Psa 119:39 | KingComments | STEP | The pictogram of the letter he is a window, which speaks of seeing and understanding a revelation or remark. He as a word means ‘see’ in Hebrew. Later it is hinné ( ). Through a window the light comes in, allowing you see something. Through a revelation the light comes in, making you understand. “There [the Word] was the true Light which, coming into the world [the incarnation of the Word], enlightens every man” ( ). Man is enlightened by the exclamation of John the baptist: “Behold, the Lamb of God” ( ). In Hebrew, “behold” would be he or hinné . The revelation is that concerning the Person of Christ, the Lamb of God. In we hear the psalmist’s request for understanding the way of the LORD through teaching. speaks of the psalmist’s eyes. His eyes are to be focused on a Person, not distracted by the deceitfulness of riches. Through the teaching of the Word of God he is to gain understanding to walk joyfully in the way of the LORD. Each verse of this stanza is a prayer and indicates the relationship between the Word and prayer. Its tone is humility and dependence. The Word is the Word of God. Then, too, He alone can give the explanation of what He says. The righteous realizes this and therefore prays for it. He realizes that the LORD must open the window of his heart and that the light of His revelation and Person must shine into it. He is totally dependent on the LORD and His Word. The Word of God is not just learning material, a subject, like theology, or a series of doctrines and principles. The Word of God is the Word that connects us with God. Therefore, if we desire to understand the Word, we can only approach that Word prayerfully, so that God will open the window of our hearts (cf. ). The psalmist understood this. He begins his prayer with “teach me” ( ). “Teach” in Hebrew is moré . Abraham also began his sojourn in the promised land at the oak of Moré , which is ‘teacher’ ( ). He does not subject the Word to his own logical thinking, but he casts himself down at the feet of the LORD to receive from Him His words (cf. ; ). Thus we will have to read the Word of God prayerfully if we want to be taught and transformed into the image of Christ. Only then will we obtain wisdom and spiritual insight. The statutes of the LORD remain of unchanging value to the believer as long as he lives. Learning to know them never ceases. As long as a believer lives, he will never be able to say that he can stop learning because he should know everything. To remain faithful to the end of life in observing the statutes, the desire is needed to be taught and instructed by the LORD. This is what the righteous prays for. The problem of many people, but also of many believers who want to be biblically faithful, is that they are often so convinced of their own rightness that they can no longer be corrected by others and therefore neither by the Lord. How necessary it is that we take to heart the lesson of the letter he : that we are prepared in humility to open the window of our hearts and learn from others. Let us take an example from the Jews at Beréa in Acts 17 ( ). Understanding – see the meaning of the letter he – is necessary to keep God’s law ( ). Without understanding, the righteous do not understand what God requires of them. They gain that understanding if they are willing to obey it with all their heart. It is not a matter of a good intellect, but of a renewed, willing heart (cf. ). The LORD has changed and shaped the psalmist’s heart, making it his desire to walk the path of God’s commandments. This makes him realize that to put God’s commandments into practice he needs His help and guidance. In the words of Paul, God must not only work in him to will, but also to work ( ). This is what the psalmist is asking for when he asks the LORD: “Make me walk in the path of Your commandments” ( ). Freely translated, he asks: ‘Let me live like this, let me walk the path of life with God.’ The Lord asks faith obedience. He gives us instructions that we want to follow with joy out of love. The psalmist longs to walk that path, “for I delight in it”, he says. The taste of the Word is sweet, it gives joy to our heart. Then we joyfully go the way the Lord wants us to go. When we do something with pleasure, we like to do it. There is a special tendency, that is, “inclination” or “direction of the heart” in life, from which even the believer cannot escape, even if he follows the path of God’s commandments. That tendency is “[dishonest] gain”, being out to gain as much as possible, for example by robbing others ( ). “[Dishonest] gain” means “unfair advantage”. This can be in a material sense such as wealth, but it can also be in an immaterial sense such as fame, name, popularity. As