TAU. Let my cry come near before thee, Jehovah give me understanding according to thy word.
Psalm 119 ends not with a shout of victory but with a plea. The writer asks that his cry reach God. He asks that God give him understanding measured by His own word. This is a man in trouble. He asks for a mind shaped by Scripture before he asks for anything else.
Why does the psalm end this way? One commentator explains, and shows who these words speak for:
It may seem strange that in this last section of the psalm the psalmist is crying out for God to step into his troubles. We might expect him instead to end with the triumphant joy of blessing already received. But this is the language of Israel. They are suffering, just before the gracious deliverance God will give them at the time of the end. So it holds instruction that should appeal to Israel in a time of suffering. It also helps believers now who have not found the full knowledge of deliverance from the power of indwelling sin.
What does he want his cry to bring him? Light — and light from one source only:
Their cry goes up to Jehovah for light to break out from His word for them: there could be no true knowledge except through the Word, which also gives them life so that they can have it.
One commentator sums up both verses in one line:
(Verses 169-170) The prayer of the godly man for a mind formed by the Word of God, and for the Lord's deliverance from his trials.
The phrase "according to your word" carries weight. It names the measure of the understanding he wants. It also sets an order — cries first, praise afterwards:
When men have gone astray, cries and pleas come first, praises and testimony after. Still the cry and the plea is a godly one, though it comes out of need. He seeks understanding, intelligence — not exactly of the word, but according to it. It is that wisdom in discernment which those taught in God's word have. They see clearly in what is before them. No doubt it is God's mind and will they discern; but they discern in circumstances. They walk not as fools, but as wise. The word has formed their judgment.
If understanding could be earned by study alone, the verse would be unnecessary. One writer locates the real bottleneck elsewhere:
This is the secret of true intelligence: people do not understand the word by having brighter minds than others, but by a more obedient heart. It is the single-eyed desire to do the will of God that ensures intelligence of His word. And it is the Spirit of God who produces both the one and the other. It is our own will that darkens the understanding. Where the Spirit of God gives a soul the desire to please the Lord, the obstacle in the way of His word disappears. When by grace we want to do His will, the light of God is not withheld.
Will such a prayer be heard? The same commentator points to the psalmist's repeated word "let":
Four times the word "let" is used to ask God to step in, for the psalmist knows that only what God allows will be effective. Of course, God would fully allow his cry to come before Him, and He is glad to give His saints understanding according to His Word.
The verse is meant to be used. One writer ties it to how we handle Scripture, and to whom we should not trust:
This shows how vital it is to use Scripture prayerfully, as we may read in Luke 10:39 — 11:4 and Acts 6:4. "Let my cry come before you, O LORD; give me understanding according to your word!" This is as necessary to glorify Him in our souls as in our service of His name. "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Zeal and energy without it expose us to constant danger. As men of God, we ought to trust neither our own hearts nor the direction of others. We ought to obey God rather than men.
- Cry first. Pleading comes before praise. A cry born out of need is still a godly cry, and the psalm ends with such cries.
- Understanding, not information. He asks for understanding according to the word — a judgment so formed by Scripture that he sees his own circumstances clearly.
- Obedience unlocks it. A more obedient heart understands the word, not a brighter mind. The Spirit produces both the desire and the discernment.
- God is willing. The psalmist prays "let," because only what God allows will work. And God is glad to give His people understanding according to His Word.
- Then the mouth opens. Prayer leads to praise, and praise to speaking to others. That order — cry, understanding, praise, testimony — is the pattern of the whole section.
Let my supplication come before thee deliver me according to thy word.
Psalm 119 ends with a section where the writer is still in trouble and still asking. Verse 170 is the second of two requests. First he asks that his cry reach God at all. Then he asks for rescue — rescue measured by what God has already said.
Verse 169 asks that a cry come near. Verse 170 asks with more force. Older translations call it a "supplication" where the ESV has "plea." One writer notes the rise in intensity, then points to the phrase that makes the prayer impossible to ignore:
In verse 170 the cry rises to supplication — and he asks for deliverance, also according to God's Word. How could God ever ignore a prayer like this one, made "according to His Word"? For God's Word will stand when all else fails.
