In His Grip

“The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: To  know  wisdom and discipline, To  understand  the sayings of understanding, To  receive  discipline that leads to insight, Righteousness, justice, and equity, To  give  prudence to the simple, To the youth knowledge and discretion; Let the wise man  hear  and  increase  in learning, And a man of understanding will  acquire  guidance, To  understand  a proverb and an enigma, The words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; Ignorant fools despise wisdom and discipline.” (Proverbs 1:1-7 LSB, with emphasis)   “My son, if you will  receive  my words And  treasure  my commandments within you, To  make your ear pay attention  to wisdom, Incline your heart  to discernment; For if you  call out  for understanding, Give your voice  for discernment; If you  seek  her as silver And  search  for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will understand the fear of Yahweh And find the knowledge of God

(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.)   "May my heart be blameless in Your statutes, So that I will not be ashamed."   There is no higher goal than Your righteousness, which is to be blameless in Your statutes.   Surely this is ultimate spiritual strength, for "The wicked flee when no one is pursuing, But the righteous are bold as a lion."   (Proverbs 28:1).   Walking in Your ways is ultimate strength and confidence.   It is also ultimate blessing, seen in Psalm 119:1-2, which hearkens back to Psalm 1:1-2.   It is a compelling picture of what I want to be, the opposite of ashamed.   When ashamed, I shrink back, but when blameless before You, I seek further righteousness.   Blameless is the Hebrew   תָּמִים , tāmiym,

(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.)   "May those who fear You turn to me, Even those who know Your testimonies."   Because of his orientation towards Your word, the Psalmist had those who fear You see him and be glad (v. 74), and now asks that they turn to him, perhaps again.   The truth of Psalm 119:63 is surely reflected here.   Lord, what a unifier Your word is and who You are!   There is no greater companionship.   Note both the affirmation and the equality here.   While the Psalmist may have been more advanced in the word (the fact that he wrote this Psalm makes this likely), yet here we see ‘even those who know Your testimonies’.   The picture here isn’t necessarily that they come to him to know Your word, but

(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.)   "May the arrogant be ashamed, for they subvert me with a lie; But I shall meditate on Your precepts."   Similar to Psalm 119:69, the Psalmist replaces a lie with Your law.   Lying is apparently one of the results of arrogance; it is the arrogant who forge lies and subvert the righteous (see also Proverbs 17:15).   In these days, as in all times, it seems to be done with impunity and with no shame.   And so we pray - for our sake and for theirs - that shame would come upon them, and upon us if we follow the same path.   Psalm 101:6-7 is a wonderful meditation here; they may attack from the outside, but we don’t allow them inside our hearts.   It is God’s thoughts, not ours, which

(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.)   "May Your compassion come to me that I may live, For Your law is my delight."   My very life depends on this.   I am reminded of Psalm 119:58 and my great need for Your favor, for Your grace.   ‘For Your law is my delight.’   The Psalmist understood the connection between delight and life.   Life to the full comes in the delight of Your law, and with that delight comes an understanding of dependence upon You.   ‘Compassion’ is the Hebrew רַחַם , raḥam, a noun with the sense of womb, compassion, mercy, affection.     With this compassion certainly there is safety and security.   In Psalm 119:92, the Psalmist indicates that this delight is what sustained His life.   Surely we live not on b

(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.)   "O may Your lovingkindness comfort me, According to Your word to Your servant."   ‘O may Your lovingkindness comfort me’, yet how often I have refused to be comforted (Psalm 77:2).    Why is that?   ‘According to Your word’ is, in my pride, the last thing I want.   I want to be comforted on my terms, not on Yours Lord!   That is not true comfort, yet my flesh deceives me.   As I learned in my early counseling sessions, I had to come to grips with the reality that I just wanted relief, I didn’t want You.   I wanted temporary relief then to go on running my own life.   Your lovingkindness is such that You won’t allow that.   You know that only in surrender to You there is true and lasting p

(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 know, O LORD, that Your judgments are righteous, And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me."   In this section, Yodh, the Psalmist seeks comfort (v. 76) and compassion (v. 77) because of Your affliction (v.75) and the subversion of the arrogant (v. 78).   We had just seen in v. 67 and v.71 the good that comes from affliction, and now we see here that this affliction is from You and an expression of Your faithfulness.   Of course this is true, since all good comes from You.   This is part of the ‘exceeding faithfulness’ of Your word (v. 138).   Through affliction we truly seek You (Psalm 78:34, Hosea 5:15).   Through affliction comes praise and satisfaction (Psalm 74:21, Psalm 22:2

(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.)   "May those who fear You see me and be glad, Because I wait for Your word."   Because I am so wonderful?   Surely not.   I have no good besides You (Psalm 16:2).   Those who fear You want more of You, and recognize that comes primarily from Your word, and secondarily the work of the word in others for our mutual benefit (e.g. see Colossians 3:16).   We see a parallel with Psalm 119:79, where those who fear You turn to me.   Why gladness?   ‘Glad’ is the Hebrew ‘ שָׂמַח , śāmaḥ: A verb meaning to rejoice; to be joyful, to be glad; to gloat. It describes a state and agitation of rejoicing, of being happy.   This is the only occurrence of the word in Psalm 119.   See also the example of Da

(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.)   "Your hands made me and fashioned me; Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments."   You who crafted me are eminently qualified to rule my life.   In fact, for me to have understanding, You must!   I think of Psalm 139:13, Psalm 139:24, how You, O Lord, are Master and Creator of things seen and unseen, from the ‛āśāh, and has the sense of accomplished or completed.   ‘Fashioned’ is כּוּן , kûn and has the sense of having established or prepared.   This leads me to Ephesians 2:10 and to pray, ‘Lord, You have created me for a purpose, help me to know what it is and how Your commandments enable me to live out that purpose!’   Creation and new creation, established, sustained,