by Charles Spurgeon
57. Thou art my portion, O LORD:
I have said that I would keep
thy words.
58. I intreated thy favor with my
whole heart: be merciful unto
me according to thy word.
59. I thought on my ways, and turned
my feet unto thy
testimonies.
60. I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments.
61. The bands of the wicked have
robbed me: but I have not
forgotten thy law.
62. At midnight I will rise to give
thanks unto thee because of
thy righteous judgments.
63. I am a companion of all them
that fear thee, and of them that
keep thy precepts.
64. The earth, O LORD, is full of
thy mercy: teach me thy
statutes.
In this section the Psalmist seems
to take firm hold upon God himself;
appropriating him (57), crying
out for him (58), returning to him (59),
solacing himself in him (61, 62),
associating with his people (63), and
sighing for his personal instruction
(64). Note how the first verse of this
octave is linked to the last of
the former one, of which indeed it is an
expansion. “This I had because
I kept thy precepts. Thou art my portion,
O LORD: I have said that I would
keep thy words.” Being many, these
verses are still but one bread.
57. “Thou art my portion, O Lord:
I have said that I would keep thy
words.”
“Thou art my portion, O Lord.” A
broken expression. The translators
have mended it by insertions, but
perhaps it had been better to have left it
alone, and then it would have appeared
as n exclamation — “My portion,
O Lord!” The poet’s lost in wonder
while he sees that the great and
glorious God is all his own! Well
might he be so, for there is no possession
like Jehovah himself. The form
of the sentence expresses joyous
recognition and appropriation —
“My portions. O Jehovah!” David had
often seen the prey divided, and
heard the victor shouting over it; here he
rejoices as one who seizes his
share of the spoil; he chooses the Lord to be
his part of the treasure. Like
the Levites, he took God to be his portion,
and left other matters to those
who coveted them. This is a large and
lasting heritage, for it includes
all, and more than all, and it outlasts all; and
yet no man chooses it for himself
until God has chosen and renewed him.
Who that is truly wise could hesitate
for a moment when the infinitely
blessed God is set before him to
be the object of his choice? David leaped
at the opportunity, and grasped
the priceless boon. Our author here dares
exhibit the title-deeds of his
portion before the eye of the Lord himself, for
he addresses his joyful utterance
directly to God, whom he boldly calls his
own. With much else to choose from,
for he was a king, and a man of great
resources, he deliberately tums
from all the treasures of the world, and
declares that the Lord, even Jehovah,
is his portion.
“I have said that I would keep thy
words.” We cannot always look back
with comfort upon what we have
said, but in this instance David had
spoken wisely and well. He had
declared his choice; he preferred the word
of God to the wealth of worldlings.
It was his firm resolve to keep — that
is, treasure up and observe — the
words of his God; and as he had
aforetime solemnly expressed it:
in the presence of the Lord himself, so
here he confesses the binding obligation
of his former vow. Jesus said, “If
a man love me, he will keep my
words,” and this is a case which he might
have quoted as an illustration;
for the Psalmist’s love to God as his portion
led to his keeping the words of
God. David took God to be his Prince as
well as his Portion. He was confident
as to his interest in God, and
therefore he was resolute in his
obedience to him. Full assurance is a
powerful source of holiness. The
very words of God are to be stored up;
for whether they relate to doctrine,
promise, or precept, they are most
precious. When the heart is determined
to keep these words, and has
registered its purpose in the court
of heaven, it is prepared for all the
temptations and trials that may
befall it; for, with God as its heritage, it is
always in good case.
58. “I intreated thy favor with
my whole heart: be merciful unto me
according to thy word.”
“I intreated thy favor with my whole
heart.” A fully assured possession of
God does not set aside prayer,
but rather urges us to it; he who knows God
to be his God will seek his face,
longing for his presence. Seeking God’s
presence is the idea conveyed by
the marginal reading, “thy face,” and
this is true to the Hebrew. The
presence of God is the highest form of his
favor, and therefore it is the
most urgent desire of gracious souls: the light
of his countenance gives us an
antepast of heaven. Oh that we always
enjoyed it! The good man entreated
God’s smile as one who begged for his
life, and the entire strength of
his desire went with the entreaty. Such eager
pleadings are sure of success;
that which comes from our heart will
certainly go to God’s heart. The
whole of God’s favors are ready for those
who seek them with their whole
hearts.
