Now if you would take your Bibles in hand once again and turn with me to Psalm 119 as we consider the words of the twentieth stanza, verses 153 through 160. The author’s main theme in this stanza of the psalm is found in the prayer, “Give me life. Give me life.” He repeats it three times over – in verse 154, 156, 159. The psalmist isn’t dead; he isn’t dying, but he is suffering. The ever-present shadow of affliction falls across his path and so he prays for God to intervene in such a way that he really lives once again. It’s a prayer for renewal, for revitalization, so that he can persevere. He wants to keep going but he feels like the tank is almost empty, the journey is all uphill. And you’ve felt like that sometimes yourself, haven’t you? We want to keep going and we feel like the tank is empty and the journey is all uphill. How are we going to make it? How will the psalmist make it? God must give him life. That’s what he’s praying for.
Now if you’ll look with me for a moment at the stanza, notice that it follows a classic pattern of parallelism that is extremely common in Hebrew poetry and particularly in Psalm 119. It is an ABCBA pattern. Okay, so the “A” sections, look at the passage, the “A” sections comprise the first two and the last two verses. They are set in parallel to one another. And the “B” sections, verse 155 and 158, they parallel each other. And the “C” section, right in the middle, 156 and 157, that’s the heart of the stanza. Notice carefully the two “A” sections at the beginning and end of the stanza and the “C” section in the middle, they are the places that contain the prayer, “Give me life.” And the two “B” sections, 155 and 158, talk about the wicked and the faithless so there is this alternating pattern. “Give me life,” 153 and 154. “Salvation is far from the wicked,” 155. “Give me life,” 156 and 157. “I look at the faithless with disgust,” 158. “Give me life,” 159 and 160.
Now when you see that alternating pattern you begin to get a sense of how urgent this prayer really is. The point, I think, is that the wicked, the unbelieving, interweave themselves through the psalmist’s experience in much the same way their presence is interwoven throughout the stanza. The psalmist is not praying for the blessed life under any allusions, is he? He doesn’t expect to be swept along in the life of discipleship on flowery beds of ease. He knows that living according to God’s Word is costly. It’s hard. It makes us stand out from the crowd. It can make us the target of gossip or mockery or hostility or opposition. And that’s why he’s praying for life. He is praying for God to uphold and keep and deliver him so that he can stay the course and persevere and finish the race. And that surely is a prayer we all need to pray.
Now given the alternating pattern in the passage, I think probably the simplest way to unpack the teaching here is under two headings. First, we’ll look at each of the three sections where he prays, “Give me life.” Here is the believer’s desire. Okay? The believer’s desire, first of all. There’s three prayers – “Give me life.” And then we’ll look, we’ll go back and look at the two sections where his unbelieving persecutors appear in verse 155 and 158 and notice the unbeliever’s destiny. The believer’s desire and the unbeliever’s destiny. Before we consider those two themes, let’s bow our heads and pray and then we’ll read God’s Word together. Let us all pray.
Our God and Father, as we bow before You we pray now for the ministry of Your Spirit. We confess that the sum of Your Word is truth and every one of Your righteous rules endures forever. O write them, we pray now, upon our hearts for Your glory and praise. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Psalm 119 at verse 153. This is the Word of God:
“Look on my affliction and deliver me, for I do not forget your law. Plead my cause and redeem me; give me life according to your promise! Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek your statutes. Great is your mercy, O Lord; give me life according to your rules. Many are my persecutors and my adversaries, but I do not swerve from your testimonies. I look at the faithless with disgust, because they do not keep your commands. Consider how I love your precepts! Give me life according to your steadfast love. The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.”
Amen.
Let’s think about the believer’s desire first of all. What is it that the psalmist wants? Well, as we’ve already seen three times over, he prays in this stanza, “Give me life.” That’s what he wants. “Give me life.” He knows his life comes from God. He has no life in himself. God is his life and so he prays completely dependent upon the Lord for life. “Give me life.” Jesus explained the dynamic at play here with the metaphor – do you remember it – of the vine and the branches in John 15. “Abide in Me,” He said, “and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is who bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” The life of the branches flows into them from the vine. It’s the life of the vine that makes the branches grow. They have no independent existence. A branch that does not have a living connection to the vine dies and bears no fruit. In John 10:10, Jesus said, “I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly.” And that’s what the psalmist is praying about here – the life of Christ flowing into him, sustaining him, keeping him. The abundant life that Jesus gives – it’s the only way to persevere. I need it. You need it. And this part of the psalm helps us to pray for it.
