On Psalm 119.17-24 (Gimel)

¹⁷ Deal generously with your servant
so that I might live;
then I will keep your word.
¹⁸ Open my eyes so that I may contemplate
wondrous things from your instruction.
¹⁹ I am a resident alien on earth;
do not hide your commands from me.
²⁰ I am continually overcome
with longing for your judgments.
²¹ You rebuke the arrogant,
the ones under a curse,
who wander from your commands.
²² Take insult and contempt away from me,
for I have kept your decrees.
²³ Though princes sit together speaking against me,
your servant will think about your statutes;
²⁴ your decrees are my delight
and my counselors.

In the third stanza, ג (gimel), our psalmist begins with what seems to be a condition to his obedience. Verse 17 reads, “Deal generously with your servant so that I might live; then I will keep your word.” However, we must not read this is a quid pro quo request. Our psalmist is not basing his obedience on the condition of God’s grace. He is not saying, “if you do this for me, then I’ll do this for you.” The footnotes in the NET Bible state that the cohortative verbal forms in this line indicate purpose or result. In other words, our psalmist is requesting the empowerment of God’s grace so that he will be able to keep God’s Word. This understanding is confirmed in verse 18, where we read, “Open my eyes so that I may contemplate wondrous things from your instruction.”

This is a much needed corrective in the contemporary understanding of the role of obedience in the Christian life, that the empowerment of God’s grace precedes all our effort to obey. Grace results in obedience, and not the other way around, because that would be legalism. In other words, what our psalmist is requesting is exactly what we have been given in the New Covenant. In Ezekiel’s description of the New Covenant (36.24-30), we read, “I will put my place my Spirit within you and cause you to follow my statues and carefully observe my ordinances” (verse 27).  And the Apostle Peter confirms, “His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness” (2 Peter 1.3).

And why is this gracious empowerment necessary? Well, our psalmist gives us the answer in verse 19, “I am a resident alien on earth.” The word is variously rendered as “foreigner”, “sojourner”, “stranger.” In other words, our psalmist understands that this world is not his native home, that his values, convictions, and principles are of another reality altogether. As he says, “I am continually overcome with longing for your judgments.” However, he also understands that while we live “on earth”, it is so easy to become distracted, confused, and misdirected in our lives, which is why we need the constant favor of God’s empowering grace to regularly reorient our perspectives. As our psalmist understands, “you rebuke the arrogant, the ones under a curse, who wander from your commands” (verse 21).

Of course, our psalmist knows that walking to the beat of God’s drum will necessarily result in misunderstandings, in ridicule, scorn, and contempt. One person’s obedience must necessarily expose someone else’s disobedience, and when that happens, we can automatically expect to face opposition. But our psalmist knows the source of his strength, “Your decrees are my delight and my counselors” (verse 24), and so he prays, “Take insult and contempt away from me, for I have kept your decrees” (verse 22). The psalmist understands that the one who has so graciously empowered his obedience will also graciously protect and sustain him through any circumstance.

This should be the perspective of every follower of Jesus. We are strangers living in a foreign land; we do believe, speak, feel, and behave according to another reality. We are  “continually overcome with longing for [His] judgments.” And as long as we live in this already/not yet season, we can trust that our God will empower us for obedience by His grace, even while He sustains us to perfection in glory.

For further study:
Introduction/Overview
Psalm 119.1-8
Psalm 119.9-16