting until all enemies are put under His feet at His return (<a href='B:530 15:25'>1Co 15:25</a>), yet also applied to His ascension and exaltation (<a href='B:510 2:34-36'>Act 2:34-36</a>); it is used to prove the priesthood of the Lord Jesus, like that of the Levites, involved a call by God (<a href='B:650 5:1-6'>Heb 5:1-6</a>); to prove the eternity of His priesthood (<a href='B:650 6:20'>Heb 6:20</a>); and throughout Hebrews 7 to prove that the priesthood of the Lord Jesus was greater than that of the Levites.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh says to my Lord, Sit at My right hand-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Biblically and historically, David’s immediate ‘Lord’ was Saul, but it could also have reference to Solomon and even to himself. Psalms 72 is a similar Psalm, imagining Solomon as the promised Messiah with a Messianic Kingdom. So Psalms 110 was originally a revelation to David of the potential possible for Solomon or Saul, who was an anointed ‘Messiah’ figure, expressed as a coronation ode. But Solomon and Saul failed, and so the fulfillment of the prophecy was rescheduled and reapplied to the Lord Jesus. And so the Lord Jesus uses this passages about Himself in <a href='B:490 20:40-44'>Luk 20:40-44</a>: "David therefore calls him Lord, so, how is he his son?". Judaism’s concept of Messiah has always been vague and not commonly agreed, but there was and is the idea that the likes of Abraham, Moses and David are greater than Messiah. The Lord Jesus is pointing out that David considered Messiah to be his “Lord”, just as Messiah was greater than Abraham (<a href='B:500 8:58'>Joh 8:58</a>). The “how” doesn’t imply that David’s Lord is not his son, but rather is a rhetorical question. How is the Messianic son of David, David’s “Lord”, to be his son or descendant? <a href='B:480 12:37'>Mar 12:37</a> says the Lord reinforced the question by asking “From whence&nbsp;is He his son?”. The answer had to be: ‘Through a woman in David’s direct line giving birth to Him’. And the questioners were fully aware that Jesus was in the direct line of David through Mary.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It seems that David became obsessed with the idea of Solomon being the Messiah, building a physical house for God, and being king over the eternal Messianic Kingdom. The words of <a href='B:230 110:1'>Psa 110:1</a> are applied by the NT to Jesus, but there is no reason to think that they were not primarily spoke by David with his eye on Solomon, whom he addresses as his Lord, such was his obsession: “The Lord saith unto my Lord</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>” (RV), and the rest of the Psalm goes on in the language of Psalms 72 to describe David’s hopes for Solomon’s Kingdom. ‘Solomon’ was actually called ‘Jedidiah’ by God through Nathan (<a href='B:100 12:25'>2Sa 12:25</a>). The ‘beloved of God’ was surely prophetic of God’s beloved Son. When God said “This is my beloved Son”, He was surely saying ‘Now this is the Jedidiah, whom I wanted Solomon to typify’. But David calls him Solomon, the man who would bring peace. I suggest that David was so eager to see in Solomon the actual Messiah, that he chose not to use the name which God wanted- which made Solomon a type of a future Son of God / Messiah. And this led to Solomon himself being obsessed with being a Messiah figure and losing sight of the future Messiah.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When he writes in Psalms 110 of how Yahweh said unto my Lord</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>he is quoting the very phrase used by Abigail years before, when they weren’t even married (<a href='B:90 25:30'>1Sa 25:30</a>). He was unconsciously alluding to the words of his wife before they were married, even years later. It is of course true that context plays a vital part in Biblical interpretation. But this can lead us to overlook the fact that many New Testament quotations of the Old Testament- many of those in the early chapters of Matthew, for example- are picking up words and phrases from one context and applying them to another.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Lord’s enemies stood around Him as He applied this Psalm to Himself. And yet being at the footstool of the Lord doesn't have to mean being dominated by Him in judgment. It can refer to the great paradox whereby the Lord's enemies become His loyalest and most humble citizens, at His feet in submission, and thereby also at the Father's right hand of acceptance.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is quoted in <a href='B:530 15:25'>1Co 15:25</a> "For he must reign until He has put all his enemies under his feet". Having things and persons 'under the feet' doesn't necessarily mean they were to be killed or destroyed. It can mean simply submission before the one enthroned. "All things", a phrase often used for all God's people, are to be placed under the feet of the Lord Jesus (<a href='B:230 8:6'>Psa 8:6</a>; <a href='B:560 1:22'>Eph 1:22</a>; <a href='B:650 2:8'>Heb 2:8</a>, which teach that it is the church who shall be under the Lord's feet. <a href='B:730 12:8'>Rev 12:8</a> may teach the same). I noted on <a href='B:470 22:44'>Mat 22:44</a> and <a href='B:510 2:35'>Act 2:35</a> that the making of the Lord's enemies His footstool means that they shall repentantly accept Him, rather than being destroyed by Him. "We were enemies" of God, but are now reconciled in grateful, humble submission (<a href='B:520 5:10'>Rom 5:10</a>). This is the whole message of the preceding :24- that all things shall progressively be subjected under Christ's authority and Kingship, thereby becoming part of His Kingdom. To achieve this on a universal level, He shall have to come to earth and destroy those who refuse to submit. But the end in view is that the earth and all upon it shall be His Kingdom, under the dominion of His Kingship. And that process is to begin in the hearts of believers right now.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is also quoted in <a href='B:510 2:35'>Act 2:35</a>. The context is Peter's appeal for those who crucified the Lord to repent. They were His "enemies"; but once they became a footstool for His feet, then He would return. Therefore Peter appealed for their repentance, apparently understanding being 'a footstool for His feet' as meaning they would put themselves at His feet in obeisance. The Lord's footstool is the place where His worshippers come (<a href='B:230 99:5'>Psa 99:5</a>; <a href='B:230 132:7'>Psa 132:7</a>; <a href='B:290 66:1-3'>Isa 66:1-3</a>). The Father was willing to "make" His Son's enemies, those responsible for His death, into His worshippers. But they had to do their part, in repentance and acceptance of the activity of His Holy Spirit. <a href='B:650 10:13'>Heb 10:13</a> adds the detail that the Lord Jesus is eagerly looking for [AV "expecting"] His former enemies to become His footstool- and then He will return. This is why witness to Jewish people is so deeply significant in God's program. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh will send forth the rod of your strength out of Zion-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This perhaps alludes to Hannah's words of <a href='B:90 2:10'>1Sa 2:10</a>, where she expected that Samuel would be both a ruler and a priest, although he was not strictly a Levite: "He will give strength to His king and exalt the horn of His anointed". This all sets the scene for this new leader being presented as a king and non-Levitical priest (:4).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Rule in the midst of your enemies!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the scenario of <a href='B:230 2:6'>Psa 2:6</a>; <a href='B:230 2:9'>Psa 2:9</a>. Zion, the temple mount, was also to be the place of rulership. This sets up the expectation for a merger between king and priest, which comes to term in the declaration in :4 that this ruler would be after the order of Melchizedek, a king-priest. The language of ruling in the midst of enemies is that used of Solomon (s:w. <a href='B:110 4:24'>1Ki 4:24</a>; <a href='B:230 72:8'>Psa 72:8</a>), which was the characteristic of Messiah (<a href='B:40 24:19'>Num 24:19</a>). The "rod" suggests judgment (<a href='B:290 10:24'>Isa 10:24</a>; <a href='B:290 10:26'>Isa 10:26</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your people offer themselves willingly in the day of your power, in holy attire-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>People offering themselves willingly is the language of soldiers eager for battle in <a href='B:70 5:2'>Jdg 5:2</a>; <a href='B:70 5:9'>Jdg 5:9</a>. But these willing soldiers are "in holy attire", they are priests. This again sets up the expectation that the leader as well as his followers are soldier-priests, priests who also have another function- as soldiers, in this case. See on :2,4.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Out of the womb of the morning, you have the dew of your youth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David imagines Solomon as being reborn as he is enthroned as the Messianic king. The dew of youth would refer to the waters of birth which come from the womb, also seen in a figurative sense at the dawn of this new Messianic morning.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh has sworn, and will not change His mind: You are a priest forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There was no 'change of the Divine mind' in the fact that Solomon didn't live up to his Messianic potential, as discussed throughout Psalms 72. The oath that would not be changed was made ultimately to the Lord Jesus. Here in Psalms 110, the coronation ode declares the king to be not only king, but also an eternal priest.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is quoted in <a href='B:650 5:6'>Heb 5:6</a> "As also He said elsewhere: You are a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek". This spoken word of inauguration and appointment was likewise uttered in the "day" when the Lord was "begotten" in resurrection (<a href='B:650 5:5'>Heb 5:5</a>). There is no evidence here for any personally pre-existent Christ. The Hebrew writer alludes to and subverts the defiant language of the Maccabees in repeatedly describing Christ as "priest for ever" (<a href='B:650 5:6'>Heb 5:6</a>; <a href='B:650 6:20'>Heb 6:20</a>; <a href='B:650 7:3'>Heb 7:3</a>; <a href='B:650 7:17'>Heb 7:17</a>; <a href='B:650 7:21'>Heb 7:21</a>)- when this was the term applied to Simon Maccabaeus in 1Ma_14:41. See on <a href='B:490 20:25'>Luk 20:25</a>. The nature of the priesthood was to be eternal; so although there were similarities with the Aaronic priests, the priesthood of Messiah was not identical with it. It was after the order of Melchizedek.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Sin brings death, so the eternal priest appointed by the word of God's oath in <a href='B:230 110:4'>Psa 110:4</a> had to be not only eternal but also sinless. There could therefore be no other candidate for this priest than the Lord Jesus.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the order of Melchizedek-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Lord Jesus is a King-priest after the order of Melchizedek (<a href='B:650 6:13-18'>Heb 6:13-18</a>; <a href='B:230 110:4'>Psa 110:4</a>); and through being in Him, we share this position. Through what He achieved for us on the cross, we have been made now king-priests, with the future hope of reigning on earth (<a href='B:730 1:6'>Rev 1:6</a>; <a href='B:730 5:10'>Rev 5:10</a>):&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hebrews 7 interprets this statement at great length; I have discussed it in more detail on Hebrews 7, but here is a reduced version:</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:650 7:1'>Heb 7:1</a> For this Melchizedek, king of Jerusalem, priest of God Most High, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him- There is no hint that Abraham and Melchizedek were personally acquainted before this meeting, although they both were servants of the true God. We might wonder why God didn't connect them earlier. In His wisdom He doesn't always force believers to regularly fellowship with each other, indeed He made Abraham travel all around Canaan rather than telling him to settle near Melchizedek and form some kind of ecclesia or community of believers. And clearly the implication is that Abraham maintained a legitimate relationship with God without needing to use a human priest, even one as good and exalted as Melchizedek. For more on Melchizedek, see on 5:10.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:650 7:2'>Heb 7:2</a> To whom also Abraham divided a tenth part of all. He was first, by interpretation, King of righteousness, and then also, King of Jerusalem, which is, King of peace- "King of righteousness" connects with Paul's appeal for the Hebrews to accept the word or Gospel of imputed righteousness in Christ; see on <a href='B:650 5:13'>Heb 5:13</a>, remembering that here in chapter 7 Paul is picking up from <a href='B:650 5:13'>Heb 5:13</a> after the parenthesis of chapter 6. The connection between righteousness and peace is a feature of Messiah- in Him, they kiss each other (<a href='B:230 85:10'>Psa 85:10</a>), and are the mainstay of the Messianic Kingdom on earth (<a href='B:230 72:3'>Psa 72:3</a>; <a href='B:290 32:17'>Isa 32:17</a>; <a href='B:520 14:17'>Rom 14:17</a>). Righteousness is emphasized before peace- "then also::. king of peace". "The work of righteousness shall be peace" (<a href='B:290 32:17'>Isa 32:17</a>). But in Paul's theology, it is the righteousness of King Jesus which is imputed to us and thereby creates peace with God. This is the much laboured message of Romans 1-8. So we can understand his enthusiastic perception that Melchizedek, a type of Messiah, was king of righteousness "and then also::. king of peace".</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:650 7:3'>Heb 7:3</a> He was without recorded father or mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life but presented as being like the Son of God, abiding a priest continually- Without doubt God frames the Biblical record in order to highlight certain facts. Thus there is a marked lack of information concerning the father and mother of Melchizedek in GenesIsa. God is providing us with an interpretation of how He worded the account in Genesis, making the point that Melchizedek typified Christ. But although we are not to read <a href='B:650 7:3'>Heb 7:3</a> at face value, there is no explicit indication to this effect. The objection that the New Testament does not warn us against reading the ‘casting out of demons’ language literally is therefore not valid. <a href='B:650 7:3'>Heb 7:3</a> is one of many examples of where it is imperative to understand the way in which God is using language if we are to correctly understand His word, but there is no explicit warning about this in <a href='B:650 7:3'>Heb 7:3</a>!</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Jesus has a Father (God) and a mother (Mary) and a genealogy (see Matthew 1, Luke 3 and cp. <a href='B:500 7:27'>Joh 7:27</a>). ‘Melchizedek’ therefore cannot refer to Him personally. Besides, Melchizedek was “made like unto the Son of God” (<a href='B:650 7:3'>Heb 7:3</a>); he was not Jesus himself, but had certain similarities with Him which are being used by the writer for teaching purposes. “After the similitude of Melchizedek there arises another priest”, Jesus (<a href='B:650 7:15'>Heb 7:15</a>), who was ordained a priest “after the order of Melchizedek” (<a href='B:650 5:5-6'>Heb 5:5-6</a>). The language of Hebrews about Melchizedek just cannot be taken literally. If Melchizedek literally had no father or mother, then the only person he could have been was God Himself; He is the only person with no beginning (<a href='B:610 6:16'>1Ti 6:16</a>; <a href='B:230 90:2'>Psa 90:2</a>). But this is vetoed by <a href='B:650 7:4'>Heb 7:4</a>: “Consider how great this man was”, and also by the fact that he was seen by men (which God cannot be) and offered sacrifices to God. If he is called a man, then he must have had literal parents. His being “without father, without mother, without descent” must therefore refer to the fact that his pedigree and parents are not recorded. Queen Esther’s parents are not recorded, and so her background is described in a similar way. Mordecai “brought up::. Esther, his uncle’s daughter: for she had neither father nor mother::. whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter” (<a href='B:190 2:7'>Est 2:7</a>). The author of Hebrews was clearly writing as a Jew to Jews, and as such he uses the Rabbinic way of reasoning and writing at times. There was a Rabbinic principle that "what is not in the text, is not" (See James Dunn, Christology In The Making (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1980) p. 276 note 59)- and it seems that this is the principle of exposition being used to arrive at the statement that Melchizedek was "without father". Seeing no father is mentioned in the Genesis text, therefore he was "without father"- but this doesn't mean he actually didn't have a father. It's not recorded, and therefore, according to that Rabbinic principle, he effectively didn't have one.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The book of Genesis usually goes to great lengths to introduce the family backgrounds of all the characters which it presents to us. But Melchizedek appears on the scene unannounced, with no record of his parents, and vanishes from the account with equal abruptness. Yet there can be no doubt that he was worthy of very great respect; even great Abraham paid tithes to him, and was blessed by him, clearly showing Melchizedek’s superiority over Abraham (<a href='B:650 7:2'>Heb 7:2</a>; <a href='B:650 7:7'>Heb 7:7</a>). The writer is not just doing mental gymnastics with Scripture. There was a very real problem in the first century which the Melchizedek argument could solve. The Jews were reasoning: ‘You Christians tell us that this Jesus can now be our high priest, offering our prayers and works to God. But a priest has to have a known genealogy, proving he is from the tribe of Levi. And anyway, you yourselves admit Jesus was from the tribe of Judah (<a href='B:650 7:14'>Heb 7:14</a>). Sorry, to us Abraham is our supreme leader and example (<a href='B:500 8:33'>Joh 8:33</a>; <a href='B:500 8:39'>Joh 8:39</a>), and we won’t respect this Jesus’. To which the reply is: ‘But remember Melchizedek. The Genesis record is framed to show that such a great priest did not have any genealogy; and Messiah is to be both a king and a priest, whose priesthood is after the pattern of Melchizedek (<a href='B:650 5:6'>Heb 5:6</a> cp. <a href='B:230 110:4'>Psa 110:4</a>). Abraham was inferior to Melchizedek, so you should switch your emphasis from Abraham to Jesus, and stop trying to make the question of genealogies so important (see <a href='B:610 1:4'>1Ti 1:4</a>). If you meditate on how much Melchizedek is a type of Jesus (i:e. the details of his life pointed forward to him), then you would have a greater understanding of the work of Christ’:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:650 7:4'>Heb 7:4</a> Now consider how great this man was, to whom Abraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth of the spoils- Melchizedek was a man, not a pre-existent God. The argument is that tithes are given to someone greater. Hence Jacob offers to give tithes to his father's God if He will preserve him (<a href='B:10 28:22'>Gen 28:22</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:650 7:5'>Heb 7:5</a> And they indeed of the sons of Levi that receive the priest's office-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Paul doesn't call them Aaronites because he wants to make the point that the tribal head, Levi, was not the ancestor of Melchizedek; and as one of the patriarchs, he as it were paid tithes in Abraham to Melchizedek.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Have the commandment according to the law to take tithes from the people, that is, of their brothers; even though they are also descendants of Abraham- Levi's sons could take tithes of their brothers, but this did not make them 'greater' than their brothers. They were 'brothers' on the same level as those who tithed to them. But payment of tithes to an unrelated person was a more impressive evidence of the greatness of that person over the tithe payers.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:650 7:6'>Heb 7:6</a> Melchizedek was not descended from Levi by genealogy-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> There is no evidence that he was even from within the Abraham family; he was effectively a Gentile, the king-priest of Jerusalem. But the fact he was not a Levite is emphasized because this was a reason some were giving for not accepting the priesthood of the Lord Jesus.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But he took tithes of Abraham and blessed him that had received the promises- The blessing was given from Melchizedek to Abraham in response to tithes. Yet Abraham is the one who was to be a blessing in the land, according to "the promises" received. But actually, the blesser had himself first to be blessed. This definitely places Melchizedek on the level of manifesting God to Abraham.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:650 7:7'>Heb 7:7</a> But without any dispute the less is blessed of the better- To suggest anyone was "better" than Abraham was radical for Hebrews, who considered Abraham the father of their race. And to rub the point in by saying that he was "less" was to suggest that the entire metanarrative of descent from Abraham being so important was being overwritten- and had in fact been overwritten by any sensitive to the brief details given about Melchizedek. That the ministry of the Lord Jesus was "better" than that of the Mosaic law is stressed in Hebrews (1:4; 7:19,22; 8:6; 9:23; 12:24).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:650 7:8'>Heb 7:8</a> And here mortal men receive tithes; but there one received them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives- The argument here might appear somewhat forced, but it was all legitimate within the style of Rabbinic midrash. Melchizedek "lives" in that there is no record of his death; we noted on :3 the Rabbinic principle that "what is not in the text, is not". And Paul goes on to reason that the priesthood of Melchizedek continues still, in that Messiah was to have this priesthood eternally. "That he lives" can also be understood as meaning that Melchizedek had a lifelong priesthood, that was not replaced by others because he had reached a certain age. McKnight observes that the Greek verb zē? here is not in the present, but the imperfect of the indicative, and he translates "that he lives" as " lived, a priest all his life, in contradistinction from those who ceased to be priests at a certain age".</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:650 7:9'>Heb 7:9</a> And, so to say, when Abraham paid the tithe, Levi, whose descendants receive the tithe, also paid a tithe- Abraham is seen as representing his descendant Levi. The Levitical priests did indeed pay a tithe of their tithes- to God. But Paul argues here that Levi, in Abraham, paid a tithe to Melchizedek, thus making him a manifestation of God.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:650 7:10'>Heb 7:10</a> For Levi was yet in the loins of his ancestor Abraham when Melchizedek met Abraham- This kind of argument may appear forced, but it was quite legitimate within the milieu of Jewish midrash.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:650 7:11'>Heb 7:11</a> Now if there was perfection through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, and not be reckoned after the order of Aaron?- The argument is that the whole mention of Messiah having a priesthood after the order of Melchizedek would have been unnecessary if the Levitical priesthood and legal system could bring "perfection". Paul forces through the logic of his position by reasoning that the "need" for the Melchizedek priesthood meant that this new priest must actually not be "after the order of Aaron" and therefore must not be a descendant of Aaron. I have previously noted that this kind of apparently forced argumentation would have been acceptable to those used to this kind of reasoning in the rabbinical interpretations of the Old Testament. But it is all the same logically forced, although from our Christian perspective it all makes good sense. I suggested on expounding Paul's obsession with the Jerusalem Poor Fund in 2 Corinthians that he had an obsessive streak within him, whereby he marshaled all possible evidence to support his positions and at points his logic and reasoning bears the hallmark of the obsessive. It could well be that we have a case of that here.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:650 7:12'>Heb 7:12</a> For the priesthood being changed requires also a change of the law- This verse is a stubborn problem for those who consider that the Mosaic law has not been changed nor abrogated. The reasoning here is logically sound, but it depends upon the assumption that the Melchizedek priest has in fact come; and only in that case could it be reasoned that the priesthood had been changed from the Aaronic to that of Melchizedek, this requiring a change of the law. The argument only had [and has] force for those who accept Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. It is therefore highly relevant to the Hebrew Christian audience but would lack logical power with Hebrew non-Christians.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The whole Law of Moses is described as an everlasting covenant (<a href='B:290 24:5'>Isa 24:5</a>; <a href='B:50 29:29'>Deu 29:29</a>), but it has now been done away (<a href='B:650 8:13'>Heb 8:13</a>). The feasts of Passover and Atonement were to be “an everlasting statute unto you” (<a href='B:30 16:34'>Lev 16:34</a>; <a href='B:20 12:14'>Exo 12:14</a>); but now the Mosaic feasts have been done away in Christ (<a href='B:580 2:14-17'>Col 2:14-17</a>; <a href='B:530 5:7'>1Co 5:7</a>). The Levitical priesthood was “the covenant of an everlasting priesthood” (<a href='B:20 40:15'>Exo 40:15</a>; <a href='B:40 25:13'>Num 25:13</a>), but “the priesthood being changed (by Christ’s work), there is made of necessity a change also of the law” (<a href='B:650 7:12'>Heb 7:12</a>). There was an “everlasting covenant” between God and Israel to display the shewbread in the Holy Place (<a href='B:30 24:8'>Lev 24:8</a>). This “everlasting covenant” evidently ended when the Mosaic Law was dismantled. But the same phrase “everlasting covenant” is used in <a href='B:100 23:5'>2Sa 23:5</a> concerning how Christ will reign on David’s throne for literal eternity in the Kingdom. In what sense, then, is God using the word olahm, which is translated “eternal”, “perpetual”, “everlasting” in the Old Testament? James Strong defines olahm as literally meaning “the finishing point, time out of mind, i:e. practically eternity”. It was God’s purpose that the Law of Moses and the associated Sabbath law were to continue for many centuries. To the early Israelite, this meant a finishing point so far ahead that he couldn’t grapple with it; therefore he was told that the Law would last for ever in the sense of “practically eternity”. For all of us, the specter of ultimate infinity is impossible to intellectually grapple with. We may glibly talk about God’s eternity and timelessness, about the wonder of eternal life. But when we pause to really come to terms with these things, we lack the intellectual tools and linguistic paradigms to cope with it. Therefore there is no Hebrew or Greek word used in the Bible text to speak of absolute infinity. We know that death has been conquered for those in Christ, therefore we have the hope of immortal life in his Kingdom. But God speaks about eternity very much from a human viewpoint.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:650 7:13'>Heb 7:13</a> For he of whom these things are said belongs to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar- The "He" refers to the Melchizedek priest who was to be Messiah. "Has ever" makes the point that a new priesthood is now in view. The Lord Jesus serves at the altar; this is the altar at which the Levitical priests have no right to eat / fellowship, but we Christians do (<a href='B:650 13:10'>Heb 13:10</a>), suggesting that we in Christ are likewise there, serving at and eating at the heavenly altar which features so strongly in Revelation, as part of the Heavenly sanctuary which the tabernacle was a dim reflection of. The Lord Jesus is actively 'serving' there; He is not passive in Heaven, just waiting to return to earth.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:650 7:14'>Heb 7:14</a> For it is evident that our Lord originated from the tribe of Judah. Regarding this tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood- The Lord being descended from Judah was "evident" or obvious- presumably from the genealogies which connected Mary to the tribe of Judah. But again as noted on <a href='B:650 7:11'>Heb 7:11</a>, Paul's enthusiasm seems to be carrying him away, for it was far from obvious that Jesus of Nazareth was from Judah. However he may have meant instead that Messiah had to come from Judah; this much was indeed "evident" from the Old Testament and undisputed.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:650 7:15'>Heb 7:15</a> And what we say is even more abundantly evident, if after the likeness of Melchizedek there arises another priest- The abundantly obvious argument was that the Melchizedek priest had to be eternal (see <a href='B:650 7:16-17'>Heb 7:16-17</a>); and the only candidate was Jesus, whom Christians believed had been resurrected and given eternal life. He was the only person who had then been immortalized. But this argument again was logically powerful only to a Hebrew Christian, and not to a Hebrew non-Christian. The 'arising' of this 'other priest' may be a hint at His resurrection to immortality.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:650 7:16'>Heb 7:16</a> Who has been appointed, not on the basis of a law about physical descent, but according to the power of an endless life- The Levitical priests became priests by reason of their age and descent, whereas the Melchizedek Messiah priest had to be "appointed". The basis of the Lord's appointment was His immortality- because the priest had to have an eternal ministry, so it was necessary that he was immortal. And the only immortalized human was Jesus of Nazareth.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:650 7:17'>Heb 7:17</a> For it is witnessed: You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek- "For ever" is being interpreted as meaning that the priest would be immortal, making the resurrected, immortalized Jesus the only possible candidate. The 'witnessing' by God in <a href='B:230 110:4'>Psa 110:4</a> is understood as the priest being "appointed" (<a href='B:650 7:16'>Heb 7:16</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:650 7:18'>Heb 7:18</a> On the other hand, there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness- This new priesthood required a new law; a changed priesthood meant a changed law (<a href='B:650 7:12'>Heb 7:12</a>). And this required an "annulling" of that law, and that was because it was weak and unprofitable. Such language appears to deprecate the law, although Paul elsewhere says that the law was "holy, just and good" (<a href='B:520 7:12'>Rom 7:12</a>); it was weak and not profitable because it was unable to bring salvation or perfection to those under it. The strong language used here about the law of Moses must be given its full weight by those who argue that it should still be kept today.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:650 7:19'>Heb 7:19</a> (For the law made nothing perfect)<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Likewise <a href='B:650 7:11'>Heb 7:11</a> has argued that the Levitical priesthood had to be changed because it could not bring "perfection". The law convicted men of sin and offered some mechanism of patching up the broken relationship caused by it. But it did not enable moral perfection. By being in Christ, we can be counted as Him, the only perfect human. Faith in Christ could therefore make perfect in that the Lord Jesus was 'made perfect' by His sufferings, particularly on the cross (<a href='B:650 5:7-9'>Heb 5:7-9</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>And a bringing in thereupon of a better hope, through which we draw near to God- By being counted as in Christ, having His perfection as ours due to our status in Him, we have the sure hope of future salvation. The elpis or hope in view is a solid expectation regarding the future, not a mere hoping for the best. And it is by having this hope that we find strength against materialism and "draw near to God". The Hebrew readership would have understood this as meaning 'drawing near in priestly service' (cp. <a href='B:20 19:22'>Exo 19:22</a>). The Hope we have compels us to God's service:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:650 7:20'>Heb 7:20</a> And the Melchizedek priesthood was not without the taking of an oath- The oath taken was by God (<a href='B:230 110:4'>Psa 110:4</a>), vowing by Himself to honour the eternally powerful priesthood of Messiah. Such Divine underwriting was not given to the Levitical priesthood.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:650 7:21'>Heb 7:21</a> The Levitical priests were made priests without an oath, but he with an oath: The Lord swore and will not change His mind; you are a priest for ever- The eternal nature of the Lord's Melchizedek priesthood is at the basis of the certainty of our hope for future salvation (<a href='B:650 7:19'>Heb 7:19</a>). God Almighty guarantees that the Lord Jesus will be our eternal priest. Our standing before Him is therefore eternal; we have such a priest who is not simply a mediator between God and men, a conduit allowing us to offer to Him and approach Him, but a priest who on His own agenda eternally secures our salvation:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:650 7:22'>Heb 7:22</a> By this also has Jesus become the surety of a better covenant- The sure hope of <a href='B:650 7:19'>Heb 7:19</a> is underpinned by the way the Lord is the surety or guarantor of the better covenant. The Greek for "surety" occurs only here in the NT and LXX. The idea is of a guarantor who promises his self sacrifice in the case that the party to the covenant is unfaithful. It literally means 'the pledge of a limb'. The "surety" could offer his own limbs, or himself into bondage as a slave, if the person being guaranteed somehow failed. The Lord's death confirmed God's promises as being for real. But did God's side of the covenant need such a surety? Perhaps we are better to think of the Lord's being a surety as being a guarantee for our faithfulness to the covenant. But we have not been faithful to it; and so He died, gave His all, His limbs, and became the preeminent servant of Yahweh on the cross. This was to the end that the new covenant between God and us might still stand, despite our infraction of it.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:650 7:23'>Heb 7:23</a> And they indeed have been made priests many in number, because that by death they are hindered from continuing- The eternal priesthood required for the Messianic Melchizedek priest could not be attained by mortal priests.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:650 7:24'>Heb 7:24</a> But he, because he abides for ever, has his priesthood unchangeable- The eternal priesthood of the Melchizedek priest meant that His priesthood can never be changed. He has obtained eternal redemption for us, and that can never be liable to any renegotiation. Our hope for eternity is therefore sure (<a href='B:650 7:19'>Heb 7:19</a>) because the One who obtained it is immortal, and His work for us is in this sense eternal.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Lord is at your right hand-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Lord now sits at the Father’s right hand. But Psalms 110 describes God as being at Christ’s right hand. The confusion of the idioms surely demonstrates the mutuality between them. And the relationship between Father and Son is openly offered to us in John 17.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He will crush kings-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the word used of the crushing of the kings in the eretz promised to Abraham which will happen at the hands of Messiah in the last day (<a href='B:40 24:8'>Num 24:8</a>; <a href='B:40 24:17'>Num 24:17</a>; <a href='B:50 33:11'>Deu 33:11</a>). I noted on :3 the allusions to the destruction of the nations within the eretz at the tie of Deborah and Barak. And in line with that, we find the same word for "crush" used in <a href='B:70 5:26'>Jdg 5:26</a> of how Jael crushed or pierced the head of Sisera. Hence :6 uses the same word of how the heads of all Yahweh's enemies would likewise be pierced or crushed. This was what Yahweh did to those in Canaan at the time when Israel first entered the land as a nation (<a href='B:420 3:13'>Hab 3:13</a>). See on :7. These things will come to full term in the final "day of His wrath" at the return of the Lord Jesus:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the day of His wrath-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The day of Yahweh's wrath is the last day, against the apostate in Israel (<a href='B:50 31:17'>Deu 31:17</a>; <a href='B:290 13:9'>Isa 13:9</a>; <a href='B:290 13:13'>Isa 13:13</a>; <a href='B:330 38:18'>Eze 38:18</a> s:w:) as well as against the "kings" in the eretz promised to Abraham who were to be subsumed beneath the one Messianic king in Zion.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He will judge among the nations, He will heap up dead bodies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the judgment of the latter day of His wrath (:5). "The nations" in view are specifically those within the eretz promised to Abraham. The heaping up of dead bodies is the latter day scenario of Ezekiel 39, and we have noted allusions to Ezekiel 38 in this Psalm.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He will crush the ruler of the whole earth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Crush" is the word just used in :5 of how Jael pierced or crushed the head of Sisera, an image used for how all the kings in the land promised to Abraham were to be crushed by the Messianic ruler in the final "day of His wrath" (:5; see notes there). The implication is that there will be a singular "ruler of the whole earth", the eretz promised to Abraham; this is the antichrist figure which occurs in so many prophecies. He is the "man of sin" of 2 Thessalonians 2, the individual known as Gog who will be the head or rosh of the confederacy which overruns Israel (<a href='B:330 38:2'>Eze 38:2</a>). I noted on :5 that the phrase "day of His wrath" is also used in <a href='B:330 38:18'>Eze 38:18</a>. Here, "ruler" likewise translates rosh.