But look again at each of the three instances of this prayer for life where he prays, “Give me life.” Do you see each time he supports and bolsters his request? In verse 154, “Give me life according to Your promise.” One hundred fifty-six, “Give me life according to Your rules.” One hundred fifty-nine, “Give me life according to Your steadfast love.” Now you will recall we’ve seen over and again, haven’t we, that in Psalm 119 the promise and the rules of God are synonyms for holy Scripture. He’s talking about the Bible. And steadfast love we’ve seen before is the great reality of divine covenant faithfulness promised in those holy Scriptures and conveyed to us by those Scriptures. Life, the life of Christ, flows into us, the psalmist is saying, from the steadfast love of God made known to us through His holy words.
That’s the message, and seeing that really ought to change our attitude toward our Bibles in some potentially quite dramatic ways. My suspicion is that very many contemporary Christians have far too low a view of what God intends to do in our lives by His Word. We think the Bible is a book designed mainly for education and information and communication and that’s all. And the result is we tend to relate to the Bible much like students relate to a textbook. I have a son in the midst of college finals right now and he’s studying all the time. His nose is always in his books. He’s trying to store his brain with facts and data and information and it’s hard going. It’s a tough slog. And that’s often how we relate to our Bibles. Yes, it contains important information to be sure, but it’s dry and dreary and tedious and demanding. That’s not at all how the psalmist thinks of the Word of God, is it? He knows it is the reservoir of the steadfast love of God and the means by which He will give him life.
I was watching a nature documentary the other day talking about thunderstorms that erupt over the African highlands. Each lightning bolt actually splits molecules in the rain clouds creating nitrates and those nitrates fall in the rain that floods the ——— Delta and fertilizing the land and turns the desert almost it seems overnight into a garden. That’s the Bible. It is the fall of nutrient-rich rain that brings life to our desert hearts. It’s the principle means of grace. God unites us to Christ by His Word and sustains us in Christ by His Word and grows us up in Christ by His Word. How we need to drink it in. Do you drink it in? It’s not a dry, compendium of drab theological facts and dusty, ethical rules. It is the wellspring of life. Drink it in! God speaks life into our hearts by His Word. “Give me life according to Your promise, according to Your rules, according to Your steadfast love.” The steadfast love of God fills this book and gives you life.
But then in verse 153 and 154 the psalmist adds two additional prayers to his request for life. Look at 153 and 154. First he asks God to “look on my affliction and deliver me, for I do not forget Your law.” And then he repeats the request for God to notice him in the parallel section in 158. So here’s the other prayer. “Consider how I love Your precepts! Give me life according to Your steadfast love.” That word, “look,” in 153 and the word, “consider,” in 158, they’re actually the same word in Hebrew. I’m not sure why the translators have obscured the parallelism by translating these two words differently, but this is what the psalmist is praying for. “Look at my situation. Don’t turn a blind eye. Give me Your attention, Lord.” That’s what he’s praying.
That might seem like an audacious thing to pray at first, to ask God to look at us and have regard for our sufferings and consider our situation and pay attention to the details of our needs, but isn’t that what our children do with us, if you think about it, especially when they’re younger, without a second thought, secure in our love for them? Other people may not lay any claim to our attention, but our children, they can come boldly to us, can’t they, and ask for us to give them our attention and consider their needs and they can do it directly and urgently and with every expectation of being heard. And it’s not presumptuous for a child to ask her father to give his attention to her wounds and her hurts and her sorrows. It’s not presumption; it’s love, isn’t it? It’s the freedom and the boldness of love. Love asks like this – for God’s eye to fall on us and see our need. That’s what’s happening here. “Father, look at me in my afflictions. Don’t miss the fact I’m holding onto life Your way, obeying Your Word. Even though it hurts to do it, it costs me to do it, so please don’t turn a blind eye to my sufferings.” That’s how he’s praying.
Child of God, do you know you have every right to go to your Father and pray like this? Others may not, but you can. You are His through faith in Jesus Christ. He loves you and His ears are open, always open to your cries. You can go boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help you in your time of need. That’s what the psalmist is doing.
