RESH
153 Consider my affliction and deliver me,
For I do not forget Your law.
154 Plead my cause and redeem me;
Revive me according to Your word.
155 Salvation is far from the wicked,
For they do not seek Your statutes.
156 Great are Your tender mercies, O LORD;
Revive me according to Your judgments.
157 Many are my persecutors and my enemies,
Yet I do not turn from Your testimonies.
158 I see the treacherous, and am disgusted,
Because they do not keep Your word.
159 Consider how I love Your precepts;
Revive me, O LORD, according to Your lovingkindness.
160 The entirety of Your word is truth,
And every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.
Jesus’ name Yashuah (Joshua) appears many times in Psalm 119, but it is always translated “salvation.” We learned in part 19 of this series that we can only obey God’s Law perfectly once we have been saved, that is once we receive our glorified bodies. We become overcomers, which means the time that we become eligible to be saved, when we come to the place where we love God’s commands, statutes, and testimonies and desire to do righteousness and justice as Jesus did. The Bible also calls this status the “salvation of our soul.”
Men often claim that they “have been saved” and try to get others “saved” too with their lame attempts at evangelization. They do not understand that this salvation they preach is the “common” salvation Jude spoke of in verse 3 of his book. This spiritual salvation applies to all men for Jesus died for all. He effected the spiritual salvation of all men by his work and death on the cross. Psalm 119 deals with another salvation altogether, the salvation of the soul, wherein our mind, will, and emotions come into alignment with Christ’s.
The “affliction” this psalmist complains of in verse 153 is the affliction of living in a mortal body, a body of flesh which gives in to sin all to easily. He wants to do better and so he prays to God to plead his cause and to redeem him. Jesus came to redeem men to God. The Book of Hebrews also teaches that Jesus acts as our High Priest after the Order of Melchizedek in order to intercede for us and plead our cause before the throne of heaven.
Next he prays that God will “revive” him. The word revive comes from the Hebrew word koinos and is often translated as “quicken.” It means “to make alive.” He understands he does not yet live as God would have him live. Then he declares that “Yashuah is far from the wicked” because they do not seek his statutes. This explains why Jesus will tell so many Christians to leave his presence at the time of his second coming. They did not follow his ways and became followers of lawlessness instead. Read Matthew 5-7 carefully to understand this. Jesus speaks to believers here.
Then the psalmist prays that Jesus will quicken him again, “according to his judgment,” his verdict. He knows his God to be a God of mercy and does not fear judgment at his hands. He fears God, but he does not fear his judgment; he knows God to be merciful and just. He does not pretend to be perfect, but he wants to be. He calls to God in repentance for forgiveness, mercy, and salvation. He is not yet righteous through and through, but he practices righteousness as he can.
Finally, he declares one of the greatest truths in all Scripture saying, “the sum (totality, entirety) of God’s word is truth.” God’s Word, the written Scriptures and Jesus Himself, reveal a seamless garment of truth from beginning to end.
