Establish my steps in thy word; and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.
This verse holds two prayers that belong together. One asks God to steady the steps by His word; the other asks that no sin ever take charge of the person praying.
The ESV says "according to your promise"; older translations read "in your word," and that is the wording these writers follow. The psalm has already called God's word a lamp, and one writer sets the two verses side by side:
God's word does more than condemn us when we take a wrong turn. It also shows us the right way. "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path," the Psalmist sings. Like him, we should want our steps ordered in His word.
The prayer assumes that something always rules a person's steps. The only question is what:
First, as to himself, the godly man wants the truth to govern his steps, not sin, as it does in the natural man.
The prayer covers any iniquity, with no sin left out. That width is itself a test of sincerity:
A false heart may seem very eager in praying against one sin, yet skip over another. A hypocrite will go easy on one lust and rage against another. A sincere Christian hates all sin.
"Dominion" is not about how much sin is present. It is about who is in charge. One writer, treating the same word elsewhere in Scripture, puts it in terms of ownership:
Sin is a master, a slave-owner, and we had fallen under its power. The point discussed in the chapter is not the presence of sin in us but the power of sin over us.
Read that way, the second half of the verse does not ask for sin to vanish from us. It asks that sin never own us.
The two halves of the verse name two ways to live. One writer contrasts them, and points out which one is really freedom:
Such a person knows the liberty of walking in God's ways. He also knows the miserable bondage that follows when any iniquity has dominion over him.
The verse does not just set two wishes side by side. The first prayer is the means of the second:
He also asks that God would direct his steps by His Word. Every believer needs this, whether we realise it or not. If this positive blessing is ours, the negative influence of iniquity will have no dominion over us.
Why should a prayer for light lead straight to a prayer about conduct? One writer answers by describing the kind of teacher the word is:
So the Word as a teacher makes no monsters. It does not train the mind and leave the heart and conscience untouched. Instead the whole person grows, with every part in beautiful proportion to the rest.
- Light — the word does not stop at the mind. Teaching that grows the intellect and leaves the heart untouched is not what Scripture produces.
- Step — the prayer asks God to direct each step by His word. The lamp of this psalm lights the next move.
- Rule — something always governs a walk. The prayer is that truth govern it, not sin, which rules the natural man.
- All — the prayer covers any iniquity. A false heart attacks one sin and spares another; a sincere heart hates them all.
- Liberty — walking in God's ways is freedom, and sin's dominion is misery. Answer the first prayer and the second follows.
Deliver me from the oppression of man; and I will keep thy precepts.
The word "redeem" can mislead a reader who knows it as a word for forgiveness. Here it points somewhere else. One commentator marks the difference:
This is not redemption from the guilt of his own sins. Every believer today already has that blessing. It is the practical freedom from the oppression that men deliberately try to impose on believers.
So the pressure comes from people. It is the weight other men place on someone trying to live by God's word.
He does not ask for freedom for its own sake. The second half of the verse gives the reason. One writer groups this prayer with the psalmist's outward circumstances:
Second, as to his circumstances, he desires that he may be delivered from the oppression of man, in order to obey God.
Notice what this rules out. He is not asking for an easier life, a quieter life, or revenge on his oppressors. He wants the hindrance removed so that obedience can go forward.
Read verse 134 beside the verse before it and a pattern appears. Sin can rule a person from the inside; men can hold him down from the outside. Both are bondage, and both have to be broken:
Such a person realises the liberty of walking in God's ways, and the miserable bondage that comes when any iniquity has dominion over him. He seeks to be free from man too, so that he can keep the divine precepts.
The order matters. The psalmist names the inner chain first. A man free from every human oppressor would still be a slave if sin ruled him.
The prayer against sin's dominion is not a bare wish for willpower. It is joined to a request for direction, and the direction is what does the work:
He also asks God to direct his steps by His Word. Every believer needs this too, whether we realise it or not. If we have this positive blessing, the negative influence of iniquity will have no dominion over us.
Guidance is the cure for domination inside. Verse 134 then asks God to break the outward chain too.