And then he adds another prayer. He swaps the boldness of a child coming to his father asking to be seen, he swaps that for the urgency of a defendant standing before his judge in the courtroom asking for someone to come to his defense. Do you see that in verse 154? “Plead my cause and redeem me; give me life according to Your promise.” “Plead my cause and redeem me.” He’s asking God to be his defense attorney. It’s a remarkable prayer, isn’t it, for an old covenant believer to make. “Plead my cause and redeem me.” It really expresses an idea that does not come into full focus until the ministry of Jesus Christ. “My little children,” writes the apostle John, “I am writing these things to you that you may not sin, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the whole world.” Here is the good news that actually answers the psalmist’s prayer. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Beloved, Jesus Christ, the righteous, speaks in your defense before the throne of God. He has died and made propitiation for you. If you are a Christian, He has satisfied the law’s demands in your place. The fires of just condemnation have been quenched. The penalties of sin have been paid in the obedience and blood of Jesus Christ. And now, the same Jesus who died for you, pleads His atoning work on your behalf. That’s His whole argument in your defense and it is an all-prevailing argument before God’s throne. Your sins pile up – your weakness, your terrible track record, the likelihood going forward that you will continue to stumble and break God’s law and wander from the path of obedience. All the evidence is there. It’s all marshaled before the tribunal of heaven and it’s all true and there are no mitigating circumstances, there are no excuses you can make. You are guilty as charged. And then Jesus stands to mount His defense. And here is His whole argument – “I died for her. I obeyed and bled for him. I kept Your law on their behalf and suffered under Pontius Pilate in their room and in their stead. I have met every requirement, paid every penalty, sacrificed, satisfied every demand, purchased every blessing. “Five bleeding wounds He bears received on Calvary. They pour incessant prayers; they strongly plead for me. ‘Forgive him, O forgive,’ they cry, ‘nor let that ransomed sinner die!’” And against that plea, against that argument, the prosecution withdraws its motion, the judge declares you’re righteous, and bestows upon you all that Jesus’ blood has purchased.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, whatever the assaults of the devil now, whatever the accusations of the world now, you are beyond condemnation now because Jesus pleads your cause. The great desire of the psalmist is for God to give him life so that he can persevere under all his many sufferings and he presses his request for life by pointing to God’s promise, by seeking God’s attention like His beloved child, by calling for an advocate in the heavenly courtroom, an advocate we have in Jesus Christ.
There is one more thing about the believer’s desire I want you to see before we move on. Look with me at the central section of the stanza now in verse 156 and 157 and notice a contrast that highlights the unshakable foundation of our security, enabling us to persevere. Look at 156 and 157. “Great is Your mercy, O Lord. Give me life according to Your rules. Many are my persecutors and my adversaries, but I do not swerve from Your testimonies.” He’s persevering in the face of terrible opposition. He’s under constant pressure to give up, to back down, to compromise, to moderate his stance, to accommodate the spirit of the age. Maybe you’ve felt that pressure yourself from time to time, to give up, to back off, to cool it in your devotion to Jesus. And yet so far, the psalmist has managed to stand firm. “I do not forget Your law,” 153. “I do not swerve from Your testimonies,” 157. “I love Your precepts,” 159. He hasn’t wavered. And yet for all that, the pressure continues to build and so he’s crying, “Give me life, sustain me, uphold me, help me to persevere.”
And the contrast in 156 and 157 helps us to see clearly the basis upon which he can pray like that with confidence. It’s a contrast between God’s great mercies and his many persecutors. Alec Motyer – look at 156 and 157 – Alec Motyer translates these two verses like this. “Abundant are Your mercies, O Lord, abundant are my persecutors.” “Abundant are Your mercies,” 156. “Abundant are my persecutors,” 157. That brings out the contrast really clearly, doesn’t it? “Abundant are Your mercies. Abundant are my persecutors.” For abundant persecutors there is abundant mercy. That’s the point.
Sometimes we fear that our situation is singular, it is unusual, it’s unique. We are in an especially difficult circumstance. That’s what we think, and we begin to worry that the run of the mill grace for everyday Christian living just will not do in our case. We worry that maybe the demands of our needy lives have somehow exceeded the capacity of God’s grace to meet them. We begin to suspect that maybe all God has is everyday grace, nothing for our nightmares, just everyday grace. But what about my nightmares? But the psalmist reminds himself, and we need reminding too, that even when my persecutors are abundant, Your grace is abundant too. Romans 5:20, “Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.” In God’s stores there’s provision for every circumstance, grace for every extremity, mercy for every need. “My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Jesus is a storehouse of mercy and grace that can never run out. He is a river of blessing that will never run dry. There is infinite mercy in the heart of God for you. He has everyday grace, but He has grace for the nightmares as well.
And the psalmist is preaching that truth to himself here in 156 and 157, and if we are going to persevere when circumstances turn sour and hard days descend, we need to teach it to ourselves as well. We need to learn to say, “Abundant are Your mercies, O Lord, when abundant are my persecutors.” “His mercy is more than a match for my heart,” we often sing. “Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.” “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Preach it to your heart and persevere. The believer’s desire, first of all.
