119: Ayin

The Hebrew letter Ayin [ע] means “eye” and signifies not just functional vision but spiritual understanding. The words “eyes” and “understanding” appear six and ten times, respectively, in Psalm 119, so we are not surprised to find both in the first few verses of today’s reading, not least because the importance of seeking understanding from God through his word is the major theme of the psalm.

Occasional verses that address others interrupt some sections of the psalmist’s prayer; however, today’s stanza focuses entirely on God.

Psalm 119:121-123 — Pledges and Salvation

“I have done what is just and right; do not leave me to my oppressors. Give your servant a pledge of good; let not the insolent oppress me. My eyes long for your salvation and for the fulfillment of your righteous promise.”

Judgment and Justice

The words translated “just” and “right” in my ESV are both Hebrew legal terms. The first has the sense of “custom”. To do what is “just” is to maintain consistency with an established pattern of behavior or decision-making, as a judge would consult legal precedent in making a decision today. The second means morally correct or righteous in the eyes of God. The psalmist is saying he has conducted himself in a way that meets the standards of both God and men. It is not fitting that he be left to his own devices in his time of need, so he cries out to the Lord for deliverance from those who would oppress him.

A Pledge of Good

A pledge is something between a personal promise and a covenant, though all are morally binding on the believer. It’s surety that “seals the deal”, much as I had to sign a document promising to come through with the cash if my daughter ever defaulted on the rent for her first apartment. (She didn’t.) But a pledge need not be a physical object. Just as Judah became a “pledge” to his father for Benjamin’s safety, so the character of God himself stands as the believer’s surety. He is who he is, and we know from his track record that he will do as he has promised.

My Eyes Long

The word “eyes” is ayin, as we might expect. The word “long” is actually “ending”. He’s agonizing over the outcome, wanting to see a resolution to his problems, the conclusion of his difficulties. How often we do the same, but the Christian needs to remind himself that where health, financial prosperity and physical deliverance from one’s enemies reflected the blessing of God to Israelites under the law, the believer in the Church Age ought to expect conflict in this life as a matter of course when we publicly identify with the rejected Christ. For the believer today, persecution for the sake of Christ is a mark of distinction, and its absence a reason to be concerned.

Christians reading the Psalms without considering the differences in God’s dealings with humanity from one era to another may come away with unrealistic expectations of the nature and immediacy of the deliverance they are seeking, putting words in their own mouths that properly belong to people of another time and place. The Lord will not answer such prayers in quite the same way today. God keeps all his promises, but his promises to Israel and to his children today are very different in character. In this era, he promises to bring us through trials, not necessarily to help us avoid them.

Your Righteous Promise

Literally, it’s “the word of your righteousness”. David writes, “The word of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.” The blessing of Moses to the tribe of Levi in Deuteronomy includes the words, “Bless, O Lord, his substance.” Why? Because the Levites did what the psalmist claims to have done here. They “observed your word and kept your covenant”. Note that this came at a cost, as it sometimes does for Christians: He “disowned his brothers and ignored his children”. They were in rebellion against the Lord, and so the Levites took their stand on the side of heaven.

Scriptures like these informed the psalmist’s expectations of the Lord in his time of need. He trusted the Lord would behave in his day as he did in times past, rewarding the righteous and dealing with him for good. The judge of all the earth will do right, both in eternity and in time.

Psalm 119:124-125 — Statutes and Understanding

“Deal with your servant according to your steadfast love, and teach me your statutes. I am your servant; give me understanding, that I may know your testimonies!”

One of the most frustrating things you can experience in the workforce is a lack of clear direction. Direction requires more than just knowledge of a huge pile of rules. It also helps to know how to apply them. The word “understanding” is often translated “discretion” or “perception”. It has to do with knowledge prudently applied rather than just stored in the brain.

On starting a new job in 1997, my shift lead handed me a binder with about 400 pages of loose-leaf instructions and left me to stare at it in ever-increasing confusion for two straight eight-hour shifts. I had the “statutes”, so to speak, but I needed understanding. Without actually sitting down and starting to do the job, and without watching someone else go through it first, I had no idea which instructions were most relevant, and which might apply to the tasks I was about to be assigned. (Most of the 400 pages addressed situations I never encountered in 26 years on the job, and half the terminology was never used by anyone I worked with.)

So it is in the service of God. Both these verses cast the child of God in the role of servant. As a servant, he has a reasonable expectation that his Master will provide clear direction so that he can do his job, with both the necessary statutes and the understanding to apply them in real-life situations. You do not really “know the testimonies” in any sense that matters until you are working them out in the world.

Psalm 119:126-128 — What the ‘Therefore’ is There For

“It is time for the Lord to act, for your law has been broken. Therefore I love your commandments above gold, above fine gold. Therefore I consider all your precepts to be right; I hate every false way.”

You have probably noticed that some verses in each section of Psalm 119 are fully resolved, independent thoughts, while other verses form groups. These three connect with two “therefores” in both Hebrew and English. The psalmist’s love of the Lord’s commandments and high view of the Lord’s precepts have a causal connection with the Lord’s observed actions. For the devout Israelite, if God did not promptly punish those who flouted his laws, something was wrong with the system.

The psalmist has good reason for this association and we mentioned it last week. The book of Deuteronomy set out both blessings and curses. It assured its ancient reader that those who kept the Lord’s commandments would experience the former, and those who were not careful to follow them would experience the latter. To see circumstances unfold that confirmed God was acting was to have the Law confirmed in front of one’s own eyes. Therefore the faithful could look at the world and say, “How long, O Lord? It is time.”

Though veiled in symbolic language, the Christian has much the same in the book of Revelation. We can see the end of the story, and sometimes, looking at the world around us, we find ourselves saying, “It is time.”