By your ruling they stand firm today, For all things are your servants.
I’m using “ruling” for the Hebrew word mishpat which I usually render “judgment” because I believe what is in view here is the determination, the result of the judgment, not the process of judgment. God faithfulness/truth and God’s word stand firm because that is God’s will.
Law here is a reflection of God’s character, who God is. Psalm 119 is not just a long ode to law and order, as it is sometimes seen, but rather it is a song of praise to God’s self-revelation in law, in creation, and in care for God’s people.
Often we try to absolve God of the problems that we observe in the universe. One of our key methods for doing this is free will. “God wouldn’t have wanted that, but what can God do? Free will!” I’m a believer in free will. But to whatever extent we do have free will, that freedom is also a gift, a ruling if you will, of God. If you make a decision, God sovereignly decided to let you do it.
I form light and create darkness. I make wholeness (shalom) and create evil. I, YHWH do all these things.
Isaiah 45:7 (my translation)
Now there are a variety of translations, particularly of the second line. Shalom can rightfully be translated in a number of ways, but in general we should see it as reflecting God’s ideal, and that which is not. One of the Dead Sea Scrolls reads tov here, generally translated “good.” That would match the tree from which Adam and Eve are not to eat, the tree of the knowledge of good (tov) and evil (ra).
It seems clear to me that God is taking responsibility for everything in the created universe, as the one who created it. Everything is God’s servant, whether it wants to be or not.
Within all that, we are still called to choose. Knowing that God is sovereign does not excuse us from action. We are to do good and resist evil.
Your faithfulness extends from generation to generation. You established the earth and it will stand firm.
Why can you trust God? Because gravity works.
God’s authority as lawgiver, and his ability to offer grace and salvation is based directly on God’s creative power. This verse parallels God’s faithfulness to those who trust in God’s power, and it bases that on God’s creation.
This is a common theme in scripture, but it is one we often ignore. We think of creation as something in the past. Yes, God did it, and we believe it, because we’re supposed to. But do we apply it to current reality?
Psalm 104 expresses the present nature of God’s creation:
These all look to you to give them their food in due season; when you give to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground.
Psalm 51 alludes to this creative power in verse ten, when the psalmist asks God to create in him a clean heart. It’s reflected in the New Testament in 2 Corinthians 5:17 – “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation.”
When we doubt what God can do in our lives, we are denying God’s creative power. On my own, I can do no good thing. But I am not alone. God can work things through me that I can’t even imagine.
A friend of mine signs every email “Practice Resurrection!” It’s a good idea. How about “Practice creation!” That’s good too.
When discouragement threatens, try to remember that God’s creative power is at work in you. God created galaxies. Perhaps God has enough power for your life.
Forever, LORD, your Word is established in heaven.
This is an important verse to start the next section (Lamedh), and also the second half of the psalm.
Too often we diminish the idea of God’s Word by making it the equivalent of the written words that we have. This is sometimes presented as great respect for those written words, making them more important, but I believe the effect is the opposite.
In scripture (that written word), we have a much broader, deeper, and higher idea of what God’s word actually is. I have been seeing in various verses in this Psalm the idea that the law, as understood in this psalm is a presentation to us of who God really is. The word/words we have here are derived from that heavenly word. The instructions God gives through story, poetry, and yes, laws, are derived from who God is.
If we extend this to points made more directly in other psalms, that the Word is all-encompassing. Psalm 33:6-9 tells us that the worlds were made by God’s Word.
Psalm 119 can be seen as a celebration of the creator of the universe, expressed in the form of God’s various ways of relating to us in that universe. In ancient near eastern thought, one of the key elements of creation was bring order to chaos, making things work in a way that would allow life, even good life. Chaos was the product of God’s enemies.
In Genesis 1, this order is produced by God speaking. That symbolism is important. God’s simple command brought order. God’s authority is presented as the result of God’s creative power, and after that from God’s redemptive power, which is also an aspect of God’s creative power.
Try meditating today on the fact that each thing you have is a gift. Be grateful!
In your lovingkindness grant me life that I may keep your testimony.
This verse opens windows onto many other concepts. And, for what it’s worth, this verse is halfway through the Psalm’s 176 verses.
First, it again sets the order of events. God is the initiator. God is the creator. Whatever you do with your life, that life is a gift of God. You could not create yourself. Often we get tense about the idea of salvation by grace through faith, because we think that somewhere, somehow there must be some works we can contribute. But how do you contribute to the one who gives you the ability to contribute?
