#DailyDevotion When We Wait On The LORD, We Don’t Do Nothing
Psalm 119 161Princes pursue me without a reason; before Your word (dabar) I stand in awe. 162I am delighted with Your word (imrah) like one finding much spoil. 163I hate lying and am disgusted with it, but I love Your teaching (torah). 164Seven times a day I praise You for Your righteous decrees (mishpat). 165Those who love Your teaching (torah) are very happy, and nothing can make them fall. 166I wait for You to save me, O LORD, and I do what You order (mitsvah). 167I keep the truths (edah) You wrote and love them very much. 168I keep Your regulations (piqqud) and the truths (edah) You wrote because all my ways are before You.
Well the reason princes i.e. people who worship power pursue you is you stand in awe of the LORD’s word. Their power, prestige, influence, wealth etc don’t impress you. You are captive to the word of God and they can’t stand that. When you give more than mere lip service to the word of God, this fallen world and all that is fallen cannot exist in the same space as you. You are a threat to their power and existence.
It is interesting in this psalm dabar and imrah, both words for “word,” the first being word in general and the second being spoken word are often used in close proximity. So in worship we do have the written word but it is spoken and when it is spoken the Spirit carries it into the ears of those listening. Having the word of God is like finding much spoil—at least it should be for us. We should sacrifice everything to have the word preached to us and taught to us. There is nothing greater in the world than that. For it teaches us to hate lies and love the teaching of the LORD. His teaching is life. It causes us to be disgusted with everything that is a lie. A lie may not be much, I mean it may not be too far from the truth. But when you shoot a bullet and it’s off by just a millimeter, at a 100 yards, it’s going to miss the mark. Straying from God’s word just a little bit eventually has us separated from the by zillions of light years if we do let His word make a correction so we can get back on target with the truth of His teaching.
Based on verse 164 the monks used to pray seven times a day. In my hymnal 3 of those survive: matins, vespers and compline. The other four were 6 and 9 am and 12 and 3 pm. I suggest you at least begin the day with God and end the day with Him. If you can remember and give thanks at lunch, that’s not a bad way to break up the day. Psalm 55:17 has evening, morning and noon as prayer times. The psalmist here uses seven times a day to praise the LORD for His mishpat/righteous decrees.
If you are not fighting the LORD and what He wants you to do and how He wants you to live, but trust Him that He knows what He is talking about AND you love what He teaches (you will need to be born from above to do this) you will be happy. You will be living a productive life that doesn’t cause misery for those around you and yourself.
He waits for the LORD to save him and does what the LORD orders. I think there are two distinct things going on here. One is waiting on the LORD. That means he is going out trying to control the situation that is bothering him. He’s given that control to God. While he waits, he doesn’t do nothing. There is plenty to occupy our time with doing what God has revealed for us to do in His word that has nothing to do with our situation we’ve given to Him.
He confesses he loves the LORD’s truths and keeps them. This is the same sort of keeping Jesus says to do to His teaching in the end of Matthew and in John. It’s not so much doing them as keeping them pure. Keeping in 168 is more like doing being related to piqqud. So we keep God’s word pure (unlike Eve in Gen. 3) and then we go about doing them. Thanks be to God, the LORD Jesus kept all the teaching in word and deed in our place for us.
Heavenly Father, grant us Your Spirit, so we may love, keep, and observe Your word while we wait for You to save us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.