Psalms 119:148 NIVUK
[148] My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises.
When I was in my last year at high school, I attended prom. The prom was held in a club that was a relatively short and walkable distance from my house, but my neighbourhood had a deservedly bad reputation. Although I was fully prepared to walk home at midnight in the dark, some of my classmates feared that it wouldn’t be safe, and one of them offered to give me a ride home. However, there was a rather light-hearted condition.
‘Okay, Paul.’ she told me. ‘I’m going to pass your house while doing seventy miles an hour. I’ll open the passenger door. I want you to jump out the door, do a combat roll and then run into your house.’
In the spirit of the joke, I replied, ‘Why? Are you afraid they will steal your car?’
‘No.’ she replied. ‘I’m afraid they’ll steal my clothes.’
Although she did give me a ride home that night, it was with an honest level of apprehension. For her, from a better off and relatively safer neighbourhood, it was quite a step down to drop me off in mine. And I appreciated it.
But it cannot ever compare with what God did when He stepped into to our world when Jesus was born.
Why am I talking to you about this, especially now?
This section of Psalm 119 is listed under the Hebrew letter Qoph. Every line of this section starts with this letter. This letter has a special significance. It is the only Hebrew letter that drops below the line, like the letters ‘p’ and ‘q’ do in English.
And this is a plea for God to descend into the Psalmist’s life and rescue him.
It is also the Hebrew word for a monkey, which was known in ancient times as a mimic, and as a beast that resembles a human being, but is not.
The Psalmist has had enough of his troubles, and the mockery of life that they have produced, and is longing for the reality of God’s promises.
It is also known to symbolise the end of things – the psalmist longs for God to end his suffering.
This is a quickly read, but very special portion of this Psalm.
Why?
Because even in the absence of any specific answers to his prayers, and without his problems being resolved, the psalmist does three things.
Firstly, He Calls Out.
We see this in a few of the verses in this section:
Psalms 119:145-147 NIVUK
[145] I call with all my heart; answer me, Lord, and I will obey your decrees. [146] I call out to you; save me and I will keep your statutes. [147] I rise before dawn and cry for help; I have put my hope in your word.
I don’t know if you have ever been to an orphanage. I have, on a few occasions. It’s often a difficult experience.
Normally, we would assume that if a room full of babies are crying, that there is a problem, and if they are silent, there is not. Let me tall you, there is nothing more haunting than entering into an orphanage room and not hearing a baby cry.
Why?
Because babies are needy creatures. They need food. They need changed. They need attention. They need play. If a baby is awake and alone and not crying for help, that betrays something utterly heart-breaking:
They have been conditioned that no-one will come when they call.
And that is an awful situation to be in. Absolutely awful.
If you have ever been in a difficult situation where people don’t cry out to God, it could be because they have been conditioned to believe that either God is too weak to help or that He has turned His back on them or that He doesn’t even exist.
That is why we see this mocking happening in the Psalms:
Psalms 42:10 NIVUK
[10] My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, ‘Where is your God?’
Psalms 42:2-3 NIVUK
[2] My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? [3] My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, ‘Where is your God?’
But against a background of evidence suffering and pain, this man, this Psalmist cries out to God.
And that cry is deeply meaningful.
It is wholehearted.
Now, in our modern days, this concept has been a little bit misused. If someone is wholehearted about anything, for us it means that they are enthusiastic or energetic.
But in ancient Hebrew, it meant that all of their desires, all of their energies, all of their longings were singularly and laser-like focused on that one thing.
In other words, the Psalmist’s whole life – everything that is valuable and precious to him – revolves around God answering his cry.
So I don’t doubt for a second that his prayer would have been filled with emotion, perhaps even tears. The cry of his deepest heart is for God to intervene in his problems. I doubt if that cry itself was poetic or orderly, or even contained words.
After all...
Romans 8:26-27 NIVUK
[26] In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. [27] And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
We have become too prim and proper when it comes to prayer. We expect even someone who is broken in pieces to come up with a performance prayer that bears their heart and soul.
That is utter nonsense.