“In your lovingkindness” means that God loved us before we had the capability of loving God. God doesn’t need our contribution to God, but God asks our contribution. In the end, that contribution turns out to be truly to ourselves and to one another in the community. Blessing is poured out so that it can pour out again, just as God gives us life so that we can bring forth new life.
In Genesis 12:2 God says to Abram: “I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” Our blessing of anyone else is the result of God blessing us. Blessing overflows and builds up others.
When we talk about church, what are we there for? Paul, in 1 Corinthians 14, repeatedly uses the word “edify” (archaic) or “build up.” We are meeting together to be a blessing to one another. We can be a blessing, because God has blessed each one of us. Worship, acknowledging this, is not some kind of ego stroking that God requires. Rather, it is the simple and grateful acknowledgment of how things work.
God has a purpose for you. What blessing is God pouring out on you that God wants you to let flow on to those you meet?
They almost finished my time on earth, but I did not abandon your precepts.
Mitchell Dahood again provides a good translation:
They nearly exterminated me from the earth, but I did not forsake your precepts.
Mitchell Dahood, Psalms 100-150, Anchor Bible, p. 166
Dahood continues on page 183 with a discussion of the text, dealing the final phrase “in the earth” or “from the earth.” For some time there was a suggested emendation (textual correction not reflected in any manuscript reading) change “in” to “from.” That emendation then received support from a Dead Sea Scrolls fragment, but Dahood maintains that there is good linguistic evidence for translating the Hebrew prefix for “in” as “from” in many cases.
There! A dose of language study, however superficially written and documented!
The claim that one is doing right while bad things are happening is not a rare one in scripture. It is, in fact, the big issue in Job. While Samuel-Kings repeats a refrain about evil bringing bad results and good behavior bringing good results, Job discusses the contrary situation: Job is declared righteous in the text by God, yet he suffers. Job’s friends thought he was obstinate and arrogant for maintaining his innocence. God doesn’t challenge Job’s innocence, but rather simply challenges Job with presence and power.
One of the problems of living together with other people is that our suffering, if attributed to human action, is not always attributed to our own action. Bad actors make many people suffer, irrespective of their behavior.
When faced with a bad situation, it’s not the time to be forgetting good actions. If I’m walking along a mountain trail and find myself in danger because someone else has damaged the safety rail, or damaged the trail itself, it’s not the time to forget rules of safety. In fact, I need to be more carefully because someone else was either less careful or actively destructive.
“Everybody else was after me and almost got me, but I stuck to your rules.” It’s a good loose interpretation of our verse today, but it’s generally good practice as well.
When I was younger, I would try the excuse that all the other kids were doing something. It didn’t go far with my parents. But in society as a whole I see this as a justification for bad behavior all the time. The other folks are doing it, so why not me? Or perhaps the other folks are doing it, so I have to do it or I’ll lose.
Rather than seeing this as some kind of boast, perhaps we ought to see it as an example for ourselves. When other people do it wrong, we should stay on the right track, right to the end. I suspect no good is accomplished by ignoring God’s principles and rules, no matter how many other people we see doing it.
Reflect: Can you say that you haven’t taken up the approach of the other guys?
All your commands are valid, Yet they persecute me with falsehood. Help me!
In most translations you will find a word like “truth” describing the commands. I think that “truth” with reference to a command can understood as validity. The commands are fitting, appropriate, and right. I could also change the term in the second line from “falsehood” to “invalidity.”
How does one persecute with falsehood?
Yesterday, discussing verse 85, I discussed made up or misapplied rules. Those ideas could apply here. I suspect the psalmist is talking about the use of rumors, careless and inaccurate reports, and vague accusations. I think people have used these things as long as there have been people. Currently we use the term “disinformation” to talk about stories that are intentionally false in order to pursue some goal of the writer.
But a more common form of falsehood that harms is careless inaccuracy. I see this regularly on social media. People post or repost rumors and those rumors grow and morph as time goes on. It is nearly impossible to root them out, because they fit with someone’s view of the universe. They are used to run down other people or groups.
There are various excuses for the use of falsehood, such as not having time to check, or just posting/repeating to see what people think. But the bottom line is that people’s reputations are harmed and it becomes harder and harder to communicate. We wind up living in fantasy worlds made up of the falsehoods we have absorbed.
