Psalm 119.121-128 (6)

Pray Psalm 119.128.
Therefore all Your precepts concerning all things
I consider to be right;
I hate every false way.

Sing Psalm 119.128.
(Leominster: My Heart Doth Overflow)
Speak, Lord, and let us hear, the precepts of Your Word,
and know Your Presence ever near - our good and sovereign Lord!
Your ways are right and true; I hate each lying way;
Your precepts let me ever do and never from them stray.

Read Psalm 119.121-128; meditate on verse 128.

Preparation
1. How did the psalmist regard the precepts of the Lord?

2. What was his view of false ways?

Meditation
It’s a reliable principle for studying the Bible that, whenever you come across the word “therefore”, you should ask yourself, “What’s the ‘therefore’ there for?”

Because “therefore” always points back. We must retrace our steps a bit whenever we encounter “therefore” to remind ourselves of what lies at the base or what is the impetus for whatever follows the “therefore”.

In this case, it’s another “therefore” (v. 127)! We might just consider that our psalmist was running out of good words to start the next verse, since “therefore” in Hebrew is עַל֭־כֵּן (ahl-KEN) and is thus a right word for starting these two verses in the ע stanza (remember: Hebrew reads right to left).

But there’s more than this convenience at work here. We must step back again to verse 126, and here we find the impetus for both “therefores”: The neglect, denial, and voiding of God’s Law. We sometimes hear preachers and other believers bemoaning the fact that our generation has severed its connection to the Scriptural moorings on which this nation was founded. Fair enough. But our “therefores” remind us that mere moaning and fretting are not what we need. We must increase our love for God’s Word by spending more time in it, hiding it in our heart, joyfully giving thanks to God (v. 127), and by living according to its truth, urging its promises and demands on others, and exposing and voiding every false way (v. 128).

When we love God’s precepts like this – and hate every false way as we should – we won’t be just some spiritual Eeyore, but a force for revival, renewal and awakening.

Treasures Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162.
Let’s unpack Eeyore, shall we? Eeyore, according to Wikipedia, is a fictional character in the Winnie-the-Pooh books by A. A. Milne. He is a pessimistic, gloomy, depressed, anhedonic, old grey stuffed donkey who is a friend of the title character, Winnie-the-Pooh. And now that he is addressed, let’s look at anhedonic, which is defined as having a lack of pleasure, or an inability to experience pleasure from activities usually found enjoyable.

Loving God’s Law and hating every false way should be done in a positive manner, and not in a negative spiritual way as might be acted out by Eeyore, and just sounds so totally religious.

But isn’t that the way the world perceives us? We are seen as killjoys—the people of the don’ts. Anton Chekhov wrote, “Prudence and justice tell me that in electricity and steam there is more love for man than in chastity and abstinence from meat.” I’m sure that we would not agree with all this man’s thinking or his philosophy of life, but this quote, in my opinion, bespeaks the downside of the church throughout history. We mistakenly believe that people will run to the arms of Jesus because we are so egregiously self-righteous.

Revival, renewal, and awakening come through excited Christians living in the power and steam of the Holy Spirit, who are keeping God’s laws in a joyous way, and are fighting against evil through love and the electricity of good behavior. “Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but such as keep the law contend with them” (Prov. 28.4). There is great power in just keeping God’s laws.

Eeyore would have us moan and groan against everything; but God would have us delighting to do His will. As David wrote, “I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart” (Ps. 40.8). I delight. I do. The law is within my heart. I am not trying to force other people to follow God’s law, I am following God’s law!

The pattern of Psalm 119 follows this same outline:
God has commanded me to keep His precepts diligently (vs. 4).
Through following these precepts I get understanding (vs. 104).
I consider all Your precepts to be right concerning everything—all things (vs. 128).

God’s Word brings us pleasure. (Ps. 16.11). It is the joy of our lives. In fact, it is our life (Deut. 32.46, 47).
It brings us peace (Ps. 119.165; Jn. 14.27). It teaches us how to show love to God and to others (Ex. 20.1-17; 1 Jn. 4.7-11). Positively.

Let’s give the mantle of Eeyore to the world and allow them to specialize in negativity; while we take up the joyous work of Jesus (1 Cor. 2.16) for goodness, truth, revival, renewal, and awakening.

For reflection
1. What is involved in growing in love for God’s Word?

2. How can we recognize false ways? What must we do to keep from straying into these?

3. What do we mean by saying that the Word of God is “right”? Right for what?

The way of sin is a false way, being directly contrary to God’s precepts, which are right: those that love and esteem God’s law, hate sin, and will not be reconciled to it. Matthew Henry (1662-1714), Commentary on Psalm 119.128

Pray Psalm 119.126, 127.
How will you act today to countermand the widespread disregard of God’s Law and to demonstrate your conviction that His Word is truth (Jn. 17.17)? Pray about each task, situation, and person you expect to encounter as you work your Personal Mission Field today.

Sing Psalm 119.126, 127.
(Leominster: My Heart Doth Overflow)
The wicked scorn Your Word; let us be strong and bold
to act for You our sovereign Lord, and love You more than gold.
How precious is Your Word, no treasure on the earth
compares to it or to You, Lord, of holy, matchless worth.

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.