Deepest Desire - Psalm 119:4-6
Psalm 119:4-6 “You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes! Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.”
The Lord has commanded our obedience to his law. Yet this is not an obedience that earns God’s favor or pays for our redemption. It is a command that we obey out of sincere gratitude that the Lord would enter in to a covenant relationship with his people. God did this with Israel, freely out of grace, and he has done this with us gentiles as well, who call upon his name.
It is oft assumed that we are at liberty to follow or reject the commands of God. This is a predominant view in many evangelical circles, and even in the secular sphere of society. In each, they determine many of God’s laws to be good, and worthy of consideration, yet when it comes to issues of marriage, pregnancy, or God’s created order (to name a few), there is a belief that the law of God can be adhered to as desired, or shoved aside altogether.
But here, the psalmist recognizes that he does not keep God’s law perfectly, and yet, it is his longing to do so. When he says “Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes,” we are hearing the groan of a heart that desires to be obedient to God’s law, because of the affections he has for his Lord, wrought in his soul by the Holy Spirit. This prayer, is how the righteous ought to pray; this is what we would expect when the desire and the prayer are in keeping with God’s will.
It is only when we have this great desire and longing to keep the Lord’s statutes, that we may be rid of shame and worry of it no more. How can this be? How can we be rid of shame? On the one hand it is because the entire disposition of the man or woman will be kept from doing that which will aid in their shame. When God’s law is obeyed, and there is a desire for conformity, and a sincere respect for all of God’s precepts is maintained, and both tables of the law are loved equally, then following the path the Lord has laid will be the only viable option (Psalm 119:105). On the other hand, however, there is now confidence toward God (1 John 3:21). We also have boldness to access his thrown to approach him (Hebrews 4:16).
But let us look to the one who did in fact keep all of God’s precepts diligently: Jesus Christ, our great King! He kept the all on our behalf, and he was in deed not put to shame. We now benefit from his obedience and have his Spirit living within us, and we now cry with great expectation, “Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes!” and because of his death on our behalf we are no longer under the power of sin and can keep God’s statutes! Praise Him!
