Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live:
And let me not be ashamed of my hope.
Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe:
And I will have respect unto thy statutes continually (Psa 119.116-117).

Filled with the Spirit, David the psalmist exemplifies a state of mind that is common in some measure to all believers, and in which we ought to excel. That state of mind is faith in God’s promise. David’s spiritual posture was seen in perfection in Jesus Christ, the incomparable man of faith. Our sanctification begins when his Spirit takes up his gracious residence in us, and it progresses toward full conformity with Christ’s image as we look to him and follow the Spirit’s leading by his Word.

THE PRECURSOR OF CONSCIOUS NEED

These verses exhibit the beautiful parallelism of biblical Hebrew poetry. Both begin with a petition, followed by a result of the petition’s answer, and concluding with an elaboration, either of the petition or the result. Rearrangment makes the literary relationship clearer:

1. Petition: Uphold me [according unto thy word] / Hold thou me up
2. Petition’s answer: That I may live / And I shall be safe
3. Elaboration (on petition, on result): And let me not be ashamed of my hope / And I will have respect unto thy statutes continually

The verbs beginning each first petition essentially mean the same thing in the original. Support me, sustain me (Tanakh). This is the basic meaning of the first verb, and the second is literally, “to lean upon.”¹

This is an appeal to Yahweh for help which evidences the psalmist’s conscious need of help.

Did you ever stop to consider that there is no salvation for the self-confident and self-reliant? While our culture constantly preaches, “Believe in yourself,” and, “You can do anything you’ve set your mind to do,” Scripture disapproves and warns against this false gospel. “A wise man fears and departs from evil, / But a fool rages and is self-confident” (Prov 14.16). The fool in Proverbs is not a court jester but rather a morally-depraved person. People who believe in themselves are not only spiritually stupid, but also idolatrous. God alone is the only fitting object of ultimate faith.

One of the first marks that God may be working graciously in a sinner is to render him sensible of his own weakness and vulnerability in all things, and especially in the spiritual and moral realms. He fears trouble on every hand, and suffers from an ominous anticipation of eternal condemnation.

John Bunyan’s main character in The Pilgrim’s Progress is Christian, and before he is converted, he was nearly driven to madness by this most reasonable fear of a sinner. “Why are you afraid to die, since this life has so many troubles?,” Evangelist asks. “Because I fear that this burden on my back [sin and guilt] will sink me lower than the grave, and I shall fall into Tophet,” Christian replies.² “Tophet” is the transliteration of a Hebrew word found in Jer 7.31 which means, “place of burning.” By it Bunyan alludes to the hell of fire as a place of eternal conscious torment for all who die unforgiven by God.

I remain convinced that the gospel is not taken very seriously by many today, even some professing Christians, because they have little or no conscious need on account of their own great sinfulness and the severity of God’s just wrath which hangs over their heads every moment of every day, along with their complete powerlessness to do anything whatsoever to help themselves.

There has been a form of preaching, founded upon Arminianism or worse, which does not bring sinners low, but fatally puffs them up. It confidently assures them that salvation is theirs with a snap of their fingers, as it were, for all they must do is bow their heads, pray a form prayer (the words are often given to them), and accept Jesus as their personal Savior—an act which anyone can do at virtually any time. Following this, every assurance is heaped upon even those who will not depart from their sins that they have effectively saved themselves by their own deed, and they have nothing to fear. And even those who have not responded to this appeal may keep it in their back pocket, so to speak, and as long as they perform the private ritual before they die, even moments before their last breath, all will be well at last.

The truth is closer to this analogy. God has justly imprisoned you in a burning house on account of your sins, and unless he comes, of his own sovereign pleasure and without consideration of anything you yourself could possibly do, to break down the door and pull you out, you are certain to perish in the fire! As our confession of faith says,

Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able by his own strength to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto (1689 LBCF IX.3).

Your salvation is not in your own hands at all, but God’s alone. He determines your destiny, not you. You ought to be very, very aware of your abject inability and utter need for God’s grace. It is this kind of conscious need which is the mother of true petition to God the Savior.

THE PETITION OF KNOWN DEPENDENCE

To God the psalmist directs his urgent pleas: “Uphold me,” “hold thou me up,” and “let me not be ashamed of my hope.” This last petitition means let my future experience of salvation prove that I was right to trust in you.

A popular alternative to faith in God today is faith in faith, and there is a world of difference between them. Many people believe that whatever blessing you want badly enough is guaranteed to come your way as long as you believe with all your heart that it will—a horrible misunderstanding. Listen, dear friends. Faith cannot save you; only God can save you. If you trust in faith you will be sorely disappointed. Your spiritual trust must be in the objective God who is both merciful toward the guilty ones and mighty to save.

At first it might seem like Jesus’ words support the “faith in faith” teachers, for he said on one occasion, “Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11.23-24). But to begin this grand promise, Jesus exhorted his disciples to “Have faith in God” (Mark 11.22). If God promises mountains will move, this stupendous result will be yours if you trust him for it and act accordingly. The Lord Jesus never, ever intended his words to invest you with supreme sovereignty over all creation that belongs only to God himself, or to promote “faith in faith” theology, or to guarantee you unlimited wish fullfillment, as has been so grossly misunderstood.

Directing his prayers to God, David showed his known dependence upon God for all good things. Further, David had a specific warrant to ask the things that he did.

THE PRESUPPOSITION OF BIBLICAL RELIABILITY

“Uphold me according unto thy word,” or, “Support me as You promised” (Tanakh). Consistent with the whole of Psalm 119, such language points to the Holy Scriptures. David believed God could not and would not violate his own Word, or fail in any of his promises, and so David appealed to them in prayer. We only have a right to ask in prayer the things God has already promised in the Bible.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism wisely teaches that “prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God for things agreeable to his will” (#98), citing 1 John 5.14, “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.” Only when we turn his promises into petitions can we expect a favorable answer. This is one reason why we need a comprehensive knowledge of Scripture with all its promised blessings for believers in Jesus Christ. “I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it. Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them” (Ezek 36.36-37). He is glorified more in our salvation when it comes by our faith (exhibiting his trustworthiness) and prayer (exciting our grateful praise).

THE EXPECTATION OF COMPLETE DELIVERANCE

The first anticipated blessing of David’s petition is life and safety. Many times he prayed for physical life and safety and God always granted it, but here more than that is in view, for this is coupled with the further result of God’s favorable answer that “I will have respect unto thy statutes continually,” that is, be able to practice a closer and more consistent conformity to God’s revealed will in heart and conduct. This was Calvin’s interpretation:

The prophet, however, seems to pray, that constancy of faith may be given him, to enable him to continue steadfast in the divine word. We are said to fall from God’s word when we fall from the faith of it; and in like manner, so long as we repose upon the truth and certainty of it, he is our sustainer. But, as the prophet well knew that there is not strength in man adequate to this, he asks from God ability to persevere as the singular gift of the Holy Spirit (in loc.).

Knowing our spiritual need, believers depend on God to keep his promise of the gospel written in the Scriptures, and anticipate complete deliverance from all sin and misery. That is how genuine faith in God’s promise reasons and prays. The Lord give us such faith. Amen.

Notes

1. TWOT #1525a, #1514, respectively.
2. Part I, The First Stage, paraphrased.