Psalm 119.17-24 (5)

Pray Psalm 119.20-22.
My soul breaks with longing
For Your judgments at all times.
You rebuke the proud—the cursed,
Who stray from Your commandments.
Remove from me reproach and contempt,
For I have kept Your testimonies..

Sing Psalm 119.20-22.
(Open My Eyes: Open My Eyes, That I May See)
My soul with longing breaks for You; all of Your judgments I would do.
For You rebuke the proud and the cursed, who from Your Law have strayed, and worse.
Take from me all contempt, O Lord, for I have kept Your holy Word.
Lift all reproach from me, O Lord - my soul renew!

Read Psalm 119.17-24; meditate on verse 21, 22.

Preparation
1. What does the psalmist want God to do for him?

2. What grounds does he plead to obtain this request?

Meditation
We feel the mood of stanza 3 darkening just a bit more. God is active in the world, and it can be an unsafe place.

Our psalmist knows that God has a zero-tolerance policy where sin is concerned. All around him people were straying (cf. v. 10, “wander”) from God’s commandments – yes, and worse, deliberately rebelling against His Law. Such as these God rebukes, especially those who in pride exalt themselves above Him (cf. Ps. 2).

So God’s Sword of rebuke is always active, humbling the proud, setting aside those who scorn Him, frustrating all who will not follow His way, and causing happiness to elude them (vv. 1-3). Our psalmist wants to make sure he’s not in the swath of the Lord, so he pleads his obedience. He has kept the testimonies of God, so he asks the Lord to remove from him all reproach or contempt.

He means, of course, in the eyes of the Lord. We who are strangers on the earth – who walk the path of God’s Word while others stray from it and boast of their rebellion – are always going to be the objects of reproach and contempt by the people of the world. We can’t change that.

But we can make sure that, as Jesus rides forth conquering and to conquer (Rev. 6.2; cf. Ps. 45.3, 4), we’re not the objects of His wrath or rebuke, and we are well out of the swath of His Sword because our feet remain firmly set in the path of His Law (cf. v. 105), and wondrously shod with Him.

Treasures Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
Whom does God rebuke? The proud and the cursed. Who are those people? Those who roundly reject the gift of salvation offered to us by God. “If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed” (1 Cor. 16.22). Accursed in the Greek is anathema. And anathema in the English is “something or someone that one vehemently dislikes. Synonyms for which are: abhorrence, hate, censure, condemnation, abomination, pariah, horror, and bête noire. That’s not even the whole list. Clearly God has a great distaste for those who bear that title.

And yet, is it possible, that those of us who bear the name of Christ can also be called proud and cursed? Well, yes, because we also stray from God’s commandments.

And who were the commandments written for and given to? The people of God. God did not bless the Israelites and the Egyptians with this Law. He could just as easily have given this to them as they labored in Egypt. But God waited until He had brought them out of the land of bondage, into a new paradigm for their lives, that He gave them these guidelines to follow. “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people…” (1 Pet. 2.9). And that includes us.

So, because it is possible for all humankind to fall into the category of proud and cursed, we plead with God to remove from us His reproach and contempt. And what do we use as our grounds for this request? That we have kept His testimonies (Ps. 119.22).

Have we been diligent to keep His testimonies? (Ps. 119.2, 22)
Does our soul break with longing for His judgments? (Ps. 119.20)
Do we beg Him not to hide His commandments from us? (Ps. 119.19)
Do we search out His Word daily to find wondrous things in His Law? (Ps. 119.18)

If the answer to these questions is a resounding “Yes”, then we can rest assured that He will hear our prayers for forgiveness and the removal of His reproach and contempt. “Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yes, our God is merciful” (Ps. 116.5). “I love the LORD, because He has heard my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live” (Ps. 116.1, 2).

Through Jesus, “we are well out of the swath of His Sword because our feet remain firmly set in the path of His Law.” For by His grace we have been saved, and are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works (Eph. 2.8-10). He longs for us to walk in those good works along the path that He has marked out for us by His Word. So, “Let me not wander from Your commandments!” (Ps. 119.10).

For reflection
1. How does God rebuke those who do not know Him?

2. How does the Spirit convict (Jn. 16.8) us when we stray from God’s path?

3. Why must we cling to Jesus, even when we stumble in or stray from God’s path?

The comforts of the word of God are most pleasant to a gracious soul, when other comforts are made bitter; and those that would have God’s testimonies to be their delight, must be advised by them. Matthew Henry (1662-1714), Commentary on Psalm 119.17-24

Pray Psalm 119.17-19.
Wait in silence on the Lord to search your soul, to reveal any lingering sins for which you must repent. Call on His Spirit to convict you throughout the day as necessary, and to keep you on the Lord’s path.

Sing Psalm 119.17-19.
(Open My Eyes: Open My Eyes, That I May See)
Open my eyes, Lord, let me see wonderful truths to transform me.
I am a stranger here in the earth; hide not from me Your glorious worth.
Deal with your servant graciously that I may live obediently.
Open my eyes, Lord, let me see glory divine!

T. M. and Susie Moore

You can listen to a summary of last week’s Scriptorium study by going to our website, www.ailbe.org, and clicking the Scriptorium tab for last Sunday. You can download any or all the studies in this series on Psalm 119 by clicking here.

What is the Law of God and how should we learn and obey it? Two books can help. The Law of God arranges the statutes and precepts of God’s Law under their appropriate number of the Ten Commandments. This book is an excellent tool for meditating on God’s Law and thinking about its application in our time. The Foundation for Christian Ethics, on the other hand, explains why the Law matters and how we are to use it. You can order free copes of each of these here and here.

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (Williston: Waxed Tablet Publications, 2006), available by clicking here.