A Painful Prayer

In the third stanza of Psalm 119, in verse 21, he moves from the blessed to the wicked and here we move from a personal prayer from the heart to a painful prayer from the midst of persecution.

Think of it in terms of Psalm 1, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the Law of the LORD and on His law he meditates day and night.”

Let’s let that outline this section—first, notice the wicked in verse 21, “You rebuke the insolent, accursed ones, who wander from your commandments.” He is speaking of God and what God does to the proud and insolent. He uses two strong words…the insolent who are accursed, Paul told the Galatians, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law and do them.”

John Phillips said there is a threefold development of sin here.

First, you find pride as the root of sin, then error as the flower of sin, and finally the curse of God as the fruit of sin. The wicked are proud—they magnify self over God by seeking to do things their own way and ignoring their Creator and His Word. God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.

The result of ignoring God’s Word and setting out on your own path is error…disobedience will lead to error every single time. And finally, the ultimate fruit of that is that the wicked are accursed—they are wicked because they wander from His commandments and because of that He curses them...He would rather they come to Jesus and let Him take away their curse, but if they refuse, He treats them as they deserve to be treated.

Second, in verse 22, we find the sinners, “Take away from me scorn and contempt, for I have kept your testimonies.” They are attacking him because of his faithfulness to God’s Word. He isn’t suffering because of his sin, he is suffering because of his righteousness, he says, “I have kept your testimonies.”

I read about a man this week who was involved in getting Tyndale’s English Bibles back to England. They took him and whipped him, then they tied small ropes around his forehead and tightened them until his eyes bled, then put him on the rack until he was crippled, and for good measure burned him at the stake. He wasn’t tortured for unrighteousness…it happened because he wanted to make the Bible available. The Word tells us in 2 Tim 3:12, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus, will be persecuted.” Jesus reminds us in Matthew 5 that we are blessed when we are persecuted for righteousness sake!

Third, in verse 23, we find the scoffers, “Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes.” He is being attacked, leaders are plotting against him, but the key is what he does while they plot, scoff, while they scorn and show contempt…he doesn’t fighting fire with fire, he isn’t attacking them…he chooses to turn to the Word and he meditates on it.

While, his world is falling apart around him, he seeks the stability of God’s Word. While those that oppose him attack him, he seeks the truth of God’s Word. He meditates on what the Word says instead of listening to what the world says. What a lesson for us all…as followers of Jesus we must turn to His Word for His truth.