THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Psalms: God's Nurture Of The Inner Man In The Life Of Faith

CXIX: Appreciating And Applying Scripture For Every Spiritual Need, Psalm 119

T. Resh - Scripture's Help For Those In Conflict With Many Oppressively Evil Foes

(Psalm 119:153-160)

I. Introduction

A. Psalm 119 tells of the profitable use of God's written Word, the Scriptures, and the psalm is formed as an acrostic where each section has a Hebrew letter that begins each of the eight verses in its respective section.

B. Section "Resh" in Psalm 119:153-160 explains how Scripture equips the believer to handle conflict he faces with wicked foes, and we view the passage for insight and edification (as follows):

II. Scripture's Help For Those In Conflict With Many Oppressively Evil Foes, Psalm 119:153-160.

A. The verse numbering system in the Hebrew text matches that of the English Bible (Kittel, Bib. Heb., p. 1085-1086), so we stay with the English Bible's numbering system for this lesson.

B. We thus translate Psalm 119:153-160 (as follows):

1. "Look upon my affliction and rescue me, for I have not forgotten Your Law," Psalm 119:153.

2. "Strive my strife, dispute (rib, [verb], B. D. B., A Heb. and Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 936; rib, [noun], Ibid., p. 936-937) and redeem me; renew my life according to Your promise," Psalm 119:154.

3. "Salvation is far from the wicked for they do not seek out Your decrees," Psalm 119:155.

4. "Great is Your compassion, O Jahweh; renew my life according to Your verdicts," Psalm 119:156.

5. "Many are those who pursue me, and they are my foes, but I have not bent away from Your statutes," 157.

6. "Look upon those who act treacherously and feel a strong loathing in Yourself for they do not heed Your Word," Psalm 119:158.

7. "See that I love Your precepts, O Jahweh; renew my life according to Your loyal love," Psalm 119:159.

8. "The total sum of Your words are true; all of Your righteous judgments are eternal," Psalm 119:160.

C. We consider significant observations regarding this psalm (as follows):

1. The psalmist faced conflict with many oppressively evil foes, Psalm 119:153a, 154a, 157a.

2. The solution to this great difficulty was found in how the two sides in the conflict related to God and each other: (a) The psalmist and his foes differed in their way of relating to the God of written Scripture: (i) The psalmist recalled (v. 153b), believed (v. 154b) and loved (v. 159a) God's Word (ii) where his foes did not look to Scripture regarding life's issues (v. 155b) and thus did not obey it (v. 158b). (b) The psalmist and his foes consequently differed in how they related to each other: (i) The psalmist's foes afflicted him (v. 153a), oppressively pursued him (v. 157a) and dealt treacherously with him (v. 158a). (ii) He was thus exhausted from what his foes did to him (v. 154b, 156b, 159b), so he asked God for deliverance, v. 153a, 154, 158, 159b. (c) Consequently, the Lord sided with the psalmist against his foes: (i) What the psalmist could expect from God in his strife was compassion (v. 156a), God's work in behalf of his cause (v. 154a) and making judgments in his favor (v. 156b) that were true and eternally binding, v. 160. (ii) What the psalmist's foes could expect from God was His loathing of their cause and actions (v. 158) and finding God far from helping them in their time of need, v. 155a.

Lesson: (1) The psalmist reported that those who heed God's Word are oppressed by those who do not, a truth that Scripture elsewhere asserts, cf. John 15:18-22; 16:1-2; Galatians 4:29; 2 Timothy 3:12. (2) However, even if the unbiblical persecutors were many and formidable and the upright psalmist humanly worn down by such foes, the Lord sided with the upright psalmist so that all he needed to do was call on the Lord and see Him show him compassion, plead his case and make judgments in his favor that were true and eternally binding. The wicked would then face God's loathing of their cause and acts and find His help far from them.

Application: (1) If we face many strong foes who oppress us while we do not treat them badly, and we feel fatigued from the oppression and check Scripture to find that we are in the right, we can be sure that we are upright and are being persecuted by the ungodly and thus confidently call on the Lord for His help. God in time will turn the tables regardless how many and how great our opponents! (2) The afflicted upright believer must remain just as focused on Scripture as his foes are on persecuting him (v. 157b with v. 157a), that he not let the constant, negative pressure from his foes distract him from the truth he needs to heed for God to bless him! To that end, he must recall that all of Scripture is always true, thus keeping his hope strong until God eventually relieves him, v. 160.