Psalm 119:145-152 | Qoph
Milt Reynolds | Last updated: January 23, 2022
With my whole heart I cry; answer me, O LORD! I will keep your statutes. I call to you; save me, that I may observe your testimonies. I rise before dawn and cry for help; I hope in your words. My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promise. Hear my voice according to your steadfast love; O LORD, according to your justice give me life. They draw near who persecute me with evil purpose; they are far from your law. But you are near, O LORD, and all your commandments are true. Long have I known from your testimonies that you have founded them forever. (Psalm 119:145–152, ESV)
Hedged, Protected and Cared For
Is this a bargain with God? What help or knowledge is Qoph crying out to God for an answer? It is something that overwhelms and fills the heart of Qoph.
Qoph cries to God: "Save me! Save me that I may observe your testimonies."
SAVE: yaw-SHAH, to be open or wide or free, to be safe, to free or succor
Something restricts or constricts Qoph, threatening or imprisoning.
OBSERVE: shaw-MAR, to hedge about as with thorns, to guard or protect or attend to
For Qoph, the best answer to that which restricts, constricts, threatens and imprisons is something that divinely hedges with protection and care: the testimonies of God.
TESTIMONIES: ay-DAW, testimony of a witness or recorder, a prince
God's Word describes God's witness and recording of all that concerns his rule. In God's Word Qoph has placed hope: heartfelt and honest hope.
HOPE: yaw-CHAL, to wait, to be patient, to hope
The protective and caring hedge of God's Word allows Qoph to patiently and confidently wait for God's rescue in the midst of persecution and evil purposes, actions very distant from the protective concern of God's Word.
How odd this sounds when I sit in the chair of materialism. In this chair I am the only one ultimately responsible for my protection and care. One a person or party naturally opposes or threatens or restricts or constricts, my natural mind and body and heart must summon the strength and courage and intellect necessary to fight or flee...those are the only options available for me as I sit in the chair of materialism.
Sitting in the chair of materialism I see only that which may naturally be seen by my natural organs of sight. I sense and act and react only on the basis of my natural organs of hearing, smell, and touch. In the chair of materialism, that which is invisible does not exist, does not help nor hurt nor guide nor care nor protect.
How much of my day, every day, is spent sitting in the chair of materialism?
Oh God! Grant me the desire and the drive to sit in the chair that sees both the material and the super-material, the natural and the super-natural, in the universe you have created. You, Lord God, are super-natural, beyond my natural organs of sight, and smell, and touch, and hearing. My life must contend with both material and super-material, natural and super-natural, and only your Holy Spirit and your Holy Word can protect and care with all of this.
*Thank you, God our Father! You have qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. You have delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of your beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Jesus Christ is the image of our invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. By him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things were created through him and for him.
Jesus Christ he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
We, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present us holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if we continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that we have heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven. (Based upon Colossians 1:12–23, ESV)
Distracted and Divided
It seems only in affliction do I call upon God with all my heart. Otherwise, my heart feels distracted and divided. Even then, I do not rise before dawn to cry for help!
I do not spend lonely hours in prayer and meditation.
The psalmist places the greatest hope in God's love, expressed in God's word.
LAW: unchangeable and powerful
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