The bands of the wicked have wrapped me round I have not forgotten thy law.
In the verse before, the psalmist says he hurried to keep God's commandments (v. 60). At once the wicked close in around him. Two facts stand side by side here. Enemies cause him real loss. The loss does not erase his memory of God's law.
Note: the writers quoted below use a version that reads, "The bands of the wicked have robbed me, but I have not forgotten your law."
This verse follows a decision to obey. The trouble arrives at once.
(vv. 61-62) Whoever sets out to obey the Lord will at once find the wicked against him. But he has the Lord for his portion, so he stands steady and unmoved. However much evil presses upon him he does not forget the Word. At midnight — the darkest moment — he can rise to praise the Lord.
The verse never says God stopped the raid. One writer sets it beside other troubles in the psalm and points to what God allows.
Here God hadn't protected him from the bands of the wicked (v. 61). God hasn't stopped the proud lying about him (v. 69)… Sometimes God allows a situation, a path for us that we don't like, one we would not choose. The Lord allows it. Perhaps He allows it to test our faith, perhaps to discipline, perhaps to draw us closer to Him. Whatever the reason, God allows it. The psalmist responded by remembering God's words. He focuses on what God has written. He meditates on it, keeps it with his whole heart, and delights in it.
Earlier in this same section the psalmist called the Lord his portion (v. 57). The thief is after that portion. The attack is a backhanded compliment.
As soon as the heart turns after Christ, the enemy comes in. He tries to rob the soul of its portion, of its enjoyment of Christ. Is this not what the words of the Psalm point to? "The bands of the wicked have robbed me, but I have not forgotten your law." Let us not be discouraged when the enemy tries to rob us of the enjoyment of our portion in Christ. If the enemy is busy, let us take courage. He would not attack us if we did not have something of real value that he wanted to take from us.
The theft is real, but limited — and the second half of the verse names the counter-move.
The apostle Paul says that we should not be ignorant of Satan's devices. The Lord Jesus says: "…hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown." Satan cannot make us lose our salvation or eternal life. But he can rob us of much that makes up that "crown." To counter this strategy of the enemy, the believer should busy himself with the Word of God: "…I have not forgotten your law."
There is a subtler loss than property. A man can fight wickedness and end up with a mind shaped by the thing he fights.
This path may bring suffering. Those who hate the Lord oppose us, and they are the instruments of Satan. But the inward life stays steady and true. It does not swerve in how it judges its own path: "I have not forgotten your law." We may be so taken up with opposition and evil that it forms the state of our mind, even though we stand against the wicked. That is only meeting flesh with flesh. The one who looks to the Lord lets the unforgotten word shape his path in this scene of wickedness. That leads him to see God as the One who deals with these things.
Isaac, son of Abraham, re-opened the wells his father had dug. The Philistines seized them one after another. One writer puts the psalmist's words on his lips.
Isaac began to dig the wells his father had drunk from, but the Philistines fought him for them. He could have said with the Psalmist, "The bands of the wicked have robbed me." Isaac did not give up his digging, even when the enemy fought him for the second well. He kept going, and the enemy gave up the struggle. At Rehoboth he found a place where the Lord made room for him. Then he moved on to Beersheba. There the Lord appeared to him, and there he had communion with God.
- Portion first. The section opens with the Lord as the psalmist's portion. That is what steadies him when the wicked press in, and that is what the thief wants.
- Portion attacked. The enemy targets the enjoyment of Christ — proof that you hold something worth stealing.
- Portion permitted. God did not prevent the raid. He allowed it. The psalmist answered by remembering what God had written.
- Portion guarded. Satan cannot touch your salvation, but he can rob you of much that makes up your crown. The guard is a mind full of the Word, not a mind shaped by the evil it fights.
- Portion regained. Isaac kept digging after each theft, and ended at the place where God appeared to him.
At midnight I rise up to give thanks unto thee, because of thy righteous judgments.
At the darkest hour of the night, the writer of this psalm is awake — not complaining, but praising God. What makes a person praise at midnight, and why do God's "righteous rules" draw out thanks instead of fear?
Just before this, the psalm speaks of the wicked closing in. One writer ties the two together: pressure from enemies is the setting for this praise.
Anyone set on obeying the Lord will at once find that the wicked are against him. But he has the Lord for his portion, so he stands steady and unmoved. However much evil presses upon him he does not forget the Word. At midnight — the darkest moment — he can rise to praise the Lord.
Anger is the natural response when evil is all around. One writer shows what happens instead when the heart looks up.
This is a comfort. An upright mind would often rise up in anger against public evil, but the wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God... when we look above, we have songs in the night. The heart that has one aim, led by God in His ways, has springs of joy that wake it up in the time of evil, and when it is alone with God. Sorrow may be all around, but there is joy with Him. The heart rises. There is a chord in it ready to praise. It is not only comforted in the sorrow, but set free from the bond of evil, and active in praising Him whom it knows, and who is its portion.
The thanks has a reason attached: God's righteous judgments. One writer says what it is about them that overflows into praise.
In the night his heart would overflow with praise, and he had to get up to express it. The cause was the righteousness of God's judgments — the perfect moral way in which they settle every question.
Midnight is an odd hour to choose. The oddity is the point: he gives up something to make room for this. (Older translations read "give thanks" where the ESV reads "praise.")
At midnight (a most unlikely time) the psalmist speaks of rising to give thanks to God (v. 62). Even his sleep matters less than the practice of thanksgiving — thanksgiving here because of God's righteous judgments.
Midnight is not only a time on the clock. One writer reads it as the hard stretches of a life, and says we would be poorer without them.
When... we come to Christ as the One in whom we have life for our souls, we can say with the Psalmist, "At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You." Thank God for the midnight experiences of life! If everything went well for us, it would be easy to be a Christian. But we would miss much of the joy we find in Christ in times of trouble. We rejoice in the touches of divine grace and love as the Lord walks with us in the valley.
When you cannot sleep, this verse gives you something to do.
When all is quiet at last, God can speak. Job knew about this when he said: "For God speaks once, yes twice, yet man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, while they slumber in bed. Then He opens the ears of men…" (Job 33:14-16). Paul and Silas: "…at midnight… prayed, and sang praises to God: and the prisoners heard them" (Acts 16:25)... So sleeplessness can sometimes be a hidden blessing. In any case it is always a good habit when we suffer from sleeplessness to praise and pray.
Midnight is not the only hour in this psalm. One writer sets the verse beside the others, and points to the renewed heart behind them all.
The man with the renewed heart rises at midnight to give thanks to the Lord because of His righteous judgments. Before the dawn he is hoping in God's word. Through the hours of the night he thinks deeply on the law of the Lord. His mind and soul and affections ever turn to the Lord, as the flower turns to the sun.
- Midnight. The hour named is the darkest moment, and evil is pressing on him — yet he rises to praise.
- Not anger. An upright mind would burn with anger at public evil. Looking above turns that into songs in the night.
- His judgments. The praise has a reason: they settle every question in a perfect moral way.
- Lost sleep. Even sleep is not as important as the practice of thanksgiving.
- Your midnight. Trouble, and even sleeplessness, can be a hidden blessing. The habit for that hour is to praise and pray.