Verse 170 asks with the word "let," and so do the verses around it. That is not weak praying. It is how a person prays who knows the outcome rests with God, not with the force of his own asking.
Four times he uses the word "let" as he longs for God to step in, for the psalmist knows that only what God allows will be effective. Of course, God would fully allow his cry to come before Him, and He is glad to give His saints understanding according to His Word.
The words "according to your word" ask for nothing beyond what God has already promised. One writer points to what happens when you pray with a Bible promise in hand:
You will find it the very strength of your soul to go before God with a verse from Scripture and say: "This is written in Your word. Because You cannot lie, I know that I have got that thing."
The same two requests run through the whole closing section — light from God's word, and the deliverance His word promises:
Their cry goes up to Jehovah, asking that light break out from His word for them. There could be no true knowledge except through the Word, and the Word also gives them life so that they may have that knowledge. They plead the promise of deliverance too. When He has delivered them and taught them His statutes, their lips will pour out praise.
Verse 170 asks; praise and public witness only come in the verses after it. That order holds a lesson about where our speaking to others should come from:
When men have gone astray, cries and supplications go first, praises and testimony after. Still the cry and supplication is a godly one, though it arises from need… Then the soul looks to be heard and delivered. Still its delight is in God's revealed will. The soul will praise when God has truly taught it — thankfulness comes first — because His will is our own portion first of all, and it comes from God. Then we are free to speak of it to others.
Another writer finds the same movement in the shape of the whole psalm.
The psalm opens with prayer, continues in praise, leading to testimony. This is ever the divine order.
The person praying verse 170 has not yet been rescued. Commentators read this closing section as the voice of a faithful group within Israel in a time of trial — still waiting, still asking:
Verses 169-176. Cries and supplication to Jehovah mark this closing section, because deliverance has not come yet. The remnant long for deliverance, divine help and salvation, and for the time when they shall praise God's righteousness, as taught of Him. In the middle of the trials there is delight in the law of the Lord, along with the confession of having gone astray and so needing God to seek them.
- Cry. The plea in verse 170 is stronger than the one before it. Need presses the words out, and need does not make a prayer less godly.
- Let. The asking stays open-handed. Only what God permits will take effect, and He gladly gives what His word has already offered.
- Word. "According to your word" is both the measure and the guarantee of the rescue. God will not ignore a prayer that asks for nothing beyond His promise, for that promise stands when all else fails.
- Order. Prayer comes first, praise follows deliverance, and testimony to others follows praise. We speak to people out of what we have first received from God.
- Waiting. This prayer comes in the dark, before any answer shows. Delight in God's word and honest confession of having wandered belong to that waiting, not only to the rescue.
My lips shall pour forth praise when thou hast taught me thy statutes.
This verse comes near the end of the longest psalm, right after the writer begs God to hear his cry and rescue him. He answers rescue with praise, not another plea — and the reason he gives is that God teaches him.
One commentator traces an order that runs through the whole psalm.
The result of his deliverance will be praise to God, and testimony to men. Praise and testimony can only flow from a soul that God has taught. So the psalmist says, "My lips shall utter praise, when You have taught me Your statutes." At once he adds, "My tongue shall speak of Your word." The psalm opens with prayer, continues in praise, and leads to testimony. This is always the divine order.
Note: the quotations here follow older translations ("when You have taught me Your statutes"); the ESV reads "for you teach me your statutes."
Verse 170 pleads for rescue. This verse does not plead at all.
In verse 170 the cry rises to earnest pleading — and he asks for deliverance, also according to God's Word. How can a prayer like this ("according to His Word") ever be ignored? For God's Word will stand when all else fails. So verse 171 is not prayer, but a declaration of a proper response, "My lips shall utter praise, for You teach me Your statutes."
Praise here has a condition: God's teaching. One writer draws out why thanks comes before speech.
