The Bible Study Hour

Guest (Male): The author of Psalm 119 knew persecution. Because of his love for God's Word, he suffered deprivation, slander, loneliness, and abandonment. But despite the trials and tribulations the psalmist encountered, he persevered in the faith and trusted God.

Welcome to The Bible Study Hour, a radio and internet broadcast with Dr. James Boice, preparing you to think and act biblically.

Dr. James Boice: The psalmist suffered considerably for his faith, but he never gave up. Instead, he cried out to God and asked for a deeper revelation of his Word. Join Dr. Boice as he continues his study of Psalm 119 and shares the suffering of the psalmist and the path he took to stay with God, a path that enabled him to grow through his trials and finish the race in a way worthy of his calling.

Those of you who have been Bible students for some time may know the name of E.M. Blakelock. He's a Bible scholar with a worldwide reputation. He comes from down under from Australia, and he taught the Bible for many years in New Zealand. He's written a book called The Bible and I.

And at one point in that book, he thinks back over the weeks he spent at one time in school teaching the 119th Psalm. And he reflects on what he learned about the psalmist. It's rather interesting. He says that as he studied the Psalm over a period of time, this individual, hidden in the midst of the words, began to come alive to him.

And particularly what he was impressed with were the trials and the sufferings of this man. Let me just read a little bit as he lists them. This author had known persecution, that most hideous of man's sins. In verses 22 and 23, he mentions it. He had suffered under the heavy and ruthless hand of authority, as Christians and Jews also sometimes do in lands where the blanket of the dark has fallen, verses 61 and 69.

His faith had staggered under the load of it all, verses 6, 22 and 31. He had known pressure to give in and conform. The third section, we're going to study now, along with the fourth, is rich with autobiographical material. The writer had known deprivation and fear for his life, the dryness of soul.

That sometimes the poets have written about, like William Cooper, "Where is the blessedness I knew when first I knew the Lord?" He had known loneliness and rejection, verse 19, and the agony of seeming abandonment. He said as he read through that Psalm and studied that as he came to know this man, that he seemed to be a man not only that he could know, but understand.

Now what I want to suggest is that he's an individual that we can easily come to know and understand too, particularly because he's so much like us in these things that he experienced. Now there are many references in the Psalm to trials, as that review of the material by Blakelock indicates, and we're going to come to it again and again as we continue our study.

There's one section beginning with verse 65 containing three of these stanzas, all the way through verse 88, in which the poet speaks of his afflictions. He's talking about trials here as well, but there's a difference. Later he's talking about things that just happen. They happen to all of us. Here, what seems to be unique about this is that he is describing the trials and the tribulations that have come to him because of his determination to follow after the Word of God.

In other words, it's very close to what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount when he spoke of our being persecuted or afflicted for righteousness' sake. Or to use another phrase that Jesus spoke, "because of me." Now, this follows very naturally at this point in the Psalm. One of the things that we gain, I think, by this kind of careful working through of a Psalm like this is an understanding of the connections.

It's not just a string of ideas like beads on a chain. The ideas flow, and you see that at this point. You remember the first stanza. He's talking about the blessedness that comes to an individual who conforms his life to the Word of God, rather than to worldly standards. Exactly the same sort of thing you have in Psalm 1.

And then in the second stanza of this Psalm, he asked if you're going to do that, when should you begin? And the answer is you should start early when you're young. And if you're not young, you better start right now. You have no time to lose. Start at the earliest possible moment. Now, in the third and fourth stanzas, the two that we're going to look at, he begins to discuss what is going to happen to a person who determines to live like that.

You say, well, if I follow after God and go God's way, everything's going to be easy for me. The psalmist knew better than that. He lived a while. He looks back on the things that have happened. He says, no, no. Things come into your life that are hard simply because you have determined to follow after God and obey God's law.

I want you to look at some of the things he talks about here. I think you'll find that you can identify with him very, with him very, very well. First of all, he refers to what I would call alienation, verse 19. It's what is involved in that phrase, "a stranger on the earth." He's a stranger in the earth. Now there are two ideas there.

