The bands of the wicked have robbed me:
But I have not forgotten thy law (Psa 119.61).

It would be easy to live as a real Christian if nearly everyone else were doing it, but standing practically alone in our commitment to God and His Word—that is an acid test of our faith.

The exact sense of the Hebrew text is difficult to ascertain, even for godly scholars, but the general drift of this verse is plain enough. It is rendered variously because they are grappling with how these specific Hebrew words should be taken here, each having somewhat different meanings depending on the context.

The KJV is a good rendering, of course. “Bands” of wicked men is entirely possible, even though the original literally means cords or ropes. The figurative sense is easily explained. As a rope is composed of many strands twisted together, so a “band” of people is a group of them, stronger than any one of them individually.

The first verb, “robbed,” has a literal meaning of “surrounded with ropes,” and here is surely figurative in some way, perhaps as the KJV translates it, “robbed,” since roving bands typically surrounded their victims to rob them. But this translation is perhaps a little too free. “The bands of the wicked have wrapped me round” is stricter.

Even if translators choose the literal term, “ropes” or “cords,” it is most likely that a figurative sense is still intended, e.g., “the cords of the wicked have wrapped me round” (ASV).

In spite of this opposition and hindrance, the psalmist testified that he had “not forgotten thy [i.e., God’s] law.” The original for “forgotten” can have the sense of “ignore, overlook, be unmindful, i.e., not to remember information and so lose sight of its significance, implying no proper response or an improper response in some contexts (Gen 27.45; Deut 4.9).” Rebekah hoped after a few days that Esau would “forget” what Jacob had done and lose the determination to kill him. Moses charged the Israelites to take heed to themselves and to keep their souls diligently, or else they would “forget” the things they had seen with their eyes (i.e., all that God had done for them, including the gift of His law) and neglect teaching them to their descendants, obviously, with the purpose of obedience and covenant loyalty to God (cf. Deut 29.29). In the Hebrew way of thinking, “remembering” is more than calling an idea to remembrance mentally. It is putting what you remember into action. If you fail in that, you have “forgotten” what you “remembered” only in the Greek/Western sense.

A plausible sense of Psalm 119.61, then, emerges in these paraphrases:

Evil people may set a trap, but I obey your Law (CEV).
Evil people try to drag me into sin, but I am firmly anchored to your instructions (NLT).

In other words, the psalmist’s solemn testimony was that even though he had faced a multitude opposing his loyalty to the Lord and His Word, he had remained steadfast.

My Christian brethren, this is such a timely challenge to us. “These are the times that try men’s souls,” Thomas Paine wrote to his fellow colonists on the brink of the American Revolution, and surely they were, but a spiritual crisis of even greater proportions confronts us today. There seems to have been a greater cultural consensus of respect for the Scriptures as a repository of heavenly wisdom in those days. Older people today can still recall, in a previous generation, when grosser immoralities were too scandalous to mention in mixed company which are now freely discussed in the open public forum as supposedly guaranteed in our “civil rights.” For example, Ellen Degeneres recently announced her intention, since the reprehensible decision of a California court, to “marry” her female partner, and the television audience erupted in applause. Further, the Republican candidate for the Presidency, lately interviewed on her program, was clearly very uncomfortable, almost apologetic, just because he was expressing his opposition to “gay marriage.”

Has it really come to this, when we must cower like reprobates just to take a stand for biblical morality? Many apparently feel that it has.

Admittedly, the pressures to compromise are great. Because of our culture’s wholesale apostasy from biblical norms, embracing them can prove costly—but only on a human level and in the short term. The pressure is heightened especially because many of those hostile to biblical standards are professing Christians. They have boiled down morality to “being nice” and it is not nice to take an unpopular position, because that is so divisive and condemns so many people!

Just let a godly Christian adhere to and advocate a biblical standard in sexual ethics and watch the sparks fly! We who are convinced of the Christian Sabbath have suffered ostracism and worse for trying to keep it, being labeled as “legalists” even by churchgoers. If we absolutely refuse to lie under any circumstances, or to “fudge the truth” in the workplace, or to make excuses for someone’s bad behavior, others express disapproval in the strongest terms, sometimes becoming enraged. If we let a Christian conscience preclude some indecent television programs, even our own family members, though professing Christians, may start griping.

Similar temptations are found in trying to conduct a thoroughly biblical church ministry. It does not seem to matter to many supposed Christians that there is no biblical warrant whatsoever for the “new measures” so popular in mega-churches today—they must have them anyway, and if a godly eldership refuses, these attendees, like unsatisfied consumers, vote with their feet and go to the places that have what they want. Rare indeed, and most appreciated, has been the dear brother or sister who comes with a concern that the church ministry could be even more Scriptural in a particular doctrine or practice!

Hear again the prophetic challenge of our text:

The cords of the wicked have wrapped me round;
But I have not forgotten thy law!

If we do yield to the popular clamor and forget God’s law, we have committed a great and complex sin. First, this is idolatry, because whomever or whatever you trust or fear or love the most is a god to you. Second, this is utter foolishness, because on Judgment Day God will not have forgotten His law and He will hold us accountable for believing Him and doing His will. Third, this is nothing but hatred for neighbor, because we have become part of the ungodly pressure against his faith and obedience to God! To set a bad example is to spread a net for another’s feet, to lead them straight to hell!

Contrariwise, how blessed it is to exhibit “singular piety,” fidelity to God’s Word amidst many spiritual enemies! There is no greater opportunity to glorify God than when we must do so all by ourselves, because we show that He is indeed our God, the One whom we trust and fear and love more than anyone else. There is no greater wisdom than to trust in God’s way when everyone else is counseling us otherwise. There is no greater love than to model godliness before skeptics and thus, with God’s blessing, call them to join us in His cause, or at least, take away their excuses for refusing.

The ultimate Source of such stalwart faith and wisdom and love is the Savior Himself, Jesus Christ our Lord. Remember that He was encircled with the cords of the wicked. He stood like a man against hordes of murderous sinners, Jews and Gentiles alike. He paid the ultimate price of loyalty to God amidst a perverse generation by giving His life on the cross. Jesus truly was the greater David who rushed onto the battlefield, slaying the demonic Goliath of all opposition to God, and inspiring the host of God’s elect to rush into the fray after Him!

Jesus Christ courageously believed God’s Word when virtually no one else did. He exhibited the highest wisdom of living for eternal blessedness instead of temporal success. He showed the greatest love of neighbor by leading the way, all by Himself, back to fellowship with God.

Let us fully embrace this Jesus as our Savior and Lord. The psalmist’s testimony is an evangelistic call to salvation, and it is a pastoral call to sanctification—both through following Christ. Forget about what everyone else thinks and wants. Focus all your attention and energies on Him, and learn His will by being a lifelong, obedient student of Holy Scripture.

Only by doing this will you also be able to say to God in prayer that despite the momentous pressures to compromise, you have remembered His law. The Lord help us all to play the man in these times that try the souls of men, so that we may prove to be real Christians after all. Amen.

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