When men have gone astray, cries and pleading come first, praise and testimony after… The soul will praise when God has truly taught it. Thankfulness comes first, because what He teaches is our own portion first of all, and comes from God. Then we have liberty to speak of it to others.
He presses the same principle on preachers and teachers.
This is an important principle too. No testimony, no preaching, no teaching is right teaching when the soul is not filled for itself first from God. The content may be sound, and it is still not right teaching. We must drink for ourselves so that rivers may flow. Indeed, everything else dries up the soul.
Teaching of this kind shows itself in how a person reads their own situation.
He asks for understanding — not exactly understanding of the word, but understanding according to it. This is the wisdom in discernment that those taught in God's word have. They see clearly what is in front of them. What they discern is God's mind and will, but they discern it in their own circumstances. They do not walk as fools, but as wise. The word has formed their judgment.
One writer defines the word the psalmist uses, and names the Teacher behind the teaching.
The Holy Spirit is our Teacher, and He can teach us the will of God through the means grace uses (John 14:26). So let us echo the prayer of the Psalmist to the Lord: "…teach me Your statutes", and remember that a statute means "a divine direction to secure our obedience, and to keep us from disobedience".
One writer, commenting on the same prayer back in verse 33, pairs it with a second one:
The desire of the soul to be taught by the Lord the way of His statutes — "Teach me, O Lord." Teaching, however, is not enough. We need the opened heart as well as the opened Scriptures. So comes the prayer, "Give me understanding."
Why lips? One writer sees the whole person at work here.
Every part of him is aflame with intense desire for God's thoughts for him. Every part of his body is called into service. They are like the strings of the harp of his soul, making melody to God as he rejoices in His law.
One writer sees this praise reaching the nations.
They plead the promise of deliverance too. When God has delivered them and taught them His statutes, their lips will pour out praise. And so they will. The last verse here implies, I think, their testimony to the nations… Their tongue will speak aloud of what God has said, and the world will hear it.
- Order — Prayer comes first, praise second, testimony third. One writer calls this the divine order. This verse stands between the cry and the song.
- Taught — Praise is conditional on teaching. A statute is a divine direction that secures obedience and keeps us from disobedience. The prayer "teach me" needs "give me understanding" with it.
- Filled — You must drink for yourself before rivers flow. No preaching or teaching is right teaching when the soul has not first been filled from God.
- Lips — Every part joins in, like strings on a harp. The lips are where the praise becomes loud enough for others to hear.
- Heard — What starts as thanks to God ends as testimony to the nations, until the world hears it.
My tongue shall speak aloud of thy word; for all thy commandments are righteousness.
Psalm 119 closes with a section where the writer is still in trouble and still asking God to hear him. Yet he already promises what his mouth will do once God has taught him. Verse 172 is that promise. His tongue will speak God's word, because every commandment God gives is right.
Some writers below use an older translation. Where the ESV has the tongue "sing," it has "speak" or "speak aloud." Where the ESV says the commandments are "right," it says they are "righteousness."
Verse 172 sits in the psalm's last section of eight verses, headed by the Hebrew letter Tau. One writer sums up what marks that closing section:
TAU. Verses 169-176. Cries and pleading to the Lord mark this closing section, because deliverance has not yet come. The remnant long for deliverance, for divine help and salvation. They long for the time when they will praise God's righteousness, as He has taught them. In the middle of the trials there is delight in the law of the Lord. There is also the confession of having gone astray, and so needing God to seek them out.
Verse 171 ties praise to God's teaching. Verse 172 adds the tongue. One writer traces that order and shows what has to come first:
The result of his deliverance will be praise to God, and testimony to men. Praise and testimony can, however, only flow from a soul that is taught by God. So the psalmist says, "My lips will pour out praise, when You have taught me Your statutes." At once he adds, "My tongue will speak of Your word." The psalm opens with prayer, continues in praise, and leads to testimony. This is always the divine order.
