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.