The first half of this stanza identified two ways we can focus intentionally on God’s Word. This passage reveals yet a third way that we can do so. You can read it for yourself in Psalm 119:117-120:

In the first half of this strophe, we saw that being intentional about being in God’s Word is the only way that we can maintain a relationship with the Scriptures that helps us grow. It won’t happen by accident; we must choose to stay on the right path, and be strategically deliberate in staying there.

The first way listed here is through a simple determination to obey God’s Word. The second way listed is found in verses 116 and 117, and shows us that we must seek God’s grace and help to stay connected to him.

The third way that we can stay focused in our relationship with God and his Word is by simply recognizing and standing in awe of who God is. When we realize that it is only by the grace of God that we can stay connected to God, we realize just how helpless we are, and how much need we have of him. That realization should bring us to our knees in awe and wonder.

And it is when we see God for who he fully is, that’s when we can begin to see just how bad the world’s way is. It is only as we tremble in awe before a holy God that we will ever see the distorted values of this world. Those things that this world entices us with are empty, and they cannot give us what we need. That can only come from the Creator of everything.

Scripture often refers to our relationship with God as a “walk.” That image is conveyed in the last stanza very clearly, in both a positive and negative light. This stanza tells us how to achieve this. Let’s look at the first half of it in Psalm 119:113-116:

In the previous stanza, the psalmist presented the word of God as a light for the path. If we are to walk in God’s ways, we need such a light to clarify where we are to put our feet. With that information, we know what to do. In the next stanza, we are told how to do it.

Very often, we can see the path before us, and we can see obstacles in that path very clearly. What we sometimes cannot see is our way around those obstacles. And if we are not using God’s Word as a light for our feet, then we cannot see clearly how to get around them at all.

So how are we to stay on the right path and keep ourselves form straying away from it? That’s the point of this stanza. If we are to walk the path that God has called us to, we must be very intentional in doing so, because the wrong paths are many, and they are easy to stray onto. If we are to stay on the right path, we must be intentional. And that intentionality comes through a consistent, continuous investment in the Word of God.

There are at least three ways that we can keep our focus intentionally upon God’s Word according to this strophe of Psalm 119. Two are found in the first half, and the third is in the second half, which we will look at next week.

In the first half of this stanza, we saw several ways that God’s Word gives us clarity in this world. In this week’s passage, we will find three more ways. Take a look at this passage in Psalm 119:109-112:

In the first half of this stanza, the author identified four ways that God’s Word provides clarity to life. God’s Word leads us in the way which we should go, it helps us to live with right behavior, it gives us clarity when we face suffering, and it shows us how to worship fully.

At the beginning of that passage, we saw one of the most familiar passages from this psalm, found in verse 105:

“Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path.”

That’s the kind of clarity that God’s Word brings to all areas of our lives. And in the second half of this passage, we find three more ways that God’s Word provides clarity.

In this new stanza of Psalm 119, titled Nun, the psalmist declares his delight in and love for God’s Law. This passage contains one of the most familiar portions of Psalm 119. You can see it for yourself in Psalm 119:105-108:

Do you recall the story of the Exodus from Egypt? God led the Israelites out from under the harsh rule of the Egyptian Pharaoh, and protected the nation of Israel as they crossed the Red Sea. From there, he guided them though the wilderness, leading them with a pillar of cloud by day, and a column of fire by night, illuminating the way forward.

That is the image the psalmist gives us in this stanza, declaring that God’s Word lights our way. Of course, the psalmist uses the image of a lamp lighting the path, but the symbolism is clear: God’s Word provides the light and clarity that we need to see how to follow him clearly.

Clarity is something that we still need in our lives, no differently than in the days of the writer of these words. Our world is confused and clouded, darkness seems to pervade, and we need light shed on our way. We long for it, and it can be found in God’s Word.

In these verses, the psalmist gives us a few example of how God’s Word gives us the clarity we need to live for him in this world.

The first half of this stanza contained a turning point for the psalmist. His writing held a note of joy and love for God’s Word like nothing else so far. He gives five reasons for this joy, four of them in this second half. Read it for yourself in Psalm 119:101-104:

With the majority of the psalmist’s reasons for joy contained in the latter half of this stanza, it’s worth refreshing our memory of the first reason, listed in the first half, and mentioned in three different ways.

As discussed in the last post, the first reason the writer loves the Word of God so much is that it is the source of all true wisdom. This reason is significant that he devotes half of this stanza to exploring it, comparing spiritual wisdom with worldly knowledge.

In this second half, he lists four more reasons for the joy he receives from God’s Law.

With the close of the last stanza, the psalmist has turned a corner. Where there was bleak despair just a few verses before, now there is complete joy and love for God’s Word. It is an incredibly uplifting passage. Take a look at it in Psalm 119:97-100:

With such a change in tone, you might wonder if this is even the same person writing these words about God’s Word, but there is no doubt that it is. And the reason for his confidence is the topic of this stanza. The psalmist has identified the source of such joy and wonderment to be the very words of God.

Although the psalmist has written of God’s love before this, such as he did in verses 47 and 48, this is his most eloquent expression of it yet. In this stanza, he gives five different reasons that he loves God’s Word as much as he does, and communicates that to his readers in such a way that we are encouraged to love it deeply as well. Four of these are listed in the second half of this stanza, and we will not deal with them yet, saving them for next week.

But the first reason is repeated three times in the first half of the stanza, emphasizing its importance, and is worth examining a bit closer.

Very often, we read Scripture with a very generalized view. By that, I mean that we don’t live as if God’s Word is really living and active in our lives. In this passage from Psalm 119, the psalmist shows just how important Scripture is in his own life. Take a look at the first half in Psalm 119:93-96:

I fall into that camp all too often myself. I read through a passage of Scripture and fail to see the relevance to my own life. Sometimes, it’s because I am rushing through the reading, so I can get on with other aspects of my day. Other times, my mind is too distracted by something else. And still other times, I simply fail to trust that God’s Word will give me the strength I need to make it through the day.

Throughout Psalm 119, the writer has not done any of those things. He has had some low points in his life, where his enemies are attacking him, and where he almost seems to wish that his life were over, despairing to the utmost. But never, not once, does he give up on God’s Word as a source of the strength and power that sustains him through all of his trails and the events of his life.

In this stanza, the psalmist seems to have turned a corner, and the worst is behind him. From here, the tone of Psalm 119 will be much more uplifting. And here, in this passage, the writer tells us why. He gives us three things that God has given to him – and to us – through his Word.