Why does praise stand first and speaking second? Another writer answers from the order of these closing verses:
When people have gone astray, cries and pleading come first, praises and testimony after… The soul will praise when God has truly taught it. Thankfulness comes first, because the word is our own portion first of all, and it comes from God. Then we have liberty to speak of it to others… No testimony, no preaching, no teaching is right teaching — even if its content is all correct — when the soul is not first filled from God for itself. We must drink for ourselves so that rivers may flow.
The same writer shows what praise grows out of — awe and delight in God's word together:
The heart stands in awe of God's word — a godly feeling. It comes with God's authority, yet he rejoices in it as one who has found great treasure… Because it is God's word, and because we have a new nature and God Himself teaches us, we delight beyond words in what is of Him and reveals Him… All this produces praise, because the heart rises up to the source of these things.
The promise is not private. One writer asks who finally hears this speaking:
When God has delivered them and taught them His statutes, their lips will pour out praise. And so they will. The last verse here implies, I think, their testimony to the nations, and that is what its place points out. Their tongue will speak aloud of God's saying, and the world will hear it.
The second half of the verse gives the reason for speaking at all:
Verse 171 is not prayer. It is a declaration of a proper response: "My lips will pour out praise, for You teach me Your statutes." And if praise is awakened toward God, then there is also a message for others: "My tongue will speak of Your Word" (v. 172). In fact, it is the righteousness of God's commandments that should speak to people everywhere.
The tongue in this verse is one member among many that the psalm puts to work:
Psalm 119 is formed of twenty-two sections, each beginning with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The whole psalm is one long outflow of worshipful joy in the law of the Lord. The writer calls on his soul, heart, eyes, lips, tongue, mouth, hands and feet to take part in this song of praise.
- Taught — Speaking God's word starts with being taught it. Praise and testimony only flow from a soul God has taught.
- Thankful — Thanksgiving comes first. The word is our own portion before it is a message for anyone else.
- Tongue — The psalm calls on soul, heart, eyes, lips, mouth, hands and feet. Here the tongue takes its turn.
- Told out — The speaking reaches the nations. The tongue speaks aloud of God's saying, and the world hears it.
- True — The message carries because God's commandments are righteousness. That should speak to people everywhere.
Let thy hand be for my help; for I have chosen thy precepts.
Psalm 119 closes with a run of cries — for hearing, for understanding, for rescue. Here the psalmist asks for God's hand, and his reason is a choice he has already made — so why does a man who loves God's word still need help?
The call for help comes out of conflict. Standing for God's word draws opposition.
The one who bears witness in an evil world will meet opposition. That opposition calls for support. So the cry goes up: "Let Your hand be ready to help me." He can plead for this help, because he has set his heart on the things of the Lord. His choice, his longing, and his delight all centre on the Word and the salvation of the Lord.
The word "for" carries the weight of the verse. Notice what the psalmist offers God as his ground for asking.
He is aware that God's commandments are righteous. He looks for the hand of Jehovah to help him, because he has chosen His precepts.
This plea has a precedent behind it.
This part gives their plea for God's salvation. First, they have chosen Jehovah's precepts — a plea already allowed in Deuteronomy 30:1-3. Their second plea is their longing for His salvation. They know their need, and they no longer look to other saviours.
Asking for God's "hand" is asking for more than sympathy. It is asking for His grace and power to act.
He wants the hand of God's grace and power to be his help (v. 173). The human hand is a marvellous instrument — and if that is so, how much more the hand of God! And that hand will certainly not fail the one who has chosen God's precepts.
If the choice is the ground of the plea, the choice cannot be partial. Picking and choosing turns obedience into something else.
There is great strength gained by unreserved obedience to the word of God. It will not do to pick and choose. We are prone to this. We take up the commandments and precepts that suit ourselves, but this is really self-will. What right have we to select some precepts from the word and neglect others? None whatever. To do so is, in principle, simply self-will and rebellion. What business has a servant to decide which of his master's commands he will obey? None at all. Every commandment comes clothed with the master's authority, and so it claims the servant's attention.
The prayer for help shows where this speaker stands: still waiting. Nothing around him has changed yet, but his heart already has.
