Psalm 119:170

Dr. Ronnie Wolfe

My Supplication
This is an interesting word, supplication. The word means to ask or to pray for in deep humility and in earnest, a sincere prayer, truly brought about by experience of great trial.  David had had many trials, and he is here asking God for deliverance.

God has many ways of deliverance. He can deliver us from trails in removing the trials from us, giving much comfort and peace; or he can give us strength to endure the trials with that same comfort and strength. I believe David had experienced both; therefore, he is ready to quickly, and without reservation, plead again and again for that same deliverance. Read of these in the books of 2 Samuel and also in the Psalms.

Psalm 18:17 He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me.

Deliver me according to thy word
David does not desire that God deliver him from his trails in just any way but that they be delivered accord to God's word, that is, God's divine judgment and accord to His plan. That is because  Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path, Psalm 119:105. 

But this is probably not a request for a deliverance from physical suffering or great human trials but a deliverance from the stress of sin in which Satan can have a victory and cause more discouragement and heartache. God had given David a promise as recorded in Psalm 50:15 And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.

God gives us the same promise, that those who come to him by faith, knowing who He is and that He is a rewarded of them that diligently seek Him (Heb. 11:6), that he will deliver from all sins -- Heb. 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

To the believer the promise is that, if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse -- 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

Psalm 119:169

Dr. Ronnie Wolfe

Let my cry come before thee . . .
This is the cry of a seasoned believer, yet it is a cry of desperation. This can be a cry of supplication or entreaty, or it can be a cry of praise or joy, like the cry of an excited child who sees balloons for the first time, or the cry of a child in need. We cry out to God for help in time of weakening spiritual culture, yet we cry out to Him in praise for our salvation and our daily sustenance.

O LORD
Where else can we cry except to our Lord, Jehovah? He is our Creator and our Sustainer. It is in Him that we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).  Can we call out to our Lord in covetousness? Can we cry out to Him in our desire for more earthly things? No, we must cry out to him in thanksgiving and praise and for our necessities both earthly and spiritually.

. . . give me understanding
We need understanding to perceive spiritual things, for only God can teach us these thing. We cannot, in our own earthly bodies and minds, conceive the thoughts of God nor comprehend the depth of his riches: Rom. 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

. . . according to thy word
Jesus said to his Father in John 17:17 " . . . thy word is truth," so we understand truth from God's word. We have understanding from God's word. We must be constant in our reading and studying God's word, for it is there that we find the great depth of God's opinion about life and death, his understanding of everything, and his provision for us as his children.

Psalm 119:168

Dr. Ronnie Wolfe

I have kept thy precepts  
 David had kept God's precepts and testimonies (his word) as best he could, for we all know that he failed to do it perfectly. It was never said about David, as it was about Jesus, "who knew no sin." David knew his own shortcomings and testified of them, but his whole-life purpose and reason in the main was to please God and to keep his commandments. It is also our purpose in life to keep God's commandments; and, even though we cannot completely keep this desire, we should, however, long to and work to keep all the commandments of God.

First, we must know the commandments, and David had no problem with that; he knew God's commandments. Many today do not keep God's commandments, because they do not know them and are not interested in learning them. Therefore, many cannot say "I have kept thy precepts." We have all fallen so short of God's glory in this that we do not deserve even a small portion of his grace, but God is merciful, who brings grace to our hearts and cleanses us from all our sins (1 John 1:7).

... for all my ways are before thee.
There is a positive and negative aspect to this clause. Positively, God knows our ways and can and does lead us in them:  Psalm 25:4 Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths.  We do not know, on our own, how to walk, how to think, and what to do in God's Kingdom; He must provide the knowledge and wisdom needed to serve Him properly.

Negatively, God knows our ways in the sense of our error. He knows our sins. He watches us at all times and knows our very thoughts, our intentions (Heb. 4:12). We must, then, walk circumspectly and righteously as He teaches us through His Holy Spirit and remember Phil. 2:12-13 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.  13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. 

Psalm 119:167

Dr. Ronnie Wolfe

kept thy testimonies
David has kept the Lord's testimonies, God's word. He has kept it in his heart and has guarded it, observed it, and heeded it as a man, for no one can keep God's word perfectly. David was only a man, but he desired to be faithful to the word of God and was on the level of men, who often break God's commandments and shame his testimonies.