And the various commentators pick up on them in different ways. One thing that could mean is that he is a pilgrim simply passing through. It's exactly what was sung about a moment ago by the men's choir. We don't live on this earth for very long. We are creatures of a moment, but we have an eternal destiny before us.

And so when he says, "I'm a stranger on the earth," he may very well be thinking about that. The immediate context suggests that because he says that he therefore is going to obey God's Word and he prays that God will not hide his commandments from him. In other words, he doesn't have very long to learn them or to live by them, and so he needs all the help that he can get.

You know, we have a little bit of doggerel that goes, "Only one life, 'twill soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last." And in his own way and his own terms, that's what the psalmist is saying. Only he's saying, "It's a short life and I better get studying the Word of God while I can." That's one thing it can mean.

There's also the idea of being out of place in this world. Believers are alienated from the world because we are identified with God and the world is hostile to God. I'd suggest that the greater context of these two stanzas suggests that because if you read just a little bit further on in the stanza, you'll find him talking about the scorn and contempt that have come to him because he keeps God's statutes.

Even from the princes or the rulers of this world, they slander him and therefore he's going to meditate on God's decrees. What he's saying here is that if you determine to follow after God and go in his way, you're going to be a stranger on the earth and you're going to experience some measure of that slander too.

You think that's too harsh to put it that way? You're thinking, oh, no, if I live for God, if I become like Jesus Christ, I'll be a bright light in the world and people will appreciate me. Now listen to what Jesus himself said, "If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world. I've chosen you out of the world and that is why the world hates you."

"Remember the words I spoke to you, 'No servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.'" That's Jesus' teaching. So what it's telling us is that we are not at home in the world if we really belong to Jesus Christ. But although we have no real home in the world, we have a home in God.

And God will be a home to us and will stand by us if we determine to go in his way. That's what Saint Augustine said. And probably the best-known quotation from his writings comes from the Confessions. He said praying to God, "You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless. We have no home until they rest in you." That's the first thing, alienation.

Secondly, he talks about slander and I've already mentioned that, verses 22 and 23. Now, slander is a step beyond alienation and it's worse. Alienation is bad enough, but at least it describes a true situation. If we are following after Jesus Christ, we are not going to be at home in the world because the world has no place for Jesus Christ.

So though we are alienated and feel strangers in the earth, at least that's a real situation. But when you move on to talk about slander, you're talking about words, accusations that are made that aren't true, because by its very definition, slander is implying something false to someone who deserves better. And yet the psalmist says that's what he has experienced.

There's an interesting connection here. Alexander McLaren, who was one of the great preachers of a past age, notices how these verses hold together and he suggests that it goes this way. In verse 22, the psalmist prays that reproach and shame which wrapped him about like a covering may be lifted from him.

And in his plea in the second half of the verse, he declares that it was because he was living according to God's statutes. The next verse, verse 23, describes the source of this reproach and shame. It's the men who were in authority, those who appear to be important, the great people of this world. They're busy slandering him and plotting his ruin.

And then in the second half of that verse, he shows what he's doing while all of this is going on and what he says is that while they're plotting his ruin, he's sitting there silently meditating upon the law of God. That's all you can do ultimately, isn't it? If people are slandering you, saying false things about you, you can't retaliate in kind. That puts you on the same level and besides, it isn't effective.

It seems to add fuel to the fire where there's smoke, there's fire, there must be something to it when you reply that way. But the psalmist had learned a great lesson. He simply brought his cause to God and determined to try all the harder to live for him in this world. Well, that's slander. Here's the third thing, abasement or perhaps humiliation is the verse best word for it, verse 25.

He's giving two more examples here in this second stanza and this matter of abasement. He expresses in very vivid language. The start of that fourth stanza says he's laid low in the dust. It's even stronger than that in the Hebrew language because the verb says he's actually cleaving to the dust. That is, he's bonded to it. He's been smashed down so low.

Ever feel that way? Sometimes we go through experiences, we feel like that, we feel that we're down, we're never going to get up. And then he talks about sorrow. In verse 28. That's the fourth of these trials that have come upon him because he's determined to go in God's way. It's a matter of grief. Lots of things you can be sorry about and should be sorry about.

