KOPH. I have called with [my] whole heart; answer me, O Jehovah I will observe thy statutes.
Psalm 119:145 opens a section that runs to verse 152, and it opens with a man at full stretch. His whole heart is in the cry, and the same breath that asks God to answer also promises obedience. Why does a plea for help come tied to a promise to keep God's statutes?
The psalms keep coming back to this phrase: "with my whole heart." One commentator ties it to David, and to the day he danced before God while his wife Michal watched.
"David danced before the LORD with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod" (2 Samuel 6:14). This was not just natural excitement, but genuine delight in God. God was coming nearer to His servant. Michal might despise the way he showed his joy, but God valued it at its true worth. We surely owe whole-heartedness to such a God as ours! … This is how David loved to speak to his God. Lord, save us all from dead, respectable formality in the things of God; give us David's spirit.
The prayer does not stop at "answer me." A promise follows, and one writer reads the two halves as cause and effect.
The psalmist expresses his whole-hearted dependence upon the Lord. He is seeking the assurance that God hears his prayer. True dependence leads to obedience, so he adds, "I will keep your statutes." He wants more than a hearing. He wants God to answer his prayer with a complete deliverance, one that would set him free to obey the Lord's testimonies without hindrance.
In the next verse he asks God to save him, but never says from what. That silence teaches something.
The psalmist calls with his whole heart upon the LORD, earnestly declaring his purpose of obedience. Where this is found, it naturally and necessarily leads to serious exercise of heart over the Word: it is the foundation of it. The path is not so simple that we can find it without God; nor is it meant to be; but then we find Him our companion in it. The one praying needs salvation as well. He does not say from what; indeed, from how many things! These are the hindrances that keep coming up against obedience. But they are helps to faith, as everything is that throws us upon God.
Another writer reads that silence the same way.
He cries out for salvation, though he does not say from what. This seems to show that he is simply feeling his own helplessness, whether from personal problems or from troubles caused by others. This salvation would strengthen him to keep God's testimonies.
Crying out here is not weakness. One writer names what it is.
Dependence is the great resource in the evil day, and indeed always, with confidence in the LORD, but according to His word.
Commentators also read this section as the voice of the faithful in Israel in a coming time of trouble.
KOPH. Verses 145-152. The LORD's servant expresses the feelings of the godly remnant of Israel, crying to Him for an answer to their pleadings, and for His salvation. In the darkness of the night they hope in God's word, and count upon His loving kindness. If the enemy has drawn near, they are confident that the LORD is near, and that they can rely on His word at all times.
The verses that follow show what this cry costs in practice.
His dependence is not merely a passive admission that he owes everything to God. It is an active, whole-hearted dependence that calls upon God. It does so with a diligence that leads the believer to rise before dawn to cry to the Lord. And his dependence grows out of confidence, for he can say, "I hope in your words." Dependence, obedience, and confidence mark the godly man. Further, the Word in which his confidence rests becomes the meditation of his heart in the quiet of the night watches.
The opposite of a whole heart is a divided one. One writer traces unanswered prayer back to it.
If there is any question about a saint's honesty, James says, "Purify your hearts, you double-minded." He tells us that a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. That man should not think he will get anything from the Lord in prayer. Why are our prayers not answered? … One reason is double-mindedness — the mind half on one thing and half on another. If my mind is half on the world and half on Christ, I may pray every day of my life and get no answer.
- Whole heart — We owe God a whole heart. The alternative is a divided mind that receives nothing.
- Whole cry — Dependence is the resource in the evil day. It is active: crying before dawn, meditating in the night.
- Whole obedience — True dependence produces obedience. "Answer me" and "I will keep your statutes" belong in one breath.
- Whole trust — He never names what he needs saving from. Every hindrance to obedience becomes a help to faith, because it throws him on God.
- Whole answer — He wants more than a hearing: a deliverance complete enough to leave him free to obey without hindrance.
I call upon thee; save me, and I will keep thy testimonies.
In this part of Psalm 119, a man under pressure calls out to God for rescue. He does not ask for an easier life. He asks to be free to hold on to what God has said. The verse links three things that are easy to separate: a cry, a rescue, and a life of obedience.
Dependence that stays silent is not real dependence. One writer presses the point: we know we need God, yet we often say nothing to Him.
Here the soul expresses, and expresses to God, the sense of its dependence. This is an important point. We are dependent, we know ourselves to be dependent, and we remain passively so. This shows a lack of interest in the very thing we need, and a failure to count on God's faithful love. If we did count on it, we would cry out... Here he cries with his whole heart, and declares his purpose of obedience to the Lord's commands.
He asks God to save him, but never says from what. Commentators read that silence in two ways. One takes the unnamed trouble as everything that gets in the way of obeying:
The one who prays needs salvation too. He does not say what from. Indeed, there are so many things — the hindrances that keep turning up in the way of obedience. Yet these are helps to faith, as everything is that throws us back on God.
Another reads it as the honest admission of a man at the end of his own strength:
He cries out for salvation, though he does not say from what. This seems to show that he is feeling his own helplessness, whether from personal problems or from those caused by others. This salvation would strengthen him to keep God's testimonies.
Notice the order in the verse: the rescue comes first, and the keeping follows it. The request is for a deliverance thorough enough that nothing is left standing between him and obedience.
The psalmist expresses his whole-hearted dependence on the Lord, seeking to know that God hears his prayer. True dependence leads to obedience, and so he adds, "I will keep your statutes." He wants more than to be heard. He wants God to answer his prayer with a complete deliverance that would set him free to obey the Lord's testimonies without hindrance.
Yet the word is not just a duty waiting on the far side of rescue. He already loves it.
Then he looks for deliverance so that, once he has it, he may keep them: no hindrance, and his heart set that way... Deliverance was certainly sought, but the word itself is loved. All this goes together necessarily in the soul.
Psalm 119 uses several different words for God's word, each with its own shade. "Testimony" is one of them, and the Hebrew behind it points to the idea of a witness.
(2) Testimony (Eduth)—witness, testimony.
That witness points two ways at once. It also asks something of us before we can keep it.
Remember what we said about this word "testimonies"? It testifies what God is, and it also shows me what I ought to be. Before we can "keep" His testimonies, we must first have received them, accepted them, and be willing to obey.
One writer reads this section (verses 145–152) as the voice of a faithful group in Israel. They call on God while the enemy closes in.
The Lord's servant expresses the feelings of the godly remnant of Israel. He cries to the Lord for an answer to their pleadings, and for His salvation. In the darkness of the night they hope in God's word, and count on His loving kindness. If the enemy has drawn near, there is confidence that the Lord is near, and that His word can be relied on at all times.
The whole section is read as a stretch of spiritual struggle rather than settled calm:
The next section is harder to characterise; but as a fifth it seems to speak of exercise — not, in the first part at least, so much from the difficulties and trials of the road, as over the word of God itself: that healthy exercise which one wishes we all knew more of.
- Cry. Knowing you need God and then saying nothing to Him shows you are not counting on His love. Here the whole heart calls out.
- Salvation. The danger is never named. Commentators read it either as the many hindrances to obedience or as plain helplessness.
- Freedom. He asks for a complete rescue — one that leaves him free to obey without hindrance.
- Keeping. Testimonies show what God is and what I ought to be. We must receive and accept them before we can keep them.
- Confidence. The enemy draws near, but so does the Lord — and His word holds good at all times.