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Psalm 119 - Gimel

In the Aleph stanza we saw the student's need to keep God's Word (precepts, judgements, statutes, law, ordinances, testimonies, and commandments) in order to please Him.  Then in Beth, we saw his two practical methods to avoid forgetfulness.  Now in this stanza we'll see that the student needs at least one more thing.  He needs Jehovah's help to know how to apply the Word to life's actual situations.  If we were praying this prayer, we'd say, "Lord, I need to keep Your commandments, I need Your help to memorize them and meditate upon them, but I also need Your help to see how they apply in my daily life" (when I'm at home, when I'm at school, when I'm at work ...).

Actually, the student needs lots of help.  He prays, "Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live and keep Your Word."  He's memorizing and meditating, but he realizes he's still going to come far short, so he's taught to pray, "Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law."  Paraphrasing, that's to say, "Help me see the wonderful ways Your law applies to what I do every day!"

He next confesses the reason he needs that help: "I am a stranger in the earth; do not hide Your commandments from me!  My soul breaks with longing for Your judgements at all times!"  Simply put, the student needs to confess that he is young and inexperienced in the world. He knows that in many instances he probably won't even know when he's breaking and when he's keeping God's commandments. 

But of course, he knows the world won't help him a bit.  So he's asking for the help of Jehovah's Spirit throughout each day.  He's saying, "I want to keep them, but, Lord, there's so many times when I don't even see the meaning of what I'm doing and of what's happening around me!"

He's lived just long enough to have experienced the results of straying from God's commandments.  He says to the lord, "You rebuke the proud - the cursed, who stray from Your commandments!  Remove from me reproach and contempt."  He's praying both to be kept from God's reproach and also from his own tendency toward contempt for the commandments - because he's already experienced the pain that comes from that!

He's found that, as soon as he tries to keep God's Word, then "Princes also sit and speak against me" - and that becomes a temptation to go some other way than God's way. In other words, people who are important ("princes") have contempt for God's Word, and he, after all, is powerfully influenced by others.  It should remind us of "peer groups" in today's schools.

But the student thankfully needs to confess that the inward desire of his heart is better than that.  He says, "Your servant meditates on Your statutes.  Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors."  That's the reasons for this prayer.  Memorization, meditation - or any other methods - are fine, but they aren't enough.  The student needs the help of the Spirit in life's daily applications - when he's "under fire."

And so do we all!  We can memorize and memorize, meditate and meditate - and we should - but it won't help unless we have God's help when we're faced with temptation in daily life.  We need His help to see how His Word applies then, and we need the same help to keep motivated when we're tempted to fall.  Let's repeat these words with the student! Let's also pray with him and say to our Lord, "Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live and keep Your Word!"