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He will drink of the brook in the way; therefore He will lift up His head- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The simple idea may be that the victorious but exhausted victor drinks from the brook, and lifts up his head in triumph. But we have seen on :3,5 the allusions to the victory of Jael, so Jael smiting off Sisera's head may be the basis of these words about lifting up or off the head. "Brook" translates the same word used of the "river" Kishon in the context of Deborah and Jael's victory (<a href='B:70 4:7'>Jdg 4:7</a>; <a href='B:70 4:13'>Jdg 4:13</a>; <a href='B:70 5:21'>Jdg 5:21</a>). It also connects with David cutting off Goliath's head in an encounter full of echoes of the latter-day conflict between Christ and the surrounding nations:&nbsp;And again the word for "brook" is used in the context of that conflict (<a href='B:90 17:40'>1Sa 17:40</a>):&nbsp;</p><h2></h2>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Praise Yah!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Here we have another example of Psalms being paired, this time with Psalms 112. Both are alphabetic Psalms; both begin with "Hallelujah" and have twenty lines, divided into ten verses. It is part of the "Hallel Psalms" (Psalms 111-118), chants sung at the feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles, which consist of Psalms 113-118.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will give thanks to Yahweh with my whole heart, in the council of the upright, and in the congregation-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was very much involved in Israel his people. He saw himself as their representative. When he sung Psalms, he invited them to come and sing along with him (<a href='B:230 105:2'>Psa 105:2</a>; <a href='B:230 107:22'>Psa 107:22</a>; <a href='B:230 111:1'>Psa 111:1</a>).</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh’s works are great, pondered by all those who delight in them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :1, this is a Psalm used at the time of Passover, which was all about reflection upon Yahweh's saving works to His people in the past. But the "works" to be reflected upon are not so much the miraculous, physical nature of His work; but His righteousness (:3), grace (:4), faithfulness to His covenant (:5), justice (:7) and salvation of His wayward people (:9). These are all the characteristics of the Yahweh Name declared to Moses in <a href='B:20 34:5-7'>Exo 34:5-7</a>. His Name is His "works" in history, which are to be repeated in the experience of all His people and supremely at the last day. See on :9; <a href='B:230 112:4'>Psa 112:4</a>.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>His work is honour and majesty, His righteousness endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :2, the "work" in view is God's saving characteristics. His redemption (:9) of His wayward people was achieved by grace and mercy (:4) which were achieved all the same in justice and righteousness; and not by turning a blind eye to the sins of His people. Paul exults in this throughout Romans 1-8; God's salvation of sinners by grace is achieved by the imputation of His eternal righteousness, and His righteousness and justice is not thereby minimized or bypassed, but rather exalted. "His righteousness endures forever" is alluded to in <a href='B:540 9:9'>2Co 9:9</a> - in the context of arguing that God's "righteousness" is shown in His generosity to others, which we should follow. This is His majestic work; see on :5.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He has caused His wonderful works to be remembered; Yahweh is gracious and merciful-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :2, such grace and mercy are an integral part of the Yahweh Name. His works are memorialized, just as His Name is likewise for a memorial or remembrance. See on <a href='B:230 112:6'>Psa 112:6</a>, where the righteous are eternally remembered- because they are identified with the Name of Yahweh, showing His characteristics.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He has given food to those who fear Him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :3, this passage is alluded to in <a href='B:540 9:9-10'>2Co 9:9-10</a>. God's gift of food is a reflection of His covenant relationship with His people to whom He gives food. This forms part of His eternal righteousness (:3); and Paul is telling the Corinthians that they ought to likewise be generous to those in the covenant who were lacking food. The immediate reference is to God's provision of food to the people in the wilderness, who were to then receive the promised land (:6); appropriate for a Passover Psalm (see on :1). And this is likewise used by Paul in the same section in appealing for generosity to those who lack the ability to go out and gather the manna (<a href='B:540 8:15'>2Co 8:15</a>):&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He is ever mindful of His covenant-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The covenant in view is that to Abraham, which promised eternal inheritance of the land. God is constantly thinking of that covenant and its implications; and so should we be.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He has shown His people the power of His works, in giving them the heritage of the nations-</p><h2>This Passover Psalm (:1) was going to reflect appropriately on the way that after the Passover deliverance, God gave the people the lands of the nations, in Canaan. But this gift of God's Kingdom was by "His works" and not their own. <a href='B:230 44:3'>Psa 44:3</a> makes the same point, that the land was given to them not by their sword but by God's grace . </h2>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The works of His hands are truth and justice; all His precepts are sure-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Divine "works" in view are the gift of the Kingdom to His wayward people (:6). But this was done in absolute truth and justice. As noted on :3, Paul exults in this throughout Romans 1-8; God's salvation of sinners by grace is achieved by the imputation of His eternal righteousness, and His righteousness and justice is not thereby minimized or bypassed, but rather exalted.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>they are established forever and ever. They are done in truth and uprightness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "precepts" in view which are eternal are those of the covenant with Abraham (see on :5), not the Mosaic law. As explained on :3,7, the gift of the Kingdom to the wayward Israelites&nbsp; was achieved with absolute justice, and without God acting immorally or lacking in integrity:&nbsp;</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He has sent redemption to His people, He has ordained His covenant forever. His name is holy and awesome!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As explained on :8, the eternal covenant in view is that with Abraham (<a href='B:10 17:13'>Gen 17:13</a>), which promised eternal inheritance of the land. That redemption from Egypt (<a href='B:20 6:6'>Exo 6:6</a>) and gift of the Kingdom to Israel was all an articulation of God's characteristics as memorialized in his Name; see on :2. The redemption promised and implied in the covenant with Abraham is ongoing to God's people of all generations (s:w. <a href='B:230 130:7'>Psa 130:7</a>).</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Solomon repeats his father David's conclusion that wisdom begins with the fear of Yahweh (<a href='B:230 111:10'>Psa 111:10</a> = <a href='B:240 1:7'>Pro 1:7</a>; <a href='B:240 9:10'>Pro 9:10</a>). This statement is in sharp contrast with the accepted view of the times, that wisdom was held by the sages, and was accessible only by sitting at their feet. But this idea (and it is common enough today too) is subverted by this idea that wisdom begins in each individual heart being in fear of Yahweh- so that wisdom from Him can be personally experienced, taught directly through relationship with Him rather than sitting at the feet of a human sage. "Wisdom" is parallel with getting "a good understanding" by 'doing His work' or obeying His commandments (<a href='B:230 111:10'>Psa 111:10</a> b). The work we are to do for God in obeying His ways is not simply a test of our obedience; it is designed to give us wisdom. Wisdom therefore comes from experience of obedience and relationship with God, rather than from picking up nuggets of 'truth' from human sages. The fear of God is therefore not so much referring to a fear of the consequence of our sins; but the fear or reverance expressed through keeping His commandments (see on <a href='B:230 112:1'>Psa 112:1</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All those who do His work have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This Psalm has stressed that salvation and the gift of the Kingdom to God's people is the result of God's work and not our own (see on :2,3,4,6,7). But the Psalm concludes with an invitation for us to participate in that work, to not to our own works towards salvation, but rather to "do His work".</p><h2></h2>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Praise Yah!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Here we have another example of Psalms being paired, this time with Psalms 111. Both are alphabetic Psalms; both begin with "Hallelujah" and have twenty lines, divided into ten verses. It is part of the "Hallel Psalms" (Psalms 111-118), chants sung at the feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles, which consist of Psalms 113-118.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed is the man who fears Yahweh, who delights greatly in His commandments-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This appears to follow on from the conclusion of <a href='B:230 111:10'>Psa 111:10</a>, speaking of the person obedient to Yahweh's commands. That Psalm has stressed God's faithfulness to His covenant, and I suggested the reference was to that with Abraham, the new covenant. Those promises speak of blessing, but that blessing was to come upon the person who fears Yahweh by delighting in His commandments. For they are the true seed of Abraham. The fear of God is therefore not so much referring to a fear of the consequence of our sins; but the fear or reverence expressed through keeping His commandments (see on <a href='B:230 112:1'>Psa 112:1</a>):&nbsp;</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>His seed will be mighty in the land, the generation of the upright will be blessed-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This continues the allusion to the promises to Abraham; his seed would eternally inherit the land, which was the blessing promised to Abraham. The "mighty in the land" or eretz promised to Abraham had been the likes of the "giants" of <a href='B:10 6:4'>Gen 6:4</a>; Nimrod / Assyria (<a href='B:10 10:8'>Gen 10:8</a>); Babylon (<a href='B:10 46:12'>Gen 46:12</a>) and indeed all the Gentile nations of the eretz (<a href='B:330 32:27'>Eze 32:27</a>); but the hope of the promises to Abraham was and is that "his seed will be mighty in the land" (<a href='B:230 112:2'>Psa 112:2</a>). There is to be a radical inversion of all things upon the earth.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Wealth and riches are in His house; His righteousness endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is a purposeful ambiguity here, as to whether "his house::. his righteousness" refers to God or to the seed of Abraham which is the immediate context in :2. This is because God's righteousness and generous distribution of His wealth is to be reflected in that of His children, the seed of Abraham. See on :9.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Light dawns in the darkness for the upright, gracious, merciful, and righteous-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The rest of the Psalm appears to refer to the final judgment of the generous and gracious as opposed to the wicked. The light that dawns in darkness would therefore refer to the final day of resurrection, when the promises to Abraham's seed are finally and eternally fulfilled (:2). "Upright, gracious and merciful" are the characteristics of the Yahweh Name as proclaimed to Moses in <a href='B:20 34:5-7'>Exo 34:5-7</a>. The righteous are therefore those who have manifested that Name in their own characters. The parallel <a href='B:230 111:2-5'>Psa 111:2-5</a>; <a href='B:230 111:7'>Psa 111:7</a>; <a href='B:230 111:9'>Psa 111:9</a> speak of these characteristics as being those of the Yahweh Name; but here they are applied to God's true people. In this lies the significance of our baptism into the Name; that righteousness is counted to us, and we are to live according to the status we have been given by grace through faith. Light arising in the darkness is the language of creation (<a href='B:10 1:4'>Gen 1:4</a> etc:); the resurrection will be the new creation without sin or the possibility of falling. Death is a departure from light to darkness (<a href='B:220 18:18'>Job 18:18</a>). Here we have the opposite, from darkness to light, implying resurrection at the last day (cp. <a href='B:400 7:8'>Mic 7:8</a>).</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is well with the man who deals graciously and lends; he will maintain his cause in judgment-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The need to be generous as God is generous and gracious is brought to a climax in :9. See on :2. As noted on :4, what is in view is the last judgment. Those who have been gracious will have their case upheld; what solely matters is that God's people have believed in His grace. But faith in that grace will naturally elicit a life of graciousness to others. This is not the same as teaching salvation by works. The Lord's parables likewise make it apparent that the judgment will consider how we have treated others. It is never presented as a theological examination. It is how we have articulated grace to others which is and shall ever be the all important issue.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For he will never be shaken-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"He will never be shaken" is spoken in <a href='B:230 112:6'>Psa 112:6</a> in the context of the outcome of the final judgment. Being unmoved or never shaken is a major theme of the Psalms of David. Human beings naturally seek for stability, but look for it in the wrong places, imagining that their idols shall never be shaken (s:w. <a href='B:290 40:20'>Isa 40:20</a>; <a href='B:290 41:7'>Isa 41:7</a>). It is only the receipt of eternal salvation at the last day which means we shall never be moved; that is the only ultimate stability (<a href='B:230 62:2'>Psa 62:2</a>; <a href='B:230 62:6'>Psa 62:6</a> s:w:). Their stability will be associated with that of God's eternal Kingdom to be centered upon Zion (s:w. <a href='B:230 125:1'>Psa 125:1</a>). For in secular life under the sun, the righteous do suffer and their lives are "shaken". Solomon's statements that the righteous shall never be shaken / moved (<a href='B:240 10:30'>Pro 10:30</a>; <a href='B:240 12:3'>Pro 12:3</a>) are only ultimately true in this sense; but whether he spoke them with that understanding is debatable:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The righteous will be remembered forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again, we clearly have the last judgment in view, when the righteous will be immortalized and remembered forever. The idea of remembrance or memorialization is appropriate to the Yahweh Name. In the parallel <a href='B:230 111:4'>Psa 111:4</a>, it is the Name of Yahweh which is eternally remembered; here the righteous are eternally remembered- because they are identified with the Name of Yahweh, showing His characteristics. Which supremely are summarized in "grace"; see on :5:&nbsp;</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He will not be afraid of evil news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The stability of knowing that we shall be saved eternally means that we likewise can respond to "evil news" with a steadfast heart. The phrase "evil news" is only used elsewhere in <a href='B:300 49:23'>Jer 49:23</a> about the news of Divine condemnation and judgment. The fact some will be condemned at the last day will not shake our heart, because we trust in Yahweh's grace:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David had earlier understood that for the humble and righteous, God can "prepare their heart" (<a href='B:230 10:17'>Psa 10:17</a>). This is evidence enough that God works directly upon the human heart and psychology, which He does today through the work of His Spirit upon the human spirit. For it is men who must prepare their heart in prayer and relationship toward God (s:w. <a href='B:140 12:14'>2Ch 12:14</a>; <a href='B:220 11:13'>Job 11:13</a>; <a href='B:230 7:9'>Psa 7:9</a>). But God can also do this for the humble. Hence David later asks God to create in him a 'prepared' heart (s:w. <a href='B:230 51:10'>Psa 51:10</a>). And God heard; for the same phrase is used of how God 'prepared' or (AV) "fixed" / NEV 'made steadfast' his heart (<a href='B:230 57:7'>Psa 57:7</a>; <a href='B:230 108:1'>Psa 108:1</a>; <a href='B:230 112:7'>Psa 112:7</a>). In allusion to this, Solomon was to later reflect that God can direct or 'prepare' (s:w:) the heart of man, even if he is thinking to direct his steps elsewhere (<a href='B:240 16:9'>Pro 16:9</a>).</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>His heart is established; he will not be afraid in the end when he sees his adversaries-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"The end" in view is the day of resurrection and judgment. In that day, the righteous such as David will not need to fear their adversaries like Saul when they meet them again. The idea of the heart of the righteous being established or stable at the day of judgment is alluded to in several New Testament passages (<a href='B:600 2:17'>2Th 2:17</a>; <a href='B:600 3:3'>2Th 3:3</a>; <a href='B:650 13:9'>Heb 13:9</a>; <a href='B:670 5:10'>1Pe 5:10</a>).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He has dispersed, He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God's generosity is a pattern to us. Thus the words "He has dispersed abroad; he has given to the poor" are used in <a href='B:540 9:9-10'>2Co 9:9-10</a> about God; and in <a href='B:230 112:9'>Psa 112:9</a> about the generosity of the believer. There is a purposeful ambiguity here, as to whether "he has dispersed::. his righteousness" refers to God or to the righteous, which is the immediate context in :8. This is because God's righteousness and generous distribution of His wealth is to be reflected in that of His children, the seed of Abraham. See on :3.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This passage is the equivalent of <a href='B:230 111:3'>Psa 111:3</a>; <a href='B:230 111:5'>Psa 111:5</a>, which is a parallel Psalm. <a href='B:230 111:5'>Psa 111:5</a> defines God's 'dispersal to the poor' as being in terms of food and basic sustenance. God's gift of food is a reflection of His covenant relationship with His people to whom He gives food. This forms part of His eternal righteousness (<a href='B:230 111:3'>Psa 111:3</a>); and Paul is telling the Corinthians that they ought to likewise be generous to those in the covenant who were lacking food. The immediate reference is to God's provision of food to the people in the wilderness, who were to then receive the promised land (<a href='B:230 111:6'>Psa 111:6</a>); appropriate for a Passover Psalm (see on :1). And this is likewise used by Paul in the same section in appealing for generosity to those who lack the ability to go out and gather the manna (<a href='B:540 8:15'>2Co 8:15</a>):&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"His righteousness endures forever" is alluded to in <a href='B:540 9:9'>2Co 9:9</a> - in the context of arguing that God's "righteousness" is shown in His generosity to others, which we should follow. This is His majestic work; see on <a href='B:230 111:5'>Psa 111:5</a>.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>His horn will be exalted with honour-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The glorification&nbsp; / honour of the gracious / generous is not seen in this life. But it will occur at the time of :10- when the wicked will be resurrected to see it, and will gnash their teeth, which is the language of the last judgment.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The wicked will see it, and be grieved. He shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away. The desire of the wicked will perish- Gnashing of teeth is the language of condemnation at the last day (<a href='B:470 8:12'>Mat 8:12</a> etc:). But those thus condemned will have gnashed their teeth at their brethren in this life (<a href='B:230 35:16'>Psa 35:16</a>; <a href='B:230 37:12'>Psa 37:12</a>). By doing so, they are living out their own condemnation. The rejected 'melting away' from the throne of the Lord Jesus is a repeated Biblical picture. <a href='B:690 2:28'>1Jn 2:28</a> speaks of them as being "ashamed from before him at his coming", the Greek suggesting the idea of slinking away in shame. Another foretaste of this was in the way the condemned world of Noah’s time [the flood was a clear type of the final judgment] were to ‘pine away / languish’ (<a href='B:10 6:17'>Gen 6:17</a>; <a href='B:10 7:21'>Gen 7:21</a> - AV “die”). The wicked will melt away from the Lord's presence (<a href='B:230 68:2'>Psa 68:2</a>). Rejected Israel are described as being "ashamed away" (<a href='B:360 1:12'>Joe 1:12</a>)- the same idea. This is the idea behind <a href='B:650 12:15'>Heb 12:15</a> RVmg: "</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>man that falleth back from the grace of God". Note that Jesus Himself will be likewise ashamed of His unworthy followers (<a href='B:490 9:26'>Luk 9:26</a>); there will be a mutuality in the natural distancing between the two parties. This is the scene of <a href='B:730 16:15'>Rev 16:15</a> - the rejected being made naked in shame. This slinking back in shame will fulfil the prophecies of <a href='B:290 1:24'>Isa 1:24</a>; <a href='B:290 1:29'>Isa 1:29</a> and <a href='B:300 2:35-36'>Jer 2:35-36</a>, which speak of the rejected being made ashamed, becoming ashamed, of their idols They will be made ashamed by the judgment process. Thus we have the picture of them initially arguing with Jesus, growing less and less forcible, giving way to a pleading with tears for a change of mind, finally followed by a silent slinking away in shame. There seems a certain similarity between this and how the combined Gospel records imply that men initially mocked Jesus on the cross, and then eventually slipped away in silence (<a href='B:650 6:6'>Heb 6:6</a>). Adam attempted to hide from God's presence, the Hebrew implying 'to drawn oneself back'. Judas went away (Gk. he retired away) to try to hang himself, once he knew his condemnation (<a href='B:470 27:3-5'>Mat 27:3-5</a>). Speechlessness is a characteristic of the rejected (<a href='B:470 22:12'>Mat 22:12</a>); the brothers slunk away from Joseph's physical presence (<a href='B:10 45:4'>Gen 45:4</a>), as the rejected will.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Praise Yah! Praise, you servants of Yahweh, praise the name of Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is part of the "Hallel Psalms" (Psalms 111-118), chants sung at the feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles, which consist of Psalms 113-118. This opening verse is an invitation to the Levites or priests as Yahweh's servants to begin the praise at a feast, used also in <a href='B:230 135:1'>Psa 135:1</a>.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed be the name of Yahweh, from this time forth and forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea may be that we will eternally be praising the name of Yahweh; in the sense of appreciating and praising His characteristics. For the declaration of His Name to Moses involved the listing of His characteristics which combine to make up His personality. We can begin living the eternal life now, in that we can now act as we shall eternally. We shall be eternally appreciating, trusting, loving and praising God's Name- and we can begin that now. This is an Old Testament form (also in <a href='B:230 113:2'>Psa 113:2</a>; <a href='B:230 115:18'>Psa 115:18</a>; <a href='B:230 121:8'>Psa 121:8</a>; <a href='B:230 125:2'>Psa 125:2</a>; <a href='B:230 131:3'>Psa 131:3</a>) of the Lord's teaching as recorded in John's Gospel, that we can have and live the eternal life right now. We have that life not in the sense that we shall never die, but in that we can begin living and being now as we shall eternally live and be.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>From the rising of the sun to the going down of it, Yahweh’s name is to be praised-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could mean from the east to the west, but equally from the dawn to dusk, every day. The vision here is of Gentiles coming to Yahweh and praising His Name. Usually, nations changed their gods only because they had been subjugated by other nations by force, and made to worship the gods of their conquerors. But Yahweh isn't like that. The appeals of the Psalms are constantly for people to decide themselves to come to Him, attracted by His grace to His people, who are to be the parade, showcase examples of what covenant relationship with Yahweh means.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh is high above all nations, His glory above the heavens-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could be part of the vision of :3, of "all nations" lifting Yahweh up as high above them. As His glory was over the ark and the blood covered mercy seat in particular, so now the Gentiles are envisaged as being there on the ark, just as Israel were intended to be. But the idea may also be that Yahweh is above all nations, His glory is there above them all- but they are to seek after Him and find Him.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Who is like Yahweh our God, who has His seat on high-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As explained on :3, this is an invitation from Israel to the nations to accept Yahweh our God. This Psalm has clear connections with the restoration prophecies (here to <a href='B:290 40:18'>Isa 40:18</a>; <a href='B:290 40:25'>Isa 40:25</a>). The idea was that the exiles would repent, and along with repentant Gentiles, return to form a multiethnic people of God in the restored Kingdom of God in Israel.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>who stoops down to view both heaven and earth?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:230 113:6-7'>Psa 113:6-7</a> speaks of how the God who humbles Himself to behold the things in Heaven and earth, is the same God who "raises up the poor out of the dust". His grace at a cosmic level is reflected in the way that on earth He choses to work with the poor rather than the mighty. As we reflect on the ‘Wow!’ factor in God’s calling of us, we need to learn this deeply- that we are the nobodies whom God has called and chosen. That Yahweh has the feature of humility was something totally and radically different to all conceptions of deities amongst the nations; their gods claimed to be proud and invincible, with none of the sensitivity to the lowly which is a part of humility.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The more we begin to even faintly grasp the height of Yahweh's holiness and spirituality, the more we will be awed by His humility in dealing with us. It requires humility from Him to even behold the Angels (perhaps referred to by "heaven"). And yet He lets them discuss His will and come up with their own schemes for executing it, many of which he rejects as somehow inappropriate (<a href='B:140 18:17-20'>2Ch 18:17-20</a>).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He raises up the poor out of the dust and lifts up the needy from the ash heap-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David had seen himself as "poor and needy", needing grace after his sin with Bathsheba and its consequences (<a href='B:230 40:17'>Psa 40:17</a>; <a href='B:230 70:5'>Psa 70:5</a>; <a href='B:230 86:1'>Psa 86:1</a>; <a href='B:230 109:16'>Psa 109:16</a>; <a href='B:230 109:22'>Psa 109:22</a>). He wished Solomon to likewise have pity on the "poor and needy" amongst the Gentiles, those who had likewise repented (<a href='B:230 72:13'>Psa 72:13</a>). And David was especially desirous to himself see the "poor and needy" blessed and accepted as he had been (<a href='B:230 82:3-4'>Psa 82:3-4</a>; <a href='B:230 113:7'>Psa 113:7</a>). It is our personal experience of needing grace which leads us to have a heart for those like us, the poor and needy. Any other motivation will ultimately not abide. Solomon appears to glorify his mother Bathsheba for likewise pitying the poor and needy (<a href='B:240 31:9'>Pro 31:9</a>; <a href='B:240 31:20'>Pro 31:20</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These are the words of Hannah in <a href='B:90 2:8'>1Sa 2:8</a>, and Hannah's song is alluded to throughout <a href='B:230 113:7-9'>Psa 113:7-9</a>. She is presented here as representative of Israel, particularly the exiles in Babylon. Her hope was that Samuel would be not only a priest [although he was not strictly a Levite] but also a prince / king. This is all similar to the idea of <a href='B:230 110:4'>Psa 110:4</a>, where the Messiah was to be a king-priest, not a Levite, but a priest "after the order of Melchizedek".</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>that He may set him with princes, even with the princes of His people-</p><h2>The implication could be that the lowly person lifted up is a Gentile, or at least not from the ruling tribe of Judah, who is lifted up to be a prince amongst the princes of Israel God's people. As noted on :7, this is what Hannah had in mind for her son Samuel (<a href='B:90 2:8'>1Sa 2:8</a>). The language of the man exalted from the dunghill (:7 AV) is also that of Job, who was himself a Gentile. The exaltation of the lowly to be with princes recalls Joseph with Pharaoh, Daniel with Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus, Mordecai with Ahasuerus. The latter two were relevant to the exiles, for whom this Psalm appears to have been rewritten.</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He settles the barren woman in her home, as a joyful mother of children. Praise Yah!- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The allusion to Hannah continues; but she was representative to the "barren woman" of Israel in exile (<a href='B:290 54:1'>Isa 54:1</a>), who was to be blessed with many children (<a href='B:290 49:12'>Isa 49:12</a>; <a href='B:290 49:18'>Isa 49:18</a>; <a href='B:290 49:20'>Isa 49:20</a>; <a href='B:290 54:2-3'>Isa 54:2-3</a>; <a href='B:290 60:5'>Isa 60:5</a>; <a href='B:550 4:27'>Gal 4:27</a>).</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When Israel went forth out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of foreign language-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is part of the "Hallel Psalms" (Psalms 111-118), chants sung at the feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles, which consist of Psalms 113-118. Fittingly, therefore, "it divides into four stanzas of four lines each, very evenly balanced, and perfect in its metrical arrangement".</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This Psalm appears to be encouraging the exiles to perceive that just as Israel had been delivered from Egypt and brought to Canaan, so they could be from Babylon, and led to the restored Kingdom of God in Israel.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Judah became His sanctuary, Israel His kingdom-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The exiles had no physical sanctuary, as the temple was in ruins. But this reminds them that Israelites who left Egypt likewise had no temple; they as people were the essence of God's sanctuary. They as a people were "His Kingdom" (<a href='B:20 19:5'>Exo 19:5</a>), the dominion of the King. Their lack of a human king and national territory didn't at all mean that they were not "His Kingdom", or that God was without "His sanctuary".</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The sea saw it, and fled. The Jordan was driven back-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The seas and waters symbolically refer to nations; just as the Red Sea and Jordan had literally fled, so would the nations before tiny Judah. The sea is personified as people fleeing because of this intended connection between the seas and nations; the same word is used of the Egyptians fleeing from the returning Red Sea (<a href='B:20 14:25'>Exo 14:25</a>; <a href='B:20 14:27'>Exo 14:27</a>). We are here invited to play "Bible television", to use a phrase of Harry Whittaker; standing on the banks and watching the waters fleeing back. This is exactly the encouragement to the exiles given in <a href='B:290 51:10'>Isa 51:10</a>; the seas would be dried up to make "a way for the ransomed to pass over".</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The mountains skipped like rams, the little hills like lambs-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference is to the earthquakes which were associated with the division of the Red Sea. But the mountains are personified as people skipping with joy; just as the waters represent peoples in :3. Mountains and hills represent nation and kingdoms. The hope was that the exiles would repent, and along with joyful, repentant Gentiles, return to form a multiethnic people of God in the restored Kingdom of God in Israel.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>What was it, you sea, that you fled? You Jordan, that you turned back?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea may be 'What do these things mean?'. And the answer is in :7- that the peoples of the earth / eretz promised to Abraham to tremble at Yahweh's presence- in repentance and acceptance of Him. Perhaps we can read "turned back" as referring to repentance.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You mountains, that you skipped like rams; you little hills, like lambs?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :4,5. There is a similar idea in <a href='B:230 29:6'>Psa 29:6</a> "He also makes them to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild ox", GNB "He makes the mountains of Lebanon jump like calves and makes Mount Hermon leap like a young bull". There is the idea that Lebanon and Hermon, from where the cedars came from, would join in response to God's word. For David ever had the hope of Gentile response to Israel's God. </p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Tremble, you earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea is that as the earth had trembled at the exodus, so it could do again at the restoration from Babylon. But the imperative to "tremble" is a suggestion that we are to read this as an appeal to the peoples of the earth / eretz promised to Abraham to tremble at Yahweh's presence- in repentance and acceptance of Him.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of waters-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Just as God had provided for His people on their journey to Canaan after delivering them from Egypt, so He would for the exiles from Babylon. Tragically, most preferred to remain in Babylonian exile.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Not to us, Yahweh, not to us, but to Your name give glory, for Your the sake of Your grace and truth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is part of the "Hallel Psalms" (Psalms 111-118), chants sung at the feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles, which consist of Psalms 113-118. As with Psalms 114, the context appears to be an encouragement to the exiles to not lose heart, even though they couldn't keep the feasts as strictly required. This opening request is for God to glorify the Yahweh Name in order to fulfil His "grace and truth", a phrase often used of the promises to Abraham. The Psalm is asking God to fulfil those promises, which would glorify His Name, in the restoration of the exiles to Zion. Perhaps the request not to glorify the exiles may have in view how popular the exiles became in exile, as witnessed by the end of the book of Esther.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Why should the nations say, Where is their God now?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The way Moses pleaded with God to change His mind and not destroy Israel for the sake of what the surrounding nations would say is indeed inspirational to us all. It surely inspired the psalmist here to pray likewise. The request would be appropriate to the Jewish exiles in Babylon / Persia, mocked for having been forsaken by their God, and the prophecies of restoration apparently not coming true (<a href='B:230 137:3'>Psa 137:3</a>).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But our God is in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The implication may be that this was the answer of the faithful exiles to the mocking observation of the Gentiles that their God was apparently inactive because He was invisible. His visibility however is not related to His activity; and that is the huge difference between the true God and all idols. There may also be the admission that God is active according to His will / pleasure, and as He is omnipotent, that is often going to be above what we can explain to others. There is no shame in our making the same response to those who demand to 'see' our God in more visible action.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is grammatically not addressed to those who mocked the exiles in :2. Rather is this comfort to the exiles, that the idols of Babylon / Persia were indeed dumb. And yet according to Ezekiel and the implications of the book of Esther, idolatry was rife amongst the exiles. So this may have been also an appeal to the exiles to see the idols for what they were.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>they have mouths, but they don’t speak, they have eyes, but they don’t see-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The implication is that Yahweh has all these faculties. This implies that Yahweh is a personal God, and we are made in His image physically, although not morally.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They have ears, but they don’t hear, they have noses, but they don’t smell-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :5. This mockery of idolatry is similar of that addressed to the exiles in <a href='B:290 44:9-20'>Isa 44:9-20</a>; and the context is the same. The exiles are being recalled from idolatry (see on :4):&nbsp;</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They have hands, but they don’t feel; they have feet, but they don’t walk, neither do they speak through their throat-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The implication is that the God of Israel doesn't just have a dead semblance of human form, but actually is real and living, in human form; for we are made in His image. His word is spoken through His throat, and elsewhere He is presented as speaking through lips (<a href='B:220 23:12'>Job 23:12</a>).