Quicken me according to thy loving-kindness, and I will keep the testimony of thy mouth.
Read Full Chapter →Commentary for this Verse
This verse closes a section of Psalm 119 where the trouble has not lifted: the writer asks first not for rescue but for life, on the ground of God's steadfast love. Two questions run through it: why does a man who already keeps God's word ask God for life, and what does love have to do with obedience?
A prayer still waiting for its answer
He had already asked God for comfort, and no answer had come. One commentator traces how the trial deepens without breaking his confidence:
The godly man in trouble had looked to the Lord for comfort, but the answer is delayed and the pressure grows. He is faint for rescue; his eyes fail as he looks for the word to be fulfilled. He becomes dried and withered in soul like a bottle in the smoke. Still, the deepening trial only brings out his confidence in God. His soul may faint, but hope in the Word of God remains: his eyes may fail, but faith still looks to God for comfort.
The distress itself becomes an argument
The prayer does not hide the damage done. It hands the damage to God as a reason for Him to act:
There are two grounds of appeal here — the depth of his distress: he is dried up like a bottle in the smoke; but he dare not forget God's statutes... He was almost consumed in the land, the very place of promise and God's power; but he did not abandon God's precepts. He looks for mercy too as something that gives him life. It is not only comfort from outside, but the restoring of the soul itself, and so the testimony of God's mouth is kept firmly, with good courage and confidence. So sorrow itself and great pressure, where there is integrity, become a plea with God.
What the prayer for life asks
Older translations read "quicken me" instead of "give me life." One dictionary sets out what that word means and how often this psalm asks for it:
In the Old Testament this word carries the force of "to revive, or give new life" in a moral sense: so we read "quicken me again." In Psalm 119 the psalmist asked nine times to be quickened — according to God's word, or His righteousness, or His judgements.
That raises a problem. Verse 50 says God's word has already given him life, yet he keeps asking. One writer answers by separating this prayer from what the New Testament calls being made alive:
The Psalmist says that God's Word has quickened him in verse 50, yet again and again he asks to be quickened. He clearly uses the word more in the sense of being revived, of being restored to stronger life... Only when we come to the New Testament is the time of testing over, and man openly declared dead in trespasses and sins. So only in the New Testament does the full truth of quickening appear.
Love is the measure, not merit
The measure here is God's own kindness, not the man's record. Where the same plea returns later in the psalm, one writer shows why love and obedience belong together:
When Jehovah's tender mercies are in mind, quickening is asked for according to God's judgments. The goodness of God, when it is felt, always leads to a desire for His will. When we delight in the purity and blessedness of His word, we look to His loving-kindness as that in which He should quicken us. His word is so precious that we look to grace to form us freely into it.
Life given so that the word can be kept
The last clause gives the purpose of the whole prayer. Even a man who has stayed faithful under attack still needs something he cannot give himself:
Almost destroyed on earth, he has not abandoned God's precepts; yet for that very thing he knows he needs quickening, so that he may keep the testimonies of His mouth.
Summary
- Pressure. The man praying is dried up like a bottle in the smoke. His eyes fail as he waits for God to make His word good, yet his hope in that word holds.
- Plea. He does not argue from his record. His extremity, joined with his integrity, is itself laid before God as a reason to act.
- Gift. He asks for revival — for God to restore him to stronger life. The psalm repeats this plea nine times.
- Ground. The measure is God's loving-kindness. Goodness felt from God awakens a desire for His will, and grace forms the heart into the word it already loves.
- Result. Life comes first and obedience follows. He needs quickening so that he can keep the testimonies of God's mouth, not the other way round.