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.
One old commentator says that in this verse, David gives “open testimony of his entire surrender to the ways of the Lord, and [that] his mind will revel in holy meditation. Here the soul finds repose. This is the ecstasy of life” (Henry Law). This is not just an ideal, but a reality in true Christians. We believe God with all our being, and yet the Christian life is the pursuit of a more perfect faith. A seed that has germinated and whose greenery has poked above the soil is in one sense a perfect plant. It’s vitality is not in appearance only, but part and parcel of what that whole plant is. And yet it has a long way to go toward maturity, when it is a strong, hardy bearer of much fruit. This is a kind of perfection yet to be seen. And there is a world of difference between these and an artificial, plastic plant, which may look very real but is dead as a stone.
Real faith, then, is a faith that animates the whole person—hands, heart, and head. This precious text from Psalm 119 will yield so much more to godly study and reflection than we can present, but we would edify the church with a few thoughts.
FAITH OF THE HANDS
“My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments.” The word “also” seems to be connecting the previous thought in verse 47, “And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved.” Your commandments will not only be the occasion of my inward delight, but also of my hand-lifting.
Judicious interpreters of Scripture have suggested several possible meanings or connotations for this reference to the hands, including 1) praying, 2) praising, 3) vowing, 4) embracing, and 5) setting about an important matter (with biblical cross-references to justify each of these), and Spurgeon offered this opinion: “Doubtless the sweet singer meant all that we can see in it, and a great deal more” (Treasury of David). I am inclined to agree with the man who wrote that “active and earnest undertaking of them [corresponding to #5 above] . . . appears to be here chiefly meant” (Henry Hammond, quoted by Spurgeon, in loc.). Matthew Poole agrees:
Lift up; to lay hold upon them, to receive and embrace thy precepts and promises by faith and love, and cheerfully and vigorously to put them in practice; for as the hanging down of the hands is a gesture of sloth and listlessness . . . so the lifting up of the hands is the posture of a man entering upon action . . . I will meditate in thy statutes; my deepest thoughts, as well as my hands, shall be exercised in them (in loc.).
If this view is correct, then this text is teaching that a real, sincere, living faith is one that puts God’s commandments into action in the practical nitty-gritty of our daily lives—a truth affirmed in countless other biblical passages. “Faith without works is dead” (Jas 2.26). It is impossible that it should be otherwise.
Let it then be a matter of daily inquiry. Does my reading of the Word of God furnish food for my soul, matter for prayer, direction for conduct? Scriptural study, when entered upon in a prayerful spirit, will never, like many other studies, be unproductive. The mind that is engaged in it, is fitly set for bearing fruit; it will “bring forth fruit in due season” (Psa 1.2-3; Charles Bridges, in loc).
FAITH OF THE HEART
Again, the psalmist confessed that he has loved (Heb. ahab) God’s commandments. “Basically this verb is equivalent to the English ‘to love’ in the sense of having a strong emotional attachment to and desire either to possess or to be in the presence of the object.” True piety is largely, if not entirely, a matter of spiritual love, strong desire for and attachment to God and all things associated with Him—here, His Word, including its commands.
Jonathan Edwards wrote a masterful and compelling book to prove this very point, entitled, A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, which we recommend enthusiastically. This faith of the heart is closely related to the faith of the hands just described, as Edwards explained.
As true religion is practical, and God hath so constituted the human nature, that the affections are very much the spring of men’s actions, this also shows, that true religion must consist very much in the affections. . . . Nothing is more manifest in fact, than that the things of religion take hold of men’s souls no further than they affect them. There are multitudes who often hear the word of God, of things infinitely great and important, and which most nearly concern them, yet all seems to be wholly ineffectual upon them, and to make no alteration in their disposition or behavior; the reason is, they are not affected with what they hear (Part I, Sec. 2).
Only when the biblical truth grips your heart will you find sufficient motivation to live differently on account of it, and then you reform from the inside out, with authentic sincerity and some degree of praiseworthy zeal. God deliver us from a mere external conformity to His commandments and into the vital experience of loving His law and doing it!
FAITH OF THE HEAD
These things we have stated need the supplementary truth of our text’s last phrase: “and I will meditate on Thy statutes.” Biblical Christianity requires us to be holy thinkers, to stir up our pure minds by way of assimilation and meditation upon the truths of God’s Word (2 Pet 1.12-13; 3.1-2). God requires you to love Him “with all thy mind.”
Being a Christian is more than an intellectual experience, but it is not less than one. With God’s blessing, sound doctrine leads to holy affections which prompt practical obedience, and the last two graces are quite impossible without the first, and all three are interdependent. Love of Scripture carries us back to it repeatedly for study and meditation. The pursuit of practical obedience exposes our need for understanding the way of God more perfectly, that we may do it, and so we must constantly resort to what He says in His Word. And finding our hearts cooling is an alarm reminding us that we must resort to the quickening Word once again and be more consistent in doing the Word.
I still remember how effectively Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones drove this point home to my soul when I was reading, many years ago now, his excellent book, Preaching and Preachers. He found it in Rom 6.17, “But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you,” or perhaps more precisely, “whereunto ye were delivered” (ASV).
It is wrong, surely, to put direct pressure on the will. . . . The will should always be approached primarily through the mind, the intellect, and then through the affections. The action of the will should be determined by those influences. . . . Observe the order in [Rom 6.17]. They have “obeyed,” yes; but how? “From the heart.” What was it that made them do this, what was it moved their hearts? It was this “form of teaching” that had been delivered to them. What had been delivered to them was the Truth, and Truth is addressed primarily to the mind. As the mind grasps it, and understands it, the affections are kindled and moved, and so in turn the will is persuaded and obedience is the outcome. In other words the obedience is not the result of direct pressure on the will, it is the result of an enlightened mind and a softened heart (p. 271).
A “head faith,” then, is a good thing, as long as it is not without “heart faith” and “hands faith.” We live in an age where evangelicals are often characterized by “fit bodies [and] fat minds” (Os Guinness’ telling description), and to them we must never apologize for being intellectual Christians. But beloved, we must also strive to be thoroughly affectionate Christians and comprehensively obedient Christians as well. This “whole person faith” is the true religion exemplified and exalted in the psalmist’s divinely-inspired testimony, and there is no substitute for it. The Lord grant grace that we may excel in it. Amen.
Notes:
1. Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary
2. There is a reference to melted metals transferred to a mold, which obey or exactly conform to the mold. It is perhaps as probable that the reference is to wax or clay or any soft matter that takes the form of the stamp or seal. There is another method of explaining the phraseology not unworthy of consideration—Ye have obeyed from the heart that form or model of doctrine unto which you have been committed. In this way the form of doctrine or the Gospel is considered as a teacher, and believers are committed to its instructions (Haldane, in loc.).
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