I anticipate the morning-dawn and I cry I hope in thy word.
Psalm 119:147 sits in a section where enemies press in on the psalmist, and he turns that pressure into prayer. His day starts before the light does. He can call out into the dark because he has staked everything on what God has said.
Older English translations open the verse with "I prevented the dawning of the morning." That word has changed meaning since then. One writer lists it among the words that now mislead readers:
Some Old English words used to mean something different from what they mean now. The old word now misleads… So "prevent" (Ps. 21:3; Ps. 59:10; Ps. 79:8; Ps. 88:13; Ps. 119:147-148) means the same as our modern word "anticipate."
He is not stopping the dawn. He is getting ahead of it.
Rising early is not the point in itself. One commentator reads the early hour as a sign of how active the psalmist's dependence on God is:
His dependence is not just a passive admission that he owes everything to God. It is an active, whole-hearted dependence that calls on God. It comes with a diligence that makes the believer rise before dawn to cry to the Lord. And his dependence grows out of confidence, for he can say, "I hope in your words." So the godly man is marked by dependence, obedience, and confidence.
The crying and the hoping are not two separate moods. The Word he had been reading created the confidence he brings to the prayer:
Through all this the Word gets a large place with him, just as surely as God does. He is up before the dawn, crying out to God, yet with a hopeful expectancy that the Word had worked in him. More than that, he is awake before the night watches, thinking over God's sayings and testing what he knows. He keeps finding the drag of his own nature on him, and for that he has to turn to Jehovah's loving-kindness for life-giving energy.
An early riser could start to treat his own devotion as leverage with God. One commentator rules that out:
Still, his whole-hearted diligence is not the ground of his appeal to the Lord. The ground is the loving-kindness in the heart of the Lord. That is where he looks for the life-giving energy that will keep him going, even though his enemies draw near with mischief in their hearts.
The Gospels show the same pattern in Jesus. After a day crowded with need, He gets up long before daylight to pray:
He had been busy early and late with the sorrows of others. Yet here we find Him far ahead of the dawn, while it was still the dark of night, so that He could talk with His Father… And if He withdrew like this to be with God — Himself the Lord God — before He started the work of the day, can we wonder that we fail so much in outward work, when we fail even more in this inward closeness with our Father? Be sure of this: the secret of holy strength and endurance in service is found there alone.
The verse also has an edge for how we order our hours. One writer turns it into a question of what comes first:
When do we read the word of God?… People who have to get up early and have much to do often feel a strong pull to put off their private reading of the word of truth until later in the day. The result is that other things fill the mind. They either give up reading, or cannot settle down to study the word, and so they decline in soul. The best things in Israel were devoted to the Lord… The manna came down early, and they had to gather it before sunrise; and our Lord said, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness."
- Anticipate. The old phrase "I prevented the dawning" means he got ahead of the morning. His prayer started before the day did.
- Dependence. The early hour is not the virtue. It is proof of a leaning on God that acts, not one that is only admitted.
- Word first. The Word he turned over in the night watches produced the hope he brings to the darkness.
- Loving-kindness. His diligence is never the ground of his appeal. He expects an answer because of God's heart, not his own record.
- Christ's pattern. Jesus rose long before day to be with His Father. That is where strength for the day's work comes from — and why we so often lack it.
Mine eyes anticipate the night-watches, that I may meditate in thy word.
In verse 147 the psalmist cries for help before dawn. Here he is awake through the night as well, with his mind at work on what God has said. Two questions follow: what did the older wording "prevent the night watches" mean, and why does this man give up sleep for Scripture?
Older translations say his eyes "prevent the night watches." Today that sounds as if he stopped them. One writer lists this among the words in the Psalms that have changed meaning:
To change Old English words whose meaning used to be different from what it is now. The old word now misleads. For instance, "leasing" (Ps. 4:2, Ps. 5:6) is not gleaning, but "lying"... So "prevent" (Ps. 21:3; Ps. 59:10; Ps. 79:8; Ps. 88:13; Ps. 119:147-148) is equivalent to our modern word "anticipate."
So his eyes get there first. The night ran in set watches, and he was awake ahead of them.
This verse sits in a group of eight (145–152) where enemies press the psalmist hard. One commentator reads verses 147 and 148 together as one picture of real reliance on God:
His dependence is not just a passive admission that he owes everything to God. It is an active, whole-hearted dependence that calls on God. He calls with such diligence that he rises before dawn to cry to the Lord. His dependence also comes out of confidence, for he can say, "I hope in your words." So the godly man is marked by dependence, obedience, and confidence. And the Word he trusts becomes what he meditates on in the quiet of the night watches.
The same devotion runs right through the psalm, and the writer keeps returning to it at both ends of the day:
He is ever at it. "Seven times a day" does he praise Jehovah (v. 164). Before the morning breaks he cried: "I hoped in Thy Word" (v. 14). At night he robs the night watches of slumber, as he says, "that I might meditate in Thy Word" (v. 148).
The word "meditate" now carries ideas the psalmist would not recognise. One writer marks the difference:
Meditation has got itself a bad name with Christians, because it is so often linked to Buddhism and eastern religions, where it means emptying the mind. The psalmist's meditation had nothing to do with that. His was a focused meditation — reflecting on God's word.
Why give the slow hours of the night to it instead of just reading more? Because reading and absorbing are not the same thing:
One reason things have so little hold over our hearts is that we meditate on them so little. If we are ever to make truth our own, we must sit down alone and quietly and think it over. I am sure God does meet His people in a wonderful way through a passing verse or line of Scripture. But that is not the same as meditation, and study will not make up for meditation either. It is meditation that forms the affections of the heart.
The wakefulness is not leisure. It comes out of trouble, and it turns towards God's character:
His soul was so deeply concerned that he rose from sleep before dawn to cry for help, for his hope was in God's Word (v. 147). In fact, through the night he lay awake with the same concern to meditate in the Word of God. Can there be any doubt that the Lord would hear and respond to the voice of his supplications? Not at all. He is a God of loving-kindness, and He would revive His troubled servant according to His justice, which is just as involved as His loving-kindness (v. 149).
Other writers hear in this section the voice of a faithful group in Israel under pressure from enemies:
In the darkness of the night they hope in God's word, and count on His loving-kindness. If the enemy has come near, they are sure that Jehovah is near, and that they can rely on His word at all times.
So what does a busy reader today do with a man who stayed awake to think about Scripture?
Most of us are very busy, with far too much to do. We read the word, we pray and then move on to something else... Here is a man choosing to stay awake at night to reflect on, think about, and chew over what God has written. Meditation was of enormous importance to the psalmist... All-night sessions may not be practical for many of us, but giving time for quiet reflection on what God has written should be a habit for each of us.
- Anticipate. "Prevent" means to get there first. His eyes open ahead of the night watches, so God's Word gets the first hour, not the leftover one.
- Pressure. Trouble is what wakes him. Surrounded by enemies, he lies awake with the Word instead of his fears.
- Focus. This meditation is not an emptying of the mind but a filling of it with what God has written.
- Formation. Study alone will not do the work. Turning truth over alone and quietly is what shapes the affections of the heart.
- Habit. All-night sessions may not suit everyone. But unhurried reflection on God's Word should be a regular habit, not an emergency measure.