“Be merciful unto me according to
thy word.” He has entreated favor,
and the from in which he most needs
it is that of mercy; for he is more a
sinner than anything else. He asks
nothing beyond the promise, he only
begs for such mercy as the word
reveals. And what more could he want or
wish for? God has revealed such
an infinity of mercy in his word, that it
would be impossible to conceive
of more. See how the Psalmist dwells
upon favor and mercy, he never
dreams of merit. He does not demand, but
entreat; for he feels his own unworthiness.
Note how he remains a
suppliant, though he knows that
he has all things in his God. God is his
portion, and yet he begs for a
look at his face. The idea of any other
position before God than that of
an undeserving though favored one never
entered his head. Here we have
his “Be merciful unto me” rising with as
much intensity of humble pleading
as if he still remained among the most
trembling of penitents.. The confidence
of faith makes us bold in prayer,
but it never teaches us to live
without prayer, or justifies us in being other
than humble beggars at mercy’s
gate.
59. “I thought on my ways, and turned
my feet unto thy testimonies.”
While studying the word he was
led to study his own life, and this caused a
mighty revolution. He came to the
word, and then he came to himself, and
this made him arise and go to his
Father. Consideration is the
commencement of conversion: first
we think, and then we turn. When the
mind repents of ill ways, the feet
are soon led into good ways; but there
will be no repenting until there
is deep, earnest: thought. Many men are
averse to thought of any kind,
and as to thought upon their ways, they
cannot endure it, for their ways
will not bear thinking of. David’s ways had
not been all that he could have
wished them to be, and so his thoughts
were sobered o’er with the pale
cast of regret; but he did not end with idle
lamentations, he set about a practical
amendment; he turned and returned,
he sought the testimonies of the
Lord, and hastened to enjoy once more the
conscious favor of his heavenly
Friend. Action without thought is folly, and
thought without action is sloth:
to think carefully and then to act promptly
is a happy combination. He had
en-treated for renewed fellowship, and
now he proved the genuineness of
his desire by renewed obedience. If we
are in the dark, and mourn an absent
God, our wisest method will be not so
much to think upon our sorrows
as upon our ways: though we cannot turn
the course of providence, we can
turn the way of our walking, and this will
soon mend matters. If we can get
our feet right as to holy walking, we shall
soon get our hearts right as to
happy living. God will turn to his saints
when they turn to him; yea, he
has already favored them with the light of
his face when they begin to think
and turn.
60. “I made haste, and delayed not
to keep thy commandments.” He
made all speed to get back into
the royal road from which he had
wandered, and to run in that road
upon the King’s errands. Speed in
repentance and speed in obedience
are two excellent things. We are too
often in haste to sin. Oh that
we may be in a greater hurry to obey! Delay
in repentance is increase of sin.
To be slow to keep the commands is to
break them. There is much evil
in a lagging pace when God’s command is
to be followed. A holy alacrity
in service is much to be cultivated. It is
wrought in us by the Spirit of
God, and the preceding verses describe the
method of it: we are made to perceive
and mourn our errors, we are led to
return to the right path, and then
we are eager to make up for lost time by
dashing forward to fulfil the precept.
Whatever may be the slips and wanderings
of an honest heart, there
remains enough of true life in
it to produce ardent piety when once it is
quickened by the visitations of
God. The Psalmist entreated for mercy, and
when he received it he became eager
and vehement in the Lord’s ways. He
had always loved them, and hence
when he was enriched with grace he
displayed great vivacity and delight
in them. He made double speed; for
positively he “made haste,” and
negatively he refused to yield to any
motive which suggested procrastination
— he “delayed not.” Thus he
made rapid advances and accomplished
much service, fulfilling thereby the
vow which is recorded in the 57th
verse: “I said that I would keep thy
words.” The commands which he was
so eager to obey were not
ordinances of man, but precepts
of the Most High. Many are zealous to
obey custom and society, and yet
they are slack in serving God. It is a
crying shame that men should be
served post-haste, and that God’s work
should have the, go-by, or be performed
with dreamy negligence.
61. “The bands of the wicked have
robbed me: but I have not forgotten
thy law.”
“The bands of the wicked have robbed
me.” Afore-time they derided him,
and now they have defrauded him.