The reason for his faithfulness to the word of God is that he loves it. 1 John 2:5 says, But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. This love, then, is God's love, planted into the believer's heart with a warm interest in the word of God.

I love them exceedingly.
David loves every word of God's testimonies. He does not pick and choose which ones he wants to obey and which ones he wants to dismiss as unimportant. All of God's word is true and is given by inspiration, so every word of God is true and pure (Prov. 30:5). Therefore, every word is to be loved and obeyed by believers.

May God prick our hearts by his grace to love His word and to obey is testimonies (commandments). Without His word we are empty of spiritual food for growth.  

Psalm 119:166

Dr. Ronnie Wolfe

hoped for thy salvation 
 In our day the word hope has been weakened to mean a desire that may or may not come, but this word hope has a stronger connotation. Our hope in Christ is both steadfast and sure (Heb. 6:19). It is not something that we wish to have if everything works out all right.

The psalmist hoped for God's salvation. Anyone who hopes for salvation receives it, Titus 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; Salvation is eternal life, and it comes with a certainty that is included in the meaning of this word hope.

and done thy commandments  
Notice that salvation is God's salvation, not David's. Also, the commandments are God's, not ours. We have had enough of the traditions of men (Gal. 1:14), and the tradition of the elders (Matt. 15:2); now we must turn our attention to the commandments of God. It is His word and His work that account to something, not our own feeble efforts.

If we, then, have His salvation, it is imperative that we do His commandments. This is not a choice but a commandment. Jesus said in John 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments. This is a sobering thought and should shake us to the core and cause us to, first, hope in God's salvation and, second, to be determined to keep God's commandments. 

Eccles. 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. 

Psalm 119:165

Dr. Ronnie Wolfe

Great peace have they  
There is a quietness, a stillness, a calmness and settled assurance that comes upon every believer in Christ, for he is our peace (Eph. 2:14). This is a peace that passes all understanding (Phil. 4:7). No one has that peace except those who put their trust in Jesus, the Messiah of God. This peace is not simply the absence of aggression or war, but this peace is a calmness that entertains the patience (endurance) that accompanies our walk with Christ.

which love thy law
Every believer must have a love for the law of God, the word of God. Those who do not spend time in reading the Bible and knowing it are left to their own feeble opinions and men's philosophies. Men cannot bring peace through opinions; only God's law can bring this wonderful peace of which the psalmist speaks here. Not only are we to read the word, but we are also to love the word, and the more we read it the more we will love it.

nothing shall offend them
If we put our confidence in the word of God instead of man's ideas, there is nothing, whether it be man's attitude, his persecutions against God and believers, his changing of the word of God, his false gospel, his false Jesus, his false spirit, that can make any believer fall or stumble, which definition is found in this word offend. We cannot stumble (be offended) through false teachers no matter how influential they are, if we continue to trust the word of God for our strength and our rule of obedience to Christ. Romans 8:38-39 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,  39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Psalm 119:164

Dr. Ronnie Wolfe

Seven times The seven times a day does not mean literally seven times but rather many times or consistent times, regular worship and praise to God, who has given benefit to all believers and honored Himself with our creation, our recreation in salvation, and our security in Christ.

Praise is beneficial and honorable and comely for believers. We have a wont to pray and to honor and praise our God for benefits for the day, not looking back upon days gone nor looking forward to days coming, but rather praise God today for today's benefits and provisions both promised and provided by God.

We praise Him for who He is, and we praise Him for what he does. He judges both our enemies and ourselves, which manifests his perfect righteousness. We love and praise Him for that.

Thy righteous judgments
God's judgment upon the wicked is sure and perfect. We are neither to neglect nor shun the righteous judgments of God, and we should never forget that judgment comes upon the righteous as well as the wicked. God is always right in His judgments.

Psalm 119:7 I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.

Psalm 119:163

Dr. Ronnie Wolfe

The psalmist both hates and abhors lying. Lying is deceit; it is making a thing seem to be true but is based upon no truth at all. The difference between "hate" and "abhor" is mainly in the degree of its effect. To hate lying may be enough, but to abhor it seems to indicate that a purposeful decision has been made in one's mind to always meet lying with the attitude that it is fraud. I am sure every believer should decide early in life to both hate and abhor lying, because lying is an action that all of us do, and God is not pleased with it.