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Those who make them will be like them; yes, everyone who trusts in them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is an abiding principle. We become like that which we worship and trust in. The process of trusting Yahweh will make us like Him. The requirement for faith and worship is therefore for our benefit. The idols have been portrayed as only appearing human; effectively they are dead, with eyes etc. which don't function. And those who worship them become likewise- not really alive as intended, not sensing reality as they are intended. Those who worship vanities become vain (<a href='B:300 2:5'>Jer 2:5</a>). This was exactly the message to the exiles (<a href='B:290 44:9'>Isa 44:9</a>):&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Israel, trust in Yahweh! He is their help and their shield-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As discussed above, this was an appeal for Israel to quit idolatry and trust in Yahweh alone. Thereby they would show themselves to be the true seed of Abraham, for whom Yahweh was His shield (<a href='B:10 15:1'>Gen 15:1</a>), and of David likewise (<a href='B:230 28:7'>Psa 28:7</a>).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>House of Aaron, trust in Yahweh! He is their help and their shield-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This can be read as an appeal to the house of Aaron separately to Israel (:9). But often "Israel" are paralleled with the house of Aaron / Levi. And this seems an example of that. <a href='B:230 135:19-20'>Psa 135:19-20</a> parallels all Israel with the priestly family: “Bless the Lord, O house of Israel: bless the Lord, O house of Aaron: bless the Lord, O house of Levi: ye that fear the Lord, bless the Lord::. praise ye the Lord”. All Israel were to aspire to the spirit of priesthood. Indeed, the Psalms often parallel the house of Aaron (i:e. the priesthood) with the whole nation (<a href='B:230 115:9-10'>Psa 115:9-10</a>; <a href='B:230 115:12'>Psa 115:12</a>; <a href='B:230 118:2-3'>Psa 118:2-3</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As it was God’s intention that Israel were to be a nation of priests to the rest of the world, so the new Israel likewise are to all discharge the priestly functions of teaching their brethren (<a href='B:20 19:6'>Exo 19:6</a> cp. <a href='B:670 2:5'>1Pe 2:5</a>; <a href='B:730 1:6'>Rev 1:6</a>; <a href='B:730 5:9-10'>Rev 5:9-10</a>). Under the new covenant, we should all teach and admonish one another (<a href='B:580 3:16'>Col 3:16</a>). Indeed, God told Israel [unrecorded in the historical records]: “Ye are gods [elohim] and all of you are sons of the Most High” (<a href='B:230 82:6'>Psa 82:6</a> RV). Further, <a href='B:230 96:9'>Psa 96:9</a> makes the paradigm breaking statement that even the Gentiles could come before Yahweh of Israel in holy, priestly array- they too could aspire to the spirit of priesthood (<a href='B:230 96:9'>Psa 96:9</a> RVmg:). Moses spoke of how all Israel should pray that God would establish the work of their hands (<a href='B:230 90:17'>Psa 90:17</a>)- but this was in fact his special request for the blessing of Levi, the priestly tribe (<a href='B:50 33:11'>Deu 33:11</a>).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You who fear Yahweh, trust in Yahweh! He is their help and their shield-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Israel professed to "fear Yahweh", to respect Him as their God; but that's not necessarily the same as trusting in Him as help and shield. They are appealed to here, as we are, to go far beyond mere religion, in name only making a religious profession. As discussed on :4 and above, the exiles were veering towards idolatry, whilst claiming to still have Yahweh as their God.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh remembers us; He will bless us, He will bless the house of Israel, He will bless the house of Aaron-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The exiles had not in fact been forgotten, as they feared; they could experience the blessing of restoration when they received the blessing of forgiveness from Yahweh. But that required repentance. The allusion is perhaps to the blessing A of <a href='B:40 6:24'>Num 6:24</a>; but this Psalm was used at the feasts (:1), which were to remember / commemorate God's blessing of His people (<a href='B:50 16:15'>Deu 16:15</a>). Yahweh would "remember" His people after punishing them in exile (<a href='B:30 26:45'>Lev 26:45</a> s:w:), and the psalmist asks for that moment to now come:&nbsp;</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He will bless those who fear Yahweh, both small and great-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "small" perhaps especially thought that they were too insignificant to experience Yahweh's blessings. But the nature of Yahweh's covenant is that He doesn't respect the persons of all who are within it. The blessing of those who fear Yahweh would specifically be at the time when Zion was restored (<a href='B:230 128:4-5'>Psa 128:4-5</a>), and that is what is here in view, in the context of the exiles.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>May Yahweh increase you more and more, you and your children-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This alludes to the blessings promised to Abraham, to multiply his seed or children; and Yahweh would "increase more" His people after their exile (s:w. <a href='B:290 26:15'>Isa 26:15</a>). The exiles had broke the old covenant, and the prophets had invited them to accept a "new covenant", based upon the promises to Abraham rather than the law of Moses.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed are you by Yahweh, who made heaven and earth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The God powerful enough to create all things can easily focus that power to the blessing of His people.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The heavens are the heavens of Yahweh; but the earth has He given to the children of men-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference may be specifically to the eretz promised to Abraham; it had been promised to Israel, "the children of men".</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The dead don’t praise Yah, neither any who go down into silence-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This may be a request to restore the Kingdom in the lifetime of the exiles, or the psalmist in exile; so that they could praise Yahweh for it now, rather than die without seeing it. But all the same the point is established that death is not a conscious state; for even the righteous cannot praise Yahweh in death, which is a place of "silence":&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>but we will bless Yah, from this time forth and forevermore. Praise Yah!- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea may be that we will eternally be praising the name of Yahweh; in the sense of appreciating and praising His characteristics. For the declaration of His Name to Moses involved the listing of His characteristics which combine to make up His personality. We can begin living the eternal life now, in that we can now act as we shall eternally. We shall be eternally appreciating, trusting, loving and praising God's Name- and we can begin that now. This is an Old Testament form (also in <a href='B:230 113:2'>Psa 113:2</a>; <a href='B:230 115:18'>Psa 115:18</a>; <a href='B:230 121:8'>Psa 121:8</a>; <a href='B:230 125:2'>Psa 125:2</a>; <a href='B:230 131:3'>Psa 131:3</a>) of the Lord's teaching as recorded in John's Gospel, that we can have and live the eternal life right now. We have that life not in the sense that we shall never die, but in that we can begin living and being now as we shall eternally live and be.</p><h2></h2>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I love Yahweh, because He listens to my voice and my cries for mercy-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is part of the "Hallel Psalms" (Psalms 111-118), chants sung at the feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles, which consist of Psalms 113-118. It sounds very much like a Psalm of David, thanking God for delivering him; but it is here appropriated in hope to the restoration of the exiles. But the reality was that as we see implied in Ezekiel's words to the exiles, and in the book of Esther, the exiles for the most part weren't begging God for restoration and mercy in the spirit of David.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Hebrew grammar here is peculiar; the verb "to love" has no expressed object. <a href='B:690 4:19'>1Jn 4:19</a> may allude here: “We love, because He first loved us".</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Because He has turned His ear to me, therefore I will call on Him as long as I live-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"As long as I live" is the term used by Hezekiah after his healing (<a href='B:290 39:8'>Isa 39:8</a>), but he doesn't offer to continue calling upon Yahweh in gratitude. We too can so easily forget the wonder of answered prayer, failing to realize that the experience commits us to a lifetime of calling upon Him.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The cords of death surrounded me, the pains of Sheol got a hold on me, I found trouble and sorrow-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David felt as if he had been a sacrifice bound to an altar, and therefore about to be pulled into the grave (<a href='B:230 18:5-6'>Psa 18:5-6</a>; <a href='B:230 116:3'>Psa 116:3</a>; <a href='B:230 140:5'>Psa 140:5</a>). The allusion is to Isaac and his miraculous deliverance from such cords, thanks to the ram in the thicket whom David is later to understand as representative of the future Messianic saviour; for the Lord quotes David's "My God, why have You forsaken me?" (<a href='B:230 22:1'>Psa 22:1</a>) as the Aramaic sabachthani, "entangled", the word used of the ram entangled in the thicket.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Then I called on the name of Yahweh: Yahweh, I beg You, deliver my soul-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>To call on Yahweh meant to sacrifice and worship, and yet David rightly understood that prayer is the essence of such sacrifice and worship, rather than the offering of literal animals. Commonly enough, the New Testament speaks of baptism as a calling upon the Name of the Lord. This must be understood against its Hebrew background- qara' beshem Yahweh, which originally referred to approaching God in sacrifice (<a href='B:10 12:7-8'>Gen 12:7-8</a>; <a href='B:230 116:4'>Psa 116:4</a>; <a href='B:230 116:17'>Psa 116:17</a>). God placed His Name upon places in order to make them suitable places for sacrifice to be offered to Him (<a href='B:50 12:4-7'>Deu 12:4-7</a>; <a href='B:50 12:21'>Deu 12:21</a>; <a href='B:300 7:12'>Jer 7:12</a>). Baptism was thus seen as a sacrificial commitment to Yahweh in solemn covenant.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh is gracious and righteous; yes, our God is merciful-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Mercy and grace indicate that David is recognizing that the answer to his prayer (perhaps at some point after the sin with Bathsheba) was an expression of moral grace and forgiveness to him. And the exiles were to realize this too. But as we see implied in Ezekiel's words to them, their problem was that they considered themselves as good people, and their ancestors as the sinners. "Merciful" is the word for "compassion". But the basis for that compassion was to be Israel's repentance (s:w. <a href='B:50 30:13'>Deu 30:13</a> etc:). But God remembers that we are dust, and He does have compassion for reasons other than that His people have repented (s:w. <a href='B:120 13:23'>2Ki 13:23</a>). His compassion is therefore on the basis of His mercy and grace, rather than a proportionate response to steel willed human repentance and self reformation. His compassion is actually always there for His children, even when they are in exiled punishment from Him (s:w. <a href='B:300 31:20'>Jer 31:20</a>; <a href='B:300 33:26'>Jer 33:26</a>). Solomon failed to perceive this grace, instead focusing solely upon the aspect of God showing compassion to those who are repentant (s:w. <a href='B:240 28:13'>Pro 28:13</a>):&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He saved me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David likens himself to the simple who was made wise by God's word (<a href='B:230 19:7'>Psa 19:7</a>; <a href='B:230 119:130'>Psa 119:130</a>), and was therefore preserved (<a href='B:230 116:6'>Psa 116:6</a>). To be taught by God's word we have to become "simple", unlearning and placing to one side all our perceived knowledge and understandings. Solomon repeats David's theme by saying that wisdom makes wise the simple (<a href='B:240 1:4'>Pro 1:4</a>; <a href='B:240 8:5'>Pro 8:5</a>; <a href='B:240 9:4'>Pro 9:4</a>). But he is equating "wisdom" with the words of God, although for Solomon, "wisdom" seems to be what he is saying and teaching. Solomon doesn't direct his listeners back to God's word, as David did, but rather towards loyalty to his teaching. Inspired as it was, his lack of extended reference to God's law places his own teaching of "wisdom" above that law. This is in sharp contrast to David's attitude in Psalms 119.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Return to your rest, my soul, for Yahweh has dealt bountifully with you-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again we have an insight into David's self talk, which should be a pattern for ours. He was not at peace, but he talks to himself, reminding himself of how God had saved his life earlier, and he was thereby obligated to a lifetime of trust in Him, with the associated peace which comes from that. See on :8.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :7. God's past deliverance of his soul from death meant that now, he should dry his eyes from tears regarding his latest crisIsa.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will walk before Yahweh in the land of the living-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LXX "I shall be well-pleasing before the Lord in the land of the living", an undertaking in response to salvation. This is the language of Hezekiah (<a href='B:290 38:11'>Isa 38:11</a>), although unlike David he failed to remember his salvation from death (see on :3,4) and live the rest of his life in trust and praise. The relevance to the exiles is that they hoped they would in their lifetimes come to return to a restored Kingdom of God in Israel, where they would walk in God's presence, truly "in the land of the living".</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I believed, therefore I said, I was greatly afflicted-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"I believed, and therefore&nbsp; have I spoken" (<a href='B:230 116:10'>Psa 116:10</a> LXX) is quoted in <a href='B:540 4:13'>2Co 4:13</a> concerning the attitude of the preacher; because we have believed, therefore we preach, after Paul’s pattern. We naturally have a debt to preach to all men, as we&nbsp; have a debt to love all our brethren- because of what has been done for us (<a href='B:520 1:14'>Rom 1:14</a>). But the quotation appears to be taking a phrase out of context. David is recalling how he had felt he "was greatly afflicted" and surrounded by liars (:11), and yet had been saved out of that part of his life (:12). But the New Testament doesn't always quote the Old Testament in context; it uses the style of Jewish midrash, in justifying a thought by taking a Biblical phrase out of context. "Context" can be overworked within the task of Biblical interpretation. The GNB in <a href='B:540 4:13'>2Co 4:13</a> gets the point: "The scripture says, "I spoke because I believed." In the same spirit of faith we also speak because we believe". But it could be that Paul perceived that David here was speaking in the spirit of Christ, whom he typified. And so Paul quotes the Messianic <a href='B:230 116:10'>Psa 116:10</a> about our witness, which is to be a living out of the spirit which Jesus had in His death and present life and being in Heaven.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I said in my haste, All men are liars-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is such a thing as feeling lonely when we needn’t. Elijah is an example of this; he felt that he was “left alone” faithful in Israel- even though there were another 7,000 who had not bowed the knee to Baal (<a href='B:520 11:3'>Rom 11:3</a>). The Hebrew in 1 Kings is hard to translate. It could mean that God reserved 7,000 of Elijah’s brothers and sisters who potentially would not bow the knee to Baal. Yet Elijah didn’t want to see the potential of his brethren. He set himself in a league above them, like the Psalmist, saying in his haste that all men are liars.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>What will I give to Yahweh for all His benefits toward me?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is a rhetorical question; what can be given back to God for all His giving toward us? The answer is, nothing; but we can praise God and take the cup of salvation at the appointed feast (:13). Our motivation for taking the cup of remembrance (:13) should be the same.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Salvation" is Yeshua, 'Jesus'. As noted on :1, this Psalm was specifically used at the feasts, and may refer to the associated drink offering (<a href='B:40 28:7'>Num 28:7</a>), similar to the "cup of blessing" at Passover (<a href='B:470 26:27'>Mat 26:27</a>). The salvation commemorated was the "help" (s:w:) of :6. Initially, the reference is to a drink offering offered along with a voluntary thanksgiving offering (see on :17). But in the context of the feasts, it was attached to the Passover, which was the great feast of thanksgiving for deliverance from death. The Jews traditionally sing Psalms 116 after the Passover meal, and the third of the four cups drunk then is called "the cup of salvation". But to take a cup doesn't have to mean to drink it, but rather to accept what had been given from God (<a href='B:230 16:5'>Psa 16:5</a>; <a href='B:230 23:5'>Psa 23:5</a>). So the idea may be that by being open to receiving yet more grace, we thereby render thanks for the grace so far received.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will pay my vows to Yahweh, yes, in the presence of all His people-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is appropriate to the celebration of a feast, which is when the Psalm was used (see on :1). David had vowed to serve God in response to his salvation from death (:3,4) and he wanted to do this in the presence of God's people, at a feast. David's faith was absolutely public, he was no secret believer. These things have application to the Lord Jesus (:16). His keeping of the last supper was in fact a celebration of the deliverance which He believed was so certain to come that it was as if He had already received it. For that is the essence of faith.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Precious in the sight of Yahweh is the death of His saints-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea may be that David had faced death (:3,4), but his life had been precious in Yahweh's sight. The exiles likewise were precious in the sight of Yahweh (s:w. <a href='B:290 43:4'>Isa 43:4</a>), and He would preserve the national life of Israel:&nbsp; The death and life of Saul had been precious in David's eyes (s:w. <a href='B:90 26:21'>1Sa 26:21</a>), and so David's life was precious in Yahweh's eyes. Again we are taught that God's attitude to our salvation and our life is directly related to our attitude to the life and salvation of others; and this is why we are to perceive the value, the preciousness, of human life and salvation. It is why making others stumble from the path to eternal life is so serious to God. The supremely precious death of all was that of the Lord Jesus (<a href='B:670 1:19'>1Pe 1:19</a>; <a href='B:670 2:4'>1Pe 2:4</a>; <a href='B:670 2:6-7'>1Pe 2:6-7</a>), and this Psalm clearly looks forward to Him (see on :13,14,16).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh, truly I am Your servant, I am Your servant, the son of Your handmaid. You have freed me from my chains-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This Psalm refers to David and later to the exiles, who were potentially freed from the chains of captivity and are declared as Yahweh's servant throughout later Isaiah. But as noted on :15, it clearly comes to ultimate term in the Lord Jesus. For Mary was the supreme handmaid of Yahweh, and she appears to appropriate this verse to herself (<a href='B:490 1:38'>Luk 1:38</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call on the name of Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As discussed earlier in this Psalm, thanksgiving for deliverance from death committed the psalmist and the audience to calling on Yahweh's Name for the rest of their lives. The next verse (:18) repeats :14, and therefore this verse (:17) reflects :13 "I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of Yahweh". The cup of salvation therefore refers to a thanksgiving offering. Although the Mosaic law didn't require a drink offering for a thanksgiving offering, David was eager to serve God to the maximum, and so offered one too.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will pay my vows to Yahweh, yes, in the presence of all His people-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :14.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>in the courts of Yahweh’s house, in the midst of you, Jerusalem. Praise Yah!- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If the Psalm originated with David, then he is looking forward to the time when a temple would be built in Zion, and he would be there. He would have said this in faith in a resurrection of the body and literal restoration of Zion. The Psalm also has relevance to the exiles. Their temple was then in ruins, but they looked forward to its restoration. The tragedy was that they didn't rebuild it according to the commands of Ezekiel 40-48, and so these things became reapplied and rescheduled to the things of God's Kingdom to be established at the return of the Lord Jesus.</p><h2></h2>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Praise Yahweh, all you nations! Extol Him, all you peoples!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The invitation is to the Gentile nations to praise God because of His grace toward "us", Israel (:2). This is after the pattern of how David proclaimed to the Gentile world his experience of grace, and thereby urged them to also accept Yahweh as the God of all grace. His pattern was to be that of all Israel. It is part of the "Hallel Psalms" (Psalms 111-118), chants sung at the feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles, which consist of Psalms 113-118.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For His grace is great toward us, Yahweh’s faithfulness endures forever. Praise Yah!- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The same word used for how David's sins "overwhelmed me" (<a href='B:230 65:3'>Psa 65:3</a>) is used of how overwhelming or "great" is God's grace (<a href='B:230 103:11'>Psa 103:11</a>; <a href='B:230 117:2'>Psa 117:2</a>). David felt overwhelmed firstly by his sin and then by God's grace. This explains his fragile emotional and nervous state, as often reflected in the Psalms. But his path is to be that of all God's true Israel.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Give thanks to Yahweh for He is good, for His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is part of the "Hallel Psalms" (Psalms 111-118), chants sung at the feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles, which consist of Psalms 113-118. The Psalm began with David thanking God for delivering him from the various crises of his life, but has been developed into a Psalm of hope for the exiles, thanking God in advance for the restoration of the temple which they looked forward to. The restoration didn't happen as was potentially possible, but these things are reapplied to the things of the Lord Jesus. Therefore some of the phrases in the Psalm are specifically applied to Him in the New Testament.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let Israel now say that His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This appeal to Israel to recognize God's eternal grace was pertinent to the exiles; for Ezekiel presents them as having lost faith in His grace, assuming it had somehow ended at the destruction of the temple. We too need to remember that the wonder of Divine grace isn't just historical, but abides for us too:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let the house of Aaron now say that His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This can be read as an appeal to the house of Aaron separately to Israel (:2). But often "Israel" are paralleled with the house of Aaron / Levi. And this seems an example of that. <a href='B:230 135:19-20'>Psa 135:19-20</a> parallels all Israel with the priestly family: “Bless the Lord, O house of Israel: bless the Lord, O house of Aaron: bless the Lord, O house of Levi: ye that fear the Lord, bless the Lord::. praise ye the Lord”. All Israel were to aspire to the spirit of priesthood. Indeed, the Psalms often parallel the house of Aaron (i:e. the priesthood) with the whole nation (<a href='B:230 115:9-10'>Psa 115:9-10</a>; <a href='B:230 115:12'>Psa 115:12</a>; <a href='B:230 118:2-3'>Psa 118:2-3</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As it was God’s intention that Israel were to be a nation of priests to the rest of the world, so the new Israel likewise are to all discharge the priestly functions of teaching their brethren (<a href='B:20 19:6'>Exo 19:6</a> cp. <a href='B:670 2:5'>1Pe 2:5</a>; <a href='B:730 1:6'>Rev 1:6</a>; <a href='B:730 5:9-10'>Rev 5:9-10</a>). Under the new covenant, we should all teach and admonish one another (<a href='B:580 3:16'>Col 3:16</a>). Indeed, God told Israel [unrecorded in the historical records]: “Ye are gods [elohim] and all of you are sons of the Most High” (<a href='B:230 82:6'>Psa 82:6</a> RV). Further, <a href='B:230 96:9'>Psa 96:9</a> makes the paradigm breaking statement that even the Gentiles could come before Yahweh of Israel in holy, priestly array- they too could aspire to the spirit of priesthood (<a href='B:230 96:9'>Psa 96:9</a> RVmg:). Moses spoke of how all Israel should pray that God would establish the work of their hands (<a href='B:230 90:17'>Psa 90:17</a>)- but this was in fact his special request for the blessing of Levi, the priestly tribe (<a href='B:50 33:11'>Deu 33:11</a>).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Now let those who fear Yahweh say that His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These "who fear Yahweh" could just be parallel with "Israel" (:2) and the "house of Aaron" (:3). Or it could refer to the Gentile proselytes, who became known in Judaism as the God fearers. David is ever eager for the conversion of the Gentiles.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Out of my distress, I called on Yah; Yah answered me with freedom-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David appeals in :1-4 for Israel and the Gentiles to praise God for His grace. But this was on the basis of how God had shown him grace in answering David's cry at the time of his distress. The intention was that the exiles would likewise cry to Yahweh and be restored, and the Gentiles (:3) would convert to Yahweh because of His grace to them. And ultimately these things come to apply to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus to eternal life, overcoming the "distress" of death itself. And the whole world is bidden believe in this and praise God for it.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh is on my side, I will not be afraid; what can man do to me?-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Whilst this is true as it stands, we note David's tendency to divide people along the lines of whoever is on his side [who will be saved and blessed by God], and those who aren't [who will be cursed eternally by God]. This is a very human tendency. But we must beware of it. The people in David's life were largely amongst God's people; and we are not to judge in the sense of condemning. It's not always so that those not on our side aren't on the Lord's side. Paul lamented that all in Asia turned against him (<a href='B:620 1:15'>2Ti 1:15</a>), and yet it is clear from the Lord's letters of Revelation 2, 3 that there were at least some in Asia who were on His side. And even at the times of persecution by Saul and Absalom, there were some like Jonathan who were on David's side whilst apparently on the side of his persecutors.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh is on my side among those who help me. Therefore I will look in triumph at those who hate me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :6. The day when David would look at his haters in triumph was perhaps not in this life; but rather at the last day. In this case, David clearly understood the doctrine of the resurrection of the body and the last judgment. And yet he seems to see that final judgment as his vindication against his enemies in this life, rejoicing at the thought of their presence at that time. Surely in spiritual terms there are far greater things to look forward to in eternity than seeing our enemies of this life condemned at the day of judgment at the start of that eternity. See on :13.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is better to take refuge in Yahweh than to put confidence in man-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is a picture of Hezekiah in his better years (s:w. <a href='B:120 18:5'>2Ki 18:5</a>; <a href='B:120 18:18-22'>2Ki 18:18-22</a>; <a href='B:120 18:30'>2Ki 18:30</a>; <a href='B:120 19:10'>2Ki 19:10</a>), trusting in God when surrounded by his enemies in Jerusalem (:10).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is better to take refuge in Yahweh than to put confidence in princes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This repeats :8, but with "princes" replacing the more generic "man". The parallel between princes and men is found in <a href='B:230 146:3'>Psa 146:3</a>. Princes are but men, no more than men, and nothing compared to Yahweh. I noted on :8 the application to Hezekiah. Yet he failed in putting confidence in princes, turning to Egypt for help. Yet he repented and was rewarded for his sole faith in Yahweh alone. And yet afterwards, he put his confidence in the princes of Babylon. His intensity of faith was not maintained.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All the nations surrounded me, but in the name of Yahweh, I cut them off-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This continues the Hezekiah connections (see on :8). The theme of being surrounded continues over the next verses, and this was exactly what happened when Jerusalem was surrounded and miraculously delivered at the time of the Assyrian invasion. But being surrounded by far superior odds is a theme in the lives of God's servants. We think of Samson in a foreign city "compassed in" by his enemies, Paul (<a href='B:510 9:24'>Act 9:24</a>), David (<a href='B:90 23:26'>1Sa 23:26</a>), the spies in Jericho, the returned exiles (<a href='B:160 6:16'>Neh 6:16</a>) etc.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They surrounded me, yes, they surrounded me. In the name of Yahweh I indeed cut them off-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could initially refer to David's experience in <a href='B:90 23:26'>1Sa 23:26</a>. It is the language of Psalms 2 of the surrounding of Messiah, which is applied in the New Testament both to His death and also to the time of His return to earth.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They surrounded me like bees but they are quenched like the burning thorns. In the name of Yahweh I cut them off-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Faithless Israel had been surrounded by their enemies like bees (<a href='B:50 1:44'>Deu 1:44</a>), and thus driven out from inheriting the land. The faithful exiles were intended to have faith that this would not be the case again- if they believed, and stopped acting like historical Israel.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You pushed me back hard to make me fall, but Yahweh helped me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "you" may refer to David's enemies. It is hard to think it also applies to the "Yahweh" of whom David speaks in the same sentence. This reflects how David seems obsessed with his enemies and opponents, imagining them ever before him, thinking that he was talking to them, and longing to see them again at judgment day and be vindicated by God before them. See on :7.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yah is my strength and song, He has become my salvation-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the language of Israel's exaltation after the Red Sea deliverance, which became programmatic for the future deliverances of all God's people.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous: The right hand of Yahweh does valiantly-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :6,7, David sees the righteous as those who took his side against his enemies. He expects them to all rise up in ecstatic praise when he is vindicated. But David was not always right, and his enemies were raised up and used by God. Not all of them were evil, and some of them were it seems just used as tools in God's hand. He seems to over personalize everything, because of his oversensitivity to words and opposition.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The right hand of Yahweh is exalted! The right hand of Yahweh does valiantly!-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This continues the allusion to the triumphant rejoicing at the deliverance from the Egyptians at the Red Sea (<a href='B:20 15:6'>Exo 15:6</a>). The Psalm speaks in faith of the future possibilities as if they had happened, hence the past tenses.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will not die, but live, and declare Yah’s works-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :16, the psalmist is not stating that he has been delivered; he speaks in the past tense of that yet future and hoped for. He has the absolute confidence of faith (:21). The intention of deliverance was that Yahweh's saving works and grace would be declared; and that is what David is doing through this Psalm. And that is the intention for each of us in our experience of answered prayer.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yah has punished me severely, but He has not given me over to death-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Punished" is better "chastened me" (as AV). The allusion is clearly to Job, who was chastened but his life was not taken from him. This is how we should all respond to trial- by seeking Biblical precedent for our experiences.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will enter into them. I will give thanks to Yah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is hard to exactly reconstruct how the Psalms were used in musical arrangement, but I suggest that this is a solo sung by one singer, who has as it were come to the end of the journey to Zion; and then another soloist answers in the words of :20. "The gates of righteousness" are the temple gates; the gates&nbsp; to be entered by the righteous. Or the allusion could be to <a href='B:50 16:18'>Deu 16:18</a> (s:w:), that there was to be righteous judgment in all the gates of the restored Kingdom of God on earth. There is great emphasis upon the gates of the restored Zion (<a href='B:290 54:12'>Isa 54:12</a>; <a href='B:290 60:11'>Isa 60:11</a>; <a href='B:290 60:18'>Isa 60:18</a>), being entered by the restored exiles (<a href='B:290 62:10'>Isa 62:10</a>). But this would be if Judah accepted the new covenant (<a href='B:300 31:38'>Jer 31:38</a>; <a href='B:300 31:40'>Jer 31:40</a>), and built the restored temple as commanded in Ezekiel 40-48. They didn't do these things, and so they are reapplied to the restored Zion of the last days; for the gates of the new Jerusalem are stressed in the final chapters of Revelation. See on :22.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the gate of Yahweh; the righteous will enter into it-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As suggested on :19, this is another soloist, replying or perhaps chanting as it were from the temple gate, in response to the solo of :19. The restored exiles were to be counted righteous, by grace through faith in imputed righteousness, as the latter part of Isaiah emphasizes. But they did not repent nor grasp the offer, as noted on :19. </p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will give thanks to You, for You have answered me, and have become my salvation-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :16, the psalmist is not stating that he has been delivered, for he has not yet experienced it (:17); he speaks in the past tense of that yet future and hoped for. He has the absolute confidence of faith. </p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner-</p><h2>This is clearly quoted in the New Testament with reference to Christ's exaltation (<a href='B:470 21:42'>Mat 21:42</a>). But in the context, these words are part of a personal prayer of praise from David for God's healing of him and rescuing him from persecution. The temple could have been rebuilt by the exiles with Zerubbabel as the head stone (s:w. <a href='B:450 4:7'>Zec 4:7</a>). But he failed to be the Messianic figure he could have been, and so the prophecy was reapplied and reinterpreted in relation to the Lord Jesus, the stone (<a href='B:10 49:24'>Gen 49:24</a>; <a href='B:290 8:14'>Isa 8:14</a>; <a href='B:290 28:16'>Isa 28:16</a>; <a href='B:520 9:23'>Rom 9:23</a>; <a href='B:530 3:11'>1Co 3:11</a>; <a href='B:560 2:20'>Eph 2:20</a>; <a href='B:670 2:8'>1Pe 2:8</a>). There may be the hint that the intended rebuilders of Zion would not build as required by the commandments of Ezekiel 40-48 (see on :19). But God's restoration plan would not ultimately fail; for the rejected stone would as it were arise [in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus] and become the cornerstone of a new kind of temple; that spoken of in the New Testament, comprised of living stones of believers.