Mem
97 Oh how I love your law!
It is my meditation all the day.
98 Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,
for it is ever with me.
99 I have more understanding than all my teachers,
for your testimonies are my meditation.
100 I understand more than the aged,
for I keep your precepts.
101 I hold back my feet from every evil way,
in order to keep your word.
102 I do not turn aside from your rules,
for you have taught me.
103 How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 Through your precepts I get understanding;
therefore I hate every false way.
Nun
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
106 I have sworn an oath and confirmed it,
to keep your righteous rules.
107 I am severely afflicted;
give me life, O Lord, according to your word!
108 Accept my freewill offerings of praise, O Lord,
and teach me your rules.
109 I hold my life in my hand continually,
but I do not forget your law.
110 The wicked have laid a snare for me,
but I do not stray from your precepts.
111 Your testimonies are my heritage for ever,
for they are the joy of my heart.
112 I incline my heart to perform your statutes
for ever, to the end.
Samekh
113 I hate the double-minded,
but I love your law.
114 You are my hiding place and my shield;
I hope in your word.
115 Depart from me, you evildoers,
that I may keep the commandments of my God.
116 Uphold me according to your promise, that I may live,
and let me not be put to shame in my hope!
117 Hold me up, that I may be safe
and have regard for your statutes continually!
118 You spurn all who go astray from your statutes,
for their cunning is in vain.
119 All the wicked of the earth you discard like dross,
therefore I love your testimonies.
120 My flesh trembles for fear of you,
and I am afraid of your judgements.
The theme of 105-112 - that of guidance - may profitably be taken up by considering something which flows from the thought expressed in the previous note. Nothing the Psalmist says about spiritual wisdom gives anyone the right and entitlement to dispense with human teaching, and it is a misinterpretation of 1 John 2:27 (a verse similar in meaning to that in 97-104), 'ye need not that any man teach you...' to suppose that we can arrogantly dispense with the teaching of men in favour of so-called divine inspiration, which may turn out to be nothing more than our own (rather poverty-stricken) thinking and ideas. The Holy Spirit gets the blame for a good deal in Christian life. There is no warrant either in John's words or the Psalmist's for the misguided assumption that we can depend on the inspiration of the moment for divine direction, and dispense with the accumulated spiritual wisdom of God's means of grace. When some believers, thus misguided, refuse to take human counsel, what they are doing is not trusting wholly in the Lord, but in their own subjective feelings (often very unreliable) as to what the Lord is saying. Far better, surely, to grasp the heart of the verses before us now (105-112) with their statement of the power of the Word to lead and direct us in all our ways (105), and also the expression of determination to live wholly by that Word (106). This is a great way to live, but it has its hazards and pressures, as 107-110 serve to underline. No one should doubt but that to live in such a way is a costly matter involving affliction, both outward and inward. Consider our Lord’s experience: there is a sense in which the discipline of temptation, in which He conquered with the words, 'It is written', is fully expressed only in the Garden of Gethsemane, where His determination to do the will of God made Him sweat drops as of blood. This is the cost of living by the Word, and it will not be less for any of us. The Psalmist's testimony here is very impressive: in spite of the intensity of the pressures (109, 110) he neither forgot nor erred from God's precepts, and the words at the end of 112, 'Alway, even unto the end' crown his testimony. God grant that it may be so with us.