Once a believer has decided to hate and abhor lying, it is imperative that he replace that hate with something that he loves; otherwise his hate for lying may turn again to love for lying depending upon the situation. But, if a believer replaces love or acceptance of lying with another love, his hate for lying may become more consistent and perhaps even permanent.

So, the psalmist replaced his love or acceptance for lying with the love of  God's law. Today we accept the sixty-six books of God's word as God's law. We should, then, fall in love with God's word and spend much time in it. The word of God will change our lives in many ways, but one of the main ways is to turn our love for sin to a love of God and His word and to give us confidence in the truth of God's word, denying and repelling the philosophy of the world, which is the opposite, many time, of the truth of God.

Psalm 119:162

Dr. Ronnie Wolfe

Did you ever actually think of the word of God as a spoil? In our day the word spoil has lost much of the meaning it once had. We think of spoil as something that is to be thrown away or something worthless. In the Bible the word spoil refers to that which the victorious wins from the people over whom he has had victory. The soldiers in the victorious army would take the goods of the defeated people, which may include food, flocks, cattle, luxuries, and many precious gems, silver, and gold.

The value of  the Bible is much greater than that of the spoil of a victorious army. When we spend time in the word of God, we find many precious words of wisdom, advice for living, correcting words, comforting words, and instructions on the polity of the local church and many other spoils, or goods that are of good benefit to us.

Proverbs 30:5 says, Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Each word of the Bible in its proper context has a divine meaning for each of us. We should search the Bible as we would search for hidden treasure or as "gold in them thar hills."

Matt 13:45-46  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: 46 Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

We should be willing to sell all of our earthly goods, especially earthly philosophy, earthly wisdom, and science falsely so called in order to obtain the great riches of the word of God. The Bible itself demands it, and we should be willing to do it.

May God bless us as we search his treasure of truth!

Psalm 119:161

Dr. Ronnie Wolfe

Princes, national leaders, have persecuted David and that without cause. He had not accosted any of them, nor had he been aggressive against any of them. They had no cause to persecute David and Israel except for the sake of pure terror.

These could also be princes of Israel, men who had desired David's office and privileges and had gone to great length to possess them, such as Absalom (1 Samuel 29).

Some of our adversaries are foreign to our own nation and desire to either have or destroy the freedoms and pleasures that we have as a country or to destroy our freedom of worship and also destroy the truth of the word of God to replace it with their own evil designs.

Some of our adversaries are among our own people, professors of our religion, but who desire to overthrow the truth or the faith of some (2 Timothy 2:18).

David's heart is not in awe of persecution. He expects it and discerns it. It is to be expected in our world. Our Lord said that in the world we shall have tribulation (John 16:33).

But David's heart is in awe of the word of God, for only God's word can bring stability and joy to a troubled heart. Remember what the Lord said in the last portion of John 16:33 -- "I have overcome the world."

Despite the fact that David had no earthly and human fear concerning his earthy foes (the word awe means to fear), he did have awe for God's word. The meaning of awe is also that of true reverence and respect. So should we today have an awesome reverence for God's word, which is the sword of the Spirit, and it is our only weapon against our persecutors.

Psalm 119:160

Dr. Ronnie Wolfe

Thy word is true from the beginning:  Every word of God that has ever been expired from God and inspired through man is true. Here is implied strongly the verbal inspiration of the Bible, for every word from the beginning of the world (words spoken to Adam and recorded) all the way to the completion of the word of God in the book of Revelation is true.

The verbal inspiration of the Bible has been a long-discussed and debated issue, but most of us as Baptists still believe in this positive and perfect inspiration of every word of God.

and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.  Not only are these words true from the beginning, but these words will also continue to be true throughout the existence of this present world and the world to come.  The word endureth is a supplied word, so we could just as well put the word is in it place. In other words, every one of God's judgments (His word), exists forever, not simply for the duration of time. These words are, then, eternal words.

Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. (Mark 13:31; Luke 21:33).