This gives the key to the whole psalm. Israel has gone astray. They desire and love God's law in their hearts, but Jehovah has not delivered them yet, and their circumstances and condition are not yet set right. Yet their hearts are set right, so that He may come in His word. They want His deliverance, and His word is the ground of their hope. We see a similar process when any soul is restored, above all under discipline. Where the heart is upright, it does not seek comfort without restoration.
Writers place this closing section differently. Some hear Israel crying out in a coming day. Others hear any believer under restoration. The prayer reads the same either way.
- Choice. The verse rests on a settled decision. He can plead for help "because he has set his heart on the things of the Lord." What you have chosen becomes what you can bring to God.
- Cost. That choice draws resistance. The one who bears witness in an evil world "will meet opposition." Needing help proves the choice was real. It is not a sign that it failed.
- Claim. God had already allowed this plea in Deuteronomy 30. The psalmist did not invent it.
- Completeness. A real choice takes the whole word. Picking the commands that suit us is "self-will and rebellion," and it destroys the ground of the prayer.
- Confidence. The answer is God's own hand. That hand will not fail the one who has chosen God's precepts, even while circumstances stay the same.
I have longed for thy salvation, O Jehovah, and thy law is my delight.
This verse comes near the end of the longest psalm, where the writer is still waiting for rescue. He holds two things together at once: a longing for God to act, and a present joy in what God has already said.
The verse names what the writer wants and what he already enjoys. One writer points out what each half of the verse quietly refuses.
He looks for the hand of the LORD to help, because he has chosen His precepts. He has longed for the LORD's salvation, and has not trusted in man. The LORD's law has been his delight, not his own will, nor the prosperous man's ways.
So the longing is not vague wishing. It is aimed at God, and it has already turned from every other helper.
Why can someone ask God for salvation like this? Because he has stopped pretending. The longing itself is offered to God as part of the case he brings.
The second part gives their plea for God's salvation. This is, first, that they have chosen the LORD's precepts — a plea already allowed in Deuteronomy 30:1-3. The second is their longing for His salvation. They are not ignorant of their need, and they seek no more to other saviours.
Knowing your need and dropping every substitute are one move, not two. And the plea itself was one God had already allowed.
The verse before it asks for God's hand to help. That request has a setting.
The one who gives a testimony in an evil world will meet opposition. That opposition calls for support, so the cry goes up: "Let your hand help me." He can ask for this help, because his heart is set on the things of the Lord. His choice, his longing, and his delight all centre in the Word and salvation of the Lord.
Choice, longing, delight — all three point one way. That is his ground for asking.
Some prayer only wants the pain to stop. This verse asks for more. What a person delights in shapes the rescue he will accept.
The help of God's hand, the longing for His salvation, is not merely that we may be delivered. That may be sought, even if it is sought only in some side path, not God's way. But when the heart is in God's precepts, only God's salvation is sought.
Relief on any terms is one thing. Waiting for God's own deliverance is another, and delight in His word is what keeps the two apart.
This verse is one line in a psalm with a single theme. One writer used that psalm to press the value of storing Scripture in the heart.
The Spirit of God cannot bring to my memory a Scripture I have never read. And I stress this, dear friends: we cannot overestimate the importance of filling our minds with Scripture... That is why in the 119th Psalm there are only two verses that do not refer to the Word of God. Study that psalm carefully... Notice the 174th verse... It is either the Word of the Lord or the commandment of the Lord, but in every verse it is the Word.
The delight in this verse is therefore not a mood. It is the fruit of a mind filled with what God has said.
Commentators also read the psalm forward, as words that a faithful group in Israel will one day use in a time of great trouble. On that reading, the verse belongs to people whose knowledge is limited but whose hearts are right.
As the godly remnant of Israel pass through the tribulation, they will indeed cry out, "I long for Your salvation, O Lord." They may know very little of what the New Testament teaches. Yet what they do know of the law of God will be their delight (v. 174).
Darby reads the psalm the same way, and names the moment it describes.
This is the moral state of Israel in the last days, when the law is written in their heart, but full deliverance and final blessing have not come.
