17 Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word.
18 Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.
19 I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me.
20 My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times.
21 Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, which do err from thy commandments.
22 Remove from me reproach and contempt; for I have kept thy testimonies.
23 Princes also did sit and speak against me: but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes.
24 Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.
God’s Word is the air that we breathe. It is the oxygen that we need.
The most emotional verse in this section of the Psalm is verse 20. Should a man be separated from his betrothed, he will commit to crossing land and sea to get back together with the one he loves. His heart feels like it is breaking when he is apart from her for an extended period of time. This is the language used here to describe the Psalmist’s attraction to the righteous judgments of God.
Verses 17-20.
Every good gift and every perfect gift comes from above. But when sinners use God’s gifts and the comforts of life to disobey His law and render service to other gods, they abuse His good graces. In the 17th verse, the Psalmist prays for God’s physical and spiritual blessings in order that he might keep God’s Word and live according to God’s will. For the Christian, therefore, God’s bounty should produce more of an abundance of thanksgiving, worship, and service in his life.
“Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law” (verse 18). You may revisit a verse twenty times and still miss the meaning or the manifold relevant applications of it. However, when your eyes are opened by the Spirit of God, you begin to understand the true import of it. All of the lights turn on in your mind, and you know that this is God speaking to you through His Word. It is not for lack of clarity on the part of Scripture that we cannot understand it. The Word is clear; it is just that we cannot see clearly because we are either blind or half asleep.
The believer can feel pretty isolated in a world of ideas that contradict a Christian world and life view. As he sits in a secular college classroom where the irrelevance of God is taken for granted and the Ten Commandments are completely rejected as a way of life, he feels like a social misfit. He is marginalized. With false ideas and deceptions flying around, from time to time he needs to catch his bearings. That’s why he needs the commandments of God as the standard for life.
Some will accuse true believers of what they call “bibliolatry” because they are so attached to the Word of God as a guide for the mind and a rule for the life. The Psalmist gladly accepts this accusation, comparing his attraction to God’s Word as a man to his betrothed (verse 20).
Verses 21-23.
These verses turn to address those who are not so drawn to the commandments of God but rather oppose them. Proud men are typically autonomous men, as they ignore the commandments of God and become a law to themselves. Thus, according to verse 21, they are cursed in this life as well as in eternity. They will suffer the consequences of their sins, whether by disease, mental illness, the disintegration of relationships, the loss of wealth, or death. All of this amounts to the rebuke of almighty God in their lives. There is no way they can avoid the hand of God pressing in on their lives.
When Christians reject the way of life of unbelieving materialists, when they reject the self-centeredness of the age, when they embrace the blessing of children, when they inconvenience themselves by putting their own time and resources into their children’s education, and when they favor family worship and discipleship of their children against the entertainment culture of the day, they distinguish themselves sharply from the world. These families are not “cool.” All too commonly, they are mocked and ridiculed by those who live the “convenient” and pleasurable life of the world. If God calls children a “blessing” and condemns the lust and pride of the world, and if God commissions fathers to raising their children in the fear of the Lord, then the Christian family will embrace these truths. Nevertheless, the Psalmist pleads with God that He would save him from the contempt of the world as he roots himself and his family in the testimonies of the Lord.
It is even more stressful and trying for the man of faith when he hears that princes are plotting against him. When government agencies are dedicating their energies to tracking his communications and ministry work in order to find some slight cause by which they might accuse him, then he has even more reason to be concerned. The temptation is to give way to anxiety, constantly mulling over all the possible scenarios and contingencies that might come about. But the Psalmist is more focused on something far more important than what princes think. He is concerned with what God thinks, and that is why he continues to meditate on the statutes contained in God’s Word.
Verse 24.
Wisdom is obtained from God’s Word. People seek advice all over the place from self-help books and self-proclaimed prophets to other assorted gurus. They seek advice to save themselves from harm and maximize the potential of their success in life. So there is nothing unusual about seeking advice and following advice. However, few people go to the right place for counsel, and so they walk in the paths of destruction. The Psalmist here embraces God’s Word as the source of His counsel, and he delights to hear its wisdom, because he knows that he needs it for his very life.
The Word of God is a continual, daily guide for our lives. Sometimes young men and women raised in the Christian home and church will set the Word aside for six months to a year as they set out on their own. Before long, they stop attending church and they drift into a life of fornication and dissipation. They do things they would never have dreamed of doing while they were in their Christian families. If the commandments of God and the testimony of Christ are not in front of them on a daily basis, they will wander away from this life. Their minds will settle into a different world and life view, with a different set of values. If we will live as Christians, we must live and breathe the Word of God every day. And, it is the duty of Christian parents to acclimate our children to this way of life.
As we approach worship on the Lord’s Day, our souls should “hunger and thirst” after the teaching of the Word of God. The Scriptures ought to be more than words on a page, bare propositions that logicians argue in opposition to other propositions. These words constitute the ideas and will of a loving Father to His children, and He is the best and the wisest of fathers. If a father never communicated anything to his children, there would hardly be a relationship. Thus, communication is fundamental to the relationship, and this is why our hearts should long to hear the judgments of God every Sunday.
1. What is the difference between how unbelievers and believers receive God’s bounty?
2. What needs to happen in order for God’s Word to be understandable and relevant in our lives?
3. How does God rebuke the proud?
4. How are Christians ridiculed and reproached in our day? What does the Psalmist do when he is reproached?
1. What kind of reproach have we received for our faith? How did we handle it?
2. Generally, how do we view our time together in the Word? How often do we consider it a beautiful, helpful thing? How often is it boring and unimportant to us?