Psalm 119:159

Dr. Ronnie Wolfe

Consider. Usually we judge ourselves as to how we love God's word, submit to its teaching, and faithfully follow its commands; but here the psalmist is asking God to consider his love of God's precepts.  Many times, when we judge ourselves, our judgment is not true, for we will many times make excuses for our lack of faithfulness or set for ourselves goals that are so much nearer to our earthly standards rather than the high standards of God and His word. The Hebrew word translated consider carries with it the idea of inspection. I am sure we do not need to ask the Lord to inspect our love for his word, but it is admirable that the psalmist here desires it to be sure his life is meeting God's expectation of believers in Christ.

Our love of God's word echos our love for God Himself. If we love God, we will love His word, and we will desire to do his commandments. John 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Quicken.  This word means "to make alive" or "to remain alive." The psalmist here is asking God to keep him alive, to continually quicken him, keeping his spiritual life acceptable unto God. Psalm 19:14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

It takes the lovingkindness of God to retain our lives in his love, to keep us in his kingdom, to never let us fall away from his grace and his security. This Hebrew word KESED can also be translated faithfulness.  Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)

Psalm 119:158

Dr. Ronnie W. Wolfe

I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved;  When we even in our day see transgressors, we should also grieve. These transgressors, according to the Hebrew, are deceivers, as is Satan himself. They have their nature from him and are influenced by his cohorts.

The Hebrew word for "grieved" means "to detest." Should we not hate sin, whether it is found in others or in ourselves? To hate sin is to manifest the nature of Christ in our lives, for he saved us from our sins and gave us a divine nature.

because they kept not thy word.  The transgressors did not "give heed to" the word of God. They did not observe God's commandments, nor did they love them as believers do. They forsook the word of God and went their own way to do things that are not convenient, or fitting for good society.

This is one of the reasons that our own country is in trouble and despair: we as a national people have not kept the word of God and have forsaken it in that we as a nation do not teach God's word to our children; this shall breed a rebellion, yea, a violent society. What have we reaped so far?

Psalm 119:157

Dr. Ronnie Wolfe

Many are my persecutors

These "persecutors" are those who run after or pursue. Every believer who stands on the truths of God's word, loves them, defends them, and will not turn away from them is pursued by persecutors. The eyes of persecutors are upon faithful believers at all times desiring not only to intimidate them but also to eventually destroy them, their faith, and their precious word of God.

and mine enemies.  The Hebrew word for "enemies" has the basic meaning of "tight, narrow, or in distress." Enemies make the faithful work for God a hardship. They put stumbling blocks before us to make us stumble and fall, lose our testimony, and weaken our influence. These enemies also make war against Christians whether they are true believers or those who only nominally believe. The enemy's desire is to destroy all evidence of the existence of Christian influence in the world and will destroy property, people, and literature in order to do this. Phil. 3:18 (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:

yet do I not decline from thy testimonies. The word "decline" carries the idea of reclining or "stretching out." This meaning would indicate that some believers may be lazy in their faithfulness to remain and continue in the word of God, searching the Scriptures, for in them they can find eternal life.  Another meaning of the word "decline" means to "thrust away." This would mean that some would turn the Scriptures away from themselves for direction, inspiration, and comfort.

But the psalmist here admits that, though the persecutors and enemies may be many, he still remains faithful to the word of God. Even though the comfort and assurance of the word of God seems out of play in our current situation, we need still to remain faithful to reading God's word. The assurance that God's word gives us will come through in due time.

Psalm 119:156

by Ronnie W. Wolfe

We all know that God's mercies are tender, for we have experienced those mercies often. He was so tender with me when he came to me and showed me my sinful condition, not judging but showing grace and was like a kind Shepherd, calling my name whereby I responded as His sheep.

He was tender when he gently translated me into the kingdom of His dear Son. Now I am nursed tenderly by his grace into which I can partake, since I have access into that grace wherein I stand (Romans 5).

No one is so tender and loving as our Savior, who reached into the darkness of the world and the mire of sin and lifted us up as sinners to a higher 

level by His grace.

God quickened us by his grace, brought us alive out of our deadness, but he also quickens us by leading us into his living way and toward his true holiness, helping us to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord, Jesus Christ.