Mine eyes fail for thy salvation, and for the word of thy righteousness.
Psalm 119 reaches a point where watching has worn the writer out. Proud oppressors hem him in, he holds God's word, and still nothing happens — so what does a believer do when God's promised help is slow in coming?
The psalmist prays that God will not leave him in the hands of the proud. His appeal rests on the righteousness he has followed himself.
He seeks deliverance from these enemies on the ground of that very righteousness. He has himself followed it; and so he prays not to be left in the hand of his oppressors. May He, the righteous One, stand as guarantee of good for one who is His servant. May He not allow the proud to oppress him — the proud who, in their pride, refuse the servant's place. He has God's pledged word, but His salvation lingers, and in distress his eyes fail with longing for it.
Commentators differ on what the failing eyes mean. One takes them as the strain of longing. Another reads them as the psalmist's own discernment giving out, which drives him to ask for mercy rather than strict righteousness.
He finds that his eyes are not enough to sustain him in seeking God's salvation and His righteous Word (v. 123). The eyes speak of discernment, and if we depend on our own discernment we shall indeed fail. So he needs God Himself to deal with him according to His mercy, not according to His righteousness. Yet His righteousness will always have a part in how He acts. But God's mercy is necessary if we are to be taught God's statutes.
The second half of the verse names what he is watching for: not rescue only, but God's righteous word. (Older translations read "the word of your righteousness," and that is the phrase these writers comment on.) The next verse shows the shift: he asks God to deal with him in mercy, and not to measure him by the trouble he is in.
He appeals to God for protection on the ground of righteousness. But along with this, while he waits in anxious longing for deliverance, he waits for the word of God's righteousness. That means more, I think, than faithfulness to a promised deliverance, as verse 124 shows. When delivered, his heart would be set free in obedience. But he looked for more than deliverance, and did not measure this by the evil he was under. His heart had got to God, and he looked to be dealt with according to His mercy.
The two things he waits for point in two different directions — one toward his enemies, one toward himself. And he asks for more than safety.
Having turned to God, he waits for God's Word of "righteousness" to deliver him from his enemies, and God's "mercy" to deal with himself. As God's servant he wants more than deliverance from evil. He wants to be taught the truth and to have his understanding opened, so that he may know God's testimonies and learn God's mind.
You might expect the pressure of evil to loosen a man's hold on Scripture. Here it does the opposite, and the reason is nearness to God.
He stands right in the presence of the power of evil, and he looks to Jehovah Himself. The energy of evil in its moral character only attached him more closely to God's word and testimonies. This is the effect of nearness to God. His presence keeps the heart free and confident, and keeps alive the sense of the value of what is in the word.
Delay wears the heart down. Yet the endurance that outlasts the delay comes from God, not from the man.
Still, hope is deferred. So the heart grows faint. Faith and patience face severe trial, while wickedness lifts itself up in power against Jehovah's name. But faithful endurance continues to the end, through the sustaining power of God.
- Pressure. The prayer rises from real oppression: the proud are in control, and the psalmist asks not to be left in their hands.
- Promise. He already holds God's pledged word. What he lacks is the sight of it carried out, and his eyes wear out watching.
- Weakness. His own discernment cannot sustain the watch, so he asks God to deal with him in mercy.
- Widening. He asks for more than escape — for God's righteous word, to be dealt with in mercy, and to be taught God's mind.
- Endurance. Delayed hope makes the heart faint. Yet nearness to God tightens his grip on the word, and God's power keeps him to the end.
Deal with thy servant according to thy loving-kindness, and teach me thy statutes.
Oppressors hem the psalmist in. Here he stops arguing his case and asks God for two things: mercy, and teaching. Why does a man who has just appealed to his own uprightness now ask for mercy? And why does he ask for lessons instead of rescue? Where the ESV has "steadfast love," older translations read "mercy" or "loving-kindness" — that is the word the writers below use.
The verse sits between a plea about his enemies and a plea about his own understanding. One commentator notices that he asks one thing about his enemies and another about himself:
Having turned to God, he waits for God's word of "righteousness" to deliver him from his enemies, and God's "mercy" to deal with himself. As God's servant he wants more than deliverance from evil. He wants God to teach him the truth and to open his understanding, so that he may know God's testimonies and learn God's mind.
So why ask for mercy at all? One writer follows the thought from the verse before:
He has consciously sought to act in justice and righteousness, and asks not to be left to the will of his oppressors. ... He finds that his eyes are not enough to hold him up as he looks for God's salvation and His righteous Word. The eyes speak of discernment, and if we depend on our own discernment we will certainly fail. So he needs God Himself to deal with him according to His mercy, not according to His righteousness — though His righteousness always has a part in His dealings. But God's mercy is necessary if we are to be taught God's statutes.
He does not ask as a stranger. The title he gives himself is the very reason he feels free to ask for both things at once:
He pleads the servant's place that he has taken, so that he may be dealt with in divine love, and taught His statutes. For he is His servant, and as such he needs — and may press that he needs — discernment to know the testimonies he has to maintain.