Verse 134 belongs to a group of eight verses, and the group has a shape. It starts with light and ends with sorrow:
The testimonies of the Lord, so wonderful in the eyes of the saints, gave them light and understanding. They longed for Jehovah and His words. They wanted His favour, they wanted their steps made firm, and they wanted Him to deliver them from the iniquity and oppression of men. They longed for the face of the Lord to shine on them. It gave them great sorrow to see the disobedience of those who turned from His law.
Another writer describes the same stretch of the psalm in terms of where the speaker is standing while he prays:
Here the cry is for this mercy ordering his steps, delivering from oppression; and one sees that he is surrounded by evil, looking for God's face to shine on him, and to be taught.
Commentators read Psalm 119 as more than one man's diary. Several hear the voice of a faithful group in Israel in a time of trouble. God's law is already written on their hearts, but their rescue has not yet arrived:
Other psalms bear witness, by the Spirit of Christ, to the circumstances around this faithful group, who have that Spirit. This psalm speaks of their state… the law written in their hearts, while the judgments are being carried out. So something already shows that the Lord is stepping in, and they say what they feel about it — but the final deliverance from the oppressor has not come. In strict prophetic application, this is the condition of a Jew, a godly Jew, in that day.
That explains the tone of the verse. Someone whose deliverance was complete would not need to pray this. Someone with no love for God's precepts would not want to.
- Light — the section opens with God's word giving light and understanding. Every prayer in it, this one included, grows out of that light.
- Two chains — sin's rule inside, men's oppression outside. The psalmist asks God to break both, the inner one first.
- Not guilt — the redemption he seeks is practical freedom from what men impose, not release from the guilt of his own sins.
- Freedom for — he wants the outward hindrance gone so that he can obey. Deliverance is the means; keeping God's precepts is the goal.
- Not yet — someone prays this while the oppressor is still in place. God's law is already in his heart; full deliverance is still ahead.
Make thy face to shine upon thy servant, and teach me thy statutes.
This verse falls in the section of Psalm 119 marked by the Hebrew letter Pe. God's word has already given the writer light. Now he asks two things: that God's face would turn toward him, and that God would teach him.
The verse belongs to a group of eight, moving from wonder at God's word to grief over those who ignore it:
PE. Verses 129-136. The testimonies of the Lord, so wonderful in the eyes of the saints, gave them light and understanding. They desired Jehovah and His words. They wanted to receive His favour, to walk with steady steps, and to be free from the sin and oppression of men. They longed for the face of the Lord to shine upon them, and they grieved deeply when they saw the disobedience of those who turned from His law.
He does not pray from a comfortable place:
Here the cry is for mercy to order his steps and free him from oppression. He is surrounded by evil. He looks for God's face to shine upon him, and to be taught. He grieves deeply because people do not keep the law.
The verses just before ask for steady steps and rescue from oppressors. This one turns to God Himself:
Third, as to God, he desires to sit as a learner at His feet in the conscious sunshine of His favour (compare Luke 10:39).
The two halves of the verse are not separate wishes. Nearness to God is where the teaching happens — and where sin looks its ugliest:
Above all, he seeks to walk in the sunshine of God's face, as one brought near, and there to be taught His statutes. There he feels the awful horror of sin, and there he longs over men who do not know how ugly it is: "My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law."
One writer points to Christ as the shining of God's face, and looks ahead to Israel as well:
"Make Your face shine upon Your servant" (v. 135). This is what God has done in sending the Lord Jesus to this world. 2 Corinthians 4:6 tells us, "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Israel will recognise this when grace breaks the nation down in true repentance to receive their blessed Messiah. Then they will indeed have a heart to learn God's statutes.
What is a statute? One writer defines it, and names the Teacher believers now have:
The Holy Spirit is our Teacher and through these instruments which grace employs, 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 remember what a statute means: "a divine direction to obtain our obedience, and to keep us from disobedience".
If God's favour is already settled, why ask for it?
Encouraged to seek the face of the Lord, he prays that the Lord will not hide His face. He asks to be kept in the sense of the Lord's favour shining upon him. It is one thing for the Christian to know that he is accepted in the Beloved and stands in the favour of God. It is another thing to walk in the conscious sense of this favour.
