Psalm 119:38 – Raise Up Your Word
Carry out your word to your servant,
the one who fears you.
The Hebrew word I translate “carry out” carries a variety of freight in a variety of uses. One option is simply to build and establish. I might loosely render it as “Make your word real.”
As I study and meditate on scripture, I find more and more that it’s God’s word coming and going and everywhere in between. I think this verse can become a very important and powerful prayer. I don’t mean powerful in the sense of bolts of lightning and claps of thunder, or mountains moving around. Well, at least not in the short term!
I mean it is a fundamental prayer. In creation God spoke (Genesis 1:2). The heavens were made by God’s word (Psalm 33:6-9). God’s word goes out and does not return empty (Isaiah 55:10-11). It’s the call for God’s creative word to be in control.
I’m reminded of Hebrews 4:12-13, which starts with “the Word of the God is alive and active” and ends with noting that all is laid bare to the one to whom we must give account. What’s lost in many English translations is that the “Word” of the first clause is the same Greek word as the “account” of the final clause.
Now many commentators see this differently, saying the two word uses are unrelated. I disagree. I see here this prayer, to raise of God’s word (or promise), and to do so to the one who fears God.
What does God’s Word discover when looking inside to see everything that is there? What is our account to God?
I’d suggest that this is to be the Word of God, taken in. For us as Christians we say that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. “… [T]o whom God desired to make know the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you all, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).
It is God’s Word, which is presented in many ways, but comes from and points to the creator of all things. This is what is to be seen when all is laid bare before God’s Word. That burns away the “scary” part of the fear of God and leaves the awe, wonder, and indeed warmth.
Word of God, speak to me!

(The featured image for this post [not the one immediately above] was generated by Jetpack AI.)
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