Then finally, look at the two “B” sections that talk about the unbeliever’s destiny in 155 and 158. The believer’s desire, now the unbeliever’s destiny. One fifty-five first of all. “Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek Your statutes.” Here is, as it were, God’s attitude toward the unconverted. And it’s sobering, isn’t it? They are far from salvation. If you miss your flight – Jamie and I have been in multiple airports over the last couple of weeks – if you miss your flight, it doesn’t matter how close to catching it you came. Once the flight crew closes the door, it’s over. Ten seconds, ten minutes, ten hours – it makes no difference. You are equally far from being on that plane. You may be a moral, upstanding, religiously observant, charitable, neighborly human being, but if you do not know Jesus Christ through faith and the Word of the Gospel, or as the psalmist puts it here, if you do not “seek His statutes,” salvation is far from you. It’s no use protesting how close you came. The flight crew have closed the cabin door. You’re not on the plane. Salvation is far from you. If you reject the good news about Jesus, you’ve taken a wrong turn and it is leading you far, far away from your much needed destination. “Salvation is far from you,” the psalmist says.
And then look down at 158. “I look at the faithless with disgust because they do not keep Your commandments.” If 155 gave us God’s attitude toward the unconverted, here in the second place is the believer’s attitude to the unconverted. “I look at the faithless with disgust.” The life of faithlessness is disgusting to those who love God’s Word and God’s ways. It’s not attractive. It is not appealing. The more you love the Word of God and the life to which it calls us, the more you are repelled by its opposite. The psalmist is warning us that for all that the life of discipleship can be hard and meet with opposition and persecution and pain, for all that, the life of the unconverted is dismal; it’s dismal. Salvation is far from him. His life is disgusting. Sin makes those who live for it unlovely. What a dreary and ultimately destructive life we live when we live without Jesus Christ. But did you know that Jesus came for people like that? Far from salvation whose lives are sunk, neck-deep in the filth of sin – did you know He came for people like that? “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” “Not the righteous, not the righteous; sinners Jesus came to call.”
Isn’t that glorious good news? It means you qualify. You qualify for the mercy of God. He didn’t come for the righteous. He came for sinners, sinners unclean, unlovely, the wicked, the faithless, the psalmist calls them. Far from salvation, disgusting lives. Jesus came for them; He came for you. Salvation need not be far from you anymore. Sin’s debasing presence need warp and twist and debase your life no longer. Jesus, the one, you remember, John says is “the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the whole world,” He has come now. “Propitiation,” that word, it means a wrath satisfying, God reconciling, judgment quenching, hell closing, heaven opening sacrifice that Jesus has offered. That’s what He provides. And in that sacrifice, John says there is room for the world. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but for the whole world. That is to say, there is room for anyone who wants Him, who wants to take Him. There’s room for you. There’s room for you in the Lord Jesus Christ.
As we’ve unpacked the believer’s desire, a desire for life – “Give me life,” he prayed – we’ve seen the amazing resources of God’s abundant grace available to His people, haven’t we? His Word is the means of lavishing steadfast love and life upon us. We can claim the attention of almighty God like a little child can claim the attention of His parents. And we have one who pleads our cause before God’s throne – Jesus Christ the righteous. And in all of this, behind all of this stands the abundant mercy of God. “His mercy is more than a match for our hearts,” more than a match for every trial, every need, every circumstance. Our need, your need can never exceed His grace. How could anyone want to take another step without having this life that Jesus gives?
And we’ve considered the contrast, the opposite, the alternative, the life of those who do not seek God’s statutes. The psalmist says they are both far from salvation and they are disgusting. Such a life is degraded and debased by sin. Now listen, when you need no live a moment longer in such a life, when Jesus has come Himself to seek and to save sinners like you and me and deliver us from such a life, why would you continue to choose it? Why would you remain a moment longer in it? You don’t need to anymore. He invites you to Himself. “Come to Me,” He says. “Come and live, really live at last.” Your sins have been telling you, “If you just indulge me, you’ll really live.” And every time, every time you’ve done it, you’ve found the bitter lie behind the promise, debasing, twisting, hurting, wounding. But Jesus says, “I can give you life. I can give it to you. I have come that you might have life and have it in all its fullness. Come to Me.” “Give me life,” the psalmist prays. Have you prayed that prayer for yourself? “Give me life. Give me life.” You will find it in Jesus who holds it out to you ready to lavish it upon you. Come to Christ. He came to give you life.
Let’s pray together.
O Lord, some of us are really hurting, suffering, struggling, and we are tempted to think that our sufferings are so unusual, so unique, so acute that they are surely beyond the resources of Your mercy. Help us to see that where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. Where our persecutors are abundant, Your mercy is abundant to meet it. Where our needs grow and grow, our God shall supply all our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. So teach us to come to You like the psalmist does with the boldness of a little child and the urgency of a defendant in the dock and to pray, “Give us life.” There are others of us here who know nothing of such a life. We are playing at religion. We are toying with sacred things. But we have been living for sin and self. We are far from salvation and our sins have debased and degraded our lives. Thank You, O God, that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. Sinners, Jesus came to call. Grant that we may hear that call today and answer and come to Him that at last we may have life. For we ask it in Jesus’ name, amen.