(20) He asks to be considered and delivered from persecution and affliction, and to be revived according to His purposes. He knows that the tender mercies of the Lord are great and desires to be revived in accordance to His lovingkindnesses. He grieves over the way of the transgressors, when he considers that His judgments endure forever. What a solemn ending for those who refuse the Word of God!
(21) There is voiced here the thought of the increasing preciousness of the Word of God, even though he has had to bear the persecution of princes on account of it. He feels very keenly the attitude and ways of those who are going contrary to it. He says great peace have they that love it and nothing shall stumble them.
(22) In this last section. of Psalm 119, the tried one is still crying to the Lord for His deliverance from the oppressors. He desires to have his understanding formed by the word of the Lord, so that he shall be able to praise Him properly. He realizes that he had gone astray like a lost sheep, and desires to be sought and brought back, that he might be able to praise Him. This seems to be the central theme before him. We have in the following psalms the ways of God in bringing them back from where they had wandered.
Psalms 120-134
These are marked out as a group and entitled “Songs of Degrees.” The word degrees “signifies” a going up, and is used by the Queen of Sheba of King Solomon (1 Kings 10:55And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord; there was no more spirit in her. (1 Kings 10:5)), where it is translated ascent! “And his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord.” So here it is applied to Israel in their being recovered, first in spirit, then in their exercises being gradually deepened, and ending in praise to the Lord in the house of the Lord in Zion. These exercises could also apply to the path of any child of God, who has been brought to realize, that he has in some measure allowed the Word of God to lapse out of his life.
Psalm 120. The sorrowing one here awakes in distress at being surrounded by those whom he thought were his friends and finds they have deceitful tongues. He longs for deliverance, but realizes that he is afar off and in the enemy’s land.
Psalm 121. We have here the lifting up of the eyes of the tried one, but he sees no way out. Then he is brought to the realization that his help must come from the Lord, who neither slumbers nor sleeps. He is assured of His care over His people when the return journey is undertaken.
Psalm 122. The one who had felt such distress over his own condition, now finds that there are others who have passed through similar exercises. He also finds that a unity of thought has been produced by the Spirit of God to undertake the journey to the house of the Lord, which for Israel was at Jerusalem. Their faith contemplates that the whole twelve tribes of Israel are to be restored. They are to find there the thrones of the house of David, where justice, peace and prosperity will be for them as a nation. Is there not a similarity in the pathway for the Christian when the Lord is given His true place in their midst?
ML 05/14/1961