</h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is Yahweh’s doing, it is marvellous in our eyes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The faithful would perceive the wonder of the ultimate restoration of the temple through the reapplication of the prophecies to the Lord Jesus; see on :19,22. It's tempting to assume that it'<strong>s </strong>the natural creation which alone provokes wonder. But Biblically, it's more often God's actions in history, His saving of His Israel, His grace, His undeserved helping of us in practical situations (e:g. <a href='B:300 21:2'>Jer 21:2</a>) which are what should provoke wonder. Otherwise the blind would have no sense of wonder at God. God's whole plan in Christ "is wonderful in our eyes" (<a href='B:230 118:23'>Psa 118:23</a>). It is a "marvellous work and a wonder" (<a href='B:290 29:14'>Isa 29:14</a>; <a href='B:510 13:41'>Act 13:41</a>). Wonder doesn't mean we cease to analyze God's word; it's a sense of touching reality, not a fuzzy feeling of vague speculation.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the day that Yahweh has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The day created by Yahweh is that of the restoration of the Kingdom of God in Israel; see on :27. The day of Yahweh's making is the term used for the creation (<a href='B:10 2:4'>Gen 2:4</a>), but the arising of the rejected stone, the Lord Jesus (:22), would lead to a new creation; the day Yahweh makes is finally to be in the last day of the return of the Lord Jesus to reestablish God's Kingdom on earth (s:w. <a href='B:360 2:22'>Joe 2:22</a>). And the faithful would perceive this and rejoice in it:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Save us now, we beg You, Yahweh! Yahweh, we beg You, send prosperity now-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the cry of the faithful for the promised restoration of the Kingdom to come immediately, in their lifetimes. This was the passion of the faithful exiles, and also of David. "Save now" is the equivalent of "Hosanna", and was the desire of the people of Jerusalem at the Lord's triumphal entry. But He deconstructed those desires for an immediate restoration of the Kingdom. He came to die, and to usher in the kind of Kingdom He taught about in His message about the Kingship and Kingly dominion of God in Christian life. Only in the longer term was there to be the literal establishment of such a Kingdom on earth, at the last day, when those principles will finally be physically and eternally articulated in this earth. The exiles wanted the "prosperity" of the Kingdom immediately; but this prosperity was conditional upon their obedience to the covenant (s:w. <a href='B:60 1:8'>Jos 1:8</a>); they would never "prosper" whilst disobeying it (s:w. <a href='B:50 28:29'>Deu 28:29</a>), nor could they "prosper" to enter the land as intended whilst faithless (<a href='B:40 14:41'>Num 14:41</a> s:w:). The faithful minority amongst the exiles believed God would prosper them (<a href='B:160 2:20'>Neh 2:20</a>), and He was indeed eager to do so (<a href='B:290 55:11'>Isa 55:11</a>); but this was not to be, because the majority were faithless. This prosperity was to finally only be through the work of the Lord Jesus (<a href='B:290 53:10'>Isa 53:10</a>), seeing the potential 'servant' figures of the restoration all failed (<a href='B:290 48:15'>Isa 48:15</a>). David liked to imagine that Solomon would "prosper" because he built the temple (<a href='B:130 22:11'>1Ch 22:11</a>); but such prosperity was conditional.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed is he who comes in the name of Yahweh! We have blessed you out of the house of Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This individual is the rejected stone who revives and becomes the cornerstone. The musical arrangement here may be as suggested on :19,20. This is another soloist, replying or perhaps chanting as it were from the temple gate, in response to the arrival of the King at the temple gates. The 'coming one' was Messiah (<a href='B:470 11:3'>Mat 11:3</a>). These words were sung to the approaching Lord Jesus (<a href='B:490 19:38'>Luk 19:38</a>), but they were totally misunderstood. They will be finally be sung by those of the last day who see the Lord Jesus return to Zion. Thus He interpreted them in <a href='B:470 23:39'>Mat 23:39</a>, where He understands that when Jerusalem sees Jesus again, they will be saying: “Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord”. This would suggest they are waiting for Him. And these words being taken from the Passover Hallel here in Psalms 118, it could be that the Lord returns to them at Passover time, when they traditionally expect Him. Indeed, Jerusalem will not see the Lord&nbsp;until&nbsp;they say “Blessed is he</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>”- as if the time of His return depends upon their ‘seeing’ / perceiving Him beforehand.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But the Lord quoted these words to those who were to crucify Him. He was saying that He now was going to stop them 'seeing' / perceiving Him for who He was, so that they would crucify Him. And they would only again perceive Him as God's Son all too late, when at the day of judgment they uttered the words of Messianic welcome "Blessed is He that comes::.". And yet even in this terrible judgment there was interwoven a possibility of hope. They would only perceive Him again as God's Son&nbsp;when, or,&nbsp;until the time that, they recognized Him as Messiah in the Messianic words "Blessed is He that comes::.". Once they made that repentance, they would again perceive / see Him. However, it could be argued that that is axiomatic. The thrust of the Lord's words is surely that in the day of judgment, all too late, they would perceive Him again as He is in truth. But all too late. When they are appointed their portion with the hypocrites and there is wailing and gnashing of teeth,&nbsp;then&nbsp;shall the Kingdom be likened unto the five wise and five foolish virgins:&nbsp;Then&nbsp;the rejected will understand the principles of that parable, crystal clearly. Members of the ecclesia of Israel will say "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord"- but be rejected. Likewise the Egyptians, fleeing in the mud from Yahweh as they vainly hoped against hope that the returning waters wouldn't somehow reach them::. they came to know Yahweh (<a href='B:20 14:18'>Exo 14:18</a>). It could well be that this knowing of Yahweh involves a desperate recounting of their sins, seeing that one of the purposes of condemnation is to make men aware of their sinfulness and the depth of God's grace.</p>&nbsp;


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh is God, and He has given us light-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the phrase used for how God "gave light" at creation (<a href='B:10 1:15'>Gen 1:15</a>; <a href='B:10 1:17'>Gen 1:17</a>). The idea is that a new creation was to come about with the coming of Messiah to Zion (:26). See on :24.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Bind the sacrifice with cords, even to the horns of the altar-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is obviously appropriate to usage in the feasts (see on :1). The exiles had no temple; these words are being said in faithful expectation of the day when the temple would be restored, and a thank offering offered (:28).</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You are my God, and I will give thanks to You; You are my God, I will exalt You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This continues the allusion to the song of Moses in thanksgiving for the Red Sea deliverance (<a href='B:20 15:2'>Exo 15:2</a>). The "us" of :27 now becomes "me". The personal wonder of salvation is to be ever appreciated. This is no mere nationalistic fervour of praise for Israel's deliverance, but a deep sense that little me::. has indeed been eternally saved.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oh give thanks to Yahweh, for He is good, for His grace endures forever- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This forms the conclusion, in the same words as the opening verses. This great salvation is indeed all of grace, and the God who has seemed distant to the exiles, shrouded behind the problem of evil, will be finally and eternally revealed as ultimately "good".</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>ALEPH</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Psalms 119 was apparently initially written at the time of Saul's persecution of David, although there are some verses which reflect David reusing it in later parts of his life. It mentions David as a young man devoting himself to the word rather than riches (:72)- the riches which might have seemed could have been his if he mentally surrendered to Saul, or if he killed Saul and took the kingdom. He often laments how he is in exile from Yahweh's word (:43,46,54), which would have been on account of his being away from the sanctuary at Gibeah:&nbsp; He pleads the promise of the word that he would be preserved from Saul's persecution (:41,58), and several times mentions Saul's attempts on his life (:87,95,109,110). The following verses are evidently relevant to this period: 61,63,67,79,84 (= <a href='B:90 27:1'>1Sa 27:1</a>),95,98 (= <a href='B:90 18:14-15'>1Sa 18:14-15</a>),110 (cp. the 'snaring' with Michal), 119 (the emphasis is on 'You will&nbsp;destroy the wicked like Saul- one day), 125 (David is often called Saul's servant), 150,154 (= <a href='B:90 24:15'>1Sa 24:15</a>), 157,161,165,176. Therefore in the face of such hatred and pain, feeling he must be careful of every step he took, emotionally and physically, David could rejoice: "I will walk at liberty (AVmg. 'at large'): for I seek Your precepts" .</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to Yahweh’s law-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We wonder at David's possible arrogance in assuming that he or any man can walk blamelessly. Only the Lord Jesus fits thIsa. And yet this is the phrase used in God's command to Abraham and his seed (<a href='B:10 17:1'>Gen 17:1</a>). It was only possible for Abraham to do so by his faith in imputed righteousness, by grace through faith. But it's questionable as to whether David at this point realized that; he had to learn it through reflection upon the wonder of how God had counted him righteous after the sin with Bathsheba. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed are those who keep His statutes, who seek Him with their whole heart-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is not to be read as David pronouncing himself amongst those who totally kept God's statutes, for he often laments that he doesn't (:5). But he appears to have in view some he knew whom he felt were like this; perhaps Samuel was among them. So many times does David parallel those who seek God with those who keep His word. We will never achieve perfect obedience; but seeking it is paralleled with it. We are progressively coming to know the love of Christ which passes our natural knowledge (<a href='B:560 3:19'>Eph 3:19</a>), to experience the peace of God that passes our natural understanding (Php_4:7):&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yes, they do nothing wrong; they walk in His ways-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In spiritual youth and immaturity, it is easy to consider older, faithful believers as perfect. This Psalm was likely edited over a period of time, and we in see :99 some progression from this youthful imagination that David's teachers were perfect. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You have commanded Your precepts, that we should fully obey them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This clearly indicates that at this point, David didn't believe that sin is inevitable. And neither should we, we are not forced to sin by our natures. For the Lord Jesus had our nature but never sinned. We must hang our heads over every sin. And yet we wonder whether the Bathsheba incident made David reassess his position on this; for after that he reflected: "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity. In sin my mother conceived me" (<a href='B:230 51:5'>Psa 51:5</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oh that my ways were steadfast to obey Your statutes!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If a man prepares his way after God’s principles (<a href='B:140 27:6'>2Ch 27:6</a>; <a href='B:240 4:26'>Pro 4:26</a>), then God will ‘prepare’ that man’s way too (<a href='B:230 37:23'>Psa 37:23</a>; <a href='B:230 119:5'>Psa 119:5</a>), confirming him in the way of escape. When Solomon teaches that God must be allowed to establish or direct our way (<a href='B:240 4:26'>Pro 4:26</a>; <a href='B:240 16:29'>Pro 16:29</a>), he is using the same Hebrew words as in <a href='B:230 37:23'>Psa 37:23</a> and <a href='B:230 119:5'>Psa 119:5</a>, when David says the same. It’s as if he was given God’s truth and yet he never quite made it his very own- he still articulated it in terms of the faith of his fathers. And thus he lost it in the end:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Then I wouldn’t be ashamed when I obey all of Your commandments-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The sense may be that when David felt he had been fully obedient, he thereby saw the rest of his life in stark contrast, and was ashamed that he hadn't obeyed all the commandments at other times. But he still seems to fail to realize that even keeping all the commandments for a period of time was still not the path to salvation. He needed to learn the telling detail in <a href='B:490 17:10'>Luk 17:10</a> which reflects the grace of Jesus: "When you shall have done (not 'when you do') all these things which are commanded you, (you will) say, We are unprofitable servants". It may be that this is taking us forward to the Kingdom; it is at the judgment that we 'do all' (<a href='B:560 6:13'>Eph 6:13</a>), it is in the Kingdom that we will obey all the commandments (<a href='B:230 119:6'>Psa 119:6</a>). This parable is a glimpse into the appreciation of grace we will have as we enter the Kingdom; once we are fully righteous, we will realize how unprofitable we are of ourselves (notice we may still feel in a sense " unprofitable" then).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will give thanks to You with uprightness of heart, when I learn Your righteous judgments-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David throughout this Psalm sees a difference between knowing / being aware of God's judgments; and learning them / being taught them. He believes that if God teaches him the real meaning of the laws and requirements which David already knew, then this would lead him to "uprightness of heart" and integrity in worship. This desire for integrity in worship ought to be known to every spiritually sensitive soul; for the words of our songs and hymns are often of an altogether higher level than our average spiritual level.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will observe Your statutes; don’t utterly forsake me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God counted David as having observed His statutes (s:w. <a href='B:110 3:14'>1Ki 3:14</a>), even though he laments that he doesn't observe them as he wished (:5). His desire to observe them was counted finally as if he had done so. But we wonder whether David is correct in thinking that observing the statutes as it were bought God's 'not forsaking' him.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>BET</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Keep::. pure" is the word for "cleanse" in <a href='B:230 73:13'>Psa 73:13</a>, where David later momentarily considers he may have wasted his effort in doing this in his youth. David was to later realize (after the sin with Bathsheba) that cleansing was a matter of God washing the heart by His Spirit, rather than steel willed obedience to "live according to Your word".</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>With my whole heart I have sought You; don’t let me wander from Your commandments-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David doesn't claim total obedience to God's laws, as he so often laments in this Psalm. But he can say that he has sought God wholeheartedly, his desire was for total obedience; and this should be our pattern. He frequently recognizes that there is a power from God available to keep us obedient to His ways; there would be no point in asking "Don't let me wander::." if steel willed obedience was all God is looking for, and waits to see who has that iron in their soul. He is more proactive than that. And this power to keep us from wandering is what the New Testament calls the Holy Spirit, given freely to all who ask and desire to walk in God's ways. David here uses the same word for how Saul 'wandered' out of the way (s:w. <a href='B:90 26:21'>1Sa 26:21</a>), and David seems to have initially written Psalms 119 in his wilderness years; he is asking to be stopped from going the path of Saul (<a href='B:230 119:10'>Psa 119:10</a>; <a href='B:230 119:21'>Psa 119:21</a>; <a href='B:230 119:118'>Psa 119:118</a>). We see this same request for God to make him obedient to God's word, to act directly upon his heart and psychology, in :10,18.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have hidden Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Lord Jesus was the parade example of this, responding to His wilderness temptations as David did to his, by quoting God's word to himself, "in my heart". David often feels that God has hidden him (<a href='B:230 27:5'>Psa 27:5</a>; <a href='B:230 31:19-20'>Psa 31:19-20</a>); and this was God's mutual response to David having His word in his hidden part. Solomon seems to allude to David hiding God's word in his heart (<a href='B:230 119:11'>Psa 119:11</a>) by asking his son to hide his word in his heart (s:w. <a href='B:240 2:1'>Pro 2:1</a>; <a href='B:240 7:1'>Pro 7:1</a>). Again Solomon is putting his own words in the place of God's words. Whilst his wisdom was inspired by God, I detect something wrong here. He is effectively playing God, and not directing people to God's word but rather to his own words, true and inspired as they might be. This came to full term in Solomon's attitude that personal loyalty to himself was loyalty to God- even when Solomon was far from God in his ways. And the same trap is fallen into by those who hold parts of 'God's truth'; they can come to thereby play God and demand personal loyalty to themselves rather than to God:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed are You, Yahweh; teach me Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>From his youth, David had asked to be taught God's way (<a href='B:230 119:7'>Psa 119:7</a>; <a href='B:230 119:12'>Psa 119:12</a>; <a href='B:230 119:26'>Psa 119:26</a>; <a href='B:230 119:64'>Psa 119:64</a>; <a href='B:230 119:66'>Psa 119:66</a>; <a href='B:230 119:68'>Psa 119:68</a>; <a href='B:230 119:73'>Psa 119:73</a>; <a href='B:230 119:108'>Psa 119:108</a>; <a href='B:230 119:124'>Psa 119:124</a>; <a href='B:230 119:135'>Psa 119:135</a>), and at the end of his life David recognized that indeed God had "taught me from my youth" (s:w. <a href='B:230 71:17'>Psa 71:17</a>). In secular life, teaching is something experienced in youth, and then life is spent practicing what was learned. But in spiritual life, David perceived that the God who had taught him from his youth was continuing to teach him (<a href='B:230 71:17'>Psa 71:17</a>). This is part of the "newness of life" experienced in Christ, the ever fresh spring water that we drink.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>With my lips I have declared all the ordinances of Your mouth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>One danger of Bible study, especially in the age of screens being looked at in private, is that we are left with a mass of wonderful truths and ideas; but they remain within us. As God's mouth had declared His word, so David's lips and mouth would publically declare them. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, as much as in all riches-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David doesn't claim total obedience to God's laws, as he so often laments in this Psalm. But he can say that he loves God's word and His ways. His desire was for total obedience; and this should be our pattern. Often in Psalms 119 he contrasts his love of God's word with the love of wealth. The desire for wealth is a typical issue faced by young men. And David sets a commendable example in thIsa:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will meditate on Your precepts, and consider Your ways-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Mere possession of Divine truth will not of itself save anyone; there must be meditation upon those truths, which in turn leads to meditation upon His overall ways, which leads to reflection upon our ways. "Meditate" and "consider" are here in parallel. God's precepts are a "way" of being and not to be considered as isolated, ritualistic demands upon man. For the individual commandments are not mere tests of obedience, but aids towards a way of life.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will delight myself in Your statutes, I will not forget Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The command to "not forget [the] word" was given in <a href='B:50 4:9'>Deu 4:9</a> (s:w:). Israel were to never forget that they were in covenant relationship with Yahweh, and the gift of His word to them was so wonderful they were never to forget it. Our awareness of the wonder of having God's word will elicit our delight in it. A John Carter rightly pointed out, our attitude to God's word determines our obedience to it. This is where attitudes to inspiration are so important in practical living.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>GIMEL</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Do good to Your servant; I will live to obey Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The 'doing good' is parallel with 'living'. We can interpret this as meaning that David asks God to preserve his life, because he promises to use that preserved life to obey God's word. Perhaps the word in view was specifically the word of promise that David was to become king and govern according to God's will.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things out of Your law-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The allusion may be to the Angel opening Hagar's eyes to see a well of water (cp. the word) in the desert (<a href='B:10 21:19'>Gen 21:19</a>). See on 119:135. We see this same request for God to make him understand and be obedient to God's word, to act directly upon his heart and psychology, in :10,18,27,29,34-37. LXX "Unveil thou mine eyes" suggests David felt as Moses, who spoke to Israel from behind a veil, but unveiled himself in the presence of God in the tabernacle "outside the camp". David felt his seeing wonderful things in the law were those moments of personal, unveiled encounter with God which Moses experienced. We see this same request for God to make him understand His word, to act directly upon his heart and psychology, in :10. Recall how the Lord Jesus opens hearts to His word (<a href='B:490 24:31-32'>Luk 24:31-32</a>; <a href='B:490 24:45'>Luk 24:45</a>; <a href='B:510 16:14'>Act 16:14</a>). Therefore pray briefly before you read the Bible, as you would for daily food, thanking God for the power and grace of His word, and asking for your eyes to be opened to the real meaning, and that you will have God's gracious help to apply it in everyday life.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We should also consider that 'opening eyes' is used as an idiom for being granted a revelation of God's word in a prophetic sense (<a href='B:40 24:4'>Num 24:4</a>; <a href='B:40 24:16'>Num 24:16</a>). David was indeed a prophet (<a href='B:510 2:30'>Act 2:30</a>). The "wondrous things" (s:w. "hidden things", <a href='B:50 30:11'>Deu 30:11</a>) of the torah were ultimately the things of the Lord Jesus, which David indeed perceived (<a href='B:510 2:30'>Act 2:30</a>). But they may also refer to God's miraculous acts which David vowed to share with others now his eyes were opened to them (<a href='B:230 9:1'>Psa 9:1</a>; <a href='B:230 26:7'>Psa 26:7</a>; <a href='B:230 78:4'>Psa 78:4</a>; <a href='B:230 119:27'>Psa 119:27</a>). This verse is parallel with <a href='B:230 119:27'>Psa 119:27</a>, where the same term for "wondrous things" is used. David there asks to be made to understand them; this is the opening of his eyes here spoken of.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I am a stranger on the earth, don’t hide Your commandments from me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>On the run from Saul, David felt like a Gentile in the land. But thereby he became a true seed of Abraham, who was likewise a stranger in the earth / land of promise. David had the commandments; he wanted them to be opened to him, and not hidden. We see here the way that God can both open and close minds to His word.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My soul is consumed with longing for Your ordinances at all times-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Devotion to God's word can so easily be something we only temporarily manifest. But David longed for God's words "at all times". This 'longing for the ordinances' requires us to read in an ellipsis- David longed [to be obedient to and understand] the ordinances. Perhaps he refers to his desire whilst in the wilderness to be able to come before the sanctuary (from which he was exiled by Saul's persecution); this is a common theme of his wilderness Psalms (e:g. <a href='B:230 42:2'>Psa 42:2</a> cp. <a href='B:50 31:11'>Deu 31:11</a>; <a href='B:290 1:12'>Isa 1:12</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You have rebuked the proud who are cursed, who wander from Your commandments-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David here uses the same word for how Saul 'wandered' out of the way (s:w. <a href='B:90 26:21'>1Sa 26:21</a>), and David seems to have initially written Psalms 119 in his wilderness years. The proud therefore refers to Saul; Saul's curse was that he would not be king any more, but would be replaced by David. The "rebuke" was that Saul would be replaced as king by David.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Take reproach and contempt away from me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was always deeply hurt by words; the reproach and contempt from Saul hurt him so deeply, especially as it implied that he was disobedient to God's statutes.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For I have kept Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Psalms 119 reflects David's awareness that he didn't keep God's law as he should. The first four verses speak of the blessedness of the man who is obedient. But he laments: "O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes! Then will I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments" (<a href='B:230 119:5-6'>Psa 119:5-6</a>). He seems to be saying that when he feels he is obedient, it makes him feel ashamed because he realizes how far short he has come of obedience at other times and in other ways. He concludes this matchless psalm of praise for God's word with a seeming paradox: "I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget they commandments" :176). Yet often throughout the Psalm he remarks how he has kept God's law, and will thereby be justified (e:g. :22). He expresses no doubt about salvation. The resolution of all this seems to be that we can know that we are obedient to the basic way of life inculcated by covenant relationship with God, and be comforted by this fact; whilst at the same time realizing how very far we come short of total obedience, and therefore how far we fall short of the spiritual blessedness which is attainable for us even now. Yet despite an agony as to his failures, David still had a remarkably open and enthusiastic relationship with God.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Though princes sit and slander me, Your servant will meditate on Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LXX "For princes sat and spoke against me: but thy servant was meditating on thine ordinances". This implies that Saul and his sons, the princes (apart from Jonathan), sat and slandered David in his presence. But in the face of slander he meditated upon God's words. This is a great example to all who are slandered.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Indeed Your statutes are my delight and my counsellors-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was in a very difficult situation whilst living at Saul's court. Everybody likely advised him differently, all doubtless dogmatic that their advice must be followed. And he as a young man, a shepherd boy, could easily have been caught in an endless complex of indecision. Instead he delighted in God's words and found that word to come alive; those verses of print on paper became as it were his counsellors:&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>DALED</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My soul is laid low in the dust; revive me according to Your word!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David felt at times that he would surely perish ["in the dust"] at Saul's hand (<a href='B:90 27:1'>1Sa 27:1</a>). But he was revived from that depression by his faith in God's prophetic word that he would indeed one day be king and Saul's persecution would pass.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I declared my ways, and You answered me. Teach me Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This declaration of his ways was perhaps an opening up of his life to God. Although God knows all things, we are to tell Him of our life experiences and feelings. And God responded; He opened up His statutes to David, full of personal meaning and relevance to David.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let me understand the teaching of Your precepts! Then I will talk of Your wondrous works-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This verse is parallel with <a href='B:230 119:18'>Psa 119:18</a>, where the same term for "wondrous things" is used. David there asks to have his eyes opened to these things; here, to be made to understand them. Again we see his belief that God can act directly upon human hearts to make us understand.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David in the Psalms often makes the link between appreciation of God’s ways and the inevitable witness this will result in. This contrasts with our tendency to amassing of pure, intellectual truth- but without very much telling of it forth to others. “He that is wise [i:e:, has true wisdom] winneth souls” (<a href='B:240 11:30'>Pro 11:30</a> RV).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My soul is weary with sorrow: strengthen me according to Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The particular "word" in view was not simply 'the Bible' as David then had it, but the specific word of promise that Saul's persecution would one day end, and he would become king. His weariness is perhaps at the time of <a href='B:90 27:1'>1Sa 27:1</a>, where he felt he would perish at Saul's hand.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Keep me from the way of deceit. Grant me Your law graciously!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>AV "Remove from me", again suggesting as noted on :18 that God can keep us from temptation, acting directly on the human mind. This is the whole purpose of praying "Lead us not into temptation". The answer to this request to be kept from a deceitful way of life was to be through being given God's law. Yet David had God's law in the sense that he knew the various commandments. We may have to therefore read in an ellipsis: "Grant me [to keep / have in my heart] Your law". See on :30.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have chosen the way of truth, I have set Your ordinances before me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In :29 David has asked to have the way of deceit removed from him; but he himself had chosen the way of truth. His request in :29 is therefore that he should be spiritually and psychologically confirmed by God in his choice; and he had set God's laws before him so that God could work through that; see on <a href='B:230 25:12'>Psa 25:12</a>.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I cling to Your statutes, Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Referring to the plea to cling or cleave to God so that Israel might enter and inherit the Kingdom (<a href='B:50 30:20'>Deu 30:20</a>). To cling to God is to cling to His words; for God is His word, "the word was God", and our attitudes to His word are our attitudes to Him.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t let me be disappointed-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Typical of men of his time, David seems to fear shame [s:w. "disappointed"] more than death itself. Defeat meant shame, and he desperately begged not to be shamed. Perhaps it was the function of his failure with Bathsheba to help him redefine the motives for his trust in God.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I run in the path of Your commandments, for You have set my heart free-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is a great theme of this Psalm; that obedience to God is not a life of being shut up in a boring and constricted path of being, but rather is the way of ultimate psychological freedom. And it is this which many seek for, and yet look for it in all the wrong places.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>HEY</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Teach me, Yahweh, the way of Your statutes; I will keep them to the end-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David often suggests that understanding God's laws is what empowers keeping them. He didn't see them as a set of ritual commands to be obeyed for the sake of it, to as it were prove ourselves to God. Rather does he perceive them as a way of life, and he asks God to teach them to him. He knew the various regulations of the Mosaic law; but to keep them as a way of life he needed to have them explained to him. And he asks God to directly visit his heart and open his eyes to their true meaning. Mere possession of those laws was not enough without further guidance.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Give me understanding, and I will keep Your law; yes, I will obey it with my whole heart-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :18, David repeatedly asks for psychological strength in order to be obedient to God's law. This is the Old Testament equivalent of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. See on :33.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Moses persevered because he understood. “Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law” (<a href='B:230 119:34'>Psa 119:34</a>) is one of many links in David’s thought between understanding and obedience. " For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter" (<a href='B:480 7:29'>Mar 7:29</a>) shows the value which the Lord placed on correct understanding. The Gentile woman had seen the feeding of the 5,000 and understood the implications of the lesson which the Lord was teaching. We get the feeling that the Lord was overjoyed at her perception and therefore made an exception to His rule of not being sent at that time to the Gentiles, but to the house of Israel:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is&nbsp; significant&nbsp; that &nbsp;Solomon's&nbsp; spiritual&nbsp; life&nbsp; has&nbsp; more appearance&nbsp; of&nbsp; spirituality&nbsp; the&nbsp; closer we get back to David's death:&nbsp; David had asked for wisdom (<a href='B:230 119:34'>Psa 119:34</a>), and even Solomon’s request for wisdom can be seen as rooted in a desire to live out parental expectation more than purely from his own volition. For David had told him: “Thou art a wise man” (<a href='B:110 2:9'>1Ki 2:9</a>), and Solomon wanted to live up to that expectation. In&nbsp; other words, David's influence was extremely strong, but&nbsp; it&nbsp; decreased over the years.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Direct me in the path of Your commandments, for I delight in them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David inclined his own heart to be obedient to the word (:112), but God inclined his heart that way in response (:36). David’s meditation on the law gave him understanding (:99), but he was given understanding by God (:34). He kept his feet in the way of God’s word (:101), but God made him walk in that path (:35). As noted on <a href='B:230 25:4-5'>Psa 25:4-5</a> the desire for guidance or being 'directed' suggests that there is a higher power available, beyond a man engaging alone with God's word and seeking to obey it in his own strength. The idea is beyond that of guidance; the same word is translated "make me to go in the path of Your commandments" (<a href='B:230 119:35'>Psa 119:35</a> AV). It is the word used for a bow being bent; the idea is of God's hand directly and forcefully acting upon a willing human mind. See on :18.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Turn my heart toward Your statutes, not toward selfish gain-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Turn my heart" continues the strong theme in this Psalm of God acting directly upon the human heart to make us inclined towards obedience to Him; see on :18. This feature of the Divine-human interaction would partly explain how the Lord Jesus had complete human nature, and yet achieved moral perfection. God's hand was in that, but that same powerfully helping hand can be in the lives and hearts of all believers. "Turn my heart" is the word for "incline", used by David of how he himself inclined his heart to God's word (<a href='B:230 119:51'>Psa 119:51</a>; <a href='B:230 119:112'>Psa 119:112</a>; <a href='B:230 119:157'>Psa 119:157</a>). But David prayed that God would incline his heart towards His word (<a href='B:230 119:36'>Psa 119:36</a>) and away from sin (<a href='B:230 141:4'>Psa 141:4</a>). This is how the Holy Spirit works to this day- we are confirmed in the psychological attitudes we ourselves choose to have. The word is used of God's mighty "stretched out" arm and "strong hand" in human affairs (<a href='B:230 136:12'>Psa 136:12</a> and often in Isaiah). This powerful hand of God is at work in human hearts, confirming us in the psychological way in which we ourselves wish to go. In this sense God turns or inclines the heart where He wishes (<a href='B:240 21:1'>Pro 21:1</a>). Solomon in the Proverbs places all the emphasis upon a person themselves in their own strength inclining their heart toward his teaching (<a href='B:240 2:2'>Pro 2:2</a>; <a href='B:240 4:5'>Pro 4:5</a>; <a href='B:240 4:20'>Pro 4:20</a>; <a href='B:240 5:1'>Pro 5:1</a>). He fails to appreciate what David his father did; that God's word is His word and not that of the human channel through which it comes. And he totally puts the emphasis upon human strength of will, self inclination towards God's word, rather than perceiving as David did that without God's psychological help in this, we shall ultimately fail. As Solomon himself did.