Yet the favour itself is not fragile. One writer records this exchange:
"God never withdraws the shining of His countenance from a true believer, for all believers are in Christ, and God cannot withdraw the light of His countenance from Christ." "Ah," replied the other, "but I turn my back upon Him." "Then," came the quick reply, "God will shine upon your back."
- Light first. The word has already entered and given understanding; verse 135 is what a person asks after the light gets in.
- Face before lesson. The shining face is the sunshine of God's favour, and the psalmist's aim is to sit as a learner in it.
- Nearness teaches. Close to God is where the statutes sink in, and where sin becomes unbearable.
- Christ is the shining. God has answered this prayer by giving the light of the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
- Ask for the sense of it. Acceptance is settled for those in Christ. The daily prayer is to walk in the conscious enjoyment of it.
Mine eyes run down with streams of water, because they keep not thy law.
After more than a hundred verses in praise of God's word, this psalm breaks into tears. The writer weeps over other people's disregard for God's law — so why should love for Scripture end in weeping?
One writer reads these tears as the outcome of God's word finding a way into the heart.
Where the light finds a way in, the believer longs for a state that matches everything the light reveals.
Tears are what that desire looks like when the world around refuses the light.
The sorrow here is not hurt feelings. It is pain at seeing God's word treated as nothing. One writer traces that same pain in a country that has left the standards its laws once rested on.
The psalmist is hurt and deeply grieved. He weeps because he sees people ignoring God's word. He has the deepest respect for God's honour. One of the saddest trends in society today is the steady abandoning of God's standards as given in His word. This country was once thought of as a Christian country, and much of its law was once based on biblical standards. Now we are a long way down the road of holding norms that are opposed to Scripture. This rejection of God's standards grieves those who truly love the Lord.
Nobody weeps like this by nature. One writer notes the order in which such tears come. God's grace saves us first, and only then does the unbelief of others become unbearable.
They will also be so moved that "streams of tears" will run down from their eyes as they consider that people do not keep God's law (v. 136). But only after God's grace saves us does the sadness of people's unbelief, too deep for words, grieve us like this. We have every reason to mourn over the unbelief of countless thousands. They refuse to bow to the authority of the gracious Lord of glory!
One writer hears the psalmist's words again in the tears of the Lord Jesus over Jerusalem. He hears them earlier too, in servants who grieved over their people's sin.
He wept aloud over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41-44). That weeping expressed the spirit of the psalmist who said, "My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law" (Ps. 119:136). In an earlier day of turning away, the faithful servants of the Lord stood out by their grief over the waywardness of their people. They were set apart as those "who sigh and groan over all the abominations" committed in Jerusalem (Ezek. 9:4).
There is a counterfeit of this verse: looking down on the sin of others from a safe height. One writer points to three men who mourned over their people's failure. He shows what kept their grief honest.
We find such mourning in the Old Testament with Nehemiah, who asked the king how his face could be anything but sad while the city of his fathers lay in ruins (Nehemiah 2:3). Daniel and Ezra also mourned over the unfaithfulness of God's people (see Daniel 9 and Ezra 9-10). We can learn from what these men of God did. Given the age they lived in, none of these men was personally responsible. They were not self-righteous and did not think of themselves as above their people. They confessed their people's sin and included themselves in their guilt. They understood that they themselves were no better and that they formed part of this people. That is why God owned them and answered them.
Such weeping is right, but it is not meant to swallow a believer whole. One writer sets a limit to this sorrow. He points to two men who wept and still found relief.
For now, they weep over the corruption around them, and such tears are the fruit of a godly mind. Yet such sorrow is to have its measure... Jesus wept over the unbelieving cities, but He found relief in the Father's purposes. Paul grieved over people who abandoned the faith, but he found relief in the sureness of God's foundations.
- Light — God's word entering the soul creates a longing for everything to match what that light reveals. Tears come when that longing meets refusal.
- Love — the writer weeps for God's honour, because people ignore His word, not because anyone has wronged him.
- Grace — this sorrow is not natural; it comes only after we taste God's mercy.
- Christ — the Lord wept over Jerusalem in this same spirit, as did the servants before Him who sighed over their people's sin.
- Measure — real mourners confess their people's guilt as their own instead of standing above it. They find relief in God, so grief does not drown them.