It’s easy to deceive ourselves that this is a strictly modern phenomenon, brought about by the presence of the internet. But these sorts of things have been passed on for millennia. The internet and social media have just made them more convenient. Their nature hasn’t changed.
Any time we repeat or post things that are false, we bear false witness against our neighbors. You may be thinking I’m primarily talking about the political landscape, and I am concerned. Fact-oriented exchanges of ideas are of great value. But I’m also greatly concerned with what we do to one another in our churches and in our local communities.
Paul was concerned enough about this to list “gossips” and/or “scandalmongers” in his various famous sin lists. I’m looking at Romans 1;29-30 right now.
But there are verses about this closer to home, i..e. in Psalms and Proverbs. For example:
“Gossip is sharp as a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” (Proverbs 12:18)
“A scoundrel takes up evil gossip; it is like a scorching fire on his lips.” (Proverbs 16:27)
Or the complaint in Psams; “Those who sit by the town gate gossip about me; I am the theme of drunken songs.” (Psalms 69:12)
A good strategy would be to fight falsehood with truth, fight the invalid with valid. Don’t believe and don’t repeat anything you can’t be certain is true and useful.
What can you not repeat today to help make the world a more “valid” place?
The arrogant have dug pits for me which were not according to your instruction.
I chose the word “arrogant” here as the translation as a description of those who think they can make their own rules and trap people with them. I’d like to offer translations from a couple of other people.
For me the presumptuous dig ditches that are not of your instruction
Psalm 119:85, from page 384
I think “presumptuous catches what I hear in this verse quite well. Bob translates quite directly in an effort to clearly convey the structure of the Psalm.
Mitchell Dahood, in his Anchor Bible commentary on the Psalms translates,
The presumptuous have dug pits for me, who are not in conformity with your law.
Psalms 100-150, Anchor Bible, p. 166, on Psalm 119:85
His translation is quite possible, but I tend to disagree on what is not according to your law. I would see the pits as violations, rather than a general declaration that the diggers are not in conformity.
Now there are many ways in which one can dig pits for another person. Sometimes it can be an attack on their reputation, falsehoods told about them, or even truths told in a harmful way. I am a strong proponent of privacy. Not everyone needs to know everyone else’s business. Often we do harm even in passing on prayer requests. I’m going to go far afield. I don’t think the psalmist was thinking all these things, but I do think they are based on the same principle expressed in this verse.
But there’s another form of pit, and that’s making up our own rules and then tripping others with them. I recall a complaint against a pastor because he had not mowed the grass on the rather large property. It happened that I knew and was friends with the former pastor, who had really enjoyed riding a tractor and mowing the grass. That was really not the new pastor’s thing. In this case nobody was arrogant, but they tripped the new pastor with a rule that was imaginary.
At another time I was working with a visiting singing group from overseas who were at our church to present a program. The leader came to me to ask me if they could move any of the furniture on the platform. I say, “Why not?” He said that they had gotten into considerable trouble in churches for rearranging furniture in order to fit their equipment in.
I should have realized that, because it takes very little time for things to become traditional in a church, and the positioning of pews and items of furniture can take on an oversize role in “church order.”
At another time I recall people complaining that a pastor had changed the order of worship. In one case the change had been accidental. But people piously claimed that the service had not be conducted “decently and in order.” That’s from 1 Corinthians 14:40, but I doubt the complainers had read the chapter. I wonder what they would have thought if two or three prophets (1 Corinthians 14:29) had spoken in the service!
There’s nothing like fake, pious-sounding rules to trip people up. And the “orderly” people are good at sounding pious. We impose this on newcomers. We impose it on our youth. We find things that they have to get right. We want them to learn how to “do church right!” God deserves our best, from clothing to respectful silence, to offerings, and more.
I recall an American who was in Guyana before us who informed my parents that he had told Guyanese church members to “wash their hair and take off their hats” for church services. I have no idea where the “wash their hair” came from, but the women in the church wore really gorgeous hats. This man had a rule in his mind that was not according to God’s instruction (there are biblical statements that say quite the opposite!), that these women should not wear hats. I assume this came from his local church. Some of my fondest memories of church services are from my time in Guyana. They had no need for someone to tell them how to do church.
I think we need to be just as clear as to what God hasn’t said as to what God has said. Don’t go digging pits, or ditches, or building walls where God hasn’t placed them.