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Worthless things" is the term for idols, and it seems idolatry was a major problem to Saul and the Israel of David's time. In the wilderness context, it was because David's heart was 'turned away' from sin, that God 'turned away' the kingdom from Saul to David (s:w. <a href='B:100 3:10'>2Sa 3:10</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Revive me in Your ways-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This idea of living in God's ways was a promised blessing for remaining in the covenant (<a href='B:50 5:33'>Deu 5:33</a>; <a href='B:50 30:16'>Deu 30:16</a>). Solomon uses the phrase for living in the way of understanding (<a href='B:240 9:6'>Pro 9:6</a>), but the difference with his father David was that David asks to be "revived" or made to live in those ways; whereas Solomon exhorts people to attempt to do this in their own strength and steel willpower. And this ultimately fails, as it did with Solomon. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Fulfill Your promise to Your servant, that You may be feared-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The specific promise in view was that he would become king and Saul's persecution would come to an end.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Take away my disgrace that I dread, for Your ordinances are good-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>GNB is better: "Save me from the insults I fear; how wonderful are your judgments!". The fear of shame was strong in David, coming from a shame based society, but it is in all of us. The concern for what others think of us is balanced here against a simple awe and wonder at God's expressed word. This is the antidote.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Behold, I long for Your precepts!-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We may need to read in an ellipsis- David longed [to be able to keep] God's precepts. This may have been a reference to his pining to be at the sanctuary, from which he was exiled whilst on the run from Saul, and keep the feasts.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Revive me in Your righteousness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Living new life in righteousness is the language used of the revival of repentance (<a href='B:330 18:21-22'>Eze 18:21-22</a>; <a href='B:330 18:27'>Eze 18:27</a>; <a href='B:330 33:16'>Eze 33:16</a>). Perhaps David is aware at this point of his sins, and asks for spiritual revival. This gift of spiritual life is the gift of the Holy Spirit offered in the New Testament, the difference being that the life breathed in is the life of the Lord Jesus, now glorified and able to do this to all in Him.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>WAW</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let Your grace also come to me, Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He wanted to have the spiritual experience of God's grace which he had seen experienced by others, e:g. Samuel. </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your salvation, according to Your word- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The prophetic word that he would be king and therefore be saved from death at Saul's hand.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>so I will have an answer for him who reproaches me, for I trust in Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The specific individual was surely Saul. David trusted in the prophetic word that he would be king. The Psalms repeatedly use the word "reproach" about Saul's campaign against David (<a href='B:230 44:16'>Psa 44:16</a>; <a href='B:230 57:3'>Psa 57:3</a>; <a href='B:230 74:10'>Psa 74:10</a>; <a href='B:230 102:8'>Psa 102:8</a>)- it must've included much slander which is unrecorded in the historical record, but which clearly was extremely hurtful to David. The reproach was as "a sword in the bones" to David (<a href='B:230 42:10'>Psa 42:10</a>). The word of promise to us likewise includes the word of the Kingdom- and this is the answer to slander and "reproach" which alone can comfort us.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t take the word of truth out of my mouth, for I put my hope in Your ordinances-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>To have a word or covenant in the mouth can mean being within the covenant pronounced in that word. David here is fearful that the "word of truth", the promises to him of kingship and salvation, could be removed. The phrase is specifically used of the promises made to David in <a href='B:100 7:28'>2Sa 7:28</a>. By :160, David is confident that the word of truth is indeed "of truth":&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>so I will obey Your law continually, forever and ever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could be David's vision of the Kingdom- eternally being obedient to God's law. It's possible to interpret the strange Mosaic phrase "he who keeps the law shall even live in it" in the same way- that the life eternal will be all about obedience to God's law.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will walk in liberty, for I have sought Your precepts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is a great theme of this Psalm (:32,96); that obedience to God is not a life of being shut up in a boring and constricted path of being, but rather is the way of ultimate psychological freedom. And it is this which many seek for, and yet look for it in all the wrong places.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will also speak of Your statutes before kings, and will not be disappointed-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Saul and Achish "king of Gath", both of whom David was "before" (<a href='B:90 21:13'>1Sa 21:13</a>). He was unashamed [not "disappointed"] of God's ways, even when it would have been politically expedient to keep his mouth shut.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will delight myself in Your commandments, because I love them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's love of and "delight" in God's word is a theme of his (<a href='B:230 119:48'>Psa 119:48</a>; <a href='B:230 119:16'>Psa 119:16</a>; <a href='B:230 119:70'>Psa 119:70</a>). Our attitude to God's word determines our obedience to it; if we love God's ways, then obedience comes naturally and from the heart. If we view His ways as a set of onerous, legalistic commandments- then obedience will be so much harder. And this is seen in the poor moral life of legalists.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I reach out my hands for Your commandments which I love; I will meditate on Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :47, David didn't see God's commandments as onerous sets of legal points to be obeyed. Rather was he eager to know what God wanted, stretching out his hands for them, because he quite simply loved God and His words.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>ZAYIN</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Remember Your word to Your servant, because You give me hope-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea is 'Fulfill the prophetic word that David would become King'. This was all David had to hope for and cling on to during the years of persecution by Saul.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is my comfort in my affliction, for Your word has revived me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :49, the word in view is the Divine word through Samuel that David was to be king and Saul's persecution would one day end. It seems David fainted at times, but then revived as he remembered that word.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The arrogant mock me excessively, but I don’t swerve from Your law-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"The arrogant" referred to Saul, primarily (see :69,78). And yet Saul began humble. Power so often changes men into proud people. The link between power and pride, and God's desire that we should be humble, explains why we are often not given the power which we wish for in various ways. Saul was once "little in [his] own eyes".</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I remember Your ordinances of old, Yahweh, and have comforted myself-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David took comfort from the actions and justice of God as displayed in Bible history, even though it seemed God had not yet acted in that way to him. "Of old" may mean that the ordinances had been given long ago; or that David from his youth, "of old" in his personal life, had always been devoted to the same words which now gave him comforted him.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In :82, the future fulfilment of the word of promise was his "comfort"; and yet here he comforts himself at the same time, at the thought of God's previous fulfillments of His promised word, even though the word had not come true for him personally yet. It's like Joseph's confidence expressed to the other prisoners that Divine dreams come true; when his own dream of glory over his brothers seemed so far from fulfilment:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Indignation has taken hold on me because of the wicked who forsake Your law-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference is again to Saul, who had once kept God's law but then forsook it. Solomon condemns those who "forsake the law" (<a href='B:240 4:2'>Pro 4:2</a>; <a href='B:240 28:4'>Pro 28:4</a>), and he likely has Saul also in view. But he speaks in <a href='B:240 4:2'>Pro 4:2</a> of those who forsook his law; as if he was playing God, considering any inattention to himself as inattention to God. David by contrast continually emphasizes the need not to forsake God's law:&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Presumably a reference to David's habit of setting God's statutes to music in the time of his exile. There is an intended juxtaposition of ideas between the words "house" and "pilgrimage". Although he was constantly on the move, his loyalty to God's ways gave him a sense of permanence and stability even in that period.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have remembered Your name, Yahweh, in the night, and I obey Your law-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We get the impression that David obeyed God's law "in the night" because he was aware of God's Name. I can only think of one specific commandment which required immediate obedience "in the night". It's in <a href='B:50 23:10'>Deu 23:10</a> "If there is among you any man who is not clean by reason of that which happens to him by night, he must go outside the camp". The idea could appear to be that if a man needed to defecate, then he was to do so outside of the camp of soldiers. Having latrines outside the camp would have ensured hygiene within the "camp". But it seems that defecating is what is in view in <a href='B:50 23:12'>Deu 23:12</a>. Therefore this specifically night time reason for uncleanness must refer to an involuntary emission of semen. Hence the reference to what "happens to him at night". Nobody apart from the soldier knew what had happened. Many of the Mosaic commands invited obedience from men on a very personal and intimate level; for nobody else apart from the soldier would have known whether or not this had happened. This was all designed to inculcate very personal obedience to and relationship with God:&nbsp;See on <a href='B:230 119:56'>Psa 119:56</a>. To have soldiers needing to remain ritually unclean outside the main camp of soldiers was not perhaps seen as the most effective use of soldiers in a conflict situation, where every man was required. But they were taught thereby that victory was not going to come in their own strength, but through obedience to God's ways. We likewise are tempted to think that careful obedience to God's commands will hinder our material progress in life. But the opposite is in fact true, and this commandment taught that:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is my life’s way, keeping Your precepts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As explained in :55, many of the Mosaic commands invited obedience from men on a very personal and intimate level; for nobody else apart from the soldier would have known whether or not this had happened. This was all designed to inculcate very personal obedience to and relationship with God.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>CHET</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh is my portion; I promised to obey Your words-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "portion" which David looked forward to in his time in the wilderness was the inheritance of the kingship from Saul; and he promised to have God's words obeyed under his rulership.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I sought Your favour with my whole heart; be merciful to me according to Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David spoke of seeking and praising God's grace with his "whole heart" (<a href='B:230 9:1'>Psa 9:1</a>; <a href='B:230 119:58'>Psa 119:58</a>; <a href='B:230 138:1'>Psa 138:1</a>). Solomon uses the phrase, but speaks of being obedient with the "whole heart" (<a href='B:110 8:23'>1Ki 8:23</a>; <a href='B:140 6:14'>2Ch 6:14</a>) and applying the "whole heart" to the intellectual search for God (<a href='B:250 1:13'>Ecc 1:13</a>; <a href='B:250 8:9'>Ecc 8:9</a>). There is a difference. The idea of whole hearted devotion to God was picked up by Solomon, but instead of giving the whole heart to the praise of God's grace, he instead advocated giving the whole heart to ritualistic obedience and intellectual search for God. This has been the trap fallen into by many Protestant groups whose obsession with "truth" has obscured the wonder of God's grace.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I considered my ways and turned my steps to Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Implying David fell into some sin during the wilderness years? There are many hints throughout Psalms 119 that he had ample experience of sin and repentance at this time- e:g. :67, and the conclusion to the whole Psalm. David considered his ways and turned his steps / ways towards obedience (<a href='B:230 119:59'>Psa 119:59</a>); Solomon takes this further, using the same phrase, but saying that God directs the ways / steps of the man who considers his ways (s:w. <a href='B:240 16:9'>Pro 16:9</a>). We have here an example of how the Spirit confirms a Godly person in the way they consciously wish to go. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will hurry, and not delay, to obey Your commandments-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It shouldn’t just be the nearness of the Lord’s return that makes us urgent. Our decisions to give over each part of our lives, radically, to Jesus should be made not just because life is short and the Lord is at the door; but also because it might otherwise be too late to undo the damage a self-engrossed life has already caused, to the self and to others. Rebekah responded immediately to the call to go marry Isaac, in a story which is clearly to be read as an acted parable of the search for a bride for Jesus. Her ‘quick’ response is one of her characteristics (<a href='B:10 24:18'>Gen 24:18</a>; <a href='B:10 24:20'>Gen 24:20</a>; <a href='B:10 24:26'>Gen 24:26</a>; <a href='B:10 24:46'>Gen 24:46</a>; <a href='B:10 24:64'>Gen 24:64</a>). Abraham likewise “rose up early” after his night time vision, requiring him to offer his son to God (<a href='B:10 22:1'>Gen 22:1</a>; <a href='B:10 22:3'>Gen 22:3</a>). Joshua “therefore” started to attack the confederacy of local kings, in the middle of the night, immediately after God had assured him of victory (<a href='B:60 10:9'>Jos 10:9</a>). David could write: “I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments” (<a href='B:230 119:60'>Psa 119:60</a> AV). We cannot be passive on receiving the opportunity to serve God. We will urgently seek to do something with what we have been enabled to do for the Lord: “The servant who got five bags went quickly to invest the money and earned five more bags” (<a href='B:470 25:16'>Mat 25:16</a> NCV).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David repeatedly asks God to "hurry to help me" (<a href='B:230 22:19'>Psa 22:19</a>; <a href='B:230 38:22'>Psa 38:22</a>; <a href='B:230 40:13'>Psa 40:13</a>; <a href='B:230 70:1'>Psa 70:1</a>; <a href='B:230 70:5'>Psa 70:5</a>; <a href='B:230 141:1'>Psa 141:1</a>). But David had hurried (s:w:) to be obedient to God, always wanting to 'say yes straight away' (<a href='B:230 119:60'>Psa 119:60</a>). Our response to God's voice is therefore related to His response to our voice; if His words abide in us, then we experience positive experience in answered prayer (<a href='B:500 15:7'>Joh 15:7</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The ropes of the wicked bind me, but I won’t forget Your law-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A reference to unrecorded robbery whilst in the wilderness? Or an allusion to his treatment at the hands of Nabal? We wonder if he has Samson in mind, who was bound by ropes, and arose at midnight to carry away the gates of his enemies (:62). Even in the heat of crisis, David was not unaware of God's word. It was no academic study for him, in evenings when all has gone well in the day.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You because of Your righteous ordinances-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :61. David at this time in the wilderness had not seen God's justice ['righteousness'] done in his case, but he thanked God that God had done justice in history. This is a parade example for those who lament the apparent injustice or inconsistency of God in observed life at their time.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I am a friend of all those who fear You, of those who observe Your precepts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This and other references in Psalms 119 (e:g. :74,79) to David's keen sense of fellowship with other sincere believers reflects his feelings towards Samuel, and perhaps some of the others who came and lived with him in the wilderness.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The earth is full of Your grace, Yahweh; teach me Your commands-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was likely illiterate at this time and his knowledge of God's law would've been taught by Samuel and faithful priests. Without them, he was driven to ask God to directly teach him. Whilst on the run from Saul, it would have seemed all was against him. But he looked around at the natural creation, and saw God's grace encoded into all creation, seeing the cup half full rather than half empty.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>TET</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Do good to Your servant according to Your word, Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This can be read as a request for God to fulfil His word of promise to David, that he would become king and Saul's persecution would end. But AV has David praising God for having "dealt well" with him. But this was only in a spiritual sense, for David in the wilderness was apparently not given immediate justice by God and had a very difficult life.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in Your commandments-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Believing God's word and being taught by God are two different, if related things. We can "believe the Bible is true", but to be open to being taught from it can be quite another thing.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Before I was afflicted, I went astray; but now I observe Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :59. David implies he had sinned before the wilderness years. He refers to his "sins of youth" elsewhere. He was not, therefore, just an innocent teenager looking after the sheep and composing Psalms in some ethereal teenage spiritual bliss. Yet being "afflicted" was what went on through David's life (s:w. <a href='B:110 2:26'>1Ki 2:26</a>; <a href='B:230 132:1'>Psa 132:1</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You are good, and do good; teach me Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It was Moses who 'taught [God's] statutes' to Israel (s:w. <a href='B:50 4:1'>Deu 4:1</a>; <a href='B:50 4:5'>Deu 4:5</a>; <a href='B:50 4:14'>Deu 4:14</a>; <a href='B:50 5:31'>Deu 5:31</a>). David in the wilderness felt such a personal relationship with God that he felt God personally teaching him, without the intermediary of any teacher like Moses. And this kind of intimacy is still possible with God. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The proud have smeared a lie upon me, but with my whole heart I will keep Your precepts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"The proud" refer to Saul and his men; see on :51. David presents the antidote to experiencing slander as focusing our whole heart upon God's ways. So often slander elicits a desire to respond or endlessly mull over the experience in our hearts. But instead, whole hearted devotion to God's precepts is needed.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Their heart is callous and fat, but I delight in Your law-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Slandering others means having a callous heart, "as fat as grease" (AV), very soon to destroy itself.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was driven to love God's word by the wilderness persecution- and Psalms 119 is his celebration of that.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of pieces of gold and silver-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David felt that the wonder of having God's word meant that the presence or absence of physical blessings&nbsp; in his life was irrelevant (<a href='B:230 119:72'>Psa 119:72</a>; <a href='B:230 119:111'>Psa 119:111</a>). So often in Psalms 119, love of God's word is balanced against the love of wealth. Perhaps David thought that a more politically astute life in Saul's court might have made him wealthy, or perhaps he was offered wealth n return for unethical support of Saul. But he was faithful to the word of promise, that he and not Saul was to be king. And this apparently meant the sacrifice of apparent wealth.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>YUD</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your hands have made me and formed me; give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>That God has created us means we want to know Him more and form a relationship with Him. Our search for the invisible Father is what drives us to His word. Our attitudes to God's word are related to our attitudes to His creative power. For the Biblical record is of creation by God's word. If we accept that, then we will find an intuitive interest in living by that word as it forms us into a new creation.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Those who fear You will see me and be glad, because I have put my hope in Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :63. The "word" is the word of promise that David would be king. All those who feared Yahweh rejoiced in that hope. It seems Samuel's word about David's future kingship was well known in Israel.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh, I know that Your judgments are righteous, that in faithfulness You have afflicted me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David seems to have felt there were aspects of disobedience in his life before God, and he had been rightly afflicted because of them. His great expressions of love for God's word therefore don't imply that he was perfectly obedient to it. But this is how spiritual life is- loving God's ways, despite still failing.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Please let Your grace be for my comfort, according to Your word to Your servant-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "word" in view is the promise of becoming king after Saul. But David sees this as being by grace alone. God chose him because he was "after God's own heart"; but that didn't mean David was perfect. The choice was still by grace and not according to personal righteousness:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let Your tender mercies come to me, that I may live; for Your law is my delight-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's survival of Saul's persecution, not dying but living, was a result of God's prophetic word through Samuel. But that word was grace (:76), "tender mercies".</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let the proud be disappointed, for they have overthrown me wrongfully; but I will meditate on Your precepts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The proud could refer to Saul; see on :51. But being "overthrown" suggests this has been reapplied to the time of Absalom's rebellion. Despite the huge emotional pain of all the betrayal, David's heart was still on God's word and ways.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let those who fear You turn to me; they will know Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :63. If the time of Absalom's rebellion is in view (see on :78), then this would refer to men turning away from the new government and back to David. But it would also apply to those who turned to support David at Saul's time. And David vows that when he comes to power [again, in the Absalom context], he will insist on teaching God's ways.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let my heart be blameless toward Your decrees, that I may not be ashamed-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Typical of men of his time, David seems to fear shame [s:w. "disappointed"] more than death itself. Defeat meant shame, and he desperately begged not to be shamed. Perhaps it was the function of his failure with Bathsheba to help him redefine the motives for his trust in God.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>KAF</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My soul faints for Your salvation; I hope in Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "word" in view is the promise of becoming king after Saul. And this implied salvation from Saul's persecution, and David longed for that time to come.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My eyes fail for Your word; I say, When will You comfort me?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The fulfilment of the word of promise that he would become king seemed so far off. David as it were loses sight of it. He feels at times that his "comfort" would only be when that word was fulfilled; and yet he comforts himself at the same time, at the thought of God's previous fulfillments of His promised word (:52):&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke, but I don’t forget Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This may refer to a custom of mellowing wine by putting it in the smoke, implying the affliction was necessary to mature David spiritually. But more likely the idea is that David feels like a shrivelled old wineskin; but regardless of that and his feelings, David continued to be focused upon God's ways.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>How many are the days of Your servant? When will You execute Your word on those who persecute me?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Whilst on the run from Saul, David felt that he was surely going to die at his hands (<a href='B:90 27:1'>1Sa 27:1</a>). His faith in the prophetic word that he would be preserved and become king after Saul's demise was pushed to its uttermost. He felt death was but days away, and God must as it were hurry up and fulfil His word of promise or else David would die.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The proud have dug pits for me, contrary to Your law-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We note how David correctly and continually analyzes the lead characteristic of his enemies, be they Saul or Absalom, as "pride". David felt pits were dug for him by Saul particularly (s:w. <a href='B:230 57:1'>Psa 57:1</a>; <a href='B:230 57:6'>Psa 57:6</a>). We might have said "jealousy", but David saw to the essence- the problem was pride, as it is always to this day. Quite how did they seek to entrap him with pits? The word is used of the trap of women (s:w. <a href='B:240 22:14'>Pro 22:14</a>; <a href='B:240 23:27'>Pro 23:27</a>). Perhaps this was how Saul used his own daughters to entrap David. LXX "Transgressors told me idle tales":&nbsp; </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All of Your commandments are faithful. They persecute me wrongfully. Help me!- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Help me" is s:w. in <a href='B:230 30:10'>Psa 30:10</a>, a Bathsheba Psalm: "Hear, Yahweh, and have mercy on me. Yahweh, be my helper". Earlier David had sought Yahweh's help on the basis that he had been obedient to God's word (<a href='B:230 119:173'>Psa 119:173</a> s:w:), and was innocent (<a href='B:230 119:86'>Psa 119:86</a> s:w:). But the sin with Bathsheba led David to beg for God to be his helper purely on the basis of grace (<a href='B:230 30:10'>Psa 30:10</a> s:w:). He had asked for God's words to be his "helper" (<a href='B:230 119:175'>Psa 119:175</a>), but now he quits his academic study and begs directly for God Himself to be his "helper". And yet we note his complaint that he was suffering "wrongfully". Despite Nathan's clear explanation to him about the consequences of his sin, David seems to have constantly complained about the consequences; even though he had been spared death. And I have often noted this about David throughout the Psalms dating from Absalom's rebellion, where David feels he is suffering wrongfully.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They had almost wiped me from the earth, but I didn’t forsake Your precepts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This sounds like David being convinced he was at the very point of being slain by Saul (1 Samuel 27; 1 Samuel 1), despite God's word to him about being saved from Saul and made king. He may also refer to the geographical extent of the earth / land, from which he felt he had been made to flee in fear of Saul. But even at the point of extinction of hope, David says he remained obedient to God's laws.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Preserve my life according to Your grace, so I will obey the statutes of Your mouth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The preservation of David's life from Saul had been promised in the prophetic word to him about him becoming king. But David recognized that his having been chosen as king was by grace, not because he was more righteous than others. And he vows that if his life is preserved from Saul and he became king, then he would rule in obedience to God's laws. Note how David perceived those laws as having come direct from God's very mouth. The law of Moses was to him a living dialogue with God.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LAMED</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh, Your word is settled in heaven forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David struggles throughout the Psalm to believe that the prophetic word about him becoming king and Saul's demise would ever come true. But he reassures himself that God's word of purpose is "settled", from the Divine side; even if it appeared so unstable in fulfilment on earth. But David believed that what was settled in heaven would ultimately come true on earth.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your faithfulness is to all generations. You have by a word established the earth, and it remains-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This leads David to reflect that the word to him promising to establish his kingdom would just as easily come true. Creation was by a word, God spoke and it was done. And David perceives God's word to him, whether in the form of Mosaic commandments or the word of promise that he was ultimately to survive Saul's persecution and become king of Israel.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your laws remain to this day, for all things serve You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :90, the word through which God created the earth was the same word as the laws and principles applicable to David. And David took comfort that "all things" in creation were subservient to God's word, and likewise His prophetic word about David would likewise without doubt come true and go likewise into operation.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Unless Your law had been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>AV "I should then have perished". The "then" is in the Hebrew, and perhaps refers to the point of crisis in :87. Perhaps it was some act of ritual obedience to the law ["torah" is the word here used] which inadvertently saved David from death. Or perhaps he means that God rewarded his obedience by delivering him; but this is at variance with his expressions of faith in God's grace, and his belief that his deliverance from his afflictions was because of God's word of promise to him about becoming king, rather than because of his own righteousness. Or perhaps he here is simply slipping back away from grace, and self-righteously assuming that in fact his preservation had been because of his own obedience to the law.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will never forget Your precepts, for with them You have revived me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Just as God's word had given life and birth to creation and continues to keep it in life (:90-92), so David felt God's word and ways gave him life. Three times David makes the connection between God's precepts and his inner "revival" (<a href='B:230 119:40'>Psa 119:40</a>; <a href='B:230 119:93'>Psa 119:93</a>; <a href='B:230 119:159'>Psa 119:159</a>). God's word is a living word in that it is creative and gives life:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I am Yours. Save me, for I have sought Your precepts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David asks for salvation not because he has been totally obedient to God's precepts; but because he "sought" such obedience, he loved God's ways and so wished to be obedient, and identified himself as God's.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The wicked have waited for me to destroy me; I will consider Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Living in a situation where enemies set ambushes and traps of various kinds, it would seem to the secular person that absolutely all our attention must be given to avoiding them. But David's mental focus instead was upon God's words and ways. David himself promises to "consider Your statutes" (:95), but he then asks that God will give him "understanding" (s:w. "consider") of those statutes (:125). Our freely chosen attitude to God's word is confirmed and extended by the operation of the Spirit on the human heart.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have seen a limit to all perfection, but Your commands are boundless-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is a great theme of this Psalm (:32,45); that obedience to God is not a life of being shut up in a boring and constricted path of being, but rather is the way of ultimate psychological freedom. And it is this which many seek for, and yet look for it in all the wrong places.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>MEM</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>How I love Your law! It is my meditation all day-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We meditate upon what we love. The fact David found he was meditating upon God's law meant therefore, axiomatically, that he loved it. This means that the statement that "I love Your law!" is not at all self-righteous or self congratulatory. Although torah is used here for "law", there are multiple examples of torah referring not to the Mosaic law but any statement of God; the word is used many times well before the Mosaic law was given. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for Your commandments are always with me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's survival at the court of Saul seems miraculous. He was in such a difficult, compromised situation. We get the sense that David pitted his wisdom against Saul's anger and bitter persecution; David's wisdom is mentioned in tandem with Saul's anger against him (<a href='B:90 18:5'>1Sa 18:5</a>; <a href='B:90 18:11'>1Sa 18:11</a>; <a href='B:90 18:15'>1Sa 18:15</a>; <a href='B:90 18:30'>1Sa 18:30</a>). "David behaved himself wisely (AVmg “prospered”) in all his ways; and the Lord was with him" runs like a refrain through <a href='B:90 18:5'>1Sa 18:5</a>; <a href='B:90 18:14-15'>1Sa 18:14-15</a>; <a href='B:90 18:30'>1Sa 18:30</a>. These words are referring back to <a href='B:50 29:9'>Deu 29:9</a>: "Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do". David's charmed life and prospering despite all manner of plotting against him was due to his single-minded devotion to the Law; to those very chapters which tired Bible readers are wont to skip over as boring and not motivating. Yet David found something immensely inspiring and practical about the Law. The word made him wiser than his foes (<a href='B:230 119:98'>Psa 119:98</a>):&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This Psalm was likely edited over a period of time, and we see here some progression from the youthful imagination that David's teachers were perfect (:3). Whilst there may well have been a touch of youthful arrogance here in David, the words came to absolute fulfilment in the Lord Jesus amongst the teachers of the law in Jerusalem at 12 years old. We note that understanding is here predicated upon meditation. David's requests to be given such understanding therefore imply God's Spirit working upon the internal meditations of those who love God's law.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I understand more than the aged, because I have kept Your precepts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This may be an allusion to Job's comment and experience that age is not at all to be linked with understanding. The Pentateuch and book of Job were likely the only texts David had or was aware of. Understanding is here predicated upon keeping God's precepts. The advantage of obedience is that the life it elicits of itself gives us insight and understanding; all part of an intended upward spiral.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have kept my feet from every evil way, that I might observe Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could be read on a surface level as David saying he has kept himself from any sin. But the idea is maybe that David knew that if he was walking in a good way, he would find it easier to observe God's word. He knew that there is an upward spiral in spirituality. Or "your word" may refer to the word of promise that David would be king.