So the two halves of the verse fit that moment: the law already loved, the salvation still ahead.
- Longing. The cry starts with need owned: they know they need saving, and they have dropped every other rescuer.
- Narrowing. Longing for God's salvation rules out trusting in man; delight in His law rules out following self-will.
- Waiting. A heart set on God's precepts wants only God's salvation, not relief by some side path.
- Sustaining. The answer has not come yet, so the word already read and stored becomes the delight that keeps a tested witness steady.
- Widening. A suffering people will one day pray these same two desires, knowing little but delighting in what they know.
Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; and let thy judgments help me.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
I have gone astray like a lost sheep seek thy servant; for I have not forgotten thy commandments.
Psalm 119 spends 176 verses praising God's word, then ends with a man admitting he has wandered off like a sheep. Why does the longest song of love for God's law close with a prayer to be found?
One writer points out that love for the law and confession of failure run together all through the psalm.
The law is magnified under many different titles, and the spirit of the whole psalm is, "Oh how I love your law!" (v. 97). Yet all through it are confessions of failure judged by its holy standards. There are cries to be made alive — the law never could give life (Galatians 3:21) — and prayers for deliverance.
The picture is exact. A sheep does not plan its escape. It drifts after whatever looks good in front of it.
Sheep are simple. Impulse leads them a great deal, so they are straying creatures (Isaiah 53:6; Psalm 119:176; 1 Peter 2:25). A mouthful of green grass carries the sheep on to a pit, and to the mouth and teeth of lions and wolves. Impulse, rather than faith, is often the guide of weak believers.
The Hebrew word for "lost" here is abad, "to perish." The same word describes a straying animal, and also the righteous man who "perishes" and yet enters into peace (Frederick W. Grant).
A lost sheep cannot retrace its steps. So the prayer is not "help me find You" but "seek me." The sheep is lost, but not disowned.
God says, "Behold, I, I myself will SEARCH for my sheep." They have been scattered, and they have wandered, but they are "mine," says God, and "I will SEARCH for them." May we never forget, whatever the condition of the sheep, they belong to Christ. He thought of them from all eternity... He left His home of glory to seek His sheep... He went as far as the cross to find His sheep.
The last clause is the ground of the appeal. It sets the man's present against his past.
His one desire is to live for the Lord's praise, kept going by the Lord Himself. That is the opposite of his past life, when he followed his own will and went astray like a lost sheep. If he went astray, the Lord sought him. And he can still say, "Seek your servant." Now, unlike in the days when he went astray, he can add, "I do not forget your commandments."
The sheep picture explains the remembering as well as the wandering. A sheep does not forget its proper home (L. M. Grant).
One writer sees this closing verse as the voice of Israel's faithful few, still waiting for God to act.
At the end he admits that he has gone astray. He looks to Jehovah, the Shepherd of Israel, to seek him, for he has not forgotten His commandments. This is the moral state of Israel in the last days. The law is written in their heart, but full deliverance and final blessing have not come.
The same writer does not leave this verse in the future. He turns it on us.
The humbled and repentant remnant — and, I repeat, we too, when we have wandered from God — look for God to seek them, because they were upright in heart and mindful of His commandments.
What the psalm asks for, the New Testament announces as done. Peter writes to believers, "For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls." One writer turns that into a question: "Have we all returned; have you returned? If not, lose no time, but return at once to Jesus, the Overseer of your soul" (W. T. P. Wolston).
- Stray — The longest psalm about God's word ends in an admission of failure, not a claim of success. Love and confession run side by side.
- Sheep — Straying is drift, not defiance. A mouthful of grass at a time, impulse instead of faith, carries the sheep to a pit.
- Seek — The prayer is not "let me find You" but "seek Your servant," because a lost sheep has no power to bring itself home.
- Shepherd — God's answer is "I will search for My sheep"; He owns them, left glory for them, and went as far as the cross to find them.
- Return — A wandering sheep still knows where home is. Peter tells believers the search is over: you "have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls."