#852 Gimel

Gimmel

17 Deal bountifully with your servant,

that I may live and keep your word.

18 Open my eyes, that I may behold

wondrous things out of your law.

19 I am a sojourner on the earth;

hide not your commandments from me!

20 My soul is consumed with longing

for your rules at all times.

21 You rebuke the insolent, accursed ones,

who wander from your commandments.

22 Take away from me scorn and contempt,

for I have kept your testimonies.

23 Even though princes sit plotting against me,

your servant will meditate on your statutes.

24 Your testimonies are my delight;

they are my counselors. Psalm 119: 17-24

A continuation of Psalm 119 where the author knows that the law is from God, but is also petitioning God for the grace of understanding. 

Gimel - This is the third letter in the Hebrew alphabet, also representing the number 3 or 3,000. We have now Aleph, 1 or strength, then Beth, 2 or dwelling place, and now Gimel. In some writings it is described as the picture of a camel, but that is hard to see in the letter. It is also described as the symbol of a rich man running after a poor man to show him charity. In sequence, it reminds me of the story of Isaac and Rebecca. The Father sends his servant to a far land to retrieve a bride for his son. 

…63 Early in the evening Isaac went out to the field to meditate, and looking up, he saw the camels approaching. 64 Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she got down from her camel 65 and asked the servant, “Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?” “It is my master,” the servant answered. So she took her veil and covered herself.… Genesis 24: 63-65

…13 However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me by taking from what is Mine and disclosing it to you. 15 Everything that belongs to the Father is Mine. That is why I said that the Spirit will take from what is Mine and disclose it to you.… John 16: 13-15

I believe every word of God to be precious, to the letter, but I am no Hebrew scholar, and I don't want to stray too far into the mystical, so back to the text.

Deal bountifully with Your servant - This is a call, a request for grace, asked of God's mercy and steadfast love. The very next line revealing that it is necessary to the merit which the Psalmist would like, but cannot have of his own.

That I may live and keep Your Word - The wages of sin is death, and Your law has revealed to me that I am a sinner. This is a request acknowledging 1. that life is a gift from God and 2. the ability to believe and uphold His Word is also a gift. 

- Thus we may make a chain out of the opening verses of the three first octaves of this Psalm: Ps 119:1 blesses the holy man, Ps 119:9 asks how we can attain to such holiness, and Ps 119:17 traces such holiness to its secret source, and shows us how to seek the blessing. The more a man prizes holiness and the more earnestly he strives after it, the more will he be driven towards God for help therein, for he will plainly perceive that his own strength is insufficient, and that he cannot even so much as live without the bounteous assistance of the Lord his God. C. H. Spurgeon

Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Your law - Even after I realized the Bible was the word of God, I realized also the vastness of it's truths, and knew myself only a babe, which becomes more apparent with time. Hunger kicks in, thirst that can be quenched no other way. I do not want to be the casual reader, but rather eat and grow off every word that falls from the mouth of God. 

- The Scriptures teem with marvels; the Bible is wonder land; it not only relates miracles, but it is itself a world of wonders. Yet what are these to closed eyes? And what man can open his own eyes, since he is born blind? God himself must reveal revelation to each heart. Scripture needs opening, but not one half so much as our eyes do: the veil is not on the book, but on our hearts. C. H. Spurgeon

…17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, white garments so that you may be clothed and your shameful nakedness not exposed, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. 19 Those I love, I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent.… Revelation 3: 17-19

…17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18 to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in Me.’ 19 So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.… Acts 26: 17-19

I am a sojourner on the earth - That I am aware of You, of Your law, that it has become my desire, do not hide from me the way to be right with You. I no longer fit in here, all I once held as everything has grown dim and those that hold such things so high, they see me as an alien. Do not leave me Fatherless, open my eyes so that I may see, my ears so that I hear and understand. Lead me in the way of truth, bring me home.

…12 And so from one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. 13 All these people died in faith, without having received the things they were promised. However, they saw them and welcomed them from afar. And they acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 Now those who say such things show that they are seeking a country of their own.… Hebrews 11: 12-14

My soul is consumed with longing - 

- Longing is the soul of praying, and when the soul longs till it breaks, it cannot be long before the blessing will be granted. The most intimate communion between the soul and its God is carried on by the process described in the text. God reveals his will, and our heart longs to be conformed thereto. God judges, and our heart rejoices in the verdict. This is fellowship of heart most real and thorough. Note well that our desire after the mind of God should be constant; we should feel holy longings "at all times." Desires which can be put off and on like our garments are at best but mere wishes, and possibly they are hardly true enough to be called by that name, -- they are temporary emotions born of excitement, and doomed to die when the heat which created them has cooled down. C. H. Spurgeon

You rebuke the insolent, accursed ones, who wander from Your commandments - These are the proud, that know of God, know of His hatred toward sin, and while they may see others, they refuse to hate the same in themselves. These are the arrogant, that deny God, worship themselves through idols like greed, lust and the hope of their own knowledge. The Psalmist desires humility because everything else is delusion, it will all end in permanent separation. 

Take away from me scorn and contempt - He is not guilty of the slander in this instance, he has kept God's testimonies, but he is a stranger and the target for their darts. It is interesting that he does not request the right to avenge, to defend himself. As Michael said to Satan, "the Lord rebuke you." John MacArthur once stated that early on in his ministry he decided that he would not defend himself, only Scripture. Take comfort, it is nothing new.

…10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.… Matthew 5: 10-12

Even though princes plot against me - He is not unaware of what continues in the shadows, but he would rather walk in the light. If we are so moved so often, by the words of the uninformed, then we will forsake that which causes us to rise. Let God avenge or let me receive His peace in it all the same. I will not forsake my meditation, my study, my reading, and surely my tormentors will help me learn how to pray.

Because

Your testimonies are my delight.