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.
The gospel promises many benefits to anyone who believes, but physical health (2 Tim 4.20), earthly wealth (2 Cor 8.1), creature comforts (Luke 12.19-20), a good job (Matt 8.20), a successful marriage (1 Cor 7.15), good children (Matt 10.34-35), and freedom from strife (Matt 10.22) in the here and now are not among them (1 Cor 4.11-13; cf. Rom 8.16-18). God grants people (even unbelievers) some of these blessings now, and even in heaven only some of them will be granted, but they are all quite incidental to genuinely abundant life.
In John 10.10, Jesus means something very different by “abundant life,” namely, eternal life (communion with God) begun here and fully realized in heaven alone. His saying “is a proverbial way of insisting that there is only one means of receiving eternal life . . . only one source of knowledge of God, only one fount of spiritual nourishment, only one basis for spiritual security—Jesus alone.”1 Alas, this spiritual blessedness is only really craved by those who are already believers! Of others, we know that “there is none that seeketh after God” (Rom 3.23).
Holding forth eternal life as the great blessing of the gospel will never build a megachurch or launch a worldwide satellite TV ministry unless God works graciously in multitudes. Indeed, even we have been adversely affected by this false “health and wealth” mentality. What is it you desire most from God? What are the thrust of your prayers for yourself? If spiritual blessings are not your number one obsession, you need to adjust your thinking to the biblical standard.
Our main text is a prayer for blessing and an explanation of why that blessing is desired. It is a prescription bottle of spiritual medicine to be opened, displayed, and offered to all our hearers, that we might be cured of what ails us most, what works death in our souls—sin.
Abundant life comes through prayer for personal holiness.
SPIRITUAL MEANS: PRAYER TO GOD
The one petitioning God calls himself “Thy servant,” that is, one who is humbly oriented toward faith in and submission before his Lord. No one can pray aright any other way. The Lord says, “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination” (Prov 28.9). God is warning us, “If you will not listen to me, neither will I listen to you.” Now David is not claiming his own personal merit as the basis on which he should be heard (cf. 119.124), but he raises his hope of an answer on the grounds of God’s former dealings with him (cf. 119.65). By grace, God had already changed David from a sinner into a saint, and from a selfish man into a serving man, but he was not yet all that he ought to be. Now he had every reason to expect confidently that his Master would be pleased to hear and grant such a petition.
This same dynamic appears in the Lord’s Prayer, for how can anyone make the third petition reverently unless he himself has an earnest desire to do God’s will on earth as it is done in heaven? Many who pray are rebels against God, mere hypocrites, and their prayers are worse than worthless.
The verb, “deal bountifully,” has the sense of bestowing favors liberally, abundantly. The psalmist uses it in testimony of former blessings, for which he was committed to “sing unto the Lord” (Psa 13.6). Now he is asking His Lord to give him the greatest blessings anyone might receive from God.
This is the forwardness of faith. Some people approach God afraid to ask for much, as if they think their prayers will annoy Him, or that He is stingy. These tepid prayers actually dishonor Him. If we prayed more like Jabez: “Oh that thou wouldst bless me indeed,” etc., we might know more of his abundance: “God granted him that which he requested” (1 Chron 4.10). John Newton understood this principle well: Thou art coming to a King, / Large petitions with thee bring; / For his grace and pow’r are such, / None can ever ask too much.”2 Your prayers for spiritual grace can never exceed God’s ability and inclination to give you His grace in response. In fact, He delights to be petitioned for these things!
SPIRITUAL END: OBEDIENCE TO GOD
The accurate Authorized Version renders the second part of this verse as a twofold end for the request in the first part: “that I may live, and keep thy word.” It is natural to understand his meaning as the continuance of physical life on earth for the purpose of obedience to God’s revealed will in Scripture. This is an old, standard interpretation. For example, Matthew Henry wrote:
We are here taught, 1. That we owe our lives to God’s mercy. . . . 2. That therefore we ought to spend our lives in God’s service. Life is therefore a choice mercy, because it is an opportunity of obeying God in this world, where there are so few that do glorify him; and this David had in his eye: “Not that I may live and grow rich, live and be merry, but that I may live and keep thy word, may observe it myself and transmit it to those that shall come after, which the longer I live the better I shall do.”3
This is “man’s chief end,” the entire reason God made us in the first place, to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever (WSC #1). As we would expect in such an able theologian and exegetical scholar, Calvin waxes eloquent on this point:
The prophet asks as a principal favor, that, while he lives, he may devote himself entirely to God; being fully persuaded that the grand object of his existence consists in his exercising himself in his service, an object which he firmly resolves to pursue. For this reason these two clauses are connected together, that I may live, and keep thy word. “I desire no other mode of living than that of approving myself to be a true and faithful servant of God.” All wish God to grant them a prolongation of their life; a wish after which the whole world ardently aspire, and yet there is scarcely one among a hundred who reflects upon the purpose for which he ought to live. To withdraw us from cherishing such irrational propensities, the prophet here describes the main object of our existence.4
This is the genuinely abundant life in the highest biblical sense of that phrase. Accept no counterfeit substitutes! Jesus came into the world to die for elect sinners so that they would be freed from the deadness of self-idolatry into a full, significant, meaningful life of His blessed service. “He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again” (2 Cor 5.15).
Do you really want that for yourself from the bottom of your heart? If so, there is no better evidence that you shall have it. David’s prayer is well-suited for you and all believers. Let us make it our own sincere petition before our Lord and King. More and more of the abundant life will come to you through persistent prayers for more time to live in this world so that you may fully and consistently obey God’s commandments. “Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word.” Amen.
Notes:
1. D. A. Carson, commentary, in loc.
2. “Come, My Soul, Thy Suit Prepare,” TH #531.
3. Matthew Henry, commentary, in loc.
4. John Calvin, commentary, in loc.
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