119: Taw

Taw, pronounced tav [ת], is the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet and the last letter in the Hebrew phrase translated “In the beginning”, with which the book of Genesis — and every Bible — commences. Scholars take this formulation to signify that with respect to the plans and purposes of God, the end of this world and its story was always determined from the very outset. We could argue that case persuasively from many scriptures, some including the phrase “from the foundation of the world”.

Taw’s meaning is “mark” or “seal”, and it signifies completion. With this last letter, our unknown psalmist concludes his effusive and unsurpassed paean to God’s law.

The eight verses of the stanza break thematically into four sets of two. Apart from the last verse, every second verse in the section restates in other words the verse that comes before it. If it seems that there are few new sentiments expressed in these last eight verses (as it does to me), it’s possible they are intended to serve more as a summary of the psalmist’s prayer than anything else.

Psalm 119:169-170 — Understanding and Deliverance

“Let my cry come before you, O Lord; give me understanding according to your word! Let my plea come before you; deliver me according to your word.”

Understanding and deliverance are two very different things. The psalmist asks for both. Ultimately, the Lord always delivers his servants. Even those who have lost their lives while putting their trust in God over the centuries looked forward by faith to a city whose builder and maker is God, and they are never disappointed when they find it. In that sense, even death can be deliverance. The Israelite was different from the Christian, however, in that he had a rightful expectation that faithfulness might result in deliverance from his trials, perils or enemies in this life, and surely this is the sort of relief the psalmist is seeking here. However, even when deliverance appears delayed, understanding is a great blessing. Many troubles can be borne when we remind ourselves that the Lord is accomplishing his purposes through them. We may not always understand the Lord’s purpose, but we surely understand that he has one. His word promises it.

Psalm 119:171-172 — Praise and Song

“My lips will pour forth praise, for you teach me your statutes. My tongue will sing of your word, for all your commandments are right.”

There is nothing conditional about the promises the psalmist makes here; nothing of Jacob and his bargaining spirit in them. Lips that praise God are an appropriate offering from one who has experienced the blessings of instruction in the ways of the Lord, and hymns come easily to those who are enjoying the glories of the deep things of God.

“All your commandments are right,” our psalmist can say with confidence. The man who is unacquainted with the ways of God cannot know how perfectly the law meets the needs of man with the certainty a believer experiences when he reads the scripture. The unsaved man may see the value to society in loving his neighbor as himself or not lusting after another man’s wife, but he will inevitably find the symbolic aspects of God’s law bewildering. Only meditation and familiarity with the entire word of God can explain why, for example, Israelites were not to sow a field with two kinds of seed or wear a garment made of two kinds of material. When you don’t have the apostle Paul to explain the meaning of such spiritual metaphors, they can be confusing.

The psalmist could sing about the word of God because he occupied himself with it constantly, and its secrets opened up to him by the Spirit of God.

Psalm 119:173-174 — Making a Choice

“Let your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen your precepts. I long for your salvation, O Lord, and your law is my delight.”

The law of God was always a choice. It was a choice at Sinai, when the people of God said with one voice, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” Nobody made them say it. Being a kingdom of priests and a holy nation was a high calling, and Israel was not up to the job. The apostles could look back to the law as “a yoke that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear”.

The deficiency was not in the law, but in the people. The law served its purpose in its day, which was to make sin evident so that the sinner would seek help from God in dealing with a load he was unable to shift on his own. Nevertheless, Israel chose to become the people of God, with all the good and bad that came with it. Given their options, they chose well.

Our psalmist seems to understand that the precepts of God are not easy to keep. He appeals to the Lord, “Let your hand be ready to help me.” He knows he will fall short if the Lord does not carry him along. In some respects, then, not much has changed between Old and New Covenants. The believer in this age must also depend on the Lord. “Having begun by the Spirit,” writes Paul, “are you now being perfected by the flesh?” Of course not. Law-keeping cannot save, and law-keeping cannot complete the work that faith begins.

Psalm 119:175-176 — The Lost Sheep

“Let my soul live and praise you, and let your rules help me. I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant, for I do not forget your commandments.”

The scripture promises God’s help to the believer early and often. Jacob’s blessing of Joseph referred to “the God of your father who will help you.” That is his nature. It is what he does. Earlier in this passage, the psalmist asks for the hand of God to be ready to help him. Sometimes the Lord’s help comes through direct intervention. But another way he helps is by providing rules that steer his servants away from bad choices and toward better ones. The rules help, and the result is praise for the Lord.

The “going astray” of which the psalmist speaks may well be moral, though it comes in a context in which he insists, “I do not forget your commandments.” The Hebrew word employed here is not used only of moral error, but also of legitimate confusion, or of those who for no fault of their own found themselves in unfamiliar places with no guidance. “God caused me to wander,” said Abraham. It was not rebellion but obedience that led the patriarch to places of wandering. Joseph sought his brothers at his father’s request and found himself wandering (same word).

Lost sheep need to be found. “Seek your servant,” cries the psalmist. I have often wondered at our Lord’s anecdote about the lost sheep, in which he asks the rhetorical question, “Does he [the owner of the sheep] not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one who went astray?” Perhaps, if he is a loving and caring owner, but many men would not trouble themselves over a single, straying sheep. Their ewes can always have more, right? God is not like that, and the question the Lord Jesus asks assumes his love and care both in providing the commandments and in aiding those who seek to keep them.