Often the greatest and most meaningful answers to prayers are to prayers with few words (see Luke 18:9-14).
When I was a missionary, I was sent to work with a Pentecostal church in the city of Tulcea. Christians there were being actively persecuted and discriminated against. That church had a prayer meeting in Wednesday nights like none I have ever seen before or since. It began at 7pm. It ended at midnight. And it was loud. The singing was heart-felt, emotional, deep, meaningful and earnest. As were the prayers. Tears were routinely shed. Fervent, genuine cries were raised to God constantly.
It’s no wonder that their first time doing street evangelism as a church went so well.
Maybe we, in our more formal, dry, dusty, cold and emotionless churches have missed something here.
I have a friend who is having a hard time at the moment due to family and work troubles. He told me that he just feels angry and frustrated about the whole thing. I talked to him about prayer. He said he struggles to pray because he can’t form the words.
Do you know what I advised him to do?
Go down into a quiet place, where no-one will hear him, and yell. Cry out to God. Roar. Bellow. Let it all come out.
And then try to pray.
Yes, this Psalm is in the form of a beautiful acrostic poem. But there is a sense in which the need of the Psalmist are expressed here in more visceral forms. He cries out to God. He isn’t polite or formal. He makes no excuses.
What about us?
Why does he cry out to God?
For one reason and one reason alone:
He believes that God will answer him. He Puts His Hope In God.
Psalms 119:147 NIVUK
[147] I rise before dawn and cry for help; I have put my hope in your word.
And that is so powerful.
Think about it for a second: if you are ever in a dangerous situation and you have to get help, would you call an emergency phone number like 999 or 911 or 112 if you believer that no-one would take your call?
Of course not!
This Psalmist cries out to God because...
Psalms 55:16-17 NIVUK
[16] As for me, I call to God, and the Lord saves me. [17] Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice.
He knows, he absolutely knows, that God will hear him.
As I write these lines, Jon Bon Jovi, the lead singer and songwriter for one of America's biggest rock bands, is in the headlines for talking a woman out of committing suicide by throwing herself off a bridge in Memphis. He and one of his team saved her life – there is no doubt about that.
I saw the video of the event. What struck me was not just that Jon and his assistant saved her life, but also that other people didn't.
The woman was in obvious distress – deep distress. She was on the wrong side of the railings and about to throw herself off. Yet before Jon and his assistant approached her, people simply passed her by. They did not call 911. They did not help in any way.
They didn’t even seem to care.
When you are that distressed, it must deepen the pain even more to realise that other people are simply going about their lives and that your pain means absolutely nothing to them.
However, for the Psalmist, and, indeed, for every Christian, that is one hundred percent not the case. And it is not a rock star who both heats us and sees us, but God Himself: the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Creator and Sustainer of all life.
So today if you are suffering and in pain, take comfort in this: you are not alone. You are not invisible. God sees. God hears. God knows. God understands.
And one day, God will intervene.
My sister is a very regular flier due to her job. Each time she, or indeed anyone, gets into a plane, she is putting her faith in the pilot and co-pilot that they will take that plane to where it needs to be. Since modern jets spend most of their time on autopilot, travellers are also putting their faith in the programmers of that system that it will take the plane where it needs to go.
Most of the time, that faith is repaid. Sometimes the flight will even arrive early.
But, of course, in one of the greatest aviation mysteries this world has ever seen, on 8th March 2014, Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 disappeared from radar screens and was never seen again.
People will always let us down. It’s human nature.
But God will not.
Friend, isn’t it time you put your faith in God and His Word?
But crying out to God and putting our faith in Him is not enough. It never will be enough.
Because faith without works is dead (James 2:14-26). The Psalmist knows this. He believes it. And now he will put it into practice.
Because we see that He Follows On:
Psalms 119:145-146 NIVUK
[145] I call with all my heart; answer me, Lord, and I will obey your decrees. [146] I call out to you; save me and I will keep your statutes.
In the English translation of these words, the word ‘and’ has been added. This makes it seem like the Psalmist is conditioning his obedience on God coming to his rescue.