You should sorrow over the world and its lost condition. It's perishing, apart from the grace of God in Jesus Christ. You should sorrow over physical suffering. We are to weep with those who weep and grieve with those who grieve. You should sorrow over failures in your own life and all those things, but the kind of sorrow he's talking about here isn't that.

It's sorrow that comes from his abased condition and the reason why he is so humiliated by others is because he stands for the Word of God. And so I ask again, have you ever experienced that? Have you ever felt that way? I would imagine you have if you've tried in any serious way to take a stand for Jesus Christ or to testify to Jesus Christ, because the world doesn't want him.

And one way in which the world responds when you do that is by making fun of you and when that happens sorrow is quite natural. You feel sorrow. If you're down, as we say. There's nothing wrong with that in itself. That's quite natural, but what is important is what you do with it. Do you allow the sorrow to keep you down? Are you bonded to the dust?

Or do you do what the psalmist does? He cleaves all the closer to God. You see he may be down, but when he's down, he holds the word of God high. And that's what you and I have to learn to do as well. Now all of these trials add up to what the psalmist describes as annihilation or death.

And so you find him speaking at several points in the Psalm about his desire for God to make him live or to renew his life. You find it at the beginning of each of the two stanzas, don't you? Here in verse 17, "Do good to your servant and I will live." And then you find it in verse 25, "Renew my life according to your Word. Make me live again."

Now what's he talking about here? Is he concerned merely with physical life? I would think under other circumstances, he might have been. There are other Psalms in the Psalter in which the psalmist really does seem to be under threat of physical death. People are really trying to kill him, especially the Psalms of David. We know that they were trying to do that. Saul his enemy and many other enemies besides.

I think in this context, that's not the kind of death he's talking about. He's talking about the things that have come into his life, the humiliation, the suffering, the alienation that he's experiencing because of his determination to live for God. And so when he talks about life and the desire to be renewed, he's talking about spiritual life.

Or as we might say, the abundant life. And because of that, because he knows where that life comes from, he determines all the more to cleave to God's Word and to love it and to obey it. Look at the phrases. He says that he's consumed with longing for it, verse 20. He calls it his delight, verse 24. He says he has chosen the way of truth, verse 30.

And that he wants to hold fast to God's statutes, verse 31. Well, the psalmist lived many, many years before the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. But if he had lived in Jesus' day, he certainly would have understood at a very deep personal level what Jesus expressed in the first of those temptations that came to him in the wilderness when he was tempted by the devil.

You know, Jesus was fasting in those days. He had fasted for 40 days, a traditional length of time. And at the end of that, the devil came to him and pointed to the stones of the Judean wilderness and he said, "You know if you're really the son of God, you ought to be able to speak to those stones and those stones would become bread and you could eat and you wouldn't be hungry anymore."

And you know how Jesus responded. He responded by quoting a verse of the Bible. It's in Deuteronomy, the eighth chapter, verse three. Jesus said, no, no, he said, "It is written in the Word of God, a person does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." Now that is exactly what the psalmist is saying.

He's saying, "I want to live. I want to have an abundant life. But I know that the way to do that is not by courting the favor of this ungodly world. That will give the illusion of the abundant life, happy times." Well he said, "The real abundant life, real life comes by feeding on the Word of God." And so he says, "You know if it's a choice between the favor of the world and the favor of God, there's no choice for me because I'm determined to go in God's way."

Now in each of these stanzas so far, that is one and two, we find a confession on the psalmist's part that although he wants to go in God's way, understand the Bible and obey it, he realizes he can't do it by himself. And so he needs God's help. That's why in the first stanza, he cried out. At the very end, "I will obey your decrees." Then he says, "Do not utterly forsake me."

The point being that I want to do it, but I can't do it without you. So stand by me and help me do it. You find the same thing in the second stanza, verse 12. He prays, "Teach me your decrees." It's exactly the same thing here in stanzas three and four. Here he's reflecting on the many trials that are coming into his life because of his stand for God, and he recognizes the pressure that these bring upon him and the danger there is in abandoning the Word of God.