Ungodly men grow worse, and become
more and more daring, so that they
go from ridicule to robbery. Much of
this bold opposition arose from
their being banded together: men will dare
to do in company what they durst
not have thought of alone. When
firebrands are laid together, there
is no telling what a flame, they will
create. It seems that whole bands
of men assailed this one child of God;
they are cowardly enough for anything:
though they could not kill him,
they robbed him; the dogs of Satan
will worry saints if they cannot devour
them. David’s enemies did their
utmost: first the serpents hissed, and then
they stung. Since words availed
not, the wicked fell to blows. How much
the ungodly have plundered the
saints in all ages, and how often have the
righteous borne gladly the spoiling
of their goods!
“But I have not forgotten thy law.”
This was well. Neither his sense of
injustice, nor his sorrow at his
losses, nor his attempts at defense, diverted
him from the ways of God. He would
not do wrong to prevent the
suffering of wrong, nor do ill
to avenge ill. He carried the law in his heart,
and therefore no disturbance of
mind could take him off from following it.
He might have forgotten himself
if he had forgotten the law: as it was, he
was ready to forgive and forget
the injuries done him, for his heart was
taken up with the word of God.
The bands of the wicked had not robbed
him of his choicest treasure, since
they had left him his holiness and his
happiness.
Some read this passage, “The bands
of the wicked environ me.” They
hemmed him in, they cut him off
from succor, they shut up every avenue of
escape; but; the man of God had
his protector with him; a clear conscience
relied upon the promise, and a
brave resolve stuck to the precept. He could
not be either bribed or bullied
into sin. The cordon of the ungodly could
not keep God from him, nor him
from God: this was because God was his
portion, and none could deprive
him of it, either by force or fraud. That is
true grace which can endure the
test: some are barely gracious among the
circle of their friends, but this
man was holy amid a ring of foes.
62. “At midnight I will rise to
give thanks unto thee because of thy
righteous judgments.” He was not
afraid of the robbers; he rose, not to
watch his house, but to praise
his God. Midnight is the hour for burglars,
and there were bands of them around
David, but they did not occupy his
thoughts; these were all up and
away with the Lord his God. He thought
not of thieves, but of thanks;
not of what they would steal, but of what he
would give to his God. A thankful
heart is such a blessing that it drives
out fear and makes room for praise.
Thanksgiving turns night into day, and
consecrates all hours to the worship
of God. Every hour is canonical to a
saint.
The Psalmist: observed posture;
he did not lie in bed and praise. There is
not much in the position of the
body, but there is something, and that
something is to be observed whenever
it is helpful to devotion and
expressive of our diligence: or
humility. Many kneel without praying, some
pray without kneeling; but the
best is to kneel and pray: so here, it would
have been no virtue to rise without
giving thanks, and it would have been
no sin to give thanks without rising;
but to rise and give thanks is a happy
combination. As for the season,
it was quiet, lonely, and such as proved his
zeal. At midnight he would be unobserved
and undisturbed; it was his own
time which he saved from his sleep,
and so he would be free from the
charge of sacrificing public duties
to private devotions. Midnight ends one
day and begins another, it was
therefore meet to give the solemn moments
to communion with the Lord. At
the turn of the night he turned to his God.
He had thanks to give for mercies
which God had given: he had on his
mind the truth of verse fifty-seven,“Thou
art my portion,” and if anything
can make a man sing in the middle
of the night, that is it.
The righteous doings of the great
Judge gladdened the heart of this godly
man. His judgments are the terrible
side of God, but they have no terror to
the righteous; they admire them,
and adore the Lord for them: they rise at
night to bless God that he will
avenge his own elect. Some hate the very
notion of divine justice, and in
this they are wide as the poles asunder from
this man of God, who was filled
with joyful gratitude at the memory of the
sentences of the Judge of all the
earth. Doubtless in the expression, “thy
righteous judgments,” David refers
also to the written judgments of God
upon various points of moral conduct;
indeed, all the divine precepts may
be viewed in that light; they are
all of them the legal decisions of the
Supreme Arbiter of right and wrong.
David was charmed with these
judgments. Like Paul, he could
say, “I delight in the law of God after the
inward man.” He could not find
time enough by day to study the words of
divine wisdom, or to bless God
for them, and so he gave up his sleep that
he might tell out his gratitude
for such a law and such a Lawgiver.
This verse is an advance upon the
sense of verse fifty-two, and contains in
addition the essence of fifty-five.
Our author never repeats himself: though
he runs up and down the same scale,
his music has an infinite variety. The
permutations and combinations which
may be formed in connection with a
few vital truths are innumerable.
