Embrace the Word for Wednesday, September 30, 2026
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Psalm 119 is a celebration of God’s Word. Psalm 119:33-40 continues the exploration of the “blessed” life. Each verse in this fifth stanza begins with the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet (which is he). After the last two stanzas (119:17-24; 25-32), which focused on the external struggles that the Psalmist faced, this fifth stanza returns to a focus on internal struggles. The first seven verses of this fifth stanza each begin with petition addressed to the LORD asking for more in regard to God’s Word. The Psalmist has already prayed that the LORD would teach him, but this fifth stanza starts with that same request and goes deeper from there. The eighth verse begins with an affirmation of desire for God’s Word. The first sub-stanza of this fifth stanza highlights the Psalmist’s desire for instruction from God’s Word that leads to obedience (119:33-36), while the second sub-stanza features the life that comes through knowing God’s Word (119:37-40).
Psalm 119:33-40 opens with a request for the LORD to teach him: “Teach me, O LORD, the way of your statutes; and I will keep it to the end” (119:33). The Psalmist asking the LORD to teach him, has been and will continue to be, a reoccurring request. This continual request by the Psalmist suggests a humble desire to be taught as well as genuinely depend upon the LORD that he might be enabled to learn. The Psalmist’s plea reveals an admission that he would not know how to live unless the LORD instructs and directs him. The Psalmist’s desired or intended outcome of the LORD teaching him is that he would “keep it to the end,” that is, he would obey and do what the Word teaches. Then the added description, “to the end,” suggests that the Psalmist’s resolve for the obedience to and the doing of God’s Word might be continual or ongoing. The Psalmist purposes to make a habit out of keeping God’s Word.
The Psalmist adds to his request to be taught by the LORD that the LORD give him understanding: “Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart” (119:34). The Psalmist is not confident in his own abilities to figure out what the LORD would teach him, so he requests the LORD to grant him discernment so as to grasp how to understand and apply what the LORD has taught him. Once again, the Psalmist couples his request with what he intends to do with increased understanding. The Psalmist declares that with greater understanding from the LORD, he will purpose deeper conformity to, as well as practice of, the Word of God. Whereas verse 33 indicated the Psalmist’s plan to continually keep God’s Word, verse 34 states his determination to more thoroughly keep it. The Psalmist is asserting that with more understanding, more of his heart will be given to doing what God says in his Word.
Continuing his requests, the Psalmist asks: “Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it” (119:35). The Psalmist knows that he is called to walk in the direction of obedience—an obedience that reflects a lifestyle characterized by righteousness. However, the Psalmist pleads with he LORD to lead him down that path. Once again, the Psalmist is expressing his need as he asks the LORD to go before him. This matter of leading or going before indicates that the LORD directs and protects His people on the pathway that He marks out for them. After the two previous requests, the Psalmist states his intended results from the answered request, but here in verse 36 this third request is not followed up with an intended request but a causal explanation behind the request. The Psalmist wants the LORD to lead him in the direction of obedience because he finds great joy in a lifestyle that is characterized by righteousness.
Thus far, the Psalmist has made three requests regarding God’s Word. He wants the LORD to teach him the Word, grant him understanding from the Word, and support him with direction and protection as he seeks to keep the Word. To this sequence, the Psalmist adds a fourth: “Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!” (119:36). The Psalmist has already spoken of his capabilities of waywardness (119:10,21), as well as the threat of “false ways” (119:29). Therefore as he has prayed to be taught, given understanding, and to be led, the Psalmist asks the LORD to work in his heart even deeper: “Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!” (119:36). Back in verse 34 the Psalmist declared his resolve to wholeheartedly conform to and practice God’s Word. That resolve of wholeheartedness is grounded in the request for the LORD to keep his heart turned toward the conformity to and practice of the Word of God. This simple but significant request is oriented by the Psalmist’s awareness of the lingering pull within his own heart to seek satisfaction from godless pursuits. The Psalmist seems to be feeling the tension within his own heart of what the Lord Jesus would come to say: “No one can serve two masters” (See Matthew 6:24a).
The Psalmist transitions from pleading with the LORD to teach him the Word to the point of obedience (119:33-36), to calling attention to the life that comes through knowing God’s Word (119:37-40). This second sub-stanza of the fifth stanza is bracketed by the acknowledgment of life: “give me life in your ways” (119:37b), with: “in your righteousness give me life!” (119:40b). The bracketing mention of life is contrasted with the emptiness of life. The Psalmist begins his discussion of life by making another request that is a counterpart to his request in the previous verses: “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways” (119:37). Whereas the Psalmist prayed that his heart would not be inclined to pursue “selfish gain,” he couples that with a request that the LORD would also turn his eyes away from the gaze of “worthless things.” The Psalmist seems to be aware of the relationship between the eyes and the heart, that is, between what one focuses on and what one desires. The dynamic between the two is a correlative relationship. Focus entices desire and desire impacts focus. Thus, one area can’t be prayed for while the other ignored. The Psalmist prays for eye and heart—focus and desire—for he confesses that there is no life to be found in either “selfish gain,” or “worthless things.” Those interests and pursuits lead only to death.
As the Psalmist prays for the posture of his heart as well as the gaze of his eyes, he asks the LORD to bring His promises into sharper focus: “Confirm to your servant your promise, that you may be feared” (119:38). In striving to keep his focus on the surety of the LORD’s promises, which are more rewarding and life-giving than anything else, the Psalmist asks the LORD to make those promises come to fruition. As the Psalmist sees the LORD’s promises becoming more evident, his desire for and devotion to the LORD would be strengthened. Perhaps the promise that the Psalmist most particularly wishes to come to pass was the removal of his reproach: “Turn away the reproach that I dread, for your rules are good” (119:39). The Psalmist knows that the LORD’s decisions as well as the timing of those decisions are good. Yet he struggles in wanting relief from the scorn and contempt that he has received from the hands of others. Even though he longs for relief, the Psalmist clarified his longing for God’s Word: “Behold, I long for your precepts; in your righteousness give me life!” (119:40). Whenever the relief comes, the Psalmist confesses that the LORD will do what is right and grant him life.
As we reflect on Psalm 119:33-40, we can consider the importance of obedience to God’s Word. Moses stressed to Israel that the provision of God’s commandments were not merely for the purpose of increased information. The LORD required obedience to His commands: “Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land…Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them” (See Deuteronomy 6:1-3a). James the Apostle admonished believers: “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (See James 1:22). Obedience is a requirement, but obedience is a gift—or perhaps more precisely—the result of a gift: “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (See Ezekiel 36:26-27). The required obedience to God’s commands is a result of God’s gracious work in the heart of His children. Thus, obedience should not prompt us to gloat but to express gratitude: “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness” (See Romans 6:17-18). We obey through a gifted enablement.
That’s all for Embrace the Word for Wednesday, September 30, 2026. I look forward to being back with you for the Friday, October 2, 2026 episode of Embrace the Word as we take a look at Psalm 119:41-48.