I’m going to include a video of some young people discussing things that have driven them away from the church. I found quite a number of really good points here, especially when they discuss telling young people they have to clean up or give up bad habits before they can come to God. That’s a big, ungodly barrier. Grace is a free gift, not a payment for fixing yourself.
Full disclosure: Two of these young people are my granddaughters!
How long must your servant wait? When will you execute judgment on my persecutors?
“How long?’ is a frequent refrain in scripture. Come to think of it, it’s a frequent refrain all our lives. Just start a long trip with children in the car and you’ll soon be hearing this question in one form or another. Are we there yet?
In the Bible we have frequent examples of this sort of question. Abraham wondered how long, and even informed God that it was a bit late for the promise of a child. The Israelites in Egypt cried out in their slavery, and I suspect “how long” was part of that cry. During the 40 years of wandering about in the desert, that question no doubt came up a few times. At the time of the exile, again the question was asked, “How long is this going to last? When will God’s promises be fulfilled?”
In Revelation 6:8, the souls under the altar cry out “How long, sovereign Lord, holy and true, must it be before you will vindicate us and avenge our death on the inhabitants of the earth?” (REB). It’s still going on. And on, and on, and on. How long?
Revelation 10:6 gives us an answer, of sorts. Here God declares, “There shall be no more delay!”
Which leaves open the question of why there is delay in the first place. I think there’s a hint in Revelation, and once we see that hint, we can turn back to Hebrew scripture and see that this answer isn’t new. I’m not going to give specific verses, because to see this, you need to read at least Revelation 6-16. If you do, you will see three sequences of seven. There are seven seals opened, seven trumpets sounded, and seven bowls poured out.
In the case of the seals, six are broken and then there’s a delay, during which God is gathering His people. Then we resume with six trumpets sounded, but the seventh is delayed. The verse I quoted earlier comes from the time between the sixth and seventh trumpet, during which God promises more delay. Finally, come the bowls. With them there is no delay. All seven are poured out in succession and this is followed by the very last scenes of the battle between God and the Dragon, between good and evil.
Perhaps a text from Hebrew scripture will provide the key, stated explicitly:
But you, Lord are God, compassionate and gracious, long-suffering, ever faithful and true.
Psalm 86:15 (REB)
The problem for us is that God is not just compassionate toward us. God is also compassionate toward those other guys. You know, the ones we want God to judge. God loves them too. So God provides warnings and opportunities, and is slow to become angry.
Jonah gets to learn a bit about this when God asks him, “… should I not be sorry about the great city of Nineveh, with its hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from the left?” (Jonah 4:11).
It is useful to remember that Israel had good reason not to like the Assyrian Empire. I had the opportunity to read various royal records of Assyria, and it was disastrous to be conquered by them, especially if you had rebelled before. Jonah had reason to regard the Assyrians as his enemies.
But God cared about them. Let’s remember that. God cared about them.
We often treat “caring” and “compassion” as limited commodities, “economic goods” economists call them, ones that are in limited supply and thus will have a price. If you buy more of this, you have less money to buy that.
We treat compassion in this way. I can only have compassion on some people. But God’s compassion, love, and grace extend to all. God’s grace is amazing, and it is not limited.
So when God is failing to judge your enemies, it is likely that God is giving them the opportunity of redemption. Like Jonah, you and I may not like it when they accept, but God will. There will be rejoicing in heaven.
The desire for justice is not wrong. The desire for God to take action against your enemies is not wrong. But it’s limited. God is inviting you to be more godlike and learn to love more people more deeply.
When you hear about an enemy, or the member of a group you don’t like, can you pray for God’s compassion and mercy on them for their redemption?
For I am like a wineskin in smoke, yet I do not forget your statutes.
It’s not entirely clear what’s happening to the wineskin here (REB translates “though I shrivel like a wineskin in the smoke), I think this continues this series of verses on being out on a limb, out of options, and wondering what’s going to happen next.
Mitchell Dahood states (correctly) that there really isn’t a satisfactory explanation for the “wineskin in the smoke” simile. We can think of ways to understand it, as I did in the previous paragraph, but it’s hard to be really convincing. Dahood proposes the translation “For I have become like one weeping from smoke.” Yet his linguistic explanation leaves me thinking, “Nice, but still just a suggestion.”
