#869 Resh

Resh

Look on my affliction and deliver me,

for I do not forget your law.

154 Plead my cause and redeem me;

give me life according to your promise!

155 Salvation is far from the wicked,

for they do not seek your statutes.

156 Great is your mercy, O Lord;

give me life according to your rules.

157 Many are my persecutors and my adversaries,

but I do not swerve from your testimonies.

158 I look at the faithless with disgust,

because they do not keep your commands.

159 Consider how I love your precepts!

Give me life according to your steadfast love.

160 The sum of your word is truth,

and every one of your righteous rules endures forever. Psalm 119: 153-160 ESV

A continuation of Psalm 119, according to Thy word.

Resh is the 20th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, numerical value of 200, and can mean poverty or head. 

Look on my affliction and deliver me, for I do not forget Your law - The Psalmist has previously expressed the righteousness of God in His chastening him, so what appeal could a sinner possibly have to the law? It is like the gospel being offered to sinners, if you do not think yourself a sinner then the gospel is not for you, but if you see the law, recognize yourself as a breaker of the law, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. He does not run from the law, hide from God, but ask Him to look into his affliction. 

Plead my cause and redeem me - This is much in line with a plea for mercy, imagine asking the giver of the law to be your representation when you have already acknowledged your guilt before the law. He is no way disavowing his past or present infractions, for we see he also ask of the Lawmaker, redemption. I have not forgotten Your law, and though I am a king, with great assets, I am spiritually bankrupt, will You stand in as a kinsman and pay my debt?

ii. “Awful indeed was the cause which he had to manage. Our adversary had the law on his side. We could not deny the charge, or offer satisfaction… But at that moment of infinite peril, our cause was pleaded by a ‘Counselor’ (Isaiah 9:6), who never was nonsuited in court, who brought irresistible pleas, and produced satisfaction that could not be denied.” (Bridges)

iii. “But you say, – ‘How do I know that he speaks for me?’ Yet if not for you, then for whom does he speak? Who needs an advocate more than you? He pleads nothing favorable of you; but much, very much, for you. For he pleads the merit of his own blood.” (Bridges)

Give me life according to Your promise - Not my will, not my works, but solely on the grounds of Your Word, for therein is wisdom. Herein is also hope, when those who are far off want to draw near to that which they once despised. If you need food and water to survive then you would want to be near a source of sustenance, your very nature would demand it, a new born cries for it, only the dead feel no such pangs. I cannot hold my breath that long, my body screams at me to breathe.

Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek Your statutes - The wicked know no such hunger, but I have known and lived their indifference. Seek and ye shall find, but they will not, they will look elsewhere. The thief on the cross will be the greatest judge of those who have sought salvation in themselves. His greatest conviction was not from Rome, but from seeing that the One next to him did not deserve this sentence. Remember me, I do not forget Your law, I seek Your statutes, I believe in Your promises, please redeem me. It is a 180, it is hope, the Psalmist can hope because he has been given this gift of faith, this hunger for righteousness.

Great is Your mercy, O Lord, give me life according to Your rules - Lord, You say it's there, but I can't even see how it's possible. I cannot ask you to no longer be Holy, I love that You are Holy. I am not asking that You suspend reality, in Your righteousness You cannot overlook sin forever, but You have allowed me to see and taste that You are good, will You also have mercy on me, save me?

But I do not swerve from Your testimonies - The distractions are real, the enemies are real, but they do not and will not change Your testimonies. The truth has not changed, and I will still cling to Your word.

i. “So long as they cannot drive or draw us into a spiritual decline our foes have done us no great harm, and they have accomplished nothing by their malice. If we do not decline they are defeated. If they cannot make us sin they have missed their mark. Faithfulness to the truth is victory over our enemies.” (Spurgeon)

I look at the faithless with disgust - It is not because the Psalmist is holy, but that he is coming to know God through the revealed word, and as he has stated before, become a stranger, a sojourner. He mourns over God's honor, that God, Who made all things, Who has made Himself known, is yet not respected. They have set Your Words aside, mocked, and as those in the end, rejoiced over the death of Your prophets.

Consider how I love Your precepts - Remember me, I believed You, I love Your Word. 

Give me life according to Your steadfast love - If you were mistaken in interpreting the line before as an appeal to David's virtue as a scribe, a professor, a student, a poet, a lover of knowledge only for the sake of appearing wise or profound, no, but according to mercy, God's grace to the undeserving. The fruit of love, a tree nourished by God, cherishes the rain of every Word from heaven, it flourishes in the broken ground, and does not retreat from the light. The root is deep, and it will not be cast down.

i. The entirety: “Is literally ‘the head’; hence AV, ‘from the beginning’. Coupled with ‘from’ this word can indeed mean the beginning (e.g. Isaiah 40:21; Proverbs 8:23); but here it only says ‘the head of thy word’. In this kind of phrase it means, as in RSV, the sum (cf., e.g., Psalm 139:17); and its use as an equivalent to ‘a census’ in Exodus 30:12; Numbers 1:2, etc., shows that ‘the sum of’ is not a way of saying ‘by and large’, but rather, ‘every part of’.” (Kidner)