But he says, "No, what I need is you to teach me and to help me walk in your way." If there's anything that comes out of this as a prayer that we need to apply to ourselves, it's exactly that. Now notice the way he does it. He prays for four specific things. First of all, verses 18 and 19, he prays that God might open his eyes to the Word, that he might see it, really understand it, see what's there.

That verb open is exactly the same verb that occurs in the Balaam story in Numbers. You know that story. Balaam was off trying to get rich by cursing the people and God stood in his way to stop him, sending an angel. But Balaam couldn't see the angel. The donkey he was riding on could see it. The animal was smarter than the donkey who was riding on the donkey.

And the beast stopped and Balaam was kicking him to try and get him going ahead and finally we're told that God opened his eyes so he saw the angel standing there holding a drawn sword in his hand. Now that's exactly the word that's used here. This is what the psalmist is praying. He's saying, "Look, if I'm going to understand this Word and live by it, I need my eyes opened."

There's nothing wrong with the Bible. The Bible is perfectly clear. Sometimes, you know, in conferences, we talk about the Bible as if it's something that has to be wrestled with and explained and somehow reconciled and all of that. No imperfections in the Bible. The Bible is exactly what God wanted us to have in the Bible. There are no imperfections in God. It's God's Word. If there are problems, and there are, the problems are in us, not in the book.

And so the psalmist knows that. He talks about the Word of God being perfect. He says it again and again in the Psalm. So he doesn't want the Bible to change. He's the one that needs to change. And so he asks that God in grace might open his eyes to perceive it. And when God does, what's he going to perceive? Well, he says it, "Help me to see those wonderful things that are in the Word."

When I come to that verse, "Open my eyes to perceive the wonderful things in your Word," I think of one of the classic stories of archaeology. Anybody who knows anything about archaeology and discoveries in the ancient world will know the name of Howard Carter. Howard Carter was an Egyptologist. He was the one who uncovered the great tomb of King Tutankhamun in Egypt, in the area of Luxor.

He'd been searching for it for a while. As you know, most of the tombs of antiquity were robbed by robbers long ago. You get into them, there's nothing there. But he found this tomb that he'd been searching for. The expedition had been funded by a man in England named Lord Carnarvon. And so when he finally uncovered the steps that were leading down to the entrance to the burial chamber, he called Lord Carnarvon to join him and they stood there as the workmen moved the final stone that opened up the entrance to the tomb.

And Carnarvon, standing behind him, called out impatiently. He said to him, "Do you see anything?" And Carter's classic reply was, "Yes, wonderful things." He found the greatest treasures of antiquity that any archaeologist has ever found. Gold object upon gold object, absolutely magnificent. It fills a whole half of a floor in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo today.

Gold and gold and gold. Wonderful things. But you see, splendid as those may be, they're nothing to be compared with the marvelous things that are in God's Word for us to discover as God opens our eyes and enables us to see them. You remember the two Emmaus disciples? They were on their way home after the resurrection. It was before their eyes, as you might say.

Jesus had been raised, the women had been to the tomb, the tomb was empty. They reported it to the two disciples who were there, Peter and John. They had run to the tomb. John at least says he believed when he looked in and saw the grave clothes. All of that information came back to the Emmaus disciples, but they didn't have eyes to see it.

And so they were going home and Jesus approached them on the way and we're told he began to open the scriptures to them as he explained out of the Old Testament in the law and the prophets and the writings all the things that pertain to himself, how he had to die and rise again. And their testimony afterward as they reflected on it with one another was this, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us?"

You see their eyes had been opened. And so now they saw it and the Word of God was the tool. Now, it's important that God open our eyes, but let me say one other thing. That's not the whole of the story. God's going to open our eyes, but we also have to study his Word if he's going to do it. He's not going to do it apart from his Word.

That's why in the verses that follow right after this, the psalmist speaks about longing for God's laws, verse 20, and meditating on his decrees, verse 23, and delighting in God's statutes. You need God to open your eyes, but you need to be reading the Bible to see it. See how that works? Charles Spurgeon quotes an older writer whose name was John Kerr, saying, "A man will never grow into the knowledge of God's Word by idly waiting for some new gift of discernment."

