119: Pe

Pe [פ] is the seventeenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is also the Hebrew word for “mouth” and refers to the power of speech to change one’s world. (Not by coincidence, pe appears as “mouth” in the third verse of this section of Psalm 119, though not in connection with speech or power.) We can see how the word is used in scripture from Genesis forward, creating several intriguing Hebrew idioms. One example: Pharaoh says to Joseph, “All my people shall order themselves as you command.” The word “command” there is pê. What Pharaoh literally said is that all Egypt would conduct itself “according to Joseph’s mouth”.

That’s some pretty powerful speech, but then we worship a God who spoke our world into being.

Psalm 119:129-131 — Sing Them Over Again to Me

“Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them. The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple. I open my mouth and pant, because I long for your commandments.”

Wonderful Testimonies

We move from the mouth of men to the mouth of God. “Testimony” in the singular generally refers to the Ten Words inscribed on tablets and placed inside the Ark of the Covenant, also called the Ark of the Testimony. “Testimonies”, plural, seems to refer to the entire law of God. These laws are called “wonderful”, the only time the Hebrew pele' appears in Psalm 119. A wonder is a miraculous sign, so the psalmist is saying the written word of God is the equivalent of a supernatural marvel, a divine act on the level with the crossing of the Red Sea or the plagues of Egypt. It’s not just a comment on the psalmist’s reaction, but on the transformative power of the words of God themselves.

Indeed. Why should God favor us with the expression of his character and the wisdom of heaven? The existence of his testimonies is itself a marvel, their content even more so.

Unfolding Words

The word translated “unfolding” in the ESV and “entrance” in the KJV occurs only once in the Old Testament, right here. Modern translations go with “unfolding” because that’s the meaning of the Hebrew root. “Entrance” is fine so long as we don’t think of a monarch making an entrance; rather, pēṯaḥ is something like a doorway that opens to admit the student of the law. The psalmist is grateful to be allowed inside. Picture a city at night with every home locked up, while one door is open, light streaming from a warm hearth, to welcome the weary traveler. That may be the image here. The Queen of Sheba traveled “from the ends of the earth” to see the light from that doorway. The truth of God is not beyond either the foreigner or the average man. It “imparts understanding to the simple”. History has shown it also crosses cultural, linguistic and social boundaries just as easily.

An Open Mouth

Panting is a standard Hebrew idiom for earnest desire (“I long for your commandments”) that occurs in scripture as early as the book of Job. An open mouth is also receptive, waiting to be filled. Scripture repeatedly uses the image of eating the word of God, from Jeremiah (“Your words were found, and I ate them”) to Ezekiel’s scroll, all the way to the Incarnate Word’s instruction to his followers to “feed on my flesh and drink my blood”. All symbolize internalizing God’s word so that it can be passed on to others. The man panting after God’s commandments anticipates he will receive what he longs for so intensely.

Psalm 119:132-135 — A Series of Requests

“Turn to me and be gracious to me, as is your way with those who love your name. Keep steady my steps according to your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me. Redeem me from man's oppression, that I may keep your precepts. Make your face shine upon your servant, and teach me your statutes.”

Fours and Sevens

If we are going to be technical, there are actually seven requests here, though I will call it four. I do not think each appeal is actually a separate “line item” on the psalmist’s prayer list; rather, as is common with Hebrew poetry, the second request is actually a clarification or expansion on the first. “Turn to me” and “be gracious to me” are really the same thing: the latter is simply the practical realization of the gracious disposition expressed by the former action of acknowledging the servant. Likewise, “let no iniquity get dominion over me” is a clarification of “keep steady my steps”. It’s the same desire for protection from internal influences to sin expressed in different words. In the last instance (verse 135), the psalmist is looking for a particular expression of God’s favor, that he teach him his statutes.

So you can call it seven or four, but either way, this four verse segment of the pe stanza is full of appeals to God concerning his word and the psalmist’s circumstances.

An Early Lord’s Prayer

First, he is looking for grace. That word occurs 78 times in the Old Testament to describe everything from the blessing of children to favoritism and even the withholding of well deserved punishment. Those who asked for it did not always receive it in the form they requested. Usually, God had something better in mind.

Second, he is looking for freedom from error, whether accidental or intentional. Jesus taught that defilement proceeds from the human heart and works outwards into the world, and this is what the psalmist hopes to avoid.

Third, he’s looking for freedom from oppressive human control. The psalmist has already mentioned oppression numerous times to date. The Powers That Be in this world sometimes use their authority to restrain the servant of God from doing things he knows to be right. That may be gathering with his fellow saints during a pandemic, or having his taxes spent on wicked causes he does not support, or anything analogous that might have been inflicted on the devout in the centuries prior to the coming of Christ.

Finally, he’s looking for greater understanding, which can only come from God himself, and which he considers a blessed state.

You can almost hear the echo of the prayer the Lord Jesus taught his disciples to pray in these words.

Psalm 119:136 — Streams of Tears

“My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law.”

You cannot accuse the psalmist of indifference. These are eight very passionate verses describing the intensity of his attachment to the law of God. In this last verse he expresses his frustration with the moral condition of his nation. Isaiah said much the same when he bemoaned dwelling “in the midst of a people of unclean lips”. As the psalmist does here, Isaiah had already acknowledged his own culpability.

This is one of the great difficulties of walking with God. We can clean up our own act and bring it into accord with scripture (not an easy task, but one that is possible). However, we have little or no control over the expressions of sinful hearts that surround us and work their way into our consciousness against our will. I remember going to the gym in my early twenties, day after day bombarded by music I did not choose with lyrics that defiled the mind and heart, and which I often found myself humming absently later in the day. When my membership expired, I was not greatly saddened.

The true servant of God acknowledges the degradation of the world around him without pride or any sense of moral superiority. He is simply grieved by it, as he should be.