63. “I am a companion of all them
that fear thee, and of them that keep
thy precepts.”
“I am a companion of all them that
fear thee.” The last verse said, “I
will,” and this says, “I am.” We
can hardly hope to be right in the future
unless we are right now. The holy
man spent his nights with God and his
days with God’s people. Those who
fear God love those who fear him, and
they make small choice as to the
rank of their companions so long as they
are truly God-fearing men. David
was a king, and yet he consorted with
“all” who feared the Lord, whether
they were obscure or famous, poor
or rich. He was a fellow-commoner
of the College of All-saints.
He did not select a few specially
eminent saints and leave ordinary believers
alone. No, he was glad of the society
of those who had only the beginning
of wisdom in the shape of
“the fear of the Lord”: he was pleased to sit
with them on the lower forms of
the school of faith. He looked for inward
godly fear, but he also expected
to see outward piety, in those whom he
admitted to his society; hence
he adds, “and of them that keep thy
precepts.” If they would keep the
Lord’s commands, the Lord’s servant
would keep their company. David
was known to be on the godly side, he
was ever of the Puritanic party:
the men of Belial hated him for this, and no
doubt despised him for keeping
such unfashionable company as that of
humble men and women who were strait-laced
and religious; but the man
of God is by no means ashamed of
his associates; so far from this, he even
glories to avow his union with
them, let his enemies make what they can of
it. He found both pleasure and
profit in saintly society; he grew better by
consorting with tile good, and
derived honor from keeping right honorable
company. What says the reader?
Does he relish holy society? Is he at home
among gracious people? If so, he
may derive comfort from the fact. Birds
of a feather flock together. A
man is known by his company. Those who
have no fear of God before their
eyes seldom desire the society of saints; it
is too slow, too dull for them.
Be this our comfort, that when we are let go
by death we shall go to our own
company, and those who loved the saints
on earth shall be numbered with
them in heaven.
There is a measure of parallelism
between this seventh of its octave and the
seventh of Teth (71) and of Jod
(79); but, as a rule, the similarities which
were so manifest in earlier verses
are now becoming dim. As the sense
deepens, the artificial form of
expression is less regarded.
64. “The early, O Lord, is full
of thy mercy: teach me thy statutes.”
“The earth, O Lord, is full of
thy mercy.” David had been exiled, but he
had never been driven beyond the
range of mercy, for he found the world
to be everywhere filled with it.
He had wandered in deserts and hidden in
caves, and there he had seen and
felt the lovingkindness of the Lord. He
had learned that far beyond the
bounds of the land of promise and the race
of Israel the love of Jehovah extended,
and in this verse he expressed that
large-hearted idea of God which
is so seldom seen in the modern Jew.
How sweet it is to us to know that
not only is there mercy all over the
world, but there is such an abundance
of it that the earth is “full” of it! It
is little wonder that: the Psalmist,
since he knew the Lord to be his portion,
hoped to obtain a measure of his
mercy for himself. He desired to know
more of one so good; and as the
Lord has so freely revealed himself in
nature, he felt encouraged to pray,
“teach me thy statutes.” It was to him
the beau-ideal of mercy to be taught
of God, and taught in God’s own law.
He could not think of a greater
mercy than this. Surely, he who fills the
universe with his grace will grant
such a request as this to his own child,
Let us breathe the desire to the
All-merciful Jehovah, and we may be
assured of its fulfillment.
The first verse of this eight is
fragrant with full assurance and strong
resolve, and this last verse overflows
with a sense of the divine fullness,
and of the Psalmist’s personal
dependence. This is an illustration of the fact
that: full assurance neither damps
prayer nor hinders humility. It would be
no error if we said that it creates
lowliness and suggests supplication.
“Thou art my portion, O Lord,”
is well followed by “teach me”; for the
heir of a great estate should be
thoroughly educated, that his behavior may
comport with his fortune. What
manner of disciples ought we to be whose
inheritance is the Lord of hosts!
Those who have God for their Portion
long to have him for their Teacher.
Moreover, those who have resolved to
obey are the most eager to be taught.
“I have said that I would keep thy
words” is beautifully succeeded
by “teach me thy statutes.” Those who
wish to keep a law are anxious
to know all its clauses and provisions, lest
they should offend through inadvertence.
He who does not care to be
instructed of the Lord has never
honestly resolved to be holy.
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