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have not turned aside from Your ordinances, for You have taught me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David gives God the credit for his obedience, for he recognizes that God has worked upon him to make him obedient. He sees God's "teaching" of His laws, not just the laws themselves, as what led him to obedience.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>How sweet are Your promises to my taste, more than honey to my mouth!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The promises immediately in view were the promises of receiving the Kingdom and the destruction of Saul. Elsewhere David contrasts living by God's word with present wealth; and here we may have a similar contrast. The "honey" offered in prospect by the house of Saul was nothing compared to the promise of the Kingdom.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Through Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The experience of obedience to God's precepts of itself gives us added spiritual insight and understanding, a deeper dislike of "every false way", perhaps an allusion to idolatry.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>NUN</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "word" in view may be the prophetic word that David would be king and Saul would be destroyed. Whilst under persecution from Saul, it seemed hard to believe that word would come true. But David lived as if God's word of promise was what guided his feet (his short term immediate decisions) and his overall path, and believed God would confirm him in his choices (see on :133). Solomon reapplied <a href='B:230 119:105'>Psa 119:105</a> in <a href='B:240 6:23'>Pro 6:23</a>; but his legalism comes out, in that he changed "Your word" (of promise) to "the law" and the "commandments":&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have sworn, and have confirmed it, that I will obey Your righteous ordinances-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This appears to be another promise from David that when God's word about his kingship came true (see on :105), he would ensure that he would govern according to God's ordinances.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I am afflicted very much. Revive me, Yahweh, according to Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was aware that the word of promise was true- that Saul's days would end, and he would become king. But there were times when this seemed impossible of fulfilment, and David asks God to revive him, to help him see that the prophetic word which he theoretically knew was true- was in fact going to come true for him personally. And we need to pray likewise.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Accept, I beg You, the willing offerings of my mouth. Yahweh, teach me Your ordinances-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In exile from the sanctuary, David was unable to offer sacrifice there. And so he matured to understand that the offerings God accepts are those of our mouths, our words. And perhaps David vowed with his mouth to perform sacrifice when he was able to get to the sanctuary. His understanding matured beyond this after his sin with Bathsheba, when he perceived that God wants a contrite heart rather than sacrifices. But already the Father was working to develop his young mind to perceive that literal sacrifices weren't absolutely required. And so He works so gently with us too.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My soul is continually in my hand, yet I won’t forget Your law-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David felt he could be slain any moment by Saul and his supporters (<a href='B:90 27:1'>1Sa 27:1</a>). But he says that he will not forget obedience to God's law even in crisis situations. However torah, "law", had a wide range of application and need not refer strictly to the Mosaic ordinances. He may simply mean that he would not forget God's word of promise:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The wicked have laid a snare for me, yet I haven’t gone astray from Your precepts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The implication is that the snares laid would have meant going astray from God's precepts. The initial reference may have been to Saul laying snares for David through getting him to marry his daughters and thereby seeking to kill him. But the Psalm finishes with David saying bluntly that he has "gone astray" (:176), as if to say that earlier [as at this point in the Psalm] he far overrated his own obedience to God's law.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have taken Your testimonies as a heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David on the run appeared to have no inheritance. But his inheritance was God's "testimonies"- a possible reference not so much to the Mosaic law as to the prophetic testimonies from Samuel that he would inherit the Kingdom and Saul would be deposed.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have set my heart to perform Your statutes forever, even to the end-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Set my heart" is the word for "incline", used by David of how he himself inclined his heart to God's word (<a href='B:230 119:51'>Psa 119:51</a>; <a href='B:230 119:112'>Psa 119:112</a>; <a href='B:230 119:157'>Psa 119:157</a>). But David prayed that God would incline his heart towards His word (<a href='B:230 119:36'>Psa 119:36</a>) and away from sin (<a href='B:230 141:4'>Psa 141:4</a>). This is how the Holy Spirit works to this day- we are confirmed in the psychological attitudes we ourselves choose to have. The word is used of God's mighty "stretched out" arm and "strong hand" in human affairs (<a href='B:230 136:12'>Psa 136:12</a> and often in Isaiah). This powerful hand of God is at work in human hearts, confirming us in the psychological way in which we ourselves wish to go. In this sense God turns or inclines the heart where He wishes (<a href='B:240 21:1'>Pro 21:1</a>). Solomon in the Proverbs places all the emphasis upon a person themselves in their own strength inclining their heart toward his teaching (<a href='B:240 2:2'>Pro 2:2</a>; <a href='B:240 4:5'>Pro 4:5</a>; <a href='B:240 4:20'>Pro 4:20</a>; <a href='B:240 5:1'>Pro 5:1</a>). He fails to appreciate what David his father did; that God's word is His word and not that of the human channel through which it comes. And he totally puts the emphasis upon human strength of will, self inclination towards God's word, rather than perceiving as David did that without God's psychological help in this, we shall ultimately fail. As Solomon himself did.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>SAMEKH</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I hate double-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>minded men, but I love Your law-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>AV "vain thoughts" or "vanities", perhaps a reference to idolatry as well as to the hypocrisy of Saul. David so often talks about God's "law", using the word torah. But Solomon so often speaks of his own torah, and that of his wife, the mother of "my son" (s:w. <a href='B:240 1:8'>Pro 1:8</a>; <a href='B:240 3:1'>Pro 3:1</a>; <a href='B:240 4:2'>Pro 4:2</a>; <a href='B:240 6:20'>Pro 6:20</a>; <a href='B:240 7:2'>Pro 7:2</a>; <a href='B:240 13:14'>Pro 13:14</a>; <a href='B:240 31:26'>Pro 31:26</a>). Yet elsewhere in the Bible, the well over 200 occurrences of torah are always about God's law. Solomon applies the word to his own teachings and that of his wife, and thereby plays God. whilst it could be argued that Solomon's teachings were Divinely inspired, all the same he ought surely to have spoken of them as God's torah rather than his own torah. This kind of playing God is seen so often in the teachers of God's people.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You are my hiding place and my shield. I hope in Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When hiding from Saul in the wilderness [s:w. of David's "hiding places" at this time in <a href='B:90 19:2'>1Sa 19:2</a>; <a href='B:90 25:20'>1Sa 25:20</a>], David hoped in the prophetic word that one day Saul would be no more and David would be king.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Depart from me, You evildoers, that I may keep the commandments of my God-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the word for how God had departed from Saul, and maybe this was initially behind David's desire that Saul leave him alone. But it is also the word used for how violence would never depart from David because of his sin with Bathsheba (<a href='B:100 12:10'>2Sa 12:10</a>). David prayed for this to "depart" but it never did. David was open to the possibility that through prayer, God can remove the consequences of sin in this life; but such prayer is not always answered.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Uphold me according to Your word, that I may live. Let me not be ashamed of my hope-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LXX "expectation". The parallel between "Your word" and David's hope or expectation confirms the suggestion that the "word" in view in this Psalm is the specific promise to David of becoming king after Saul's judgment and destruction. But David felt that the fulfilment of that prophetic word required him to be unashamed of it.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hold me up and I will be safe, and will have respect for Your statutes continually-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As David respected God's words, so he asks God to spare or respect him (s:w. <a href='B:230 39:13'>Psa 39:13</a>). This is not to be read as meaning that Bible study assures a man of salvation; but rather that there is a mutuality in relationship between God and man. Our respect of His words is reflected in His saving respect of us. But in the immediate context, David is asking for God to preserve him from Saul, and vowing to always enforce God's statutes when he becomes king.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You reject all those who stray from Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David here uses the same word for how Saul 'wandered' or strayed out of the way (s:w. <a href='B:90 26:21'>1Sa 26:21</a>), and David seems to have initially written Psalms 119 in his wilderness years. Saul was rejected from being king because of thIsa.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For their deceit is in vain-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Vain" is better "wrongfully" reflects again David's deep sense of injustice (see on <a href='B:230 35:7'>Psa 35:7</a>). He uses the word for "false witness", as if they were breaking one of the ten commandments; and he uses it often, heaping condemnation upon any who dare lie / bear false witness about him (<a href='B:230 38:19'>Psa 38:19</a>; <a href='B:230 52:3'>Psa 52:3</a>; <a href='B:230 63:11'>Psa 63:11</a>; <a href='B:230 101:7'>Psa 101:7</a>; <a href='B:230 119:29'>Psa 119:29</a>; <a href='B:230 119:69'>Psa 119:69</a>; <a href='B:230 119:86'>Psa 119:86</a>; <a href='B:230 119:118'>Psa 119:118</a>; <a href='B:230 120:2'>Psa 120:2</a>; <a href='B:230 144:8'>Psa 144:8</a>; <a href='B:230 144:11'>Psa 144:11</a>). And yet David lied and deceived in order to get Uriah killed so that he could take his wife for himself. Surely reflection upon that sin made him realize that his zeal to condemn dishonesty was at best misplaced; to lament it is one thing, but David was to be taught that he had himself done the very thing he so condemned.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You put away all the wicked of the earth like dross. Therefore I love Your testimonies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "word" so often in view in this Psalm is the prophetic "testimony" that Saul would be deposed and David would become king. This is the same situation in view here, when the wicked of the earth would be put away. David speaks in the present tense of that which he believed was yet to happen- such was his faith in the prophetic word.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My flesh trembles for fear of You; I am afraid of Your judgments-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LXX "Penetrate my flesh with thy fear; for I am afraid of thy judgments". The preceding verses have all alluded to how God's word of promise was that He would judge Saul and replace him with David. But David concludes this verse of the Psalm with a request to have God's direct action upon his mind so that he would personally tremble before God's moral requirements.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>AYIN</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have done what is just and righteous. Don’t leave me to my oppressors-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oppression seems to have been a characteristic of the reigns of Saul and Absalom. This was the equivalent of how Saul oppressed David (<a href='B:230 119:121-122'>Psa 119:121-122</a>; <a href='B:230 119:134'>Psa 119:134</a>). Samuel's insistence that he has not oppressed the people is in the context of his warning that Saul would do this (<a href='B:90 12:3-4'>1Sa 12:3-4</a>). When Solomon later condemns the 'oppressors' (s:w. <a href='B:240 14:31'>Pro 14:31</a>; <a href='B:240 22:16'>Pro 22:16</a>; <a href='B:240 28:3'>Pro 28:3</a>; <a href='B:240 28:24'>Pro 28:24</a>), he has in view a wishing of judgment upon the house of Saul. "The poor" whom they had oppressed would easily refer to David (<a href='B:90 18:23'>1Sa 18:23</a>; <a href='B:230 34:6'>Psa 34:6</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Ensure Your servant’s well-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>being. Don’t let the proud oppress me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :121. This appears to be the one verse in Psalms 119 that doesn't mention God's word. But it does so effectively, once we understand that the Psalm is largely about David's request for the prophetic word to come true- of him becoming King and Saul's demise. Again we note that "the proud" is Saul; this was the lead characteristic which characterized his entire failure. His jealousy over David being more praised by the women than he was reveals the basic pride which grew into the obsessive feature of his personality.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My eyes fail looking for Your salvation, for Your righteous word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Salvation" is Yeshua, 'Jesus', "the word made flesh" (<a href='B:500 1:14'>Joh 1:14</a>). But in the immediate context, the fulfilment of God's prophetic word about Saul's demise meant David's salvation. The admission that his eyes were failing in looking for thIsa::. is as if to say 'My faith is failing in Your promised salvation, but I accept Your word is right and just; please give me faith in Your word again'. Constantly we see the implication that God gives faith, and it is not true that God simply faces off against man over an open Bible, and it is for us to summon the faith to believe it, in our own strength.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Deal with Your servant according to Your grace, teach me Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>From his youth, David had asked to be taught God's way (<a href='B:230 119:7'>Psa 119:7</a>; <a href='B:230 119:12'>Psa 119:12</a>; <a href='B:230 119:26'>Psa 119:26</a>; <a href='B:230 119:64'>Psa 119:64</a>; <a href='B:230 119:66'>Psa 119:66</a>; <a href='B:230 119:68'>Psa 119:68</a>; <a href='B:230 119:73'>Psa 119:73</a>; <a href='B:230 119:108'>Psa 119:108</a>; <a href='B:230 119:124'>Psa 119:124</a>; <a href='B:230 119:135'>Psa 119:135</a>), and at the end of his life David recognized that indeed God had "taught me from my youth" (s:w. <a href='B:230 71:17'>Psa 71:17</a>). In secular life, teaching is something experienced in youth, and then life is spent practicing what was learned. But in spiritual life, David perceived that the God who had taught him from his youth was continuing to teach him (<a href='B:230 71:17'>Psa 71:17</a>). This is part of the "newness of life" experienced in Christ, the ever fresh spring water that we drink.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I am Your servant. Give me understanding, that I may know Your testimonies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David himself promises to "consider Your statutes" (:95), but he then asks that God will give him "understanding" (s:w. "consider") of those statutes (:125). Our freely chosen attitude to God's word is confirmed and extended by the operation of the Spirit on the human heart. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is time to act, Yahweh, for they break Your law-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David wants God to fulfil immediately His word of promise that Saul would be overthrown and David established king. It was the same frustration at the apparent slowness of fulfilment of a prophetic word which the exiles experienced, along with all the faithful.</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Therefore I love Your commandments more than gold, yes, more than pure gold-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again David points the contrast between God's commands, and the love of wealth. So often love of wealth is presented as the most common form of spiritual downfall, and the antithesis of loving God and His word:&nbsp; </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Therefore I consider all of Your precepts to be right; I hate every false way-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Every false way" may refer to idols, which were prevalent in Israel at David's time. The "therefore" connects with the previous verse, which condemns the love of wealth. There is an upward spiral in spirituality. Once wealth has been rejected (:127), "therefore" we appreciate the rightness of God's precepts, and all the more hate false ways. This love of what is just and hatred of what is false means that we will not vicariously enjoy the "false" through viewing movies about it; we will simply love what is right and thereby hate all that is false:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>PEY</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your testimonies are wonderful, therefore my soul keeps them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The motivation for obedience is related to our attitude to God's word. This is why our understanding of the nature of Biblical inspiration has an effect upon our actual walk before God in practice.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The entrance of Your words gives light, it gives understanding to the simple-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David likens himself to the simple who was made wise by God's word (<a href='B:230 19:7'>Psa 19:7</a>; <a href='B:230 119:130'>Psa 119:130</a>), and was therefore preserved (<a href='B:230 116:6'>Psa 116:6</a>). To be taught by God's word we have to become "simple", unlearning and placing to one side all our perceived knowledge and understandings. Solomon repeats David's theme by saying that wisdom makes wise the simple (<a href='B:240 1:4'>Pro 1:4</a>; <a href='B:240 8:5'>Pro 8:5</a>; <a href='B:240 9:4'>Pro 9:4</a>). But he is equating "wisdom" with the words of God, although for Solomon, "wisdom" seems to be what he is saying and teaching. Solomon doesn't direct his listeners back to God's word, as David did, but rather towards loyalty to his teaching. Inspired as it was, his lack of extended reference to God's law places his own teaching of "wisdom" above that law. This is in sharp contrast to David's attitude in Psalms 119. David sees God's words as entering him and giving him understanding; as if God takes the initiative in entering the mind of man.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But the Hebrew for "entrance" is literally 'opening', and may be an idiom for explaining or teaching (as in <a href='B:230 49:4'>Psa 49:4</a>; <a href='B:230 78:2'>Psa 78:2</a>). Hence GNB "The explanation of your teachings gives light":&nbsp; "Gives light" is the word for daybreak; the idea may be that a new day dawns in the lives of the person who has God's word explained to them and they accept it. We note that the light is not simply the word of God, but its explanation.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I opened my mouth wide and panted, for I longed for Your commandments-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The opening of the mouth suggests a desire to have something put into the mouth. David knew the commandments, so we surely have to understand an ellipsis here, "longing for [obedience to] Your commandments". Constantly we are given the impression that mere possession of God's word is not enough; there must be some further action of God, in teaching and strengthening- what the New Testament calls the work of the Holy Spirit.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Turn to me and have mercy on me, as You always do to those who love Your name-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As often, David appeals to God's actions in history for other believers in the past ["always"]- at a time when he felt God hadn't turned to him, hadn't paid attention to him in his immediate crises.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Establish my footsteps in Your word; don’t let any iniquity have dominion over me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David recognized that God's word of promise that he would be king and Saul would be deposed, was what should guide the choice of steps he himself took (see on :105). But he asks that his choices, the steps he chose in response to that hope and understanding, should be "established" or confirmed by God. And his request to not be dominated by sin suggests he realized that God's prophetic intentions for him were all the same conditional upon his continued correct walk. And he believed God has the power to keep us from falling into sin (<a href='B:720 1:24'>Jud 1:24</a>). Constantly we see the work of the Spirit over and above a man looking at God's word and trying to find the steel will to make himself obedient to it. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Redeem me from the oppression of man, so that I will observe Your precepts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :121. The "oppression" in view was the persecution by Saul, and David vowed that if and when God's word came true and he became king, he would govern according to God's precepts.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Make Your face shine on Your servant. Teach me Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The passages which talk about God's face shining upon men refer primarily to the Angel in the Most Holy shining forth in blessing upon men. Far from the sanctuary in the desert, David felt this closeness to God. It was Moses who 'taught [God's] statutes' to Israel (s:w. <a href='B:50 4:1'>Deu 4:1</a>; <a href='B:50 4:5'>Deu 4:5</a>; <a href='B:50 4:14'>Deu 4:14</a>; <a href='B:50 5:31'>Deu 5:31</a>). David in the wilderness felt such a personal relationship with God that he felt God personally teaching him, without the intermediary of any teacher like Moses. And this kind of intimacy is still possible with God.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Streams of tears run down my eyes, because they don’t observe Your law-</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "they" could refer to David's eyes, or this could be another lament for the disobedience of his persecutors. Likewise the faithful in Ezekiel’s time sighed and groaned over all the abominations committed in Jerusalem (<a href='B:330 9:4'>Eze 9:4</a>); Paul spoke “even with tears” about those in the ecclesia who lived as enemies of the cross of Christ (Php_3:18), exhorting the Corinthians to mourn for those they had to disfellowship (<a href='B:530 5:2'>1Co 5:2</a>; <a href='B:540 12:21'>2Co 12:21</a>); Ezra wept for the sins of his people (<a href='B:150 10:1'>Ezr 10:1</a>). The bleeding hearts of Jeremiah and Moses were actually for the ecclesia. Is this attitude seen amongst us? We lament in a gossipy way the weaknesses of the brotherhood; but is there this bleeding heart for the cases we mention? We should never think of disfellowshipping anybody unless the decision has been come to through a process of such prayerful mourning for them first.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>TZADI</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You are righteous, Yahweh; Your judgments are upright-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>GNB "just". Here and in :138 David seems to be reasoning against some implication or position that God's laws are somehow unjust or unreasonable. This was perhaps the position of Saul, who impatiently disobeyed God's law (<a href='B:90 15:22'>1Sa 15:22</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You have commanded Your statutes in righteousness; they are fully trustworthy-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Righteousness" and "truth" [s:w. "trustworthy"] are words found together in <a href='B:90 26:23'>1Sa 26:23</a>, where Saul recognizes David had acted in "righteousness and truth" in not killing him when he could have done. Perhaps David is reflecting upon how God's "statutes" had led him not to kill Saul.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My zeal wears me out, because my enemies ignore Your words-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The command to "not forget [the] word" was given in <a href='B:50 4:9'>Deu 4:9</a> (s:w:). Israel were to never forget that they were in covenant relationship with Yahweh, and the gift of His word to them was so wonderful they were never to forget it. Our awareness of the wonder of having God's word will elicit our delight in it. A John Carter rightly pointed out, our attitude to God's word determines our obedience to it. This is where attitudes to inspiration are so important in practical living. Saul's enemies were Saul and his supporters, who impatiently disobeyed God's law (<a href='B:90 15:22'>1Sa 15:22</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your promises have been thoroughly tested, and Your servant loves them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God's promises to David that he would become king and Saul would be destroyed seemed so far away from fulfilment at the time. But David reflects that historically, God's promises to others had been fulfilled. We encounter this reasoning often in David's Psalms. It is in sharp contrast to the excuse for unbelief we often encounter- that God has not come through for me in my experience right now at this moment.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I am small and despised but I don’t forget Your precepts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A sensitive person like David was going to be deeply hurt by being despised as he was by his brothers and his wife (<a href='B:100 6:16'>2Sa 6:16</a> s:w:), and as he was by Goliath (s:w. <a href='B:90 17:42'>1Sa 17:42</a>) and later by all his people after the sin with Bathsheba (<a href='B:230 22:6'>Psa 22:6</a> s:w:). This would explain why David so often takes comfort in the way that God doesn't despise him (<a href='B:230 22:24'>Psa 22:24</a>; <a href='B:230 51:17'>Psa 51:17</a>; <a href='B:230 69:33'>Psa 69:33</a>; <a href='B:230 102:17'>Psa 102:17</a>). It is God's perspective which is so critical in overcoming the negative self-image which others seek to project onto us.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness; Your law is truth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>GNB "always true". Thus the eternity of God's truth is paralleled with the eternity of His righteousness (as in :160). David walked / lived "in truth and righteousness" (s:w. <a href='B:110 3:6'>1Ki 3:6</a>; <a href='B:230 15:2'>Psa 15:2</a>), because this was how God Isa. The Messianic seed of David was to have this characteristic, ruling on David's throne in truth and righteousness (s:w. <a href='B:290 16:5'>Isa 16:5</a>):&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Trouble and anguish have taken hold of me, but Your commandments are my delight-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I suggest the parallel is with :139. David is troubled for those who do not delight in God's commandments. But he himself does delight in them. "Trouble and anguish" is the term used for condemnation (<a href='B:220 15:24'>Job 15:24</a>; <a href='B:240 1:27'>Pro 1:27</a>; <a href='B:520 2:9'>Rom 2:9</a>). David is so identified with the wicked that like the Lord Jesus, he as it were feels their condemnation, whilst being personally innocent.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your testimonies are righteous forever. Give me understanding, that I may live-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The internal connection of the verse is that the eternity of God's testimonies is connected with the eternal living of David. David sees eternity, or at least living instead of dying at the hand of Saul, as connected with his identity with God's testimonies which are eternal.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>KUF</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have called with my whole heart. Answer me, Yahweh! I will keep Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This and the following verses appear to be David's intense cry for deliverance from a particular period of his persecution by Saul. It appeared he faced death, but he remembers God's word promising that he would become king and Saul would be disposed of. He promises obedience to God's laws if he is delivered; and I suggest this primarily means he was vowing to govern Israel according to the Mosaic law. Or it could be that he felt he was suffering because of personal disobedience, and asks for deliverance with the promise that in future he will keep God's laws. In this application, these verses may also have relevance to David's sufferings as a result of his sin with Bathsheba. But see on :146:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have called to You. Save me! I will obey Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :145. David says that he has 'obeyed Your statutes' (s:w. :167,68). Perhaps he means that when God fulfills His promise to make him king, which required immediately saving him from some situation with Saul, he would continue to "obey Your statutes" in the way he governed Israel. But perhaps he feels he is suffering because of disobeying God's statutes. And yet later in :167,168 he says he has obeyed them. This difficulty in self examination [which we also can identify with] is reflected in how David also says in different Psalms that Israel both obeyed God's statutes, and also disobeyed them (<a href='B:230 78:56'>Psa 78:56</a> cp. 99:7).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I rise before dawn and cry for help, I put my hope in Your words-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :145. David's first waking moments were naturally of prayer to God. And this is our pattern. He often mentions his habit of regular prayer morning and evening (<a href='B:230 5:3'>Psa 5:3</a>; <a href='B:230 55:17'>Psa 55:17</a>; <a href='B:230 59:16'>Psa 59:16</a>; <a href='B:230 88:3'>Psa 88:3</a>; <a href='B:230 119:147'>Psa 119:147</a>). This&nbsp; should not have to be enforced upon us, but rather the natural outcome of a life lived in constant connection with God. David perceived that the Mosaic ritual of morning and evening sacrifice taught the sacrifice of prayer should be made in daily life, even though at the time of many of the Psalms, David was exiled from the sanctuary. This exile from organized religion led him to make this connection, as it can for us too.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalms give further insight into the disciplined nature of David's prayer-life: "Evening and morning and at noon will I pray" (<a href='B:230 55:17'>Psa 55:17</a>); "I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning" (<a href='B:230 59:16'>Psa 59:16</a>); "in the morning shall my prayer come before you" (<a href='B:230 88:13'>Psa 88:13</a>); "to praise your mercy in the morning, and your faithfulness every night" (<a href='B:230 92:2'>Psa 92:2</a>); "before the dawning of the morning, I hope in your word" (<a href='B:230 119:147'>Psa 119:147</a>). This kind of self-discipline is the utter essence of practical Christianity. It is through this that we will realize every morning that God is our "arm", our strength, for the coming day (<a href='B:290 33:2'>Isa 33:2</a>); and God's mercies are only renewed every morning in that the righteous man thinks afresh about them every morning (<a href='B:310 3:23'>Lam 3:23</a>)- for God's mercy itself is around the clock! Likewise the comment in <a href='B:430 3:5'>Zep 3:5</a> that God's judgments are revealed every morning only becomes true in that the believer meditates upon God's word each morning.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My eyes stay open through the night watches, that I might meditate on Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "word" in view may refer specifically to the promise that he would be preserved from Saul's persecution to become king. And when that promise seemed so unlikely of fulfilment, he stayed awake at night imagining how it might come to fulfilment.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Or we can take "Your word" to refer to God's word generally, such as was revealed to David at that time. The whole of Psalms 119 describes how he rejoiced at God's law, staying up late at night, straining his eyes into the candlelight to read it, getting up first thing in the morning to read some more (<a href='B:230 119:147-148'>Psa 119:147-148</a>). He obviously saw something in it that perhaps we don't. Perhaps he appreciated more keenly the prophecies of Messiah than we do. Peter makes the point that David knew so much about Jesus, although he wasn't even born then, that David could say: "I foresaw the Lord (Jesus) always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved" (<a href='B:510 2:25'>Act 2:25</a>). David "foresaw" the coming of Jesus at all times; the only source of knowledge he had was the Law of Moses (remember David lived before the time of the Old Testament prophets like Isaiah). Jesus was ever present in David's thinking; thanks to his meditation upon the Law of Moses and the book of Job, which was likely all the scripture then available to him.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hear my voice according to Your grace. Revive me, Yahweh, according to Your ordinances-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If the ordinances in view are the prophetic words that he would become king, even when it seemed impossible whilst under persecution from Saul, then we note that David realized that this was all to be according to God's grace, rather than his worthiness. Even though God saw him as a man after His own heart. And David asks God to revive his faith in those promises. Otherwise it is hard to see how revival of faith was specifically promised in the "ordinances" of the Mosaic law.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They draw near who follow after wickedness, they are far from Your law-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Draw near" is a common idiom for offering sacrifice and worshipping God. But that sacrifice must be from men who are near to God's law, and not offering just as mere tokenistic ritualism. He may be alluding to Saul's insincere sacrifices and religious rituals which led to his rejection and David's choice as the next king (<a href='B:90 14:36'>1Sa 14:36</a>; <a href='B:90 14:38'>1Sa 14:38</a>; <a href='B:90 15:22'>1Sa 15:22</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You are near, Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This continues the idea of :150. Insincere men claim to draw near to God in worship and sacrifice, but God is near to those like David who are far from any sanctuary of religious rituals. "Near" is literally, 'next to', 'neighbour / relative to'. This is how close God feels to the broken hearted and crushed; and conversely, how far He is from the self satisfied and self congratulatory, 'the strong' in secular terms. It is this feature of Yahweh which makes Him unique; no other God has this characteristic of 'nearness' (s:w. <a href='B:50 4:7'>Deu 4:7</a>):&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All Your commandments are truth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Truth" is a word often associated with the covenant. The "truth" of covenant relationship binds Him to those truly within the covenant. "Truth" is often used in a covenantal context.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Of old I have known from Your testimonies, that You have founded them forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David may refer to how he had learnt from "of old", in his youth, that God keeps his word. The adventures and answered prayers of boyhood and youth remained real to him, and he didn't just pass them off as the stuff of youth. But we note that he learnt that God keeps His word "from Your testimonies". He saw internal evidence from his own experience of God's word. And this is the basis of faith; not so much empirical, apologetic evidence, as something within God's own revelation which elicits further faith. What he had in view was that God's prophetic testimony through Samuel that he would one day would become king- was founded forever, and would not change.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>RESH</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Consider my affliction and deliver me, for I don’t forget Your law-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could be read as one of several points in this Psalm, written in relative youth, where David overestimates his obedience. He legalistically assumes that he ought to be delivered from whatever affliction he faced because of his stellar loyalty to God's word. This would explain the otherwise strange ending of Psalms 119, where David confesses he is a lost sheep and has not at all been obedient to God's way as he ought to have been.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Plead my cause, and redeem me! Revive me according to Your promise-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "promise" was the promise that he would become king and Saul would be disposed of- which often must have seemed so unlikely of fulfilment. Just as unlikely as the promise that "little me" shall one day be a king-priest of God's kingdom, in the power of an endless life; when we are so weak and faultering in our understanding and devotion. David sees his situation with Saul as being played out before the court of heaven; and he asks God to act not only as judge [who could "redeem"] but also as his advocate for the defence, who could "plead my cause". Paul uses this same idea in Romans 1-8, triumphing that if God "be for us", as both judge and advocate, then nothing can go against us (<a href='B:520 8:31'>Rom 8:31</a>). Sinners that we are.