Psalm 119:25-32

Psalm 119:25-32 

Daleth

Praying for the grace of enlightenment in the midst of internal struggles. 

In this passage the Psalmist is addressing troubles, but he doesn’t refer to troubles from others, at least not in this case; but rather, some undisclosed, internal battle.  As disciples we will have resistance and opposition from other people.  That, however, is not the only source of trouble.  The enemy within our own skin is a formidable foe.  Whether the enemy is without or within the Word of God is a great help.  When it is the inward enemy His Word gives us great enlightenment and there-by strength.  This eight-verse section of the Psalm is beautifully and wonderfully arranged.  Verses 25-27 have a parallel in verses 28-30 with verses 31-32 offering a conclusion.  

In verses 25 and its parallel verse 28 we see the desperate situation of the Psalmist.  He is in real trouble.  He describes himself as being flattened out in the dust; he is too exhausted to move, unable to pick himself up.  He also describes his soul as weary or weeping.  The Hebrew carries the idea of his soul melting away, running out in tears.   He will cry till there is nothing left inside.  In both cases, he knows of one prescription for his recovery, the Word of God.  When he is too weak to get up, the Word of God revives or renews him.  When his life or soul is melting away the Word of God gives him strength.  

The couplets of verse 26-27 and 29-30 give us the answer of how the Word of God gives this strength.  In the case of being flattened out in the dust the Psalmist takes time to reflect on his life in light of the Word of God.  This self-reflection is a sincere self-evaluation, a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves in view of God’s Word.   In what the Psalmist sees that God has done and in God’s past faithfulness we can all find confidence for the future.  As the poet has grieved with so many tears, so he pleads for God to take from him any falsehood.  Enlightenment is not just the discovery of new truth to be acquired, it is also the discovery of our own internal falsehood that we have accepted and in which we live.  If the meta-narrative (a way of thinking that explains everything) of our lives is false then ultimately everything in our lives will eventually go off the rails.  Before we can truly engage in the truth about our lives we must reject the false assumptions on which we have built our lives.  Then we can as the poet says in verse 30, “Place Thine ordinances before me.”  

The last two verses of this section are parallels of each other developing results of living with a new enlightenment.  The first lines of both 31 and 32 reveal a solid commitment to the Word of God.  In verse 31, the word used to describe the poet’s attachment to the Lord’s testimony is the same word to describe the sexual union of a husband and wife.  This is no casual-skimming-a-Bible-verse kind of thing.  In verse 32, the theme of life as a “way” comes up again.  The road signs of life for the disciple are the commandments of God.  The result of this commitment is expressed both negatively and positively.  The Psalmist pleads in verse 31, with confidence, that he will not be put to shame.  Being so intimately associated with the Lord’s testimony means that the Lord will not be ashamed of the disciple.  Verse 32 is even more beautiful.  Living the life of a disciple in the Lord’s commands results in having a heart that is enlarged.  What is the point of a bigger heart?  It gives the disciple a greater capacity to love God, His Word, and His way.  Which is, after all, what a disciple most wants.

“Lord, in my struggles enlighten me by Your word. AMEN