Psalm 119:161-168, Further Meditation on “shin”

·       119:161-163: AWE, REJOICING, LOVE for Your word.  These are three deep and strong “feelings,” if I can be permitted to say such a word.  We always want to be sure we don’t live our lives by “feelings.”  Well, of course not.  But feelings are real.  And strong feelings should be evoked when we come into the presence of God through the reading and study and meditation of His word.  What other response do you have or desire?  Do you want to read His word and have no feelings at all?  That cannot be right!  And what if I don’t have these kinds of felt responses?  I ask the Lord to order my emotions properly.  His word should bring about a sense of awe, an expression of joy, and a commitment of love.  And furthermore, if you are a teacher or preacher of the word of God, awe, joy and love should be evident in your teaching and preaching.  Anything less would be dishonoring to the One whose word it is!  “Father, may our experience with Your word evoke strong feelings of awe, rejoicing and love.”

·       119:164: Seven times a day I praise You.  Don’t think of this like the Muslim and his response to the call to prayer every day.  I am convinced the number is not the point.  He is again expressing praise for God’s judgments.  I believe the point is that he is seeing God’s word played out in front of him all day long.  He sees God’s judgments.  Thus he has ample opportunity to praise God throughout the day.  Another thought is that he is meditating on these judgments of God (Psalm 1 says to meditate day and night) with the words he has hidden in his heart (119:11). 

·       119:165-166: Now His response to the word of God is more quiet.  He has great peace throughout his day.  He has a strong confidence and hope in his thoughts about the future.  Do not miss the point however.  He has peace because he loved the word of God.  He has hope because he is “doing” the word of God.  There is no peace nor confident hope in a life of disobedience and disrespect to God’s word.

·       119:167-168: There are two words that appear in each of these verses.

o   Keep: Hebrew “shamar.”  It means to keep, guard, watch for, wait for, observe, retain, celebrate (as a holy day).  In every way, it means we have a strong focus on the word of God. 

o   Testimonies: Hebrew “edah.”  This term is used 26 times in the OT, 14 of those occurrences are in Psalm 119.  Abraham’s seven ewe lambs were a witness that he had dug the well (Ge. 21:30).  A pile of rocks were to be a witness that Laban would not cross that line against Jacob (Gen. 31:52).  The stone of witness in Joshua’s time was to be a witness, a testimony, of Israel’s commitment to keep the words of the LORD (Josh. 24:27).  The testimony was not the evidence but a record of the evidence.  So God’s word is a living testimony pointing to Him.  Amen!