That conditioning is not there in Hebrew and is not there elsewhere in the Psalm.
The Psalmist is not trying to persuade God to intervene by promising obedience in return like so many do.
No, he is saying that he will obey God anyway.
Because putting his faith into practice us his way through suffering to the other side.
It’s like a rescue rope to help you climb back up a sheer cliff face.
Or like the fluorescent lighting to guide you through a burning airplane cabin.
Or the evacuation signs in a building.
The Word of God shows you the safest way through and out of suffering.
But not the ways of this world.
Imagine you're a student, overwhelmed by exam pressures, so you decide to cheat. What happens? You get caught, thrown out of university and your future is in tatters.
Imagine you’re low on cash, so you decide to borrow from money lenders and loan sharks. What happens? You plunge deeper and deeper into debt.
Imagine you’re an administrator of a business and other people’s lives seem more attractive, so you start to steal from the company to fund a life you can’t afford. What happens? You get caught, fired and hailed.
Imagine you’re married and your marriage is in difficulties, but instead of facing the issues and dealing with them, you decide to take the easier option and have an affair? What happens? You lose your marriage.
Do you see the thread in all of these paths? If we take what seems like a cheap, quick and easy solution to our problems, there are often very serious consequences for us and the people around us.
But the solution found throughout the hundred and seventy-six verses in this long Psalm is always the same: believe in God and obey His Word. That is the solution to your suffering. Nothing else.
Jeremiah was faced with a decision similar to this in Jeremiah 44. The Jewish homeland had been lost due to the horror of the Exile. Some of the remaining Jews had fled to Egypt to escape the consequences of the murder of the Babylonian governor. Jeremiah warned the people that they needed to turn away from the idolatry that had got them into trouble in the first place if they wanted to receive God’s blessing.
But the people rejected this. From their perspective, God had abandoned them. They were instead seeking blessings from pagan gods who were not gods at all.
Although we don’t worship pagan gods, we often see God as some form of ‘good luck charm’ – like a rabbit’s foot or a lucky penny. We believe that obedience brings blessing and we want that blessing. So if we obey and God isn’t blessing – as the Jews seemed to believe – then we stop obeying and turn to other solutions, saying that it ‘hasn’t worked for me’.
But that is categorically not what the Psalmist is saying. This long Psalm is a call to remember, understand, believe and obey the Word of God.
And do you know the remarkable thing? Look how it ends:
Psalms 119:173-176 NIVUK
[173] May your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen your precepts. [174] I long for your salvation, Lord, and your law gives me delight. [175] Let me live that I may praise you, and may your laws sustain me. [176] I have strayed like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I have not forgotten your commands.
Get this: after a hundred and seventy-six verses, God has not yet intervened and rescued His people, or even just the Psalmist.
Yet the Psalmist still seeks to obey God.
As the Habakkuk said:
Habakkuk 3:17-19 NIVUK
[17] Though the fig-tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the sheepfold and no cattle in the stalls, [18] yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour. [19] The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.
Psalm 119 is something of a poetic marvel. Writing any form of acrostic poem and making it make sense is a challenge in itself. But the Psalmist has written more than that here. He has written a Psalm that demonstrates his faithfulness to God in the face of a serious challenge and gives us a huge reason to be encouraged.
I am always emotional when I read about young children whose parents get into difficulties, but who know to phone the emergency services to get help. There really is quite marvellous about a young person having the bravery and the coolness of thought to take that step when many people twice or even three times their age would be in a state of panic.
When we read this Psalm about a man who is clearly suffering but knows where his help comes from, it can’t help but provoke a serious question:
Do we?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, forgive me for the times when I have panicked in trouble and grasped around for any old solution to get me out of there. I confess that it has often made life harder for me. Help me to trust in You and Your Word and to obey it. Amen.
Questions
1. Why was Psalm 119 written as an acrostic? What was the Psalmist trying to do? Why is that important?
2. What is the message of this part of the Psalm?
3. What do you do when you are in a bad situation? Do you always obey God? How can you get better at this?
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