God’s Word for You

Psalm 119:121-122 Promise good to your servant

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Sunday, November 10, 2024

Here we begin the Ayin stanza (verses 121-128). In my outline of the Great Psalm, the poet makes his second change in the repeating themes (the first was to introduce the Psalm, verses 1-8, apart from the thematic pattern). The pattern of the Psalm appears to be in its fourth cycle:

Love for God’s Word   (9-16), (41-48), (73-80), (105-112)
God’s wicked enemies   (17-24), (49-56), (81-88), (113-120)
Sanctified living   (25-32), (57-64), (89-96), (121- ? )
Return to the word   (33-40), (65-72), (97-104)

However, the following stanza, (Pe, 129-136) returns to the “Love of God’s word” theme, and then the Tsade stanza (137-144) follows the wicked enemies theme. In fact, the final section (129-168) then rotates in a kind of rough chiasm (ABCBA/D, see the introduction). And a more careful reading of this Ayin stanza shows that the poet follows first the theme of (c) Sanctified living, but then moves into the theme of (d) returning to the word. Therefore I have labeled the first half of this stanza Ayin-1 (121-124) and the second half Ayin-2 (125-128). There is always a danger for an exegete of reading a pattern into a text rather than drawing a pattern out of it, so let’s take a look at these verses and judge. But of course our main goal is to learn from God’s word, no matter what some author apart from the Holy Spirit has said.

Sanctified Living

121 I have done a commandment and a righteous thing;
  do not leave me to my oppressors.

Other translations take the verse in a different sense by saying something like, “I have done judgment and righteousness.” This does not take the word mishpat, “commandment,” in the sense of the word of God, which is the central interest of the Psalm. But this also happens in verse 132, where “judgment / commandment” (again, mishpat) occurs without meaning the word of God. In the way I have translated the verse, the poet has done something in keeping with the word of God, a righteous thing, but there are those people who dislike what has been done. The love of the word and of God’s holy will stands above the desires of sinful man, and the man of God is willing to stand with God rather than with anyone else. “What harmony is there between Christ and Belial,” Paul asks. “What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?” (2 Corinthians 6:15). Sanctified living is not easy; the forgiven Christian lays aside day by day the sinful nature that still clings to us even after conversion, and he is renewed day by day according to the image of God. He lives for God in holiness and righteousness. And he gains the attention of the devil and the sinful world, and even his own sinful flesh fights against him.

The negative bal in the second line is fairly rare. This is its only appearance in the Great Psalm. The thought of the line keeps in step with the sanctified living theme, keeping in mind the difficulties this always has. There is no ideal and sinless place or time in which to live; we live in the world, and the battle with the devil and his armies is joined. “The Lord will deliver my soul in safety from the battle that I fight, for many are arrayed against me” (Psalm 55:18). And again, “A messenger has been sent among the nations: ‘Rise up! Rise up against her in battle!’” (Obadiah 1:1, against the enemies of God’s people).

122 Please promise good to your servant;
  Do not let the arrogant oppress me.

This rare verse in the Great Psalm does not have any term for the word of God. In this way it stands alone in Psalm 119. It is probably best to take it along with verse 121 as an extended poetic thought (a form of longer synthetic parallelism). However, consider the meaning of the request being made, especially in the first line. “Promise good to your servant” is a request for the word of God to be spoken to the author. Since most of the Psalms were written by David, it isn’t unusual to refer to our author here as David (I myself have done this many times). But the other writers such as Asaph, Solomon, Heman and the others who write the Psalms can and should rightly be thought of as holy prophets since they speak prophetically and are under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Therefore it is perfectly in keeping with the role of a prophet to ask God to answer with his holy word. “I will look to see what he will say to me” (Habakkuk 2:1). “As soon as I began to pray, an answer was given” (Daniel 9:23). And again: “Call on me and I will answer you. I will show you great and mysterious things you did not know” (Jeremiah 33:3).

Asking God for help, for answers, for his holy word, is one of the many things we do in our lives of sanctification. We set aside our own opinions and ideas and let the word of God fill our hearts and minds.

It is in keeping with the Hebrew letter of this stanza that our poet uses the word “oppress, oppressors” in both verses 121 and 122. This word begins with ayin, our letter, which occurs at the end of each verse. It is the word ’ashaq, “one who oppresses, does wrong, commits extortion.” The Greek translation of the word is συκοφαντησάτωσάν, “to accuse for extortion; to lie committing calumny.” The daggers of the wicked pierce from a very long way away: “No might nor greatness.. can ’scape back-wounding calumny” (Measure for Measure III:2). Or, as the OJays put it, “They smile in your face, all the time they wanna take your place, the back-stabbers.”

In Job 20:23, the same word is used for the fury and rage of a flooding river. There are times when the world gives us no hope at all. Everyone does what they want, and no one wants to listen to the will of God or the word of God, and the raging surge of their sinful impulses carries the world into new depths of depravity and sin. But we put our trust in Christ, ask the Holy Spirit’s help as we walk the narrow Lutheran middle road, and beg our heavenly Father to forgive us when we stumble and fall.

In the translation I have added the word “please” to the first line although it is not present in the Hebrew text, which says literally: “Promise your servant for (his) good.” The “please” is to soften the demand of the Christian using an imperative directly to God. May the reader as well as the Maker forgive the addition, done here in genuine humility. This, too, is a step taken hesitantly in the life of Christian sanctification.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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