HE. Teach me, O Jehovah, the way of thy statutes, and I will observe it [unto] the end.
This verse opens the fifth section of Psalm 119. At this point the writer stops announcing what he will do and starts asking God to work in him. The prayer is simple — teach me. But a promise comes with it, and commentators tie the teaching closely to the keeping.
One writer marks a change of tone at this point in the psalm.
These last verses look for grasp of the ways of God's precepts, so that the heart is taught in the middle of sorrow. Here it is more about keeping and observing it in his path. Otherwise the first three portions were his own resolutions; here it is the demand for God's teaching. For the heart, true in its resolutions, then turns to God. It may turn first with its sorrows, but then for guidance and dependence on Him. We need His teaching even when the will is right. We need understanding from Him, and His help too.
Psalm 119 uses several different words for God's law, each with its own shade. Two of them meet in this one verse — "way" and "statutes."
Several words are used, each meaning the law, but seen from different points of view. … Statute (Choq)—decreed limit. … Way (Derek)—trodden path.
So he asks for a path already marked out and already walked, not for a theory.
The psalmist does not ask for information. He asks to be taught the way so that he can walk in it, holding nothing back. One writer also looks closely at the closing words, "to the end."
He must be taught the way of His statutes. He looks for this as meaning to walk in it, and to walk in it without any mental reservation. Such a reservation is the utter opposite of obedience. It is the leaven of unbelief, and wherever it is found it will leaven the whole life. "I will keep it to the end," says the psalmist; or "to the heel" — the lowest and least noticed part.
The next verse asks for something more than teaching. A person can hear instruction and still not take it in.
(vv. 33-34) 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."
One writer joins the "end" of this verse to the "whole heart" of the next verse. He finds no slavery in that kind of obedience.
"Give me discernment," he says again in his earnestness, "and I shall keep your law; yes, I shall observe it with my whole heart." These two things, the "whole heart" and "to the end," go naturally together. And again he affirms in the next verse: "therein is my delight." So there is no slavery here. The man who is held by his affections is the freest man possible; and so it is here.
The road to the end runs through hard places. The psalmist expects them and still means to keep going.
He is determined to be obedient right to the end. Life has many difficulties and discouragements. But whatever the problems, obeying God and His word is what matters to him. He is determined to keep it until God chooses to take him away.
A prayer to be taught is also an admission. It admits we do not already know the way well enough.
All these verses express his desire to be taught, to receive light and illumination from the Lord. So let us not be wise in our own eyes, or think we know better than the Lord, but repeat with the Psalmist, "Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes…"
- Ask, don't resolve. Earlier in the psalm the writer states his own resolutions. Here the true heart turns from resolve to God and asks Him to teach.
- Way and statute. A statute is a decreed limit and a way is a trodden path. He asks for a route to walk, not information to hold.
- Taught to walk. He asks to be taught so that he can walk in it, holding nothing back. A mental reservation is the opposite of obedience, and it spreads like leaven.
- Heart as well as Scripture. Teaching alone is not enough. The next verse asks for understanding: we need an opened heart along with opened Scriptures.
- To the end, to the heel. "Whole heart" and "to the end" belong together. The man held by his affections is the freest man there is. He keeps going through every difficulty, until God takes him.
Give me understanding, and I will observe thy law; and I will keep it with [my] whole heart.
The psalmist does not promise obedience here. He asks for it. He asks God for the understanding that makes obedience possible, and ties that gift to a kept law and an undivided heart. The verse stands between two other prayers: "Teach me" comes before it, and a prayer to be led comes after.
The previous verse already asked to be taught. This one asks for something more inward — a capacity to receive what is taught.
(vv. 33-34) The soul longs for the Lord to teach it the way of His statutes — "Teach me, O Lord." But teaching is not enough. We need the opened heart as well as the opened Scriptures. So comes the prayer, "Give me understanding" (compare Luke 24:27, 45; 2 Timothy 2:7).
Notice what the psalmist wants understanding for. He is not collecting information. He asks so that he may obey.
Here the psalmist lays his need of the Lord's teaching before Him, so that he may obey and be kept.
The second half of the verse adds two words that change everything: whole heart. Verse 33 adds "to the end." Together the two phrases rule out a divided heart now and a fading one later. This is no burden. It is the mark of a free man.
"Give me understanding," he says again in his earnestness, "that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart." These two things, the "whole heart" and "to the end," belong together. And he says again in the next verse: "I delight in it." So there is no slavery here. The man whose affections compel him is the freest man possible, and that is the case here.
Commentators differ on how to read "your law" here. Some take it as the law given through Moses, kept by a heart God has taught. Others see a different law in view.
If God is really the teacher, we can be sure He will teach us in such a way that we keep His statutes steadily, right to the end (v. 33). In His presence we find understanding that enables us to keep His law — that is, the law of liberty, not the law of Moses. In fact, the whole heart will share in observing this much-loved law (v. 34).
The same writer explains why one command feels like bondage and another feels like freedom.
The law of Sinai was written on tablets of stone; it wrote nothing on the heart. It told men what to do but gave them no desire or power to obey it. To be commanded to do what I have no desire to do is bondage, even if I obey. Now the word of God gives us a perfect revelation of the will of God. By that same word God has also given us a new nature, and this new nature delights to act according to the word. To be commanded to do what I desire to do is liberty.
The verse has a living example in King Josiah. He had already cleared idols out of the temple once. Then the book of the law came to light, and the second clearing went deeper than the first.
These shocking, detestable things were still in the house where the Lord had set His name. That suggests the first cleansing was not very thorough. The second cleansing cleared every vile thing out. But why was the second cleansing more thorough than the first? Because the book of the law had come to light between the two moves. Now the King, at least, saw how hideous the long-tolerated things really were. He now had divine understanding to keep the law, and he sought to observe it with his whole heart (Ps. 119:34).
Verse 34 stands in the middle of three prayers, and their order matters.
(v. 35) We also depend on the Lord for any practical result that may follow His teaching. So the next prayer is, "Lead me in the path of your commandments." Every believer does well to pray these three prayers, and in their God-given order: "Teach me, O Lord," "Give me understanding," and "Lead me in the path."
- Ask — The psalmist does not achieve understanding. He asks for it, laying his need of teaching before God so that he may obey and be kept.
- Receive — An opened Bible is not enough without an opened heart. "Give me understanding" asks for the second.
- Obey — He asks for understanding so that he can keep the law. Josiah shows the pattern: the book came to light, and a half-hearted reform became a thorough one.
- Whole — "Whole heart" and "to the end" belong together; a heart divided today is a heart that quits tomorrow.
- Free — Being told to do what you have no desire to do is bondage. Being told to do what you already desire is liberty. The man ruled by his own affections is the freest man alive.