a believer, you often sense that the lust for wealth is not good – think of Lot’s wife. The lust for honor and prestige is also a great danger, even for us. Think of Ananias and Sapphira. In the school of God we may learn to keep the inclinations of our heart and the workings of our flesh in death ( ). The wrong inclination is given no room when we ask the LORD with the psalmist: “Incline my heart to Your testimonies.” If his and our heart is set on dealing with the LORD, he and we will not be open to the pursuit of worldly prosperity. The deception of riches is like weeds choking the seed of the Word ( ). The weeds in Israel have deep roots, from half a meter to a meter, with roots growing between the rocks, making it almost impossible to remove them. These weeds, thanks to these roots, also grow at lightning speed. It does show how stifling the effect of wealth can be to the seed of the Word and how difficult it is to get free from that stifling effect. Let us therefore pray the psalmist’s prayer with him. After speaking of his heart in the previous verse, the God-fearing speaks of his eyes in . He asks God to turn away his eyes, so that they may not be “looking at vanity”. “Vanity” is what has no value for the moment or for the future. This is quite an actual prayer for the time in which we live, with tidal waves of visual material via television and the Internet that are completely useless and often downright sinful, yet which people watch for many hours (cf. ). Sometimes it’s about impure pictures that you come across unintentionally and unsought, e.g. advertising. Here the saying applies: the second look is sinful. That is, the first time you see it, it happened to you, but the second look is a conscious choice. Of that, the psalmist asks if the LORD will turn away his eyes from that. In that regard, Job has given us an example by making a covenant with his eyes not to follow (lustfully) an attractive girl with them ( ). David is a great warning sign to each of us ( )! “Vanity”, empty, meaningless is that which is spiritually no food, it is stones and not bread. Paul calls all the privileges of this life rubbish compared to the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, his Lord ( ). The conscience question to us is what our priorities in this life are. The danger of temptation is great. Even one of the apostle Paul’s associates, named Demas, left the apostle for the love of the present age ( ). Demas too is a warning sign for each of us. Let us also pray this prayer with the psalmist. To look at what is vanity is to look at something that, like a stealth killer, stifles the life of faith. This is evident from the second line of this verse. The God-fearing wants to enjoy the true life, which is life in fellowship with God. That life is lived by going in God’s ways. “Your ways”, which are God’s ways, are ways of life. When we go them, we are truly living. The righteous knows that there is life through the ways of the LORD. Following that, he asks for a confirmation or fulfillment of the promise of life ( ). This is to the glory of the LORD ( ). He asks that question as “Your servant” (cf. ). To that he adds “as that which produces reverence for You”. He is not only one who serves the LORD but also one who fears Him, who lives in awe and reverence of Him. The LORD will not reject such a person. What he does not want is the reproach of people who smear him for not receiving the promise of the LORD ( ), despite the fact that he remains faithful to the LORD ( ). He “dreads” that reproach and asks the LORD to turn it away from him by keeping him in faithfulness to His Word and fulfilling His promises. He also wants to be faithful because God’s “ordinances are good”. He also wants to be faithful because his unfaithfulness would be defamation to the Name of the LORD (cf. ). He expresses his longing for the LORD’s precepts ( ). This verse begins with “behold”. The letter he means ‘see’, here it is hinné . Often we think only the promises of the LORD are important, but the psalmist longs for the precepts, the commandments of the LORD. In them is life. The psalmist longs to revive, not as a reward for his desire, but “through Your righteousness”. Life by God’s righteousness means life for all eternity. Life that God gives by virtue of righteousness is life where the holy requirement of God’s justice has been met. That justice was met by the Lord Jesus on the cross. God’s righteousness means that God always acts in accordance with His standard, which in this case is His covenant. The psalmist asks if the LORD will act in accordance with His covenant and His promise. In His promise, He wants to give a window so that light can come from above – a window, a light opening from above ( )

