119: Daleth

The Hebrew letter daleth or dalet [ד] is also the word for “door”, signifying humility and receptiveness. Alefbet says dal is “the realization that as humans, we having nothing of our own, but are entirely dependent on the creator and that every breath and movement is given to us from him”.

This is certainly the attitude of the psalmist in today’s section. We find him eager to receive knowledge, understanding and practical affirmation of the truth of God in his daily walk, reflecting the underlying meaning of the letter with which each line commences.

Psalm 119:25-29 — Five Requests in Five Verses

“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. My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word! Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law!”

(Technically, there are six requests in total, but the sixth effectively repeats the second.)

1/ Give Me Life According to Your Word

What does it mean for a soul to cling to the dust? Man was formed from the dust and returns to it in a fallen world. The serpent lives on it. Dust symbolizes death and everything that is shortly passing away, yet we cling to it. The psalmist is not wrong.

Matthew Henry writes, “While the souls of the children of this world cleave to the dust of the earth as their portion, and have no uneasiness about it, the children of light often are greatly burdened because of the remains of carnal affections in their hearts.” That’s a perceptive observation. Even for committed believers, it’s all too easy to gravitate toward activities, purchases and occupations that appeal to the flesh rather than the Spirit. Not all these are evil, but all are temporary, inconsequential and ultimately unsatisfying to the regenerate heart. I would be very happy to get back a fraction of the hours invested in “dust” over the last fifty years to use for the Lord’s sake, but time once wasted is gone forever, and with it any attendant reward.

The psalmist cries, “Give me life!” Thankfully, revival of the spirit is freely available to those who know Christ. Everything true, everything eternal, everything lasting and everything important is summed up for us in God’s word. There is no other source of spiritual sustenance in this world. The word of God is how the Spirit of God refreshes our hearts and builds us up, more necessary to the believer than his food and water.

2/ Teach Me Your Statutes

The Hebrew word dereḵ (“way”, “path”) appears five times in this section, far more than any other in the psalm. If we had to pick a dominant theme for this eight-verse segment, it might be “the way”. The psalmist first writes, “I told of my ways”, the path on which he has been traveling. Perhaps he is referring to his confession in the previous verse concerning his ongoing spiritual burden about his natural affection for things that don’t really matter. Regardless, all believers can surely relate to the daily need to lay our intended path before the Lord so that we can walk rightly in it, and to revisit the way we have gone in the past hours, holding it up to examination under the word of God. We may also recognize the need to remind ourselves daily of the principles of God’s word in order that our path not deviate from the one he has established for us.

3/ Make Me Understand the Way of Your Precepts

One can walk the right way for many less-than-perfect reasons: fear of consequences, duty, habit, peer pressure, the desire to keep up appearances — you name it. All inferior motives will fail you at one point or another when you come up against sufficient disincentive. How much better to walk in the right way with understanding of its purpose and goal. The New Testament teaches us the best motive for walking in the way of God’s precepts is love, and the Lord has a way of sharing understanding with servants who demonstrate their faith and love in willing obedience.

When you love God and he loves you back, the way of his precepts becomes much clearer. Most of the last six chapters of Daniel are inside information granted him because he was loved for his devotion to the Lord.

4/ Strengthen Me According to Your Word

This fourth request is in response to sadness so overpowering that the psalmist says, “My soul melts away for sorrow.” Has your soul ever melted away? I’m sure it has. I have known the experience in a measure from time to time. The Hebrew for “strengthen me” here is literally “help me to stand up”. The psalmist is not asking for anything more than the ability to endure, and the Lord is able to provide what is required in accordance with his faithfulness. In contrast, David writes in Psalm 36 of evildoers who are “unable to rise”. The things in which they put their trust could not provide the emotional or spiritual motivation they required to carry on. The word of God always will.

5/ Put False Ways Far From Me

First, we had “my way”, then “the way of your precepts”. Now the psalmist speaks of “false ways”. The law of God teaches the believer not to walk in ways that are deceptive and will ultimately fail him, but it also teaches him to speak truth and live it out consistently. Centuries later, Paul could confirm this is still the case for Christians. He writes, “We have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word.” There are always shortcuts available to those willing to use them. The word of God teaches us to have nothing to do with such things.

Psalm 119:30-32

“I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I set your rules before me. I cling to your testimonies, O Lord; let me not be put to shame! I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!”

False Ways and Faithful Ways

In contrast to “false ways”, the psalmist confirms, “I have chosen the way of faithfulness.” Having set before him the requirements of God, he is determined to live them out. “I cling to your testimonies”, he writes. Entrusting himself to the Lord and forsaking all efforts to manipulate others to get his own way, he is now dependent on God to treat him consistent with his behavior and convictions. Affliction, persecution and hostility from the enemies of God are normal for believers in a fallen world, as we will see later in this psalm. However, if faithfulness to the Word results in divine rejection, abandonment or public humiliation, then the promises of God have failed. Thanks be to the Lord that he never puts his servants to shame, even if they may suffer for his sake. Stephen was killed in very unpleasant circumstances, but he died with dignity in fellowship with his Savior. He was not put to shame.

An Enlarged Heart

So then, the way of faithfulness is the way of God’s commandments. What does the psalmist mean by “enlarge my heart”? The Hebrew term translated “enlarge” is generally geographic, and signifies a tribe or people that grows so fast under the blessing of God that they begin to occupy territory outside their bounds. Their blessings visibly overflow. To enlarge the heart, then, may mean to employ all one’s intellect, affections and will in the things of heaven; not to approach the word of God mechanically, but with genuine, overflowing desire for the knowledge of God. The result of an enlarged heart of this sort is not walking in the way of the Lord’s commandments, but running in it with increasingly evident joy.