Sometimes in translating the Bible, especially in Hebrew scriptures, we find passages like this. It’s truly difficult to determine precisely what the meaning is. So I’m stopping a moment to discuss uncertainty in reading scripture.
We’re generally unhappy with any possibility of doubt as to the meaning of a particular verse. Surely God’s Word should give us a precise understanding! There are those complain about notes in their English (or Spanish) translations because these notes might give people doubts about the accuracy of their Bibles.
But however much you may try to avoid it, the evidence is there. There are textual variations. There are verses where we are uncertainty of the translation of particular words. Or, as in this case, the definitions seem pretty clear but we don’t get the simile, or perhaps it’s a euphemism. We don’t know absolutely.
We need to get used to this sort of variation simply because God has chosen to provide scripture in that form. It comes written by humans, copied by humans, and interpreted by humans. And guess what! Humans make mistakes. Even if none of these variations existed, you and I, as readers, would still be fallible.
Now the fact is that the vast majority of the text of scripture is not in any real doubt. It’s only a small portion of the words that make us stop and scratch our heads. But if we take a broad look at scripture, and don’t just depend on a single verse, we’ll be able to figure things out.
Sometimes doubt about meaning makes us feel like that “bottle in the smoke,” whatever that experience means. But if we listen for the story, and the message in the story, we’ll find that while we are not capable of certainty, we are capable of hearing God speak through these passages. It’s not that God can’t provide an accurate message. It’s that we, with our limited minds, can only understand in our limited way.
That makes it a good idea to listen closely, and read more of scripture so we have a broader understanding. But mostly it means continuing to realize our dependence on God.
My eyes are failing from looking for your promise. I’m asking, “When will you comfort me?”
The process of meditating on a verse like this is very different from the process of exegesis. I can dig out the details of this verse fairly quickly.. There’s not that much that’s controversial about the text or translation.
But meditating is different. It’s not just about the verse itself, but about what that suggests. I had to go back and read the verse several times. I wonder if that’s because I really don’t like what the verse itself implies.
Here’s one of the writers of scripture. We don’t actually know who wrote the Psalm, but it’s nice to think of David, simply because he had so many experiences that fit well into the message of the text. But whoever it was, it was someone who wrote poetry and that poetry became scripture. That person’s testimony is that his eyes wore out with watching for God to fulfill God’s promise and provide him with comfort.
Comfort? That’s in one way a very uncomfortable thought. I don’t particularly like to wait. I like to know now. I like to receive now. Though these days I often fail, I like to do now. Waiting is bad.
I’m reminded of Job. Many years ago, I heard about Job as a theodicy, an attempt to explain why, with a sovereign God, there is suffering. The problem is that the book of Job does no such thing. It makes no attempt to justify God’s actions. In fact, Job himself has no idea of what is going on.
Not only does Job have to wait, but he has to suffer through all those long speeches. And what Job wants is to know that God hears him, that he is not alone in all this. He doesn’t really ask for an explanation. Job wants a hearing!
When that hearing comes, it’s not all that helpful in content and explanation. What it does is show that God is aware of Job’s problem, and that is what Job wants.
I don’t know what specific promise the psalmist was waiting for. If the author is David we know he had to spend years as a fugitive, waiting for the fulfillment of the promise that he would be king. It’s likely he had moments when his eyes were worn out with waiting and wondering when God would act.
Each of us has things that we want, that we have prayed for, and even that we may believe God has promised us. When these things don’t happen, we want to head off in another direction or decide that God is not with us. But Job waited until he got that hearing. David waited until the crown came to him.
There’s a promise in this verse, one that could be reaffirmed by God’s people throughout time. It’s worthwhile waiting. The hearing is coming. The crown is coming. Your reward is coming. Wait for it.
Perhaps we might borrow some attitude from Habakkuk, who asks God a question and then stands at his post. “I shall take up my position on the watch-tower, keeping a look-out to learn what he says to me, how he responds to my complaint” (Habakkuk 2:1, REB). I also recall the character Puddleglum in C. S. Lewis’s The Silver Chair, who, confronted with the idea that there was no Aslan said (I paraphrase) “I’m on Aslan’s side even if there’s no Aslan to lead it.”
There is hope in this verse because the backstory must be that the author believed the promise, waited on the promise, wore his eyes out looking for the promise, but he’s now here writing about it.
What are you waiting for? Keep a look-out for God’s move!
