GIMEL. Deal bountifully with thy servant [and] I shall live; and I will keep thy word.
Verse 17 opens the third section of Psalm 119, the eight verses under the Hebrew letter Gimel. It starts with a prayer, not with a promise to obey. The writer asks God to be generous with him, and he says why: he wants to live and keep God's word. So how do God's generosity and our obedience fit together?
The prayer assumes that the ability to obey is not something the writer already has in hand. One commentator draws out how the order runs — bounty received, then the word kept:
We depend completely on God for the ability to experience things this way. Left to himself, man walks about in an empty show and troubles himself for nothing. True life begins for us in the bountiful grace of God, and it shows itself in keeping His word. The same power that brings us into this life must keep working to hold us there. And in this way we come to know marvelous things! With eyes fully awake, what glories may come into view! Plainly, what we have here is the language of prayer. Nothing is more needed than the constant sense of dependence.
He is not asking for generosity in general. God's own word sets the measure:
He asks for the Lord's goodness according to His word and within it. That word is the delight and guide of the Israel of God, no matter who despises it.
He calls himself God's servant. That place is part of the plea:
He pleads the servant's place he has taken, so that God may deal with him in divine love and teach him His statutes. He is God's servant. As a servant he needs discernment to know the testimonies he has to hold on to in a time of bold rebellion — and he may press the fact that he needs it.
The servant asks for three things. The third goes further than knowing facts:
He admits that life itself is in God's hands. He looks to the Lord's bountiful mercy to spare him, to keep him walking in obedience, and to open his eyes to behold wondrous things out of the law. This is more than finding a rule of life in the law. Anyone can do that much on his own. Only the servant with opened eyes will behold "wondrous things."
Living and keeping God's word form one request here, not two:
Verses 17 and 117 tie life and obedience together completely. For the man of God, to live and to serve the living God are one and the same thing.
The same commentary presses the point further. Grace does not loosen the link between life and obedience:
Man lives by the word of God — by obeying it. Nothing else feeds and sustains the true life of man. Bread will not sustain it. Only the life of obedience is really life. … Because sin is in us all, the covenant of law had no life in it. Yet in another sense there really is a path of life, though grace alone can put us in it or keep us there. Eternal life and disobedience are in fact opposites. The gospel does not change this. Grace fully affirms it: "Sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace."
He prays this under pressure. Notice what he wants God's mercy for:
In the third part we clearly see him leaning on God's mercy in trial, with the law in his heart. The godly Israelite looks for the Lord's bountiful dealing, but he wants it so that he may obey from the heart (v. 17).
Later in the psalm the writer looks back. One commentator ties that later word to this prayer, and notes what came in between:
In verse 67 he speaks of the affliction he went through. He has learned this. Even when the Lord deals with us in discipline, we can give thanks afterwards and say, "You have done good with Your servant." … That word in Psalm 119, "You have dealt well with Your servant," answers the prayer he prayed in verse 17: "Deal bountifully with Your servant…" Can you look back and thank the Lord for everything?
- Ask — the verse is a prayer, not a promise to try harder. Obedience starts with asking, because we depend on God even for the power to obey.
- Bounty — God's own word shapes the generosity he asks for. The same grace that starts a life of obedience must keep it going.
- Servant — he pleads the place he has taken. A servant asks God to spare him, to keep him walking, and to open his eyes. That is more than using Scripture as a rule book.
- Live — to live and to keep His word are one thing. Obedience is not added to life; it is life. Bread alone will never sustain it.
- Answer — later he says God has dealt well with him, discipline included. God answered the prayer of verse 17. So we can look back and thank Him for everything.
Open mine eyes, and I shall behold wondrous things out of thy law.
Psalm 119 is a long poem in praise of God's word, and at verse 18 the writer asks God for something he cannot give himself. The words are already in front of him; what he lacks is the sight to see them.
Anyone can pick up a Bible. But holding the book is not the same as being able to see what is in it.
The Holy Scriptures are open to all men, but not all have the capacity to perceive what is in them. Before anyone can grasp any of the wonderful things of God, he must be born again. We see this in the words of the Son of God on earth. He said to Nicodemus, "unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). New birth gives a man the sight to discern the things of God; it opens his eyes to view what is divine.
You do not need opened eyes to get something useful out of the law.
To behold wondrous things out of the law is more than discovering in the law a rule of life. The natural man can do this much; only the servant with opened eyes will behold "wondrous things."
Wondrous things — but wondrous about what? One writer answers by first ruling out what many expect.
The single eye is God-given, and it looks with wonder into the law. "Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Your law" (Ps. 119:18) is the prayer of a man who has the single eye. Surprise fills him as these wondrous things unfold before him. But what are these wondrous things? Not the corruption of his own heart; that is not wondrous. They are God's character and will. They are His desire that men should draw near to Him, and know and respond to the love that is in His heart for them.
The law is more than a list of rules. Read this way, it points forward to a person.
The law was like a beautiful portrait — the portrait of a perfect man. Some could appreciate its beauty, like the Psalmist who prayed this very prayer. When Jesus came, every feature of it found living expression in Him. He was the original. He filled out every jot and tittle of it, brought out all its beauty and made it alive. Now the anointed eye can look on His life on earth and see in Him the blessed Man whose delight was in the law of God.
One writer points to the people in this psalm: they once despised God's law, and now they love it.
In Psalm 119 you will find the whole Hebrew alphabet run through eight times, declaring the perfections of the law of God. That is the very law they had despised, now written in their hearts. So they can say, "Oh how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day." And they can pray, "Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Your law." This is not a repetition of Sinai. There the law was God's claim on the natural man, and it could only condemn him. Here it is the will of a gracious God, delighted in by a people born anew.
This prayer has a place in ordinary Bible reading.
Read the Word prayerfully. In prayer you speak to God; through the Word God speaks to you. While your eyes rest on the sacred page, lift your heart to God. Ask Him to open the eye of faith to "behold wondrous things" out of His law (Ps. 119:18). Remember that the Spirit of God is your Teacher... When you discover some fresh aspect of truth, when you dig out some treasure you did not know was there, meditate on it. Speak to God about it. Praise Him for it.
God's answer can come in stages.
In Mark 8 we read of a blind man near Bethsaida whom Jesus healed. After the Lord's first act the man said, "I see people, but they look like trees, walking." He could see, but not as he should, so Christ acted again. The Lord gave the man the power of sight, then the power to use his sight to tell one object from another. This suggests the step-by-step way in which we come to grasp the truths of Scripture.
- Blind first. The Bible is open to everyone, but sight is not; a person must be born again before the things of God register at all.
- Sight given. New birth supplies the eye. Anyone can pull rules out of the law, but only opened eyes see wonders.
- Wonders named. What comes into view is not your own heart, but God's character, His will, and His desire that people draw near to Him.
- Christ seen. The law is a portrait of a perfect man; when Jesus came, He was the original, and the anointed eye finds Him there.
- Sight sharpening. Like the man who first saw people as trees, understanding comes in stages. So pray this every time you open your Bible.