O my soul,
What is this answer that the psalmist received when he told the Lord of his ways?
When I told of my ways, you answered me; teach me your statutes!
― Psalm 119:26
And why is this followed by an immediate and urgent plea to be taught his statutes?
And what even was the question that demanded an answer? Do you see a question here from the psalmist?
Could it be that the Lord’s answer is not so much an answer to a question but something far deeper?
We find something similar in the previous psalm.
Out of my distress I called on the LORD; the LORD answered me and set me free.
― Psalm 118:5
Calling on the Lord is no sort of question. This is a cry for help. So what is the answer?
Joel tells of an answer of a similar kind. In the context of the day of the Lord, that fearful day of the Lord’s righteous judgment of his own wayward people, that day of destruction, that day of reckoning, we find this.
Then the LORD became jealous for his land and had pity on his people. The LORD answered and said to his people, “Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.
― Joel 2:18-19
There is only one question in sight here, and it is found in the prayer of the ministers of the Lord.
Spare your people, O LORD, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, “Where is their God?”
― Joel 2:17
Where indeed?
But let’s first understand what it means for the Lord to become jealous for his land.
Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”
“To your offspring I will give this land.”
― Genesis 12:1, 7
The land was hugely symbolic of the Lord’s covenant promise to his chosen people. The Lord is faithful even when his people are not. He never once forgot that covenant promise. He never once forgot that covenant love poured out at Calvary and he never will. He is faithful in covenant love to his people even when they are not. O my soul, praise the God of your salvation!
And what was his answer for his chosen people in the midst of that divine and righteous judgment of the day of the Lord? It was presence and compassion and adequacy and rescue.
The LORD answered and said to his people,
“Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before.”
“You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame.”
“And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”
― Joel 2:19, 23, 26, 32
Compassion and kindness rain down from heaven on undeserving sinners. Praise the Lord, who has dealt wondrously with us all! And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved!
And this is where we started. Let’s examine the context of our opening verse.
My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word! When I told of my ways, you answered me; teach me your statutes! Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works.
― Psalm 119:25-27
The context is one in need of rescue, clinging to the dust, despairing of life itself. When I told of my ways⸺when I gave an account to the Lord of my own ruined life, when I acknowledged before him my own complete and utter inadequacy⸺he answered me, and his answer is presence and compassion and adequacy and rescue.
O my soul, rejoice in this answer! Rejoice in the God of your salvation!
And these statutes? Why does my heart cry out to the Lord, teach me your statutes? Because the only possible response from the one who understands the magnitude of the rescue is this: to live a right life, a noble life, a life that honours the Lord in every way and in every thought and in every deed.
This is exactly the desire we see in the psalmist.
Teach me your statutes! … Make me understand the way of your precepts … Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law! … I set your rules before me.
― Psalm 119:26, 27, 29, 30
I have been rescued by the God of my salvation, the Creator of the Universe, and my life now belongs to him.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
― Colossians 3:3
O my soul, praise the God of your salvation for this answer in Christ, and live for him alone! 🙏