RESH. See mine affliction, and deliver me; for I have not forgotten thy law.
These verses are set in affliction. Enemies press hard on the writer, and he asks God to look at what is happening to him. What gives a sufferer the standing to ask that? And what does he expect God to do?
This prayer assumes something about God's character. One writer puts it this way, taking verses 153 and 154 together:
The psalmist knows that God is not indifferent to the trials of those who remain faithful to His Word. Therefore he appeals to the Lord to look upon his affliction. What matters to God's people must matter to God. So the psalmist can put his case into God's hands. He does not try to answer his enemies. Instead he asks God to plead his cause, deliver him from his afflictions, and keep his soul in the energy of life.
The psalm does not begin here. It begins with what the law meant to the heart. Only later do the enemies crowd in. One writer traces that shape and draws a principle from it:
The one who opens his heart to God is now taken up with the persecutors and enemies, with God's deliverance and with the need of help. That was much less so at the beginning. At the start, what the law was for the heart was more in view. It is always so. With Christ the word of blessing comes first; at the end He faces enemies, and looks for deliverance. So with Paul. He begins by carrying out the blessing. At the close he has to deal with persecution and desertion too. It is always so when someone keeps on doing good, because God's testimony in every form and faithfulness draws out opposition… But where the heart and the way are righteous, the affliction becomes a ground for pleading with God.
Faithfulness draws opposition, and that affliction is what puts the prayer in his mouth.
The second half of the verse is his reason for asking. One commentator reads it as a real claim, and follows the stanza on into what he asks next:
With firm purpose to overcome evil, the psalmist prays confidently, "Look on my affliction and deliver me" (v. 153). He surely has title to pray this way, for he did not forget God's law. He speaks as depending on God to be his attorney and plead his cause. He asks further than this too: that God would redeem him, that is, set him free from any bondage laid on him. Then he also asks God to do a work in him, that is, to revive him in keeping with the Word of God (v. 154).
So he asks three things, not one: God as his advocate, God as his rescuer, God as the one who gives him new life.
That "title to pray" needs guarding, or the verse turns into a boast. Another writer, summarising this section, states the limit:
The keynote of the sixth section is the prayer of the second verse, "Plead my cause." To that end the psalmist spreads his case out before God. The wicked cannot hope for deliverance. But he does not hesitate to stand in the judgment he invites. That judgment, of course, is not at all a matter of any absolute righteousness. It rests only on integrity of heart in the middle of much weakness and many adversaries.
The same writer adds who is fit to plead the case, and draws a line between weakness and wickedness:
The affliction he is in makes him seek deliverance. So he asks God to take up his cause — that Jehovah, who fully knows, would Himself plead it. He owns his utter weakness and has no need to hide it. But he is not among the wicked who do not seek the divine statutes.
Verse 153 opens a group of eight verses. One summary of them lays out what he asks for:
RESH. Verses 153-160. Here the cry is for deliverance from affliction, for the Lord to plead the cause of the righteous, and for redemption. Three times over (verses 154, 156, 159) comes the cry to be revived, so that life in the power of God's word might be known in practice. When the Lord steps in for His people, He will not spare the wicked who have persecuted, oppressed and betrayed others.
- Not forgotten by him. He kept hold of God's word under pressure. He "did not forget God's law," and that gives him title to pray.
- Not forgotten by God. He asks God to look, sure that God "is not indifferent to the trials of those who remain faithful to His Word."
- Not a boast. The claim is "not at all a matter of any absolute righteousness, but only of integrity of heart in the middle of much weakness."
- Not answered by self-defence. He never argues back at his enemies; he puts his case into God's hands and asks Him to plead it.
- Not rescue only. He asks for more than rescue — life in the power of God's word, not just relief from trouble.
Plead my cause, and redeem me quicken me according to thy word.
Psalm 119:154 is the prayer of a man under pressure. He stops arguing with his opponents and hands the whole case to God, asking to be rescued and to be made alive again by God's own promise.
The psalmist does not answer his attackers. He treats his trouble as God's own concern and lets God do the arguing.
The psalmist knows that God is not indifferent to the trials of those who stay faithful to His Word. So he asks the Lord to look upon his affliction. More than that, what concerns God's people must concern God Himself. That is why the psalmist can put his case into God's hands. He does not try to answer his enemies. Instead he asks God to plead his cause, to deliver him from his afflictions, and to keep his soul in the energy of life.
This verse sets the tone for the eight verses it belongs to. It comes from a man who admits he has no strength of his own.
The affliction he is in makes him seek deliverance. The wicked cannot hope for it, and so he appeals for his cause to be taken up — yes, that Jehovah, who knows it all, would plead it Himself. He has not forgotten Jehovah's law. Yet from the start he owns his need: living energy must be given to him by God, who has pledged Himself to him for such need. He admits his complete weakness and does not need to hide it. But he is not among the wicked, who do not seek the divine statutes.
The psalmist invites God's verdict on himself. That invitation is not a claim to be faultless.
The keynote of the sixth section is the prayer of the second verse, "Plead my cause." To that end the psalmist spreads it before God. He does not doubt that he will stand in the judgment he invites. That judgment is not a matter of absolute righteousness at all. It is only a matter of integrity of heart amid much weakness and many adversaries.
The first two requests belong together. Scripture pairs them elsewhere too. The God who takes up a case is the Redeemer strong enough to settle it.
If Assyria and her proud rival competed in oppressing Israel with contempt, Jehovah would plead the cause of His people to the full. "Thus says the LORD of hosts: The people of Israel are oppressed, and the people of Judah with them. … Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name. He will surely plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, but unrest to the inhabitants of Babylon."
The third request is not a repeat of the first two. Getting out of trouble is one thing. Having strength to live well is another. He asks for both.
But along with deliverance, he also seeks quickening — the practical power of life according to the word and the revealed judgments of God. When righteousness is loved in the heart, he seeks it in liberty and power. He seeks outward security in the word, but inward power too. Thinking of Jehovah's tender mercies, he asks to be quickened according to God's judgments. The felt goodness of God always leads to the desire for His will.
One asking is not enough. In this same short section the plea comes back again and again, each time thrown afresh on God's mercy.
He casts himself, therefore, afresh upon Jehovah's tender mercies for this living power, for a life according to the judgments of His truth and holiness. His adversaries are many, but they have not turned him aside from the path of His testimonies. … He invites Jehovah Himself to see how he loves His precepts. Nature holds back, and for that reason he asks a third time that he may know His quickening power.
Older translations read "quicken me according to your word", and the writers below use that older wording. Earlier in this psalm the writer says God's word has already made him alive, yet he keeps asking. That repetition shows what the word means here.
The Psalmist says that God's Word has quickened him in verse 50, yet again and again he desires to be quickened. Here the word plainly carries the sense of being revived, of being restored to more vigorous life.
- Affliction. God does not overlook the trouble of those loyal to His word. That trouble becomes the ground of the appeal.
- Handover. He does not answer his enemies. He spreads the case before the God who knows it all and asks Him to argue it.
- Redeemer. The One who pleads the cause of the oppressed is also strong enough to redeem them — the plea and the rescue are one act.
- Life. Deliverance from outside is only half the prayer. The other half is inward power to live by God's judgments. He asks for it again and again, always resting on God's tender mercies.
- Word. God's promise sets the measure of the new life he asks for. The word that first gave him life is the word he looks to for reviving it.