119: Mem

The letter Mem [מ] symbolizes water and is associated with the number forty. If that seems an odd pairing, we should consider that the first “forty” in scripture denotes the duration of the Genesis flood in days. Thereafter, the number is often associated with testing or judgment.

In the New Testament, water is most frequently associated with the Holy Spirit of God. It is not without reason that we call that great, singular event in which the Spirit came to indwell all who are in Christ and bind together Jew and Gentile into one body a “baptism”. But water serves other purposes than cleansing and testimony. It meets the perpetual need of humanity. Jesus cried out to the thirsty, “Come to me and drink.” John comments, “He said this about the Spirit.”

How does the Spirit operate in the human heart? Well, he uses the word of God, which is where our psalmist comes in once again.

Psalm 119:97-100 — Three Comparisons

“Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts.”

Loving the Law

This is the third time the psalmist has expressed love for the law and commandments of God. There will be nine similar expressions of affection to come, totaling precisely twelve. I have reservations about inventing secret spiritual meanings based on the study of Bible numerology, but it’s obvious totals like three, four, seven, twelve or forty are numbers chosen deliberately and in awareness of what they signified not only in Hebrew but in other languages of the day. The writer of Psalm 119 was fastidious far beyond any normal level of detail. The psalm is ornate.

Comparative Wisdom

These next three verses all involve comparisons, perhaps reminding the attentive Christian reader of Paul’s observation that “when they compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding”. But this is not that. Firstly, the psalmist is not interested in self-flattery or elevating himself above his peer group in his own mind. There are no “one another” comparisons here. Secondly, the praise for his exceptional understanding is directed primarily toward the word of God that has transformed his life, not toward himself for his unusual diligence or fastidiousness.

1/ My Enemies

The psalmist is wiser than his enemies because the commandment of God is “perpetually mine”. Memorization is a great thing, but meditation is better. It makes the word of God part of who you are and transforms you accordingly. One’s enemies may seek out advice where they can find it, but their worldviews are inevitably inconsistent, incoherent and fragmented, as are all philosophies of man, however sophisticated they may appear. The word of God brings the believer’s walk into conformity with reality. It will never steer him wrong.

2/ My Teachers

The psalmist further reinforces the value of meditation here, observing, “I have more understanding than all my teachers.” There will be exceptions, of course. A teacher who loves the word of God with an undivided heart can never reduce communicating it to a career or agenda item, but many teachers do just that. You might be surprised to find that a study of over a million people found high school teachers have an average IQ of only 101.37, 179th on the list of jobs by average IQ. Of course, intelligence and wisdom are two very different measures, and if you have only one teacher in your lifetime, the chances of exceeding him in wisdom are not great, as the Lord Jesus pointed out. But a man who meditates on the word of God allows himself the opportunity to be schooled by the greatest teacher of all, the Author of scripture, and by a multitude of others along the way.

3/ The Aged

The Eastern expectation that with age comes wisdom is not wrong, but it fails to take into account the value of obedience “just because God said it”. An older man may know the truth intellectually without making it part of his daily experience. This was the problem of the Pharisees, and yet Jesus counseled his disciples to “observe whatever they tell you”. There was nothing lacking in first century Judaic head-knowledge. Their problem was practice.

The psalmist writes, “I keep your precepts.” This seems backwards to us, because we think knowing comes before doing. If you explain why to us, we will then decide whether we feel like obeying. In fact, until you have obeyed, you do not really understand why you are doing what you are doing. The big secret to understanding the word of God is doing it.

Psalm 119:101-102 — Positives and Negatives

“I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word. I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me.”

Conscience operates apart from the Holy Spirit. The Gentiles outside the Law have consciences that bear witness, accusing or even excusing them. But there is no question the Spirit of God informs, enlivens and uses the human conscience to do his work, convicting the world of sin, righteousness and judgment.

His work on the human heart has both negative and positive aspects.

Holding Back

Firstly, the Holy Spirit restrains through his word, informing the conscience so that it acts as a brake. “I hold back my feet from every evil way.” This is the negative aspect of his work. The sinner finds increasingly creative ways to justify his behavior until his conscience is finally silenced. The conscience directed by the Spirit of God cannot accept this sort of cognitive dissonance, and therefore shuns evil. The New Testament is full of instructions to Christians not to do certain things, as was the Law of Moses. Though we are no longer under law, law remains a useful indication of what sorts of self-restrictions are appropriate, loving and pleasing to God.

Not Turning Aside

Secondly, the Holy Spirit prompts the conscience to behave lovingly toward others and toward God. This is the positive aspect of his work. Some rules are “don’ts”, but many are “dos”, and these encouragements to charity, fairness and loyalty move the believer toward Christ-likeness in the expression of love (“He will take what is mine and declare it to you”). The psalmist says, “I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me.” The child of God must eventually take on the character of his Father, not just with respect to the rejection of wickedness but with respect to the expression of all the good that comes naturally to God but which we grow into with great difficulty and much practice.

Now of course, the Holy Spirit did not indwell the psalmist in the way we experience today, nevertheless he carried God’s servant along. Our author well understood both the positive and negative value of God’s word in directing his path and keeping him from stumbling.

Psalm 119:103-104 — Sweeter Than Honey

“How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.”

Canaan was pitched to the children of Israel as a “land flowing with milk and honey”. When they hungered in the wilderness on the way to the promised land, God’s solution was to give them manna (“like wafers made with honey”). In this manner, every believing Israelite received from the Lord a small daily taste of that for which he hoped. So too the believer who dives into the word of the Lord daily is constantly reminded of the goal. He tastes heaven in every paragraph.

The manna should have been enough, and surely was enough for the faithful in Israel. But the rabble craved meat, despised God’s provision and brought death on themselves. May we not be like them or share their fate, but esteem the words of the Lord as highly as the psalmist does here. “Through your precepts,” he writes, “I get understanding.”