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Salvation is far from the wicked, for they don’t seek Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We note that David often [although not always, see on :153] speaks in terms of 'seeking' God's laws, rather than being totally obedient to them. <a href='B:150 7:10'>Ezr 7:10</a> uses the same term, and differentiates between "seeking" and "doing" the statutes. We see in Psalms 119 a man "after God's own heart"; not in that he was morally perfect nor totally obedient, but in that he wished and sought after such obedience, and loved God's laws rather than despised them.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Great are Your tender mercies, Yahweh. Revive me according to Your ordinances-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The parallel is with :154 "Revive me according to Your promise". The "promise" was the promise that he would become king and Saul would be disposed of- which often must have seemed so unlikely of fulfilment. And this is the set of "ordinances" in view here. But becoming king was to be by God's tender mercy, "the sure mercies of [i:e. given to] David" (<a href='B:290 55:3'>Isa 55:3</a>). Repeatedly David says this; that the fulfilment of God's word to him about becoming king would be the outworking of His grace (:41,76,88,124,149,159).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Many are my persecutors and my adversaries, but I haven’t swerved from Your testimonies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Swerved" is the word for "incline", used by David of how he himself inclined his heart to God's word (<a href='B:230 119:51'>Psa 119:51</a>; <a href='B:230 119:112'>Psa 119:112</a>; <a href='B:230 119:157'>Psa 119:157</a>). But David prayed that God would incline his heart towards His word (<a href='B:230 119:36'>Psa 119:36</a>) and away from sin (<a href='B:230 141:4'>Psa 141:4</a>). This is how the Holy Spirit works to this day- we are confirmed in the psychological attitudes we ourselves choose to have. The word is used of God's mighty "stretched out" arm and "strong hand" in human affairs (<a href='B:230 136:12'>Psa 136:12</a> and often in Isaiah). This powerful hand of God is at work in human hearts, confirming us in the psychological way in which we ourselves wish to go. In this sense God turns or inclines the heart where He wishes (<a href='B:240 21:1'>Pro 21:1</a>). Solomon in the Proverbs places all the emphasis upon a person themselves in their own strength inclining their heart toward his teaching (<a href='B:240 2:2'>Pro 2:2</a>; <a href='B:240 4:5'>Pro 4:5</a>; <a href='B:240 4:20'>Pro 4:20</a>; <a href='B:240 5:1'>Pro 5:1</a>). He fails to appreciate what David his father did; that God's word is His word and not that of the human channel through which it comes. And he totally puts the emphasis upon human strength of will, self inclination towards God's word, rather than perceiving as David did that without God's psychological help in this, we shall ultimately fail. As Solomon himself did.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I look at the faithless with loathing, because they don’t observe Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s eyes wept "because they keep not Your law", and yet he grieved for those who do not keep Gods word (<a href='B:230 119:136'>Psa 119:136</a>; <a href='B:230 119:158'>Psa 119:158</a>). In other words, he grieved for where their way of life would lead them, even though he saw that at times he behaved like them. "The faithless" primarily refer to Saul and his followers. David loathed Saul at this time, and yet when Saul dies, he weeps for him deeply (see on 2 Samuel 1). We can conclude that part of that weeping was because David had felt so harshly about him, he wept for him as a man for his mother, lamenting he had not appreciated her as he ought to have done (<a href='B:230 35:14'>Psa 35:14</a>). We note too the parallel between being faithless and not observing the word. Faith comes by hearing [obeying] the word of God in that the experience of the obedient life elicits more faith (<a href='B:520 10:17'>Rom 10:17</a>):&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Consider how I love Your precepts. Revive me, Yahweh, according to Your grace-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Just as God's word had given life and birth to creation and continues to keep it in life (:90-92), so David felt God's word and ways gave him life. Three times David makes the connection between God's precepts and his inner "revival" (<a href='B:230 119:40'>Psa 119:40</a>; <a href='B:230 119:93'>Psa 119:93</a>; <a href='B:230 119:159'>Psa 119:159</a>). God's word is a living word in that it is creative and gives life. Repeatedly David says that the fulfilment of God's word to him about becoming king would be the outworking of His grace (:41,76,88,124,149,159). Here he says that God's grace would revive him, but elsewhere that the word [of promised kingship] would revive him (:25,50,93,107,149):&nbsp; </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All of Your words are truth, every one of Your righteous ordinances endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The phrase "word of truth" is specifically used of the promises made to David in <a href='B:100 7:28'>2Sa 7:28</a>, which began with the promise that David would become king and Saul would be deposed. David had feared in :43 that they could somehow be abrogated, but now he expresses his confidence that the promise of the Kingdom was eternal:&nbsp;Thus the eternity of God's truth is paralleled with the eternity of His righteousness (as in :142). David walked / lived "in truth and righteousness" (s:w. <a href='B:110 3:6'>1Ki 3:6</a>; <a href='B:230 15:2'>Psa 15:2</a>), because this was how God Isa. The Messianic seed of David was to have this characteristic, ruling on David's throne in truth and righteousness (s:w. <a href='B:290 16:5'>Isa 16:5</a>):&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>SIN AND SHIN</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Princes have persecuted me without a cause, but my heart stands in awe of Your words-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Saul's sons, David's brothers-in-law, the brothers of his deep best friend, joined their father in persecuting him in the wilderness years . These are the "princes" in view, although later the words applied to princes like Absalom:&nbsp;The continued emphasis in David's psalms upon "without cause" surely reflects a self righteousness (<a href='B:230 35:19'>Psa 35:19</a>; <a href='B:230 69:4'>Psa 69:4</a>; <a href='B:230 109:3'>Psa 109:3</a>; <a href='B:230 119:161'>Psa 119:161</a>). For David's righteousness was only impressive relative to the wickedness of his enemies; before God, it was filthy rags. It was true that Saul persecuted David "without cause" (s:w. <a href='B:90 19:5'>1Sa 19:5</a>), but the experience of "without cause" persecution can lead us to an inappropriate self-righteousness. This is what happened to Job, who also suffered "without cause" (s:w. <a href='B:220 2:3'>Job 2:3</a>), and had to be convicted of self-righteousness at the end of the story. And it seems this happened to David. David himself intended to shed blood "without cause" and was only saved from it by grace (s:w. <a href='B:90 25:31'>1Sa 25:31</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I rejoice at Your word, as one who finds great spoil-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Lord based His parables of the lost sheep and the man finding the treasure of the Gospel in a field on the statements of David (<a href='B:230 119:162'>Psa 119:162</a>; <a href='B:230 119:176'>Psa 119:176</a>), as if He saw David as representative of all those who would truly come to Him. The word in view was initially the promise that David would become king. This was David's joy during his afflictions at the hands of Saul. This is also another example of where David compares wealth against the things of God's word of promise. The desire to accumulate wealth is particularly strong for young men in David's position.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I hate and abhor falsehood but I love Your law-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "falsehood" in view was likely the idolatry practiced by Saul.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Seven times a day I praise You because of Your righteous ordinances-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could refer to how David regularly reminded himself throughout every day of his persecution by Saul that the word / ordinances of promise were that he would become king and Saul would be disposed of.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Those who love Your law have great peace; nothing causes them to stumble-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Whilst this is true in a general sense, the word in view was the promise that he would become king and Saul would be disposed of. But the "those" in view would have been those like Samuel whose lives of loving God's law were known to David.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have hoped for Your salvation, Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These almost seem the words of Simeon in the temple. "Salvation" is Yeshua, 'Jesus', "the word made flesh" (<a href='B:500 1:14'>Joh 1:14</a>). But in the shorter term, the salvation David hoped for was that from Saul, promised in God's prophetic word to him.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have done Your commandments-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could be read as one of several points in this Psalm, written in relative youth, where David overestimates his obedience. He legalistically assumes that he ought to be delivered from whatever affliction he faced because of his stellar loyalty to God's word. This would explain the otherwise strange ending of Psalms 119, where David confesses he is a lost sheep and has not at all been obedient to God's way as he ought to have been.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My soul has observed Your testimonies because I love them exceedingly-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :166. Obedience is related to how much we love the commandment being obeyed; and that requires a basic love of God, and everything about Him, perceiving His character which we love revealed in all His commandments. David in the wilderness was unable to be legally obedient to all the commandments; hence he says that his "soul" observed them. Actual total obedience is effectively impossible for us all, but we can still love God's ways and testimonies.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have obeyed Your precepts and Your testimonies, for all my ways are before You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In :146 David promises that "I will obey Your statutes / precepts" (s:w:). But here David says that he has 'obeyed Your statutes' (s:w. :167,68). Perhaps he meant in :146 that when God fulfills His promise to make him king, which required immediately saving him from some situation with Saul, he would continue to "obey Your statutes" in the way he governed Israel. But perhaps he feels he is suffering because of disobeying God's statutes. And yet here in :167,168 he says he has obeyed them. This difficulty in self examination [which we also can identify with] is reflected in how David also says in different Psalms that Israel both obeyed God's statutes, and also disobeyed them (<a href='B:230 78:56'>Psa 78:56</a> cp. 99:7).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>TAV</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let my cry come near before You, Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Truly can we pray David’s prayers. So often, prayer is described as coming near to God (<a href='B:230 119:169'>Psa 119:169</a> etc:)- and yet God “is” near already. Prayer, therefore, is a way of making us realize the presence of the God who is always present. You are not alone, I am not alone; “For I am with you”. God is with us for us in His Son. Of course, we must draw near to Him (<a href='B:230 73:28'>Psa 73:28</a>); and yet He is already near, not far from every one of us (<a href='B:510 17:27'>Act 17:27</a>). David often speaks of drawing near to God, and yet he invites God to draw near to him (<a href='B:230 69:18'>Psa 69:18</a>). Yet David also recognizes that God “is” near already (<a href='B:230 75:1'>Psa 75:1</a>). I take all this to mean that like us, David recognized that God “is” near, and yet wished God to make His presence real to him.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Give me understanding according to Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again, David is asking for something beyond God's word itself. God can give us "understanding" of it. Or if the "word" in view is specifically the promise that David would be king, he could be asking for wisdom ["understanding"] in how to rule Israel. And this was likewise the prayer of Solomon when he became king (<a href='B:110 3:9'>1Ki 3:9</a>); but his motives were less than pure because he was consciously seeking to imitate his father in this request.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let my supplication come before You and deliver me according to Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference is to the word of promise that David would become king, and Saul's abuse of him end. He imagines his prayer for that "word" to come true as coming "before" God. He visualized a court of heaven, before which his prayers came for consideration.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let my lips utter praise, for You teach me Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It was Moses who 'taught [God's] statutes' to Israel (s:w. <a href='B:50 4:1'>Deu 4:1</a>; <a href='B:50 4:5'>Deu 4:5</a>; <a href='B:50 4:14'>Deu 4:14</a>; <a href='B:50 5:31'>Deu 5:31</a>). David in the wilderness felt such a personal relationship with God that he felt God personally teaching him, without the intermediary of any teacher like Moses. And this kind of intimacy is still possible with God. David knew the "statutes", but he wanted God to teach them to him in practice. There is a huge difference between mere Bible reading, and God teaching us to the meaning of His word.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let my tongue sing of Your word, for all Your commandments are righteousness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We may enquire why David speaks of his singing about God's word as yet future; why doesn't he do so at the time? It makes sense if we understand "Your word" as referring to the word of promise that David would become king, and Saul's abuse of him end.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let Your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen Your precepts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Help me" is s:w. in <a href='B:230 30:10'>Psa 30:10</a>, a Bathsheba Psalm: "Hear, Yahweh, and have mercy on me. Yahweh, be my helper". Earlier David had sought Yahweh's help on the basis that he had been obedient to God's word (<a href='B:230 119:173'>Psa 119:173</a> s:w:), and was innocent (<a href='B:230 119:86'>Psa 119:86</a> s:w:). But the sin with Bathsheba led David to beg for God to be his helper purely on the basis of grace (<a href='B:230 30:10'>Psa 30:10</a> s:w:). See on :175. But the immediate "help" in view was help against Saul. Again we note that David doesn't claim total obedience; but that he had "chosen Your precepts".</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have longed for Your salvation, Yahweh. Your law is my delight-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These almost seem the words of Simeon in the temple. "Salvation" is Yeshua, 'Jesus', "the word made flesh" (<a href='B:500 1:14'>Joh 1:14</a>). But in the shorter term, the salvation David hoped for was that from Saul, promised in God's prophetic word to him. And his response was going to be to govern Israel according to God's law which he delighted in.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let my soul live, that I may praise You. Let Your ordinances help me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In :173 David asks for God to "help him" to escape Saul's persecution when it seemed his soul would not live (<a href='B:90 27:1'>1Sa 27:1</a>) and to become king, according to God's word of promise. And so here he asks that those promises or ordinances would help him. "Help me" is s:w. in <a href='B:230 30:10'>Psa 30:10</a>, a Bathsheba Psalm: "Hear, Yahweh, and have mercy on me. Yahweh, be my helper". He had earlier asked for God's words to be his "helper" (<a href='B:230 119:175'>Psa 119:175</a>), but later after sinning with Bathsheba he quits his academic study and begs directly for God Himself to be his "helper". See on :173.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek Your servant, for I don’t forget Your commandments- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This may appear a strange ending, and structurally it appears to have been added on. I suggest it was likely written by David with his mind on his follies relating to Bathsheba, so far from the spirit of his youthful devotion to God's law and ways. And yet it is the taken by the Lord and used as the basis for the parable of the lost sheep, whereby all who have sinned go through the David experience.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The lost sheep who leaves the fold and goes off (<a href='B:470 18:12'>Mat 18:12</a>) is based on this verse. The lost sheep that is found therefore has the attitude of recognizing it is lost, that it is still the servant of the shepherd although isolated from him, and still has not forgotten the things of God's word. The picture in <a href='B:230 119:176'>Psa 119:176</a> is strange indeed: a lost sheep asking the shepherd to come and find him. It's as if the sheep talks to himself, feeling the shepherd can't and won't hear, feeling that he's just too far away. And this is exactly the position of all those who leave the faith and return: they don't forget the doctrines of the Faith, in their hearts they feel too far away, but they wish somehow something could happen to get them back. This explains the type of sheep one is dealing with in the parable, and why the parable isn't true of all who go astray.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Song of Ascents-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Or 'degrees'. Hezekiah’s response to being granted another 15 years of life was to edit and produce the Songs of Degrees, so named after the degrees of the sundial. Four of the 15 Psalms were by David, one by Solomon; and the other 10 it seems Hezekiah wrote himself but left anonymous. These ten Psalms would reflect the ten degrees by which the sun-dial went backwards. The point to note is that Hezekiah taught others in an anonymous way in response to the grace he had received. True preaching reflects a certain artless selflessness. These songs of ascents were presumably also intended to be sung by the exiles as they returned to Zion, and then every time they went up to Jerusalem to keep a feast. But there is no evidence this happened. For they didn't return in the kind of faith implied in these Psalms. The plural "ascents" would then be an intensive plural referring to the one great ascent, to Zion. Much of the language of these Psalms is typical of David's language when under persecution by Saul. But the Psalm was reapplied to Hezekiah, and then to the exiles on their return from Babylon, and then by extension to all God's people on their journey zionwards.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In my distress, I cried to Yahweh. He answered me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is typical of David's language when under persecution by Saul. But the Psalm was reapplied to Hezekiah's cry for healing, and then to the exiles on their return from Babylon, and then by extension to all God's people on their journey zionwards.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Deliver my soul, Yahweh, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David would have been referring to Saul and later to Doeg and Ahithophel (the same words are used about the deceitful tongue of Doeg in <a href='B:230 52:2'>Psa 52:2</a>); Hezekiah would have had in mind the lies pouring from the lips of Rabshakeh outside the walls of Jerusalem. The returning exiles singing this may have had in view the false accusations of Haman. David's intolerance of "deceitful" persons (<a href='B:230 52:2'>Psa 52:2</a>; <a href='B:230 101:7'>Psa 101:7</a>; <a href='B:230 120:3'>Psa 120:3</a>) must be compared with the fact that he himself was only counted as not deceitful by grace; for he was very deceitful regarding Uriah. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>What will be given to you, and what will be done more to you, you deceitful tongue?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was to later plot the destruction of Uriah by his words; and when he repented of this in <a href='B:230 32:2'>Psa 32:2</a>, he says that lack of deceit / guile (s:w:) is only possible through imputed righteousness. David's intolerance of "deceitful" persons (<a href='B:230 52:2'>Psa 52:2</a>; <a href='B:230 101:7'>Psa 101:7</a>; <a href='B:230 120:3'>Psa 120:3</a>) must be compared with the fact that he himself was only counted as not deceitful by grace; for he was very deceitful regarding Uriah. But the Psalm has application to Hezekiah's desire for the tongue of Rabshakeh to be destroyed, and the exiles likewise had a whole array of possible people to sing this about, the likes of Sanballat and Haman. We note that the tongue is personified as a person; for we are our words, and by them we reflect who we really are and shall therefore be judged by them, as the Lord Jesus taught.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the Hezekiah context, this was fulfilled by the destruction of the Assyrians outside the walls of Jerusalem. It was done by a single Angel, perhaps "the mighty [one]" in view. "Coals of juniper" were used to make charcoal; the idea is 'the hottest fire'. However the grammar and flow of the argument may mean that this verse describes the "deceitful tongue" of :3; and indeed James says that the tongue is as a fire (<a href='B:660 3:6'>Jas 3:6</a>). It was God's tongue which was as a devouring fire upon the Assyrians of Hezekiah's time (<a href='B:290 30:27'>Isa 30:27</a>); so we have the picture of the fiery tongue being its own condemnation, in fire from Yahweh. In the context of David, he had lamented that the outlaws with whom he lived and the house of Saul had tongues as sharp arrows (<a href='B:230 57:4'>Psa 57:4</a>; <a href='B:230 64:3'>Psa 64:3</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Woe is me, that I live in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Kedar was the second son of Ishmael (<a href='B:10 25:13'>Gen 25:13</a>), one of the wild roaming tribes whose hand was against every man (<a href='B:10 16:13'>Gen 16:13</a>). Perhaps there was a time when fleeing from Saul when David had to live amongst them, and he longs to be back in Zion. Or perhaps he simply means that he has to live among hostile and barbarous people, who are characterized as the wild Kedar and Meshech. The tribe of Meshech was known to David, as a neighbouring people who hated peace (:6). It can therefore scarcely refer to Moscow, as some insist.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My soul has had her dwelling too long with him who hates peace-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The individual who hated peace was likened to the war like (:7) and aggressive wild tribes of Kedar and Meshech. The "him" becomes "they" in :7, so perhaps the peace hater is a personification of the various groups opposed to those using the Psalm in whatever context.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could apply to how Hezekiah sought to make peace with the Assyrians. But he gave them the gold of the temple for that peace treaty which they broke; but here he appears to whitewash that lack of faith as his love for peace. We can understand the initial reference to David, who truly sought to live at peace with Saul. And perhaps it has application to the returned exiles and their conflicts with the local Samaritans.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Song of Ascents-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Or 'degrees'. Hezekiah’s response to being granted another 15 years of life was to edit and produce the Songs of Degrees, so named after the degrees of the sundial. Four of the 15 Psalms were by David, one by Solomon; and the other 10 it seems Hezekiah wrote himself but left anonymous. These ten Psalms would reflect the ten degrees by which the sun-dial went backwards. The point to note is that Hezekiah taught others in an anonymous way in response to the grace he had received. True preaching reflects a certain artless selflessness. These songs of ascents were presumably also intended to be sung by the exiles as they returned to Zion, and then every time they went up to Jerusalem to keep a feast. But there is no evidence this happened. For they didn't return in the kind of faith implied in these Psalms. The plural "ascents" would then be an intensive plural referring to the one great ascent, to Zion. Much of the language of these Psalms is typical of David's language when under persecution by Saul. But the Psalm was reapplied to Hezekiah, and then to the exiles on their return from Babylon, and then by extension to all God's people on their journey zionwards.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"The hills" may be an intensive plural referring to the great hill of mount Zion. But the hills were associated with idolatry and the high places. David and subsequent users of the Psalm may have meant that they looked not to the hills but to Yahweh, the creator of heaven and earth (:2).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My help comes from Yahweh, who made heaven and earth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>So often, the fact Yahweh is creator is presented as a reason to trust Him for help. To minimize His creative power through faithless scientific theory simply takes away our grounds for personal faith:&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He will not allow your foot to be moved-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea is that the restoration was to be permanent, and never again would Israel go into captivity and have to leave Zion.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He who keeps you will not slumber-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Note the progression from "me" (:1,2) to Israel (:3-5). David saw his sufferings as being bound up with those of Israel; those who hated him hated Zion, those who blessed him blessed Zion, and God's salvation of Israel was being expressed through God's deliverance of him in the daily vicissitudes of life; as God had chosen Zion, so He had David His servant; David's joy was Zion's joy, and her exaltation would be David's&nbsp; (<a href='B:230 51:18'>Psa 51:18</a>; <a href='B:230 69:35'>Psa 69:35</a>; <a href='B:230 87:2'>Psa 87:2</a>; <a href='B:230 106:5'>Psa 106:5</a>; <a href='B:230 121:3-4'>Psa 121:3-4</a>; <a href='B:230 125:1'>Psa 125:1</a>; <a href='B:230 128:5'>Psa 128:5</a>; <a href='B:230 146:10'>Psa 146:10</a>; <a href='B:230 149:2'>Psa 149:2</a>). This is how we are to make sense of suffering- by understanding that it plays a role in the salvation of others, and is part of a wider nexus of Divine operation. We suffer so that we may be able to minister the comfort we receive to others (<a href='B:540 1:4'>2Co 1:4</a>). Job likewise came to realize that his sufferings were not so much for his personal maturing, but for the teaching and salvation of the friends.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God had allowed the feet of His people to be moved out of their land, but the intention was that this was to be temporary, and their return would be a witness to the Gentiles amongst whom they lived- leading them to join in and also come to Zion in penitence and faith. And then He would not again allow their feet to be moved from their land (s:w. <a href='B:230 66:9'>Psa 66:9</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The statement that God will not "rest" for Zion's sake (<a href='B:290 62:1'>Isa 62:1</a>) must be understood in the context of the faithful at that time urging God not to "be still" [same Hebrew word translated "rest"] for His people (<a href='B:230 83:1'>Psa 83:1</a>; <a href='B:290 64:12'>Isa 64:12</a>). This is an allusion to Boaz not being at rest until he had redeemed Ruth and Naomi. God is not at rest, He is not distant from us; and yet His people in Babylon felt that He was. It's no wonder that we are tempted to feel the same. Yet we must give <a href='B:290 62:1'>Isa 62:1</a> it's full weight- God is answering the complaint of His people by stating that no, He will never rest for them. In this same context we read that He that keeps Israel will "neither slumber nor sleep" (<a href='B:230 121:4'>Psa 121:4</a>). The fact that God will never 'hold His peace' for His people's sake (<a href='B:290 62:1'>Isa 62:1</a>) means that we should likewise not 'hold our peace' for them (the same Hebrew is used in <a href='B:290 62:6'>Isa 62:6</a>). In our prayers for them, we are to give God no rest (<a href='B:290 62:7'>Isa 62:7</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We note that the confident statement that Yahweh doesn't slumber nor sleep for His people was disavowed by the exiles, and perhaps by David too in his low moments in <a href='B:230 44:23'>Psa 44:23</a>: "Wake up! Why do You sleep, Lord? Arise! Don’t reject us forever". To accuse God of sleeping seems as inappropriate as the disciples' demand for the Lord Jesus to awake from sleep because His apparent sleeping showed that He didn't care that they perished (<a href='B:480 4:38'>Mar 4:38</a>). He did of course care for their perishing. He gave His life for that.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh is your keeper, Yahweh is your shade on your right hand-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The songs of ascents, part of the restoration Psalms, are relevant to any ‘ascent’ or ‘going up’ to the Lord’s house. They are full of reference to God’s eternal purpose with Jerusalem and the temple. It seems to me that they may have been re-written under inspiration with reference to God’s people returning from Babylon to Jerusalem. “The Lord is thy keeper</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>the sun shall not smite thee by day</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>” (<a href='B:230 121:5-6'>Psa 121:5-6</a>)- reference to Israel’s exodus from Egypt, but also to God’s miraculous keeping them on the desert journey from Babylon to Jerusalem, without a guard from the Babylonian authorities.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The exiles were comforted that as the pillar of cloud and fire protected Israel on their journey to the promised land, so God would be with them in returning from exile. Not being smitten by day nor night is the language of <a href='B:230 91:6'>Psa 91:6</a> [see note there]. They were to follow the path intended for Joshua, and earnestly believe they could participate in the restored kingdom of God. There is allusion to the belief that there was some demonic power in the moon; hence <a href='B:230 91:6'>Psa 91:6</a> LXX "from ruin and the demon of the midday". Whatever belief in demons the people held, the simple truth was that God destroyed the wilderness generation; all was under His absolute control. There is no radical evil in the cosmos:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference is as in <a href='B:230 105:39'>Psa 105:39</a> to how God "spread a cloud for a covering, fire to give light in the night" to Israel leaving Egypt. And He would have done the same to the exiles leaving Babylon. The sensitivity of God is revealed here. The cloud kept the heat of the sun off them in the day time, and the fire kept them warm at night when the temperatures plunged in the desert. This same care was potentially available to the exiles; but most didn't even want to make the journey, and remained in Babylon. These promises are therefore reapplied to the new Israel (<a href='B:730 7:16'>Rev 7:16</a>), As Yahweh provided a pillar of fire to give light in the night to His people in the wilderness, so Israel were to arrange for a fire to be burning throughout the night in the tabernacle. They were to give light in response to God’s giving light to them</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh will keep you from all evil; He will keep your soul-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As discussd on :6, the "evil" may refer to their wrong understandings of cosmic evil. The Lord Jesus never actually stated that demons don't exist; rather did His miracles demonstrate that God was so far superior to their power, that effectively they didn't. And the same logic is being used here.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh will keep your going out and your coming in-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea may be that the regular pilgrimages to Zion to the keep the feasts (cp. <a href='B:230 122:1'>Psa 122:1</a>), going out and coming in, were envisaged as now being eternally established. We note "going out and coming in", and not the other way around. The implication is that Zion was to be the actual abode of the worshipper, even if he only came in and out for a brief period three times / year.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>From this time forth and forever- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could imply that "forever", eternity, was seen as beginning with the coming in to Zion. The restoration of the exiles could potentially have been the time of the reestablishment of God's Kingdom on earth; but that possiblity was precluded by Israel's lack of faith and repentance. We can begin living the eternal life now, in that we can now act as we shall eternally. We shall be eternally appreciating, trusting, loving and praising God's Name, just as He keeps us noth now and eternally- and we can begin those experiences with Him right now. This is an Old Testament form (also in <a href='B:230 113:2'>Psa 113:2</a>; <a href='B:230 115:18'>Psa 115:18</a>; <a href='B:230 121:8'>Psa 121:8</a>; <a href='B:230 125:2'>Psa 125:2</a>; <a href='B:230 131:3'>Psa 131:3</a>) of the Lord's teaching as recorded in John's Gospel, that we can have and live the eternal life right now. We have that life not in the sense that we shall never die, but in that we can begin living and being now as we shall eternally live and be.</p><h2></h2>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Song of Ascents. By David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The songs of ascents, part of the restoration Psalms, are relevant to any ‘ascent’ or ‘going up’ to the Lord’s house. They are full of reference to God’s eternal purpose with Jerusalem and the temple. It seems to me that they may have been re-written under inspiration with reference to God’s people returning from Babylon to Jerusalem. “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go unto the house of the Lord” (<a href='B:230 122:1'>Psa 122:1</a>)- the feelings of a faithful Jew in Babylon responding to Cyrus’ decree. “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (<a href='B:230 122:6'>Psa 122:6</a>)- the faithful in Babylon praying for Zion.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I was glad when they said to me, Let’s go up to Yahweh’s house!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This may have begun as David's prophetic anticipation of the day when the temple would be built, and he would be invited to go up there in worship- implying his faith in bodily resurrection, seeing he had been told that such a temple would not be built in his lifetime. But the Psalm is obviously used in hope that the temple would be restored and the exiles with joy would receive the invitation to "go up" there. But the reality was so different; the majority of them refused to "go up" when invited to by Cyrus, preferring exile in opulent Persia. And so these things are reapplied to a new Israel and a new temple:&nbsp;&nbsp; </p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Our feet shall stand within your gates, Jerusalem-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the more pertinent to the exiles when we recall that the gates of Jerusalem were totally broken down.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Jerusalem, that is built as a city that is compact together-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again we recall that at the time of the exiles, Jerusalem was not at all "built" but was in ruins. The exiles were invited to return and build it into a compact city, rather than a broken down set of ruins. "Compact together" could be translated to the effect that it was built in fellowship together, perhaps referring to the unity of the builders and the unity to be found within it. But the majority turned down the invitation and remained in Persia / Babylon; and the exiles were anything but united, as the records in Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai-Malachi make clear. These things therefore come ultimately true in the things of the new Jerusalem which the New Testament speaks of.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>where the tribes go up, even Yah’s tribes, according to an ordinance for Israel, to give thanks to the name of Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The implication is that the true Israel go up to keep the feasts at the sanctuary. The fact most of the exiles didn't want to "go up" therefore precluded them from being the true Israel. The Psalm had its historical origin in David's longing to be able to get to the sanctuary to keep the feasts (<a href='B:230 42:2'>Psa 42:2</a> etc:). This was to be the longing of the exiles to return to Zion; but generally, they preferred to remain in exile.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For there are set thrones for judgment, the thrones of David’s house-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This was a Psalm by David, originally (:1). He looked for the day when his throne would be established in Jerusalem, replacing the throne of Saul. "Thrones" may be an intensive plural for the one great throne- that of David, which would also be the time of judgment on all those who had opposed him. This will finally be fulfilled in the reestablishment of David's throne, when the Lord Jesus returns to Jerusalem. And that throne will also be the throne of His judgment, which will also be in Jerusalem (rather than in Sinai, as some curiously believe):&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; those who love you will prosper-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Peace was impossible for Jerusalem until Judah repented (<a href='B:300 4:10'>Jer 4:10</a>; <a href='B:330 13:16'>Eze 13:16</a>). "Peace" in the Bible is often 'peace with God'. The desire was therefore for the day to come when Judah would repent, and the restoration prophecies of Judah's peace would come true. Peace will only finally go forth from Jerusalem when the latter day invaders are destroyed and the Lord Jesus establishes His Kingdom there (<a href='B:450 9:10'>Zec 9:10</a> s:w:).