Psalm 119 Part 9

The ‘yod’ stanza (v73ff) represents the small Hebrew letter Jesus referred to as a “jot” in Matt5:18: ‘Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.’ The ‘tittle’ was a small stroke.

In this stanza, the psalmist proclaims God as Creator and understood certain obligations to God because he was fashioned by His hands. The reference to God forming him is a deliberate echo of Gen2:7. Sadly, the modern age, with its widespread denial of a Creator God, or as Genesis being a non-literal allegory, has a much lower sense of obligation to God as Creator. Despite the deeply seated rejection of God as Creator, man’s obligation to his Maker remains. The psalmist understood what many today forget or deny this.

In vs75-77 his attention upon God’s word has given the psalmist a wise and godly perspective even in seasons of suffering. He can proclaim the rightness of God’s sovereignty even when he is afflicted. This was the place Job eventually came to through his long and desperate struggle. He came to know that the ‘judgments’ of Yahweh were ‘right,’ and even understood God’s ‘faithfulness’ in affliction. The finite mind cannot understand the infinite. 

Without the gift of HisLovingkindness(v76), we find ourselves lost in darkness and discouraged. All the candles of the world, in the absence of the sun, can never make the day. The whole earth, in its brightest visions of extravagance, destitute of the Lord’s love, can never cheer nor revive the heart.

The prayer of v78 that ‘the proud be ashamed’ is a prayer for their good. It is as the prayer of Asaph: Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek Your name, O LORD (Ps83:16). If the proud ones who opposed the psalmist knew he was praying against them, they had good reason to be afraid. David’s prayers made failure and doom for Ahithophel. Hezekiah’s prayer meant failure and doom for the Assyrian army. The fasting of Esther and the Jews brought failure and doom for Haman. God knows how to defend His own who cry to Him.