"But by diligently using that which God has already bestowed upon him and using at the same time all other helps that lie within his reach." In other words, it's not enough merely to say to God, "Open my eyes." It's also necessary to read and study and meditate upon the Word that he has given. You say, "But he's given us the Holy Spirit to teach us."

Yes, but the Holy Spirit has given not to make the reading of the Bible unnecessary, but to make it effective. Remember the Holy Spirit and the Word of God go together. And that leads to the next thing, the second thing he prays for. First of all, "Open my eyes." Secondly, "Teach me your decrees." He needs to be taught by God. He said that several times already.

He's going to say it again. You're going to find it again and again throughout the Psalm. How does God do it? God does it by the Spirit, but what the Spirit does is teach the Word. I was developing that last time. It's the great insight that the Protestant Reformers had in this matter of personal revelation. God speaks individually to the heart. That's important.

But he does it on the basis of the Word and the psalmist knew that. And then he prays, thirdly, "Let me understand the teaching," verse 27. You see that goes a step beyond. It could be just another case of Hebrew parallelism. "Teach me your Word, let me understand your Word," could be almost the same thing, but actually it's deeper than that.

He's saying, "I want to learn it. I want you to teach it to me, but also what I really want to do is understand it. I want that deep understanding that comes from actually feeding upon the Word of God day by day on a regular basis." And then fourthly, he says, verse 29, "Keep me from deceitful ways." You see here he brings in the negative.

All the others are positive. He wants his eyes opened, he wants to be taught, he wants to be given understanding, but now he recognizes that there's something else and that is deceitful ways that are over there and so he says negatively but following on the others, "Keep me from that. I don't want to go after things that are false and will actually lead me astray."

How is God going to do that? By his grace, of course. Yes. But you see the whole point of this is his grace exercised through his Word. It's by living in the Word of God. "How shall a young man keep his way pure?" That's what it says in verse nine. The answer is, "by living according to your Word." And so that's what he is saying here as well.

Well, what he leaves with us is a challenge. And you find it right at the very end in verses 30, 31, and 32. He indicates here by three powerful verbs what's required if you and I are going to live a godly life. First of all, verse 30, we must choose the right way. Nobody just stumbles upon the right path. You have to choose it.

And he's saying this right path here begins by choosing to know the Word of God, to learn it and obey it, and follow after it. He says, "I have chosen the way of truth. I have set my heart on your laws." Then secondly, verse 31, he says, "We have to hold God's statutes fast." This word hold is the same word that he used at the beginning of the stanza for being laid low in the dust.

Remember I explained what it meant? It meant cleaving to the dust, bonded to the dust. It's not by accident that he brings it in here at the end. He says, "That's been my experience in life, but what I'm determining to do is cleave equally or even more so to the Word of God. We may be struck down, but in our abasement, what we need to do is hold the Word of God high or to use other language, we need to hold it fast.

We don't want the world to get that away from us because it's the greatest possible treasure we could have. And then finally, verse 32, the last verse of this section, he talks about running the course that's set before us. You see what he is saying, he begins that stanza by saying he's been knocked down, he's flat, he's in the dust, but he's holding to the Word of God and because of that, that isn't where he ends up.

He doesn't end up in the dust, but he ends up on his feet. And what he's doing on his feet is running in the service of God. Do you see your life as a race to be won? The Bible describes it that way. A prize to be attained, a race to be won. Listen, Hebrews 12:1 says, "Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily besets us, and let us run with perseverance the race that is marked out for us."

There's a race marked out for you. Are you going to run that way, cleaving to the Word of God? Or here's the Apostle Paul, his own testimony in Second Timothy, "I have fought the good fight," he says, "I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing."

Oh, that that might be true of every one of us, not drifting along in the world, not humbled in the dust, but on our feet, pursuing because of the grace of God that has made known to us through his Word. Our Father, we thank you for this teaching, a bit more teaching in the context of a whole book of teachings.

Help us to learn it and so begin to build a life around these specific instructions that are found here, that there might be here a little and there a little, here a line and there a line, until that day comes when we stand complete in the presence of our Lord and receive that crown of righteousness which is laid out for all, not just for the apostles, but for all who love Christ's appearing. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

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