Psalm 119:59
(This is an entry from a devotional commentary I am working on from Psalm 119 entitled ‘God and His Word’. The introduction can be found here, successive entries have covered the 22 sections of the Psalm, and following entries verse by verse.)
"I considered my ways
And turned my feet to Your testimonies."
What godly man ever said, ‘I thought upon my ways, and justified myself.’? While I explore the wonders of Your righteousness, I cannot help but see the depth of my sin and cry out, ‘Oh that my ways may be established to keep Your statues!’ (Psalm 119:5). I tell of my ways, but You answer decisively (Psalm 119:26), my ways may seem right to me even when they could not be more wrong (Proverbs 14:12, Proverbs 16:25, Proverbs 28:26, Jeremiah 17:7). Save me from such delusion, even if it appears righteous (Jeremiah 10:8)!
In my pride my default is to consider my ways and explore them (see Psalm 36:1-2). Even if not in sinful pride, it can often be in despair (Psalm 42:5), taking my own counsel (Psalm 13:2). The godly man considers this and turns away and towards You. Father, I praise You for and pray for grace to turn more frequently and more deeply. ’Considered’ is the same as ‘reckoned’ in Genesis 15:6, and ‘turn’ is often a returning or turning back, most notably in 2 Kings 23:25, of Josiah, who ‘turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses’. May I be like him! In the next verse, Psalm 119:60, we see the speed with which this turning occurs, with haste and without delay.
‘While studying the word he was led to study his own life, and this caused a mighty revolution. He came to the word, and then he came to himself, and this made him arise and go to his father. Consideration is the commencement of conversion: first we think and then we turn. When the mind repents of ill ways the feet are soon led into good ways; but there will be no repenting until there is deep, earnest thought. Many men are averse to thought of any kind, and as to thought upon their ways, they cannot endure it, for their ways will not bear thinking of…Action without thought is folly, and thought without action is sloth: to think carefully and then to act promptly is a happy combination…If we are in the dark, and mourn an absent God, our wisest method will be not so much to think upon our sorrows as upon our ways: though we cannot turn the course of providence, we can turn the way of our walking, and this will soon mend matters. If we can get our feet right as to holy walking, we shall soon get our hearts right as to happy living.’[1]
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