‏ Psalms 119:39

/he/ Understanding

The pictogram of the letter he is a window, which speaks of seeing and understanding a revelation or remark. He as a word means ‘see’ in Hebrew. Later it is hinné (Psa 119:40). Through a window the light comes in, allowing you see something. Through a revelation the light comes in, making you understand.

“There [the Word] was the true Light which, coming into the world [the incarnation of the Word], enlightens every man” (Jn 1:9). Man is enlightened by the exclamation of John the baptist: “Behold, the Lamb of God” (Jn 1:29). In Hebrew, “behold” would be he or hinné. The revelation is that concerning the Person of Christ, the Lamb of God.

In Psa 119:33-34 we hear the psalmist’s request for understanding the way of the LORD through teaching. Psa 119:37 speaks of the psalmist’s eyes. His eyes are to be focused on a Person, not distracted by the deceitfulness of riches. Through the teaching of the Word of God he is to gain understanding to walk joyfully in the way of the LORD.

Each verse of this stanza is a prayer and indicates the relationship between the Word and prayer. Its tone is humility and dependence. The Word is the Word of God. Then, too, He alone can give the explanation of what He says. The righteous realizes this and therefore prays for it. He realizes that the LORD must open the window of his heart and that the light of His revelation and Person must shine into it. He is totally dependent on the LORD and His Word.

The Word of God is not just learning material, a subject, like theology, or a series of doctrines and principles. The Word of God is the Word that connects us with God. Therefore, if we desire to understand the Word, we can only approach that Word prayerfully, so that God will open the window of our hearts (cf. Lk 24:45). The psalmist understood this. He begins his prayer with “teach me” (Psa 119:33). “Teach” in Hebrew is moré. Abraham also began his sojourn in the promised land at the oak of Moré, which is ‘teacher’ (Gen 12:6).

He does not subject the Word to his own logical thinking, but he casts himself down at the feet of the LORD to receive from Him His words (cf. Deu 33:3b; Lk 10:39). Thus we will have to read the Word of God prayerfully if we want to be taught and transformed into the image of Christ. Only then will we obtain wisdom and spiritual insight.

The statutes of the LORD remain of unchanging value to the believer as long as he lives. Learning to know them never ceases. As long as a believer lives, he will never be able to say that he can stop learning because he should know everything. To remain faithful to the end of life in observing the statutes, the desire is needed to be taught and instructed by the LORD. This is what the righteous prays for.

The problem of many people, but also of many believers who want to be biblically faithful, is that they are often so convinced of their own rightness that they can no longer be corrected by others and therefore neither by the Lord. How necessary it is that we take to heart the lesson of the letter he: that we are prepared in humility to open the window of our hearts and learn from others. Let us take an example from the Jews at Beréa in Acts 17 (Acts 17:11).

Understanding – see the meaning of the letter he – is necessary to keep God’s law (Psa 119:34). Without understanding, the righteous do not understand what God requires of them. They gain that understanding if they are willing to obey it with all their heart. It is not a matter of a good intellect, but of a renewed, willing heart (cf. Jn 7:17).

The LORD has changed and shaped the psalmist’s heart, making it his desire to walk the path of God’s commandments. This makes him realize that to put God’s commandments into practice he needs His help and guidance. In the words of Paul, God must not only work in him to will, but also to work (Phil 2:13).

This is what the psalmist is asking for when he asks the LORD: “Make me walk in the path of Your commandments” (Psa 119:35). Freely translated, he asks: ‘Let me live like this, let me walk the path of life with God.’ The Lord asks faith obedience. He gives us instructions that we want to follow with joy out of love.

The psalmist longs to walk that path, “for I delight in it”, he says. The taste of the Word is sweet, it gives joy to our heart. Then we joyfully go the way the Lord wants us to go. When we do something with pleasure, we like to do it.

There is a special tendency, that is, “inclination” or “direction of the heart” in life, from which even the believer cannot escape, even if he follows the path of God’s commandments. That tendency is “[dishonest] gain”, being out to gain as much as possible, for example by robbing others (Psa 119:36). “[Dishonest] gain” means “unfair advantage”. This can be in a material sense such as wealth, but it can also be in an immaterial sense such as fame, name, popularity.

