Psalm 119: Gimel

This stanza is all about what David writes in verse 17.  It is essential we understand what he means by “deal bountifully with me.”  At first glance, it seems like he is saying, “bless me plentifully,” which is half true.  He is asking God to bless him, but it isn’t until we dig a little deeper that we understand what blessing he is actually pleading for.  Even though his main point might seem hidden in the text, it is plain as day if we look past our own filter of a desire for personal blessing and understand why David is saying what he is saying.  Let’s first skip to verses 21-22:

You rebuke the arrogant, the accursed, who stray from your commands. ⌊Remove from⌋ me scorn and contempt, for I have kept your testimonies.

As Psalm 119 is a focus on the importance of God’s Word, David recognizes what happens when we don’t follow it!  Therefore, he is asking God to mature him in the word.  “Bless me plentifully” is a reference to maturing. He is asking God to mature him.  The double meaning of the original Hebrew text refers to weaning a baby or ripening of a fruit.  

In Hebrews 5, we encounter a similar message.  However, in this case it is more of an exhortation by the writer who is telling his audience that they should instead heed the desire of David in this Psalm:

12 For indeed, although you ought to be teachers ⌊by this time⌋, you have need of someone to teach you again the beginning elements of the oracles of God, and ⌊you have need of⌋ milk, not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes of milk is unacquainted with the message of righteousness, because he is an infant. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have trained their faculties for the distinguishing of both good and evil.

The letter to the Hebrews was an explanation to converted Jews about what it means to be in Christ.  Using imagery and knowledge from older texts, the author laid out what has changed for them.  In chapter 5, he describes who Christ is to and for us, but starting in verse 11, he exhorts the audience and points out where they are lacking.  It is an encouragement to seek to understand what the scriptures actually mean, instead of just knowing what they say.

Even today we encounter this conundrum.  Not that memorizing scripture is a “bad” thing, but if we don’t understand what it means for us and we aren’t putting it into practice, then it is essentially useless knowledge.  Jesus Himself chastised the Pharisees for the same thing!

Just as the Word became flesh in Jesus, we should seek for His Word to also become flesh in us.  Consider a nice, juicy, perfectly cooked steak…We can know it very well!  How it smells, how it looks, what it is made of down to the cellular level, and even how it tastes without actually taking a single bite.  If we study it enough, we could even recall it from memory.  Even to the point that when we smell or see a steak, we recall that perfect one.  However, it will never become a part of us until we digest it.  You are what you eat. When David talks about meditating on God’s statutes, he is talking about ingesting God’s Word.  He longs for it, he desires to never be without it.  Consider an amazing meal you once had, you can still remember it, can’t you?  Maybe it is from your favorite restaurant; that restaurant is probably your favorite because it prepares and serves your favorite meal!  Or maybe it’s a particular dish your spouse prepares…or even some good home cooking from your childhood.

Consider the reaction your body is having as you think about it.  You begin salivating.  Your olfactory nerves are firing, hoping to get a whiff of the scent.  Maybe your stomach starts turning, getting ready to receive it and process it.  THAT is what David is writing in verse 20:

My soul is crushed with longing for your ordinances at all times.

Do we long for God’s Word this way?  Do we desire to have more and more, as if it is never enough?  After we are full and satisfied, do we want to have more anyway?  If the answer is no, then we have not yet fully matured!  We are still only partaking of milk and our plea to the Lord should be the same as David’s:

Deal bountifully with your servant, that I may live and heed your word.

We all know when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by Satan, the tempter offered Him a way to focus on physical bread.  Jesus rebuked the devil In Matthew 4:4 by saying:

It is written, ‘Man will not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God.’ 

But there is a much deeper understanding of this that He reveals in John 6 when Jesus was dealing with the grumbling Jews as He was trying to explain who He truly was:

47 Truly, truly I say to you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that someone may eat from it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats from this bread, he will live ⌊forever⌋. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”52 So the Jews began to quarrel ⌊among themselves⌋, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 Then Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves! 54 The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood resides in me and I in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so also the one who eats me—that one will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. The one who eat this bread will live ⌊forever⌋.”

They did not understand, although He was speaking parabolically, that the Word (aka Jesus…not ink on a piece of paper that we read) must become flesh in us!  We can look back and understand the scriptures today in this way, but back then, Jesus was speaking like He was nuts!  They didn’t get it!  Even His closest followers, who wanted to understand and believe, said, “This saying is hard!  Who can understand it?”  Many people turned away from Jesus and He confronted those who remained.  Although he didn’t understand the true meaning of this conundrum, in his spirit he understood:

68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 And we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.

Peter “got it,” even though he didn’t know he “had it.”  Why?  Because the Holy Spirit was revealing the truth to him and despite his physical brain and human logic could not comprehend the mystery, he knew the Truth!  Why?  He ate up every word Jesus spoke.  It was becoming flesh in him.  He didn’t just memorize what Jesus taught, he took bites, salivated, processed, and digested it.  Even though he didn’t fully understand, he allowed it to become a part of him and he longed for more.  That’s why he stuck around!

David got it.  Peter got it.  Do you get it?  Ironically, this is exactly why I write.  It’s my way of processing and digesting God’s Word, so that it may become flesh in me. My prayer is that by sharing what God reveals to me, it also help His Word become flesh in you!