Under pressure, a man prays for the pressure to lift. What marks this verse out is that the size of what he asks is not set by the size of the trouble:
When delivered, his heart would be set free in obedience. But he looked for more than deliverance, and did not measure it by the evil he was under. His heart had got to God, and he looked to be dealt with according to His mercy.
The same writer traces how a heart arrives there:
When we are under the sorrows of God's chastening hand, we look for mercy, for deliverance. The pressure of the power of evil is felt as deserved, and deliverance from it is mercy enough. But when this has done its work, the heart is purified. It thinks more of God, and His holiness and will, and less of the sorrow and evil outside, so that it rises up from under it. A heart restored in this way measures what it asks for by God, into whose knowledge, revealed within, it has come back.
"Teach me your statutes" is a request the psalm makes again and again. One writer defines the word and names the one who answers the prayer:
The Holy Spirit is our Teacher, and through the instruments that grace uses He can teach us the will of God (John 14:26). So let us echo the psalmist's prayer to the Lord: "teach me your statutes." And let us remember what a statute is: "a divine direction to secure our obedience, and to keep us from disobedience."
Read across the whole psalm, this stretch belongs to a movement where the word is no longer only admired but is doing its work. One outline of the psalm's twenty-two sections puts it this way:
Down to No. 18, the effective working of the word is developed. And from No. 19 to No. 22 is the general survey and result.
- Mercy first. He asks God to deal with him by mercy. Righteousness is what he waits on to handle his enemies.
- Mercy teaches. Mercy is what makes the teaching possible. Without it, no one learns God's statutes.
- Mercy has a title. He asks as "your servant" — the relationship God owns is his standing to ask for both love and instruction.
- Mercy enlarges the request. A restored heart stops sizing its prayers by its troubles and starts measuring them by God.
- Mercy sets the lesson. A statute is God's direction given to secure obedience, and the Spirit is the Teacher who makes it known.
I am thy servant; give me understanding that I may know thy testimonies.
This verse holds two short asks, and the second rests on the first. The psalmist names who he is before God, then asks for what he lacks. He wants more than facts. He wants the capacity to take in what God has already said.
With the words "I am your servant" he takes a position before God — and he knows God owns him in it.
The soul has got into the place of uprightness, and it says, "I am your servant." We have not had it in this shape yet. We have had holy desire, confidence, and true confession — the general expression, "You have dealt well with your servant." But this is another thing. He presents himself to God directly as standing in this relationship and place: "I am your servant." It is perfect submission. But it is the submission of one who holds the place. God owns him in it, and he knows that He does. This is saying a great deal. What a ground to ask from God, understanding that we may serve Him!
Having taken the servant's place, he can press the need that place creates.
He pleads the servant's place that he has taken, so that he may be dealt with in divine love and taught His statutes. For he is His servant. As such he needs discernment to know the testimonies he has to maintain in a time of daring rebellion — and he may press that need.
He cannot produce this understanding himself.
"I am your servant," he says (v. 125), and because that is so, he must depend on God to give him understanding, so that he may know His testimonies.
One writer ties how much we understand to something other than mental ability:
The measure of the teaching differs greatly, because the measure of dependence upon God differs greatly. Keep this in mind: understanding Scripture depends much more on what is moral than on what is of the mind — on a single eye to Christ. The Holy Spirit can never give us anything that saves us from the need to depend on God and wait on Him.
He wants out of his troubles. But that is not the whole of what he asks.
As God's servant he wants more than deliverance from evil. He wants God to teach him the truth and open his understanding, so that he may know God's testimonies and learn God's mind.
What he wants to know is God's "testimonies" — God speaking about Himself, not human ideas about God.
Note further, they are testimonies coming from God, the positive declaration of His mind and will. They are not a boasted knowledge of God by man's will, or his claim to know what God must be… They are the positive testimonies of God, so that man is subject to them, though sustained by them. This is not man's reasoning or man's conscience. It is the testimonies of God, His own active revelation of Himself, the speaking of His word. Faith simply receives them, and the soul is subject to them as such.
Saying this to God frees a man to serve everyone, and steadies him under criticism.
It is a great stay to the soul of a man when he can look up into the face of God and say, "I am your servant." He will be ready then to serve all, even the weakest of God's people. The weaker and more ignorant they are, the more eager he will be to serve them. He will be ready to serve all men, yet be the servant of none. God reveals His thoughts and will for His servants in His word, and there alone… How it would help him to adjust his ways to the will of God whose servant he was, and not to the opinions of his self-appointed judges!
- Place first. He begins by owning the relationship: "I am your servant." He holds that place, and knows God owns him in it.
- Place gives ground. That standing is what makes the ask fitting. A servant needs discernment to know the testimonies he must maintain — and he may press that need.
- The gift is understanding. He cannot supply it himself; being God's servant, he must depend on God to give him understanding.
- The aim is God's mind. He asks for more than escape from his troubles. He wants God to open his understanding, teach him the truth, and show him His mind.
- The result is steadiness. He knows whose servant he is. So he shapes his ways by God's will, not by the opinions of his self-appointed judges.