This portion of Psalm 119 falls under the Hebrew letter ש (Shin), which means “flames of fire”. We often associate flames with cooking, or with destructive forces of nature such as forest fires. Fire reduces everything to ashes, and it melts metals and alters their shape. In AD 70, the Roman general Titus besieged and seized Jerusalem, and the temple was burned. This fulfilled the prophecy of Jesus that not one stone of the temple would be left standing upon another, but that each would be thrown down (Matthew 24:2). The Jewish historian Josephus records the burning of the temple and the levelling of the city. A later tradition adds that the gold plating on the temple’s inner walls melted in the blaze and ran into the gaps between the stones, so the soldiers dismantled the temple stone by stone to recover it. In this way, the words of Jesus were fulfilled to the letter.
Fire also appears in Scripture as a sign of God’s holy presence with His people. In Isaiah 6, a burning coal from the altar touches the prophet’s lips and cleanses him for service. At Pentecost, tongues of fire rest upon each of the disciples as the Holy Spirit fills them (Acts 2:1–4).
The letter ש (Shin) also means “teeth”, an essential tool for grinding our food so that it can be digested properly. In the same way, this letter urges us to grind the Word of God so that it is absorbed into our life stream. Too often we swallow the Word in haste, hoping for quick relief from our pain. The Word that has not been properly ground then becomes hard to hold on to in our difficult seasons (Jeremiah 15:16-18). Instead, it should be mingled with our blood, our very life stream, so that it can sustain us through every challenge and hardship we face in daily life.
Nothing Can Make Me Stumble
Rulers persecute me without cause, but my heart trembles at your word.
I rejoice in your promise like one who finds great spoil. I hate and detest falsehood
but I love your law. Seven times a day I praise you
for your righteous laws. Great peace have those who love your law,
and nothing can make them stumble.
Psalm 119:161-165 (NIV)
This portion of the Psalm reiterates what the Psalmist recorded in Psalm 112:6-7, where three things are stated. First, the righteous will never be shaken. Second, he will have no fear of bad news. Finally, the cause is given: his heart is steadfast because he constantly trusts in God. Here the Psalmist draws a contrast. Rulers were persecuting him, yet his heart did not tremble before them; it trembled only at the Word of God. The place we give to the Living Word in our lives determines how we overcome the terror of this world.
God’s Word is meant to be lived on, but we often treat it as a resource for times of need, and the rest of the time we live on the lies of this world. We should read His Word daily, pausing to understand it fully. Yet we often take it like a painkiller, when it is meant to be a balanced diet that strengthens our soul and spirit, so that we grow in His love and in Him day by day. The Psalmist declared that he hated falsehood, and only when we come to know the truth can we discern what is false. But we have been steeped in falsehood since childhood, watching elders pass on what they have learned without any first-hand experience of a relationship with God. Through Jeremiah, God exposes our struggle to cope with His Word once we have used it merely as an instant remedy (Jeremiah 16:16-18). His answer is repentance: recognising that we have been relying on lies and not on God. He then promises that if we repent, He will make us a fortified wall of bronze against this people: “They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue and save you” (Jeremiah 15:19-20). Once we have had a personal experience of this, we will not succumb to the lies of worldly people, and we will go on loving His law. If we delay repentance, we will unwittingly come to love the lies of this world and to hate the law of God.
The Psalmist also spoke of the great peace that the law of God brings. We often mistake this peace for earthly wealth and exchange it for the treasures of this world. This in turn robs us of peace and leads to such confusion that some are driven to despair of life itself. Everyone should try, at least once in a lifetime, to taste the goodness of God by keeping His laws. Once we have tasted it, we will surely not leave those laws, but will apply them to our daily lives. Then nothing can make us stumble.
All My Ways Are Known To God
I wait for your salvation, LORD, and I follow your commands.
I obey your statutes, for I love them greatly.
I obey your precepts and your statutes,
for all my ways are known to you.
Psalm 119:166-168 (NIV)
The wicked are growing more wicked because they think God does not know what they are doing. With this misunderstanding, they continue to live in sin and turn against the God who loves and cares for them. Ultimately, every action of a sinner is the outcome of ignorance of God’s forgiveness, and in that ignorance they cannot discern that what they are doing is evil. Jesus addressed this root cause of sin: sinners do not know what they are doing, because they think it is not sin at all. They can identify their sins only when they come to know God and His love; until then, the deceiver, the devil, will blind their eyes with his lies.
Even those who want to be with God still struggle to identify their sins. They presume that some of their wrongdoings are sin, yet they miss what is truly sin in the sight of God. Hence, to guard ourselves from sin, we must know God and, moreover, believe that He knows all our ways, even when we cannot find Him. This conviction will keep us on His path, even when we do not see Him.
Job’s friends falsely accused him, and God, confident in Job, allowed the devil to strip him of all the acquaintances he had gained when he was prosperous. At that moment Job could not find God, yet he made the wise decision to walk in His path without wavering (Job 23:9-12). When the fellowship we have built is no longer accepting of us, we often abandon God Himself. We give priority to family members, friends and fellow believers who do not understand what God is doing in our lives, and blindly we want to remain with these false accusers.
The foremost idea in this Psalm is that the Psalmist could remain with God in all his adverse situations because he was waiting for salvation, knowing that salvation comes only from God. This is where we stumble: we no longer wait for His salvation, as it has already been given to us. Should we, then, wait for what we have already received? Not at all. Rather, we should keep that salvation safe and secure, with the help of the Holy Spirit, who was given to us for this very purpose.
The problem arises when we grow confident of our salvation and no longer feel the need to keep it secure by renewing it daily (2 Corinthians 4:16). We often commemorate the day we came to know God and the day we were baptised by some minister, but we fail to give room to the Holy Spirit, who wants to sanctify us daily so that the Son may present us before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy (Jude 1:24).
Father God, take away all the thoughts that prevent me from understanding the true forgiveness You have already provided, so that the Holy Spirit may keep me from stumbling and Your Son may present me to You, without fault. Amen.
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