Psalm 119
Your Word Is a Lamp to My Feet
This is the final letter of the acrostic poem, a series of posts which began with the Hebrew letter Aleph.
Most Bible references are from the resource: http://www.biblegateway.com/ and most research references, including KJV linked to Strong’s Concordance, are from the extremely helpful online site: http://www.blueletterbible.org/
Your further study through these dynamic links on most posts on http://talkofJesus.com are highly encouraged, along with your comments to any and all posts on this site.
Taw [Tau]
169 Let my cry come before you, O Lord;
give me understanding according to your word!
KJV Let my cry come near before thee, O LORD:
give me understanding according to thy word.
Is this not the very heart of prayer before God?
Is this not our very need to understand God through Scripture?
170 Let my plea come before you;
deliver me according to your word.
171 My lips will pour forth praise,
for you teach me your statutes.
172 My tongue will sing of your word,
for all your commandments are right.
173 Let your hand be ready to help me,
for I have chosen your precepts.
174 I long for your salvation, O Lord,
and your law is my delight.
Though the Lord chooses us to be His, even by adoption, He does not coerce us to follow Him. As Adam, we may choose obedience or choose sin.
As Christ Jesus, the new adam, a second son of man who was before the first; He does not coerce our Christian life, either; though He laid down His Life for our sin.
Choose Jesus as Lord or choose death and punishment for your sins.
175 Let my soul live and praise you,
and let your rules help me.
Genesis 2:7 KJV And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. H5315
1 Chronicles 29:13 KJV Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise H1984 thy glorious name.
Jeremiah 20:13 KJV Sing unto the LORD, praise H1984 ye the LORD: for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers.
176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant,
for I do not forget your commandments.
Isaiah quotes this last verse of Psalm 119 in prophesying the coming of our Savior, the Good Shepherd.
Look upon the Cross of our Savior and upon your own sin.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
And be also comforted by the last verse of the Psalmist; for our Lord, Christ Jesus also quoted it, and He knows well your soul.
Matthew 18: 12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.