As a believer, you often sense that the lust for wealth is not good – think of Lot’s wife. The lust for honor and prestige is also a great danger, even for us. Think of Ananias and Sapphira. In the school of God we may learn to keep the inclinations of our heart and the workings of our flesh in death (Col 3:5).

The wrong inclination is given no room when we ask the LORD with the psalmist: “Incline my heart to Your testimonies.” If his and our heart is set on dealing with the LORD, he and we will not be open to the pursuit of worldly prosperity.

The deception of riches is like weeds choking the seed of the Word (Mt 13:22). The weeds in Israel have deep roots, from half a meter to a meter, with roots growing between the rocks, making it almost impossible to remove them. These weeds, thanks to these roots, also grow at lightning speed. It does show how stifling the effect of wealth can be to the seed of the Word and how difficult it is to get free from that stifling effect. Let us therefore pray the psalmist’s prayer with him.

After speaking of his heart in the previous verse, the God-fearing speaks of his eyes in Psa 119:37. He asks God to turn away his eyes, so that they may not be “looking at vanity”. “Vanity” is what has no value for the moment or for the future. This is quite an actual prayer for the time in which we live, with tidal waves of visual material via television and the Internet that are completely useless and often downright sinful, yet which people watch for many hours (cf. Isa 55:2).

Sometimes it’s about impure pictures that you come across unintentionally and unsought, e.g. advertising. Here the saying applies: the second look is sinful. That is, the first time you see it, it happened to you, but the second look is a conscious choice. Of that, the psalmist asks if the LORD will turn away his eyes from that. In that regard, Job has given us an example by making a covenant with his eyes not to follow (lustfully) an attractive girl with them (Job 31:1). David is a great warning sign to each of us (2Sam 11:1-5)!

“Vanity”, empty, meaningless is that which is spiritually no food, it is stones and not bread. Paul calls all the privileges of this life rubbish compared to the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, his Lord (Phil 3:8). The conscience question to us is what our priorities in this life are. The danger of temptation is great. Even one of the apostle Paul’s associates, named Demas, left the apostle for the love of the present age (2Tim 4:10). Demas too is a warning sign for each of us. Let us also pray this prayer with the psalmist.

To look at what is vanity is to look at something that, like a stealth killer, stifles the life of faith. This is evident from the second line of this verse. The God-fearing wants to enjoy the true life, which is life in fellowship with God. That life is lived by going in God’s ways. “Your ways”, which are God’s ways, are ways of life. When we go them, we are truly living.

The righteous knows that there is life through the ways of the LORD. Following that, he asks for a confirmation or fulfillment of the promise of life (Psa 119:38). This is to the glory of the LORD (Eze 36:26-27). He asks that question as “Your servant” (cf. Psa 119:17 ; 23). To that he adds “as that which produces reverence for You”. He is not only one who serves the LORD but also one who fears Him, who lives in awe and reverence of Him. The LORD will not reject such a person.

What he does not want is the reproach of people who smear him for not receiving the promise of the LORD (Psa 119:38), despite the fact that he remains faithful to the LORD (Psa 119:39). He “dreads” that reproach and asks the LORD to turn it away from him by keeping him in faithfulness to His Word and fulfilling His promises. He also wants to be faithful because God’s “ordinances are good”. He also wants to be faithful because his unfaithfulness would be defamation to the Name of the LORD (cf. Rom 2:24).

He expresses his longing for the LORD’s precepts (Psa 119:40). This verse begins with “behold”. The letter he means ‘see’, here it is hinné. Often we think only the promises of the LORD are important, but the psalmist longs for the precepts, the commandments of the LORD. In them is life.

The psalmist longs to revive, not as a reward for his desire, but “through Your righteousness”. Life by God’s righteousness means life for all eternity. Life that God gives by virtue of righteousness is life where the holy requirement of God’s justice has been met. That justice was met by the Lord Jesus on the cross.

God’s righteousness means that God always acts in accordance with His standard, which in this case is His covenant. The psalmist asks if the LORD will act in accordance with His covenant and His promise. In His promise, He wants to give a window so that light can come from above – a window, a light opening from above (Gen 6:16) – to chase away the darkness.