Psalm 119.137-144 (4)

Pray Psalm 119.141, 142.
I am small and despised,
Yet I do not forget Your precepts.
Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness,
And Your law is truth.

Psalm 119.139-141.
(Divinum Mysterium: Of the Father’s Love Begotten)
Zeal consumes me for Your Word, O Lord, for my foes forsake Your ways.
Yet Your Word is very, very pure, and I keep it all my days.
I am small and I am much despised, O Lord,
yet Your holy Name I praise,
and Your precepts guide my ways.

Read Psalm 119.137-144; meditate on verses 141, 142.

Preparation
1. What did the psalmist say about God’s Law?

2. How was he regarded by others?

Meditation
The psalmist set his smallness (v. 141) within the eternal righteousness of the Lord and His truth (v. 142). His sense of “smallness” refers, I believe, to his humility as well as to how some others perceived him. He was “despised” in his smallness, but he held fast to the precepts of God, which are truth.

Small, despised; eternal, true. We can accept our condition in life, however small it may be, if we remain securely tethered – by the exercise of our mind and the obedience of faith – to that which is eternally righteous and true. Among those who fear the Lord there are no “small” people. Everyone counts. Everyone matters. Everyone has been endowed with the gift of salvation, the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit, and the unfathomable and inexhaustible riches of God’s Word. Everyone who believes in Jesus and loves His Word is set in the world as a spigot of living water (Jn. 7.37-39) to bring the refreshment of grace to others.

We are not defined by how others see us, nor even how we see ourselves. We are defined by the company we keep. And when that company is eternally righteous and true – even our Lord Jesus Christ Himself – then we understand that we have a heavenly calling, a Kingdom appointment, a disciple-making mandate, and the promise that we can do all things through Christ Who strengthens us.

Nothin’ small about that.

Treasures Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
“And the Syrians had gone out on raids, and had brought back captive a young girl from the land of Israel. She waited on Naaman’s wife.” Naaman, who was plagued with the disease of leprosy, was the commander of the army of the king of Syria. This young girl, we would have to assume, could have perceived herself as small and despised. However, her faith was intact, and regardless of her circumstances she was working her Personal Mission Field boldly. “Then she said to her mistress, ‘If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! For he would heal him of his leprosy.’” And because of what this young girl told them, Naaman asked for permission to go to Samaria and be healed by the prophet Elisha (2 Kgs. 5.2, 3). She knew that God’s righteousness is an everlasting righteousness and that His Law is truth (Ps. 119.142). She did not let her situation overshadow her belief in the power of the God she served.

We never learn her name. But from her we most assuredly learn how to live courageously and helpfully in unfriendly territory for God and His truth. She lived within God’s Kingdom, not in the hierarchy of this one.

Moses, Paul, and Peter all had reasons from their past to feel small and despised, but they did not let yesterday’s shortcomings determine today’s work that God had called them to do. They did not forget God’s precepts, and they remembered that the God they served was holy, righteous, true, and forgiving.

The Bible is full of the stories of those who were overcomers. But it is also strangely comforting when we are allowed to see that some did struggle with problems and doubts, like our psalmist. What a blessing it is when they instruct us in how to be overcomers and show us how to do it: “But I am poor and needy; make haste to me, O God! You are my deliverer; O LORD, do not delay” (Ps. 70.5). “Bow down Your ear, O LORD, hear me; for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am holy; You are my God; save Your servant who trusts in You!” (Ps. 86.1, 2)

The truths that encourage us to be overcomers are these: Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn. 14.6). He is the everlasting righteousness and the law of truth; and bears witness to the truth. “Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice” (Jn. 18.37). We hear His voice and follow Him.

So no matter if we are small and despised, or just feeling that way, we needn’t let it affect our work. We have Jesus’ promise that “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matt. 19.26). His Holy Spirit living within us crowds out our muddled and defeated thoughts and replaces them with the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2.16), full of potential and power.

We know about the servant girl for a good reason. In God’s purview there really are “No Small People”! “For God has not given us a spirit of fear”, or of being small and despised, but He has given us a spirit of “power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1.7).

For reflection
1. In what sense is it proper to think of ourselves as “small”? In what sense is it not?

2. When we feel despised by the world, how should we respond?

3. Whom will you encourage today in their walk with the Lord?

Men’s real excellencies always makes them low in their own eyes. When we are small and despised, we have the more need to remember God’s precepts, that we may have them to support us. The law of God is the truth, the standard of holiness, the rule of happiness; but the obedience of Christ alone justifies the believer.  Matthew Henry (1662-1714)), Commentary on Psalm 119.141, 142

Pray Psalm 119.143.
What “trouble and anguish” are you facing today? Give it to the Lord and call on Him for mercy and grace to help in your time of need.

Psalm 119.142, 143.
(Divinum Mysterium: Of the Father’s Love Begotten)
For Your righteousness, O God my Lord, ever after will endure;
and Your Law is truth, like all Your Word – righteous, holy, just, and pure!
Trouble overtakes me for Your Name, O Lord,
yet Your Word is ever sure
and Your grace my soul will cure.

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.