Thou art my portion, O LORD:
I have said that I would keep thy words (Psa 119.57).
Living the Christian life should never be thought of as merely keeping a set of righteous rules. Rather, it is a loving communion with God through Jesus Christ expressed in loyalty to Him and His revealed will. In John’s gospel Jesus said,
If ye love me, keep my commandments (14.15).
He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me (14.21).
If a man love me, he will keep my words (14.23).
I have remembered thy name, O LORD, in the night,
And have kept thy law (Psa 119.55).
The only real Christians are radical Christians—that is, those whose faith has been and still is truly internalized, and whose good works are then but the expression of their renewed hearts. Job seems to have affirmed his spiritual sincerity by saying, “the root of the matter is found in me” (Job 19.28).
In almost every plant it is at the root that disease begins. If ever you see even a plant in a flowerpot unhealthy, depend upon it there is something wrong at the root. It is over-watered or under-watered, or from some other cause the root has become diseased, and what is called ‘root-action’ is suspended or unhealthy. So it is in religion: if there is anything wrong with a man, it is almost sure to be something wrong at the root.
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Rage takes hold of me
Because of the wicked, those who reject your law (Psa 119.53).1
I would speak in defense of “righteous rage,” realizing that, ironically, most people will hate and condemn me for it, opposing “righteous rage” with fury. They are obviously self-condemned.
You ought to be deeply angered, to the very core of your being, by the sins of the ungodly, and compelled by that anger to oppose it fervently, using every legitimate means at your disposal. The lack of righteous rage is a serious sin in itself, a symptom in a person with a severe moral defect. Without some measure of righteous rage you cannot go to heaven because you are still the same old sinner you ever were, unchanged by God’s grace.
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My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved;
And I will meditate in thy statutes (Psa. 119.48).
Real faith, the saving kind, engages the whole person. This is the only kind of religion God requires and approves. “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment” (Mark 12.30). This fourfold elaboration of our being as humans is not meant to be a kind of spiritual dissection into our constituent parts, but rather it is an idiomatic way, especially in the ancient Hebrew manner of expressing things, of describing true religion. The repetition of nouns—heart, soul, mind, and strength—dramatically intensifies the basic meaning. This commandment confronts us with the fact that with God, it is all or nothing. You either love Him supremely or not at all in His estimation. Genuine Christian faith in anyone is like tea steeped in a cup of just-boiled water.
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And I will delight myself in thy commandments,
Which I have loved (Psa 119.47).
By “saints” we mean nothing more or less than real Christians, sincere and real and persevering followers of Jesus Christ (John 8.31), such as have new hearts by the grace of regeneration or being born again (Tit 3.5; 2 Cor 5.17). Church members are presumed to be “saints by calling” (1 Cor 1.1-2), which implies that church membership should be limited to those with a credible profession of evangelical faith—historically, a characteristic doctrine of Baptists. Everyone in this world is either a saint or a sinner, and only saints should be admitted and retained as local church members.
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And I will walk at liberty:
For I seek thy precepts (Psa 119.45).
Sinners naturally consider the Lordship of Christ over them as some kind of restriction that is not to be endured even for a moment. The very thought of yielding to His authority and conducting their lives according to His revealed will is revolting to them. In their minds this would be a kind of cosmic slavery bound to make their lives unbearable drudgery. They view conscientious Christians as repressed and miserable because they cannot live as “normal people” do. They dwell under the cloud of a thousand “thou shalt nots,” that rains on every potential parade of fun.
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Let thy mercies come also unto me, O LORD,
Even thy salvation, according to thy word (Psa 119.41).
“Lord, save me—again!” This title may indeed sound like heresy to some, an outbreak of the inevitable Arminian error that true believers may lose their salvation because of their free will, and then they may regain it, and that this process could conceivably be repeated. Our wills are so naturally fickle, that this would mean “ye must be [not only] born again, [but also] again, and again, and again.” But our title is not implying that at all. Rather, it reflects a very prevalent biblical doctrine that salvation is not merely a sinner’s once-in-a-lifetime need, but an ongoing need of saints. We who believe the gospel have been saved. We are being saved. And we shall yet be saved.
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Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word (Psa 119.17).
The phrase “abundant life” is common in pop-Christianity, as in “Abundant Life Family Center” for a church name or “Abundant Life Ministries” for a parachurch organization. We all want an “abundant life” of one sort or another, so such labeling makes for effective marketing. Besides, Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10.10), but exactly what did He mean? Aye, there’s the rub.
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I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word (Psa 119.16).
As with so many declarations of the godly soul in Scripture, this text at once sets forth a spiritual trait shared in some degree by all true believers, and also our spiritual goal to be earnestly sought. That is because the psalmist states both his honest testimony and the yearning of his renewed heart. Therefore it is useful both as a test of our sincerity and an exhortation to spiritual maturity. Let us meditate mainly on this verse as exhortation.
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Then shall I not be ashamed,
When I have respect unto all thy commandments (Psa 119.6).
The psalmist is not only a model of what we should be, but also a real-life example of what true believers really are. James reminds us that Elijah, one of the greatest OT saints, was “subject to like passions as we are,” and as he prayed for great things and received them, so may we (Jas 5.16-18). Similarly, Psa 119.6 is both a guide and mark of true Christian believers. All have the same hope, and this hope will increase with spiritual maturity. Anyone who lacks this hope is still unconverted. And what was this hope, thus expressed?
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