Psalm 119.89-96 (4)

Pray Psalm 119.94.
I am Yours, save me;
For I have sought Your precepts.

Psalm 119.92-94.
(Finlandia: Be Still, My Soul)
Unless Your Law had been my great delight, I would have perished when affliction came.
I will Your precepts ever keep in sight, for by them I have life - I praise Your Name!
Lord, I am Yours, deliver me from night! I seek Your precepts for Your praise and fame.

Read Psalm 119.89-96; meditate on verse 94.

Preparation
1. What did the psalmist say about himself (two things)?

2. What did he want God to do?

Meditation
The writer of Hebrews tells us that all who believe in Jesus and are saved are possessors of “so great a salvation” (Heb. 2.3). Becoming saved is just the beginning of our journey with the Lord. Growing in Him and in that great salvation is the ongoing and daily struggle to which we are committed. The salvation of the Lord was given to transform us increasingly into the likeness of Jesus (2 Cor. 3.12-18). Our great salvation holds more power for witness, more fruit for godliness, more gifts for serving, and more love for God and our neighbors than we have ever dared to ask or think (Eph. 3.20). So, like the writer of Psalm 116, we ask, “What shall I render to the LORD for all His benefits to me?” And the answer is, Go for more of His great salvation. Be filled with it. Get drunk on it. Rejoice in its blessings and benefits with increasing vigor and joy: “I will take up the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows to the LORD …” (Ps. 116.12-14).

This is what our psalmist is calling for in Psalm 119.94. He is saved (“I am Yours…”). He’s not insisting that his works of keeping the precepts of God should merit salvation. He already has that. He wants more of God’s salvation: “…save me…” But he hasn’t been merely sitting around waiting for God to work miracles in his life. Instead, he has diligently, dutifully, and daily sought the precepts of the Lord.

The great salvation God intends us to know is bound up in His Word, in commandments and promises and visions of Christ and His Kingdom. The more we apply ourselves to that Word, seeking understanding from God and the will and ability to obey Him (Phil. 2.12, 13), the more of that great salvation we will know. Which is to say, the more we will dwell in the Presence of our Lord Jesus and, seeing Him in His glory, be transformed in soul and body to be more like Him.

All God’s saved people should plead with Him daily for more of His great salvation. And to show good faith in our pleas, we should seek the Lord in His Word, waiting on Him for understanding and direction, fully determined to carry out all our vows and promises in glad and ready obedience.

Treasures Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
It could be, too, that the psalmist is once again in trouble with his enemies. This verse harks back to verse 86 when he cries out, “They persecute me wrongfully; Help me!”

He, once again, knows exactly where to look for the help he requires and that is in God’s Word. “Save me; for I have sought Your precepts” (Ps. 119.94).

It is exactly where we need to go, too, for help from the Lord. “For the commandment is a lamp, and the law a light; reproofs of instruction are the way of life…” (Prov. 6.23)

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (Jn. 8.12).

The light to guide us on our path and in our thoughts.

Hannah struggled with her enemies; and she also must have been sorrowful in heart at the prospect of leaving her son Samuel with Eli. And yet, because she knew God and trusted His Word she was able to pray thus:
“My heart rejoices in the LORD; my strength is exalted in the LORD, I smile at my enemies,
because I rejoice in Your salvation” (1 Sam. 2.1).
“For the LORD is the God of knowledge; and by Him actions are weighed” (1 Sam. 2.3).
“He will guard the feet of His saints, but the wicked shall be silent in darkness.  For by strength no man shall prevail. The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken in pieces; from heaven He will thunder against them. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth” (1 Sam. 2.9, 10).

Our psalmist, like Hannah, was able to find courage, comfort, and peace in the knowledge that God knows all. He knows who is tormenting and troubling us. He knows when we seek refuge in Him and His Word. He weighs all actions, the enemies’ and ours. He is the righteous Judge. “God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day” (Ps. 7.11).

“I am Yours, save me; for
I have sought Your precepts” (Ps. 119.94).

I am “Yours to save”.

For reflection
1. What is your approach to realizing more of God’s great salvation?

2. How can people like Hannah and our psalmist encourage us in our daily struggles?

3. Why should we expect that keeping God’s Law will help us realize a greater measure of His salvation?

[The psalmist] brings forward the unmerited grace of God, and that alone; for no man, by any efforts of his own, acquires the high honor of being under the protection of God ― an honor which proceeds solely from his free adoption. The blessing which God had conferred upon him is therefore here adduced as an argument why he should not forsake the work which he had commenced. John Calvin (1509-1564), Commentary on Psalm 119.94

Pray Psalm 119.95, 96.
Thank God for His salvation and for all the specific ways you experience it. Ask Him for a clearer vision of Jesus and for the strength to be transformed increasingly into His likeness.

Psalm 119.95, 96.
(Finlandia: Be Still, My Soul)
The wicked lie in wait to trouble me, but to Your testimonies I will cling!
In them perfection I delight to witness, to know the peace and joy to me they bring.
Your holy Word is broad exceedingly; my faith, my trust, my hope in You I sing!

T. M. and Susie Moore

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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.