</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Peace be within your walls, and prosperity within your palaces-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This was to be in contrast with how the enemies of Zion apparently prospered in her destruction (s:w. <a href='B:310 1:5'>Lam 1:5</a>). This is a prayer that the current situation will be inverted. Zion's destruction had been because "prosperity" had led them to turn away from their God (s:w. <a href='B:300 22:21'>Jer 22:21</a>; <a href='B:330 16:49'>Eze 16:49</a>). The prayer was that prosperity would come without the tendency to unspirituality which it brings in a secular sense:&nbsp;&nbsp; </p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For my brothers’ and companions’ sakes I will now say, Peace be within you-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The returning exiles were to be aware that their desire for the peace of Jerusalem, the fulfilment of the restoration prophecies and the end of the 70 year exile, were not to be simply for their own sake; but for the sake of their distant brothers and also their companions with them on the journey. We likewise must not wish our place in the Kingdom or the coming of that Kingdom purely for our own sakes; but for that of the wider community. </p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the sake of the house of Yahweh our God, I will seek your good- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>'Seeking the good' of Jerusalem is exactly the phrase used in the context of the restoration in <a href='B:160 2:10'>Neh 2:10</a>. And in response, God would 'seek the good' of all who sought the good of Jerusalem (s:w. <a href='B:150 8:22'>Ezr 8:22</a>). The idea may be that the returning exiles were to seek the good of their brethren (:8) for the sake of the restored Kingdom / house of God. "The good" of both their brethren and the Kingdom of God was one and the same- the restored Kingdom to the glory of Yahweh.</p><h2></h2>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Song of Ascents-</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Or 'degrees'. Hezekiah’s response to being granted another 15 years of life was to edit and produce the Songs of Degrees, so named after the degrees of the sundial. Four of the 15 Psalms were by David, one by Solomon; and the other 10 it seems Hezekiah wrote himself but left anonymous. These ten Psalms would reflect the ten degrees by which the sun-dial went backwards. The point to note is that Hezekiah taught others in an anonymous way in response to the grace he had received. True preaching reflects a certain artless selflessness. These songs of ascents were presumably also intended to be sung by the exiles as they returned to Zion, and then every time they went up to Jerusalem to keep a feast. But there is no evidence this happened. For they didn't return in the kind of faith implied in these Psalms. The plural "ascents" would then be an intensive plural referring to the one great ascent, to Zion. Much of the language of these Psalms is typical of David's language when under persecution by Saul. But the Psalm was reapplied to Hezekiah, and then to the exiles on their return from Babylon, and then by extension to all God's people on their journey zionwards.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>To You I do lift up my eyes, You who sit in the heavens-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Jehoshaphat's prayer for deliverance includes the words "our eyes are upon thee" (<a href='B:140 20:12'>2Ch 20:12</a>), which is quoted in <a href='B:230 123:1-2'>Psa 123:1-2</a> - one of the Songs of Degrees written against the background of the Assyrian invasion, pleading for deliverance by God:&nbsp;There is a repeated Biblical theme that the believer's relationship with the Father too is essentially mutual. Our eye is upon Him (<a href='B:230 25:5'>Psa 25:5</a>; <a href='B:230 69:3'>Psa 69:3</a>; <a href='B:230 123:2'>Psa 123:2</a>), as His eye is upon us (<a href='B:230 32:8'>Psa 32:8</a>; <a href='B:230 33:18'>Psa 33:18</a>). The Lord stresses, with apparently needless repetition, that to the man who responds to His word, "I will sup with him and he with me" (<a href='B:730 3:20'>Rev 3:20</a>). There may be the implication that the Psalmist looks to the God who is in the "heavens", a term sometimes used as a metaphor for the temple or sanctuary- and not to any idol. See on :2.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress; so our eyes look to Yahweh our God until He has mercy on us-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea may be that the Psalmist considers Yahweh as lord or master- the very meaning of the term 'baal'; because he looks to Yahweh and not to any of the Baals. See on :1.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The songs of ascents, part of the restoration Psalms, are relevant to any ‘ascent’ or ‘going up’ to the Lord’s house. They are full of reference to God’s eternal purpose with Jerusalem and the temple. It seems to me that they may have been re-written under inspiration with reference to God’s people returning from Babylon to Jerusalem. “As the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> so our eyes look unto the Lord</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> until he have mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>for we are exceedingly filled with contempt</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>with the scorning of those that are at ease” (<a href='B:230 123:2-4'>Psa 123:2-4</a>)- the faithful by the rivers of Babylon praying for the captivity to end.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:450 1:12'>Zec 1:12</a> has the Angel representing the exiles asking God to "have mercy" on the exiles and bring about the restoration of the Kingdom. Here, we have the exiles themselves praying thIsa. It's as if their representative Angel was representing them before Yahweh in the court of heaven. But the reality was that few of them really wanted this "mercy" and were quite happy with the life in Babylon / Persia.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Have mercy on us, Yahweh, have mercy on us, for we have endured much contempt-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For "have mercy", see on :2. As the book of Esther makes clear, the exiles lived comfortable lives in Babylon / Persia, with Jews in leading positions. It was only the spiritually minded who considered life there to be in "contempt"; just as the restoration prophecies of Isaiah present Babylon as a place of suffering and imprisonment after the pattern of Israel's sufferings in Egypt, all of which was only true on a spiritual level.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scoffing of those who are at ease, with the contempt of the proud- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :3, this pain at the "scoffing" was only felt by the spiritually minded amongst the exiles. There is ample evidence in Ezekiel and also <a href='B:440 1:2'>Hag 1:2</a> that the exiles were at ease in exile and were the ones scoffing at the restoration prophecies as being unlikely now of any fulfilment. Those "who are at ease" is the term used of those amongst God's people who were at ease in sinful lives (<a href='B:370 6:1'>Amo 6:1</a>).</p><h2></h2>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Song of Ascents. By David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Psalms originally written by David are reappropriated to the exiles, and used at the restoration. For the "ascent" in view is that to Zion. Worshippers are spoken of as 'going up' to Zion. Before then it was probably used by Hezekiah to glory in the victory over the Assyrians, which was associated with the ascent and descent of the sun on his sundial. For his sickness was at the same time as the Assyrian destruction.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If it had not been Yahweh who was on our side, let Israel now say-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is very much the spirit of David personally in <a href='B:230 94:17'>Psa 94:17</a>: "Unless Yahweh had been my help, my soul would have soon been silenced". But the exiles were to follow the path of David, in devotion to God's word, repentance and thence restoration.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>if it had not been Yahweh who was on our side when men rose up against us-</p><h2>The rising up of men is developed into the rising up of flood waters against God's people (:4,5). These flood waters represented the Assyrians at the time of Hezekiah, and then later all the Gentile enemies of Israel. But the first reference was to the way that Saul "rose up" against David (s:w. <a href='B:90 25:29'>1Sa 25:29</a>).</h2>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their wrath was kindled against us-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference may be to Ahithophel's plan to swallow up David at the time of Absalom's rebellion (<a href='B:100 17:12'>2Sa 17:12</a>; <a href='B:100 17:16'>2Sa 17:16</a> s:w:). David's prayer of <a href='B:230 35:25'>Psa 35:25</a>; <a href='B:230 69:15'>Psa 69:15</a>; <a href='B:230 124:3'>Psa 124:3</a> not to be swallowed up / destroyed was answered, but he was devastated at the answer- for it meant the death of Saul [which he lamented] and then later of his son Absalom. Again David has Job in mind, who had his 'brethren' arguing that he should be swallowed up / destroyed without cause (<a href='B:220 2:3'>Job 2:3</a> s:w:). But being swallowed alive was the fate of the apostate amongst Israel in the wilderness (s:w. <a href='B:40 16:30'>Num 16:30</a>). So the idea may be that God's people were saved from rightful condemnation- by Divine grace.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>then the waters would have overwhelmed us, the stream would have gone over our soul-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference in the Hezekiah context is to the waters of the Assyrians flooding the whole of Judah and coming up to the neck of those in Jerusalem (<a href='B:290 8:8'>Isa 8:8</a>). The language of floods overwhelming a man is used by David about his various persecutions.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>then the proud waters would have gone over our soul-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We note that the Assyrians are characterized by pride. We might rather have stressed their aggression or idolatry. But God is so sensitive to pride, that this is the lead sin perceived in them.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed be Yahweh, who has not given us as a prey to their teeth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The imagery changes from overflowing waters, to a beast of prey with teeth which were about to close upon God's people. This was clearly the case when the Assyrian beast encircled Jerusalem and appeared to be moments away from sinking teeth into the prey. This may look forward to the deliverance from the latter day Assyrian around Jerusalem, by the return of the Lord Jesus to earth to save His repentant people.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Our soul has escaped like a bird out of the fowler’s snare. The snare is broken, and we have escaped-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Often David likens his enemies' plans to catch him as snares, gins etc. set for birds (e:g. <a href='B:230 84:3'>Psa 84:3</a>; <a href='B:230 102:6'>Psa 102:6</a>; Psalms 124; Psalms 7; <a href='B:230 140:5'>Psa 140:5</a>)- all the language of hunting birds. He had probably done plenty of this as a youngster caring for the sheep, and the influence of those formative years remained. The Babylonian captivity was "the snare of the fowler" just as much as were the judgments for sin which came upon the wilderness generation, from which Joshua was delivered (<a href='B:230 91:3'>Psa 91:3</a>). The exiles were intended to follow Joshua's example. The Hezekiah reference is clear- Jerusalem was surrounded by the snare of the Assyrian encirclement, but this was broken in a moment by the Angel destroying their army in a moment.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Our help is in the name of Yahweh, who made heaven and earth- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again, God's power as creator is used as an encouragement to believe that the God who created all can quite easily save His people from any predicament, no matter how humanly impossible. Any attempt to rationalize or dilute His creative power at the beginning will have negative implications for our faith in His abilities in our lives today.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Song of Ascents-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Or 'degrees'. Hezekiah’s response to being granted another 15 years of life was to edit and produce the Songs of Degrees, so named after the degrees of the sundial. Four of the 15 Psalms were by David, one by Solomon; and the other 10 it seems Hezekiah wrote himself but left anonymous. These ten Psalms would reflect the ten degrees by which the sun-dial went backwards. The point to note is that Hezekiah taught others in an anonymous way in response to the grace he had received. True preaching reflects a certain artless selflessness. These songs of ascents were presumably also intended to be sung by the exiles as they returned to Zion, and then every time they went up to Jerusalem to keep a feast. But there is no evidence this happened. For they didn't return in the kind of faith implied in these Psalms. The plural "ascents" would then be an intensive plural referring to the one great ascent, to Zion. Much of the language of these Psalms is typical of David's language when under persecution by Saul. But the Psalm was reapplied to Hezekiah, and then to the exiles on their return from Babylon, and then by extension to all God's people on their journey zionwards.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Those who trust in Yahweh are as Mount Zion which can’t be moved but remains forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David in his earlier Psalms exalts and boasts to God that his feet have not slipped, indeed he was overly confident that his feet would never slip / "be moved" (<a href='B:230 17:5'>Psa 17:5</a>; <a href='B:230 21:7'>Psa 21:7</a>; <a href='B:230 55:22'>Psa 55:22</a>; <a href='B:230 62:2'>Psa 62:2</a>; <a href='B:230 62:6'>Psa 62:6</a>; <a href='B:230 125:1'>Psa 125:1</a>). His more mature reflection is that he had wrongly said "I shall never slip [AV "be moved"]" (<a href='B:230 30:6'>Psa 30:6</a>), and his feet had indeed slipped, not least over the Bathsheba incident (<a href='B:230 38:16'>Psa 38:16</a>; <a href='B:230 94:18'>Psa 94:18</a>). Solomon didn't learn this lesson, for he likewise assumed that the righteous would never be moved / slip (<a href='B:240 10:30'>Pro 10:30</a>), although he appears to accept that even a righteous man like his father had indeed slipped (<a href='B:240 25:26'>Pro 25:26</a>). And Solomon himself did so, not learning the lesson from his father's mistaken assumption that the righteous can never slip.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"He will never be shaken" is spoken in <a href='B:230 112:6'>Psa 112:6</a> in the context of the outcome of the final judgment. Being unmoved or never shaken is a major theme of the Psalms of David. Human beings naturally seek for stability, but look for it in the wrong places, imagining that their idols shall never be shaken (s:w. <a href='B:290 40:20'>Isa 40:20</a>; <a href='B:290 41:7'>Isa 41:7</a>). It is only the receipt of eternal salvation at the last day which means we shall never be moved; that is the only ultimate stability (<a href='B:230 62:2'>Psa 62:2</a>; <a href='B:230 62:6'>Psa 62:6</a> s:w:). Their stability will be associated with that of God's eternal Kingdom to be centered upon Zion (s:w. <a href='B:230 125:1'>Psa 125:1</a>). For in secular life under the sun, the righteous do suffer and their lives are "shaken". Solomon's statements that the righteous shall never be shaken / moved (<a href='B:240 10:30'>Pro 10:30</a>; <a href='B:240 12:3'>Pro 12:3</a>) are only ultimately true in this sense; but whether he spoke them with that understanding is debatable:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Just a very small amount of real faith during this life will enable us to move "this mountain", surely referring to Mount Zion in the immediate context (<a href='B:470 17:20'>Mat 17:20</a>). The idea of Mount Zion being moved sends the mind to <a href='B:450 14:4-5'>Zec 14:4-5</a>, describing how Mount Zion will be moved at the Lord's return; and also to <a href='B:230 125:1'>Psa 125:1</a>, which speaks of how they who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be removed; and yet Christ said we will remove it by prayer. The point of these allusions is surely to show that real faith will bring about the coming of the Kingdom, which is a totally super-human achievement; the unshakeableness of Mount Zion is likened to the solidity of true faith. The Lord's point seems to be that if we truly believe, then the coming of the Kingdom will be brought about by our faith; the outcome of our faith in this life will be seen in the Kingdom. But what our faith will achieve in the Kingdom will be hugely out of proportion to what&nbsp; it really is now. </p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so Yahweh surrounds His people from this time forth and forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The hills around Jerusalem are not huge mountains. They are small hills, and this is the picture of God's protection; not hugely visible, but there. But the mountains around Jerusalem became the "high places" of idolatry (<a href='B:110 11:7'>1Ki 11:7</a>; <a href='B:120 23:13'>2Ki 23:13</a>; <a href='B:140 21:11'>2Ch 21:11</a>); what should have been the symbols of Yahweh's protection became perverted.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We can begin living the eternal life now, in that we can now act as we shall eternally. We shall be eternally appreciating, trusting, loving and praising God's Name- and we can begin that now. This is an Old Testament form (also in <a href='B:230 113:2'>Psa 113:2</a>; <a href='B:230 115:18'>Psa 115:18</a>; <a href='B:230 121:8'>Psa 121:8</a>; <a href='B:230 125:2'>Psa 125:2</a>; <a href='B:230 131:3'>Psa 131:3</a>) of the Lord's teaching as recorded in John's Gospel, that we can have and live the eternal life right now. We have that life not in the sense that we shall never die, but in that we can begin living and being now as we shall eternally live and be.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the sceptre of wickedness won’t remain over the allotment of the righteous; so that the righteous won’t put forth their hands to do evil-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Whatever the primary reference of this Psalm, it is a reworking of David's feelings when persecuted by Saul and likewise on the run from him. For circumstances repeat in our lives, and it would be natural for David to reconsider Psalms written at the time of one exile and apply them to another, just as these Psalms were also used for others in their times of exile. "Wickedness" is the word used about Saul's persecution in <a href='B:90 24:13'>1Sa 24:13</a>.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the context of Hezekiah and then later the Babylonians, the "lot" (AV) of the righteous was Jerusalem or the land of promise, which was originally split into lots (Joshua 18). The rod of wickedness would not lead God's people into sin. This is the principle of <a href='B:530 10:13'>1Co 10:13</a>, that sin is not inevitable, and a way of escape will always be made. This is a very powerful motivation in the peak intensities of temptation; we are not forced to sin by situations.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Do good, Yahweh, to those who are good, to those who are upright in their hearts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:520 6:19'>Rom 6:19</a> speaks of how the ever increasing downward spiral of obedience to sin is turned round at baptism, so that we begin an upward spiral of obedience to righteousness. God does good unto those that are good, but leads those who turn aside even further astray (<a href='B:230 125:4-5'>Psa 125:4-5</a>). Those who are "[born] of God" are able to hear and understand God's words (<a href='B:500 8:47'>Joh 8:47</a>)- and baptism is surely how we are born of God (<a href='B:500 3:3-5'>Joh 3:3-5</a>). This seems to open up the possibility of yet higher growth once we are baptized- it's all an upward spiral, like any functional relationship.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But as for those who turn aside to their crooked ways, Yahweh will lead them away with the workers of iniquity. Peace be on Israel- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :4, this is the downside of :4. God can "lead into temptation" [for we pray that He will not do so to us], further down the downward spiral; if we ourselves turn aside. The idea of being "lead away" is of captivity; this is an acceptance that the captivity had been an appropriate judgment, as Israel had indeed turned aside (s:w. <a href='B:290 30:15'>Isa 30:15</a>; <a href='B:370 5:12'>Amo 5:12</a> and often). And Ezekiel records how the exiles struggled with thIsa. The true "Israel" of God who would have "peace" were those who recognized this and yet returned, both to their God and to Zion. Sadly the exiles didn't wish to do thIsa.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Song of Ascents-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Or 'degrees'. Hezekiah’s response to being granted another 15 years of life was to edit and produce the Songs of Degrees, so named after the degrees of the sundial. Four of the 15 Psalms were by David, one by Solomon; and the other 10 it seems Hezekiah wrote himself but left anonymous. These ten Psalms would reflect the ten degrees by which the sun-dial went backwards. The point to note is that Hezekiah taught others in an anonymous way in response to the grace he had received. True preaching reflects a certain artless selflessness. These songs of ascents were presumably also intended to be sung by the exiles as they returned to Zion, and then every time they went up to Jerusalem to keep a feast. But there is no evidence this happened. For they didn't return in the kind of faith implied in these Psalms. The plural "ascents" would then be an intensive plural referring to the one great ascent, to Zion. Much of the language of these Psalms is typical of David's language when under persecution by Saul. But the Psalm was reapplied to Hezekiah, and then to the exiles on their return from Babylon, and then by extension to all God's people on their journey zionwards.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When Yahweh brought back those who returned to Zion, we were like those who dream-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LXX "We became as comforted ones". The allusion is to the prophecies of later Isaiah, especially Isaiah 40, announcing "comfort" to "My people", the returning exiles. But they for the most part refused that comfort. So we are reading here of prophetic hope, which didn't come fully true at the time, although those prophecies were reapplied to the "comfort" announced by John the Baptist in the work of the Lord Jesus. We note it was Yahweh who "turned back" (Heb:) the exiles; the term refers to both repentance and literally returning to the land. But most of the exiles refused to make use of the potential repentance given them.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The songs of ascents, part of the restoration Psalms, are relevant to any ‘ascent’ or ‘going up’ to the Lord’s house. They are full of reference to God’s eternal purpose with Jerusalem and the temple. It seems to me that they may have been re-written under inspiration with reference to God’s people returning from Babylon to Jerusalem. “The Lord brought back those that returned to Zion” (<a href='B:230 126:1'>Psa 126:1</a> RVmg:) is obviously relevant to the exiles returning. They are described as going forth into captivity weeping but bearing previous seed, and now returning home with the sheaves (<a href='B:230 126:6'>Psa 126:6</a>). This could be a reference to their children whom they had taken with them 70 years previously returning; or it could also imply that there had been a spiritual growth and fruition during the captivity. At least, this was what God had intended.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing. Then they said among the nations, Yahweh has done great things for them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The past tenses here shouldn't be read as meaning that this Psalm was the reflection of the returned exiles. For the relatively few who did return did so in fear, unbelief and uncertainty, to be greeted by famine and troubles. Rather is this the Psalmist believing by faith that 'the future is now', seeing ahead with the eye of faith to how things would be at the restoration, and rejoicing in it. The intention of the restoration was so that the Gentile nations would recognize Yahweh's great work for His people, with the result that they too turned to Him. This didn't happen at the restoration. Yahweh did do great things for His people, but they refused to respond. The same phrase is found in <a href='B:290 1:2'>Isa 1:2</a>, where Yahweh "nourished" or 'did great things' for His people "and they rebelled against Me". So these things will finally come true in the last day, when Yahweh again will do "great things" for the land at the return of the Lord Jesus (s:w. <a href='B:360 2:21'>Joe 2:21</a>). </p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh has done great things for us, and we are glad-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :2, this is the 'prophetic perfect' tense, speaking from God's perspective, of the future as if it has already happened. Such was the Psalmist's faith that he and his community were full of joy even at the prospect of this great but yet future salvation.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Restore our fortunes again, Yahweh, like the streams in the Negev-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea is that the streams appeared suddenly in the dry riverbeds, or that they would run in one direction in the sand of the Negev and just as easily in the opposite direction a short time later. This was the speed with which the Psalmist is praying for the path of Judah into exile to be reversed, with them returning along the same tracks they took into exile. This sudden reversal of fortunes was given in the decree of Cyrus. But the majority of God's people didn't want to go in the paths opened up for them.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Those who sow in tears will reap in joy-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This 'sowing' was the 'going out' from Judah and Jerusalem in captivity of :6. That tragic exile was in fact a sowing, potentially anyway, which would rise up in a harvest of joy at the restoration. This was the prophetic intention. But the reality was that the majority of the exiles didn't want to return, neither did the seed of the prophetic word achieve the intended harvest. For they were stony, bad ground and unresponsive to the word of prophetic hope. The potential application in Hezekiah's time was recorded in 1Kings 19:29, where joyful reaping was to be a sign to the people. This would only happen if Judah sowed in righteousness; and then they would reap mercy (<a href='B:350 10:12'>Hos 10:12</a> s:w:). This didn't come true at the restoration.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He who goes out weeping, carrying seed for sowing, will certainly come again with joy carrying his sheaves- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>“Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of” children (<a href='B:230 127:5'>Psa 127:5</a>) is surely to be connected with <a href='B:230 126:6'>Psa 126:6</a>, where the sower [the preacher] returns with joy, “bringing his sheaves [converts] with him”:&nbsp;In the first context, the sheaves refer to the reborn children of Zion.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It seems that God intended the 70 years in Babylon to be the time when the Jews would come to a fullness of repentance whereby they would be able to return, rebuild the temple, and usher in a Messianic Kingdom. <a href='B:230 126:1'>Psa 126:1</a>; <a href='B:230 126:6'>Psa 126:6</a> speak of how the Lord would bring back the returnees to Zion (RVmg:), and thereby he who went forth into captivity weeping, bearing the precious seed of the next generation as little children, would in that sense return to Zion with joy, bringing his sheaves with him. Jeremiah 24 speaks as if the “good figs” were to be those who went to Babylon and through that experience there became “good figs”. Micah speaks of the same process. Zion was to be plowed and Jerusalem become heaps, which happened in the Babylonian invasion. But then afterwards- 70 years afterwards- the temple was to be rebuilt, “the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains” (<a href='B:400 3:12'>Mic 3:12</a>; <a href='B:400 4:1'>Mic 4:1</a>). “In that day</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather that has been driven out</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> and I will make her that was cast off a strong nation: and the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth even for ever</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem”. A Messianic Kingdom could then have come. This whole situation would be brought to pass because the daughter of Zion was to “go forth out of the city” of Jerusalem “and come even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered [RV rescued]: there shall the Lord redeem thee” (<a href='B:400 4:10'>Mic 4:10</a>). How was the travailing daughter of Zion to be delivered / rescued in Babylon after having been taken captive there from Jerusalem by the Babylonians? Surely in that there, God intended a spiritual revival of the people, there they would hear Ezekiel’s appeal to repent, which if responded&nbsp; to would enable them to build the temple which he had described (<a href='B:330 43:10-11'>Eze 43:10-11</a>) and thus usher in a Messianic Kingdom:&nbsp; &nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But the reality was that the exiles didn't repent, and most remained in Babylon rather than returning to Zion. The idea of the restored Kingdom therefore became reapplied to the return of the Lord Jesus to earth (<a href='B:510 1:6'>Act 1:6</a>).</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Song of Ascents. By Solomon-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Ecclesiastes is so packed with contradictions. Solomon knew and perceived God’s truth, and yet felt it meant nothing to him personally. Thus he teaches truth in Ecclesiastes, but intersperses it with his own personal depression and sense that none of it really has any meaning for him personally. The themes of labour, vanity, sleep and children which are found in Ecclesiastes all occur in Psalms 127, a Psalm of or for Solomon- where the message is clearly given that unless the Lord builds the temple, all this labour is in vain. And yet knowing this Solomon did labour for it so hard, and then came to the conclusion that it was indeed in vain. If only he had believed the words he earlier composed and sung in Psalms 127, he needn’t have had to come to that sad conclusion:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Unless Yahweh builds the house, they labour in vain who build it. Unless Yahweh watches over the city, the watchman guards it in vain-</p><h2>The songs of ascents, part of the restoration Psalms, are relevant to any ‘ascent’ or ‘going up’ to the Lord’s house. They are full of reference to God’s eternal purpose with Jerusalem and the temple. It seems to me that they may have been re-written under inspiration with reference to God’s people returning from Babylon to Jerusalem. Psalms 127 has obvious relevance too: “Except the Lord build the house [the temple], they labour in vain that build it</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> the watchman [cp. Nehemiah placing watchmen on the rebuilt walls] waketh but in vain</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> it is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late [cp:&nbsp; working so hard on the wall they had no time to even change their clothes]</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> they shall speak with their enemies in the gate” [cp. Nehemiah talking to the Arab traders and enemies in the rebuilt gate of Jerusalem, and setting watches over the city].</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Perhaps the Psalm originated in Solomon's reflections as he began building the temple, and was then rewritten and reapplied to the exiles rebuilding it. More likely it is God's inspired advice to him as he began the building work. To build a house and not live in it was a curse for breaking the covenant (<a href='B:50 28:30'>Deu 28:30</a>; <a href='B:430 1:13'>Zep 1:13</a>), and this was to be the curse if the house of the temple was built but not inhabited by the shekinah glory. And this is indeed how it worked out; the temple was rebuilt, but the glory didn't return to it as foreseen in Ezekiel's visions of Ezekiel 40-48, because the exiles weren't obedient to that vision.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But God didn't really want a physical house built for Him; rather had He promised to build up the house or seed of David (<a href='B:100 7:27'>2Sa 7:27</a> s:w:). And this is why this Psalm goes on in :3-5 to say that God will build up the family / house of the faithful. Solomon correctly perceived all this, as noted on :1, and yet insisted on going ahead with the grandiose building program which was not really what God wanted. &nbsp;</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, eating the bread of toil; for He gives sleep to His beloved ones-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:230 132:4'>Psa 132:4</a>&nbsp; "I will not give sleep to my eyes, or slumber to my eyelids" therefore appears to be a studied disregard for the revelation of <a href='B:230 127:2'>Psa 127:2</a>, which urges David and his seed not to stay up late planning to build a physical temple, but to accept sleep from God and trust Him to build him a house in the sense of a Messianic seed and family / kingdom.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David seems to have recognized that the building of the temple was conditional on Solomon's spirituality, but he overlooked this in his enthusiasm for Solomon to be the Messiah. He tells Solomon to show himself a man (<a href='B:110 2:2'>1Ki 2:2</a>), and goes on in v. 4 to speak of how “a man” would eternally reign on his Messianic throne. He was encouraging Solomon to be and act like Messiah. Psalms 127 is "For Solomon" (v:2 "beloved" = Heb. Jedidiah), and warns him that his labour for the temple will be in vain unless God&nbsp; builds it. The Psalm basically says that God will build Solomon a house in the sense of a family centred in the beloved seed who would die [“sleep”] to enable it; and therefore Solomon should not be so sweating himself day and night to build God a house / temple. This is the very message which God had given David earlier. David and Solomon evidently shelved their knowledge of the fact that Heaven is God's dwelling place.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But more than this; the idea may be that instead of building the temple / house for Yahweh, Solomon is advised to let Yahweh build up his house / family as the seed of David (<a href='B:230 127:3-5'>Psa 127:3-5</a>). God would give sleep to the beloved, "Jedidiah", Solomon, and he would awake and find his house / seed built for him by God- rather than Solomon frantically building a house for God. The same phrase is only used of Solomon not giving sleep to his eyes in his mad addiction to works (<a href='B:240 6:4'>Pro 6:4</a>; <a href='B:250 8:16'>Ecc 8:16</a>). Psalms 127 was "for Solomon" rather than necessarily "by" him. And it seems he refused the offer of having his house / seed built up for him, but rather chose to try to build God a house. Hence LXX "It is vain for you to rise early: ye rise up after resting, ye that eat the bread of grief; while he gives sleep to his beloved".</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It could be that initially, Psalms 127 was David’s Psalm for Solomon written at the very end of his life; he tells Solomon that unless God builds this house / temple, it will all be “in vain” and Solomon will but eat the bread of sorrows, labouring hard all his days for nothing. And this is very much the picture of Solomon in Ecclesiastes. David said that such labour in vain was made unnecessary by the fact that “So he giveth his beloved sleep” (<a href='B:230 127:2'>Psa 127:2</a>). ‘David’ means ‘beloved’, and it could be that David was gently trying to focus Solomon’s attention on the future David who would be made to sleep / due by the Father, in order to build the real house. &nbsp;</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Behold, children are a heritage of Yahweh. The fruit of the womb is His reward-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We are God's heritage, His reward / wages (Heb:), His recompense for all His labour for us (<a href='B:230 127:3'>Psa 127:3</a> Heb:). "Heritage" is literally "possession". Our children are HIsa. This development of the theme of God given children is continuing the theme raised in :1. God didn't really want a physical house built for Him; rather had He promised to build up the house or seed of David (:1 = <a href='B:100 7:27'>2Sa 7:27</a> s:w:). See on :2. And this is why this Psalm goes on now in :3-5 to say that God will build up the family / house of the faithful. Solomon correctly perceived all this, as noted on :1, and yet insisted on going ahead with the grandiose building program which was not really what God wanted.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of youth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LXX "As arrows in the hand of a mighty man; so are the children of those who were outcasts". The reference is clearly to the restoration of the children of Zion after the restoration. Their children were to inherit the Kingdom- potentially. This scenario was precluded by the impenitence and disobedience of the exiles and their intermarriages:&nbsp;I suggested on :1-3 that Solomon was initially being told to allow God to build up his house / seed whilst he "slept", unable to do any works, rather than him building a house for God. But he refused this, not wanting to see the spiritual side of things, but rather only the external and material, centered around his own works. </p>


