Qoph
145 With my whole heart I cry; answer me, O Lord!
I will keep your statutes.
146 I call to you; save me,
that I may observe your testimonies.
147 I rise before dawn and cry for help;
I hope in your words.
148 My eyes are awake before the watches of the night,
that I may meditate on your promise.
149 Hear my voice according to your steadfast love;
O Lord, according to your justice give me life.
150 They draw near who persecute me with evil purpose;
they are far from your law.
151 But you are near, O Lord,
and all your commandments are true.
152 Long have I known from your testimonies
that you have founded them for ever.
Resh
153 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 for ever.
What the Psalmist does in his predicament is first of all to affirm his faith roundly and unmistakably. This is the stance he takes in his affliction: 'I do not forget thy law' (153); 'I do not decline from thy testimonies' (157); 'I love thy precepts' (159); 'Thy word is true from the beginning' (160). He is, in fact, standing on the impregnable rock of Holy Scripture. One is reminded of the words of the hymn, How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, Is laid for your faith in His excellent word The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose He will not, He cannot, desert to its foes. In the next place, we must note the basis of his pleas for reviving or deliverance: 'according to Thy promise' (154); 'according to Thy judgments' (156); 'according to Thy loving-kindness' (159). One commentator suggests that 'judgment' in 156 is equivalent to 'custom', with the meaning of 'according to thy wont', i.e. 'for that is what Thou art like'. Thy promise, Thy nature, Thy loving-kindness - what a basis on which to pray! This is praying ground indeed. Not for something in us, but for something in Him does He hear and answer our prayers. Thirdly, in 160, we have the foundation for everything. The Psalmist comes out into the open ground of this wonderful declaration that God's Word is nothing but truth, from beginning to end. With this bedrock consciousness the Psalmist has reached something fundamental and unshakable. As Leopold puts it, 'The Word is one of the few things that continue unshaken and immovable through the ages. Happy the man whose life is built on that foundation!'