I am the companion of all that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.
The psalmist has just spoken of the Lord as his portion, and now he names his friends. The verse says nothing about talent, rank or usefulness. The test of company is the fear of God and the keeping of His precepts.
Verse 63 does not stand alone. It grows out of a man who has already settled where his satisfaction lies.
Anyone who can truly say, "The Lord is my portion," will not be alone. He will find others with the same thoughts, feelings and desires. He will be able to say, "I am a companion of all who fear You, of those who keep Your precepts." We can go on together in fellowship, finding our joys in the Lord Himself and in His things. Our walk will be on the path of obedience to His will.
The verses just before this one describe hostility from the wicked. One writer reads verse 63 as the relief that follows.
Freed from the cords of the wicked, he finds that having the Lord as his portion brings him into fellowship with others who fear the Lord and keep His Word.
The verse names a positive attraction. It also implies a group left out.
Whose company does he enjoy? Not those who grieve him by their disobedience to God. There can be no real shared feeling with them. No, he finds those who have the same attitude to God's word. Those are the people he is with. These are his companions — those who keep God's precepts. Notice too that the encouragement runs both ways. He makes such people glad (verse 74) because he has hoped in God's word.
Taking your place with a people is not a private preference. God weighs it, and it pays back.
He took his place with those who feared the Lord. Being of one mind drew them together, as it always must, and a man becomes known by the company he keeps. Our associations are one of the ways we show ourselves approved to God, or not; and the very first psalm presses this on us. (Ps. 1:1.) In close walking with those who fear the Lord, the experiences and joys of each become a blessing shared by all. Sharing them together multiplies them.
Applied today, the verse does not call for withdrawal from ordinary life. One writer separates the contacts we cannot avoid from the friendships we choose.
When we speak of companionship we mean the friendships we choose. We cannot help mixing with people who are not Christians; otherwise we would have to leave the world. We may work for an employer who is not a Christian, or sit beside clerks and workmen who are not. We buy from shopkeepers who are not Christians, and in business we have to seek trade with them.
Toward those outside, the same writer asks for warmth, not distance. Our conduct "should be courteous, kind, friendly. There should be no holier-than-thou air, as if we were better than they."
A believer who sees coldness spread among God's people may decide it is safer to walk alone. One writer meets that instinct head-on.
But the believer faces a second danger, more subtle because it sounds more reasonable. It is to cut himself off more and more as he sees indifference and worldliness spreading among God's children. This tendency is the exact opposite of God's thought for His own... The falling away does not isolate those who fear the Lord; it drives them together. As the psalmist says, "I am a companion of all who fear You."
The people who fear God are not always impressive, and their failures are real. The psalmist ties himself to them anyway, and owns them as openly as he speaks before kings.
Sadly it is all too true that the despised few who hold the truth in any age lie wide open to attack. Like Israel's family, they are marked by great sins and inconsistencies, and their critics are quick to spot them and exaggerate them. Still, they are the people of God, and His servant identifies himself with them. He says not only, "I will speak of Your testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed," but also, "I am a companion of all who fear You, of those who keep Your precepts."
- Portion. It starts inside. The man who has found his portion in the Lord is the man who ends up in this company.
- Companion. The bond is not personality or advantage. It is a shared attitude to God's word.
- All. The word is wide. It takes in a people marked by faults, and the psalmist owns them instead of keeping his distance.
- Chosen. We cannot avoid contact with the world, but we choose our friends. Kindness and courtesy go to everyone; the heart's company is deliberate.
- Multiplied. Walking with those who fear God turns each one's joys into everyone's. And when faith grows cold, it drives believers together instead of apart.
The earth, O Jehovah, is full of thy loving-kindness teach me thy statutes.
This verse closes eight lines in which the writer calls the Lord his portion and keeps God's word while the wicked press on him. He looks at the world from under that pressure and sees mercy, then asks to be taught.
(The writers use an older translation. Where the ESV has "steadfast love," it reads "mercy" or "loving-kindness.")
The psalmist speaks of the whole earth here, not of his own private experience. One writer notes that most people take no notice of it.
He recognises that the earth is full of the Lord's mercy, though in general people do not consider this (v. 64). But because he values such clear mercy, the psalmist wants God to teach him His statutes.
He does not say this from a comfortable place. One writer sets the words against the evil pressing round him.
He is freed from the cords of the wicked. Having the Lord as his portion brings him into fellowship with others who fear the Lord and keep His Word. So in the middle of evil he sees the mercy of the Lord. He finds it greater than man's evil: "The earth, O Lord, is full of Your mercy."
Another writer describes how the heart gets there. The will has to bow before mercy comes into view.
Here the heart is able to turn round and still see mercy, even after all the evil that had pressed upon it. And so it is. Evil may rise up like a flood, but the Lord is always above it. The heart realises this by faith, and bows its will to it all. If it is then comforted by the thought of God's judgments, it finds the constant display of His mercy now, and seeks in peace to be led in His ways.
One writer weighs the difference between grace and mercy here.
This section began with the emphasis on mercy and favour (verse 58), and now it rightly finishes with the same thought. How we need His continuing mercy day by day. Grace is seen in that He gives us what we do not deserve. Mercy is seen in that He does not give us what we deserve. He therefore fills our vision from the beginning to the end of this section of eight verses. It is a transforming vision! He is my portion; He is so gracious; He is my Friend — indeed the earth is full of Your mercy.
The two halves can look unrelated: a statement about the world, then a prayer about statutes. One writer ties them together through what this mercy does for God's own.
And "the earth is full of Jehovah's loving-kindness." He makes all things work together for good to His own… The joy of this loving-kindness, known in the soul, becomes a strong desire to be taught His statutes.
He does not ask to work this out for himself. One writer names the Teacher, and the purpose a statute serves.
The Holy Spirit is our Teacher. Through the instruments that grace uses, He can teach us the will of God (John 14:26). So let us echo the psalmist's prayer to the Lord: "…teach me Your statutes." And let us remember what a statute means: "a divine direction to obtain our obedience, and to keep us from disobedience."
Earlier in the psalm he asks for more than teaching. One writer puts the three prayers in order.
We also depend on the Lord for any practical result that follows His teaching. So the prayer follows: "Make me to go." Every believer does well to pray these three prayers, in this God-given order: "Teach me, O Lord," "Give me understanding," and "Make me to go."
- Mercy seen. The earth is full of God's mercy, but most people never take it into account; the psalmist does.
- Mercy above the flood. He sees it while evil presses on him. Evil may rise like a flood, but the Lord stays above it, and mercy proves greater than man's evil.
- Mercy framing. The eight verses open with mercy and favour and close on the same note. He does not give us what we deserve, and He fills the view throughout.
- Mercy asking. Joy in that mercy does not stop at admiration. It turns into a prayer to be taught God's statutes.
- Mercy obeyed. A statute is God's direction to secure obedience; so the prayer runs on: teach me, give me understanding, make me go.