557_Love for His Word (Psalm 119:41-48)

Pslam 119:41-48 Let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord,
your salvation according to your promise;
42 then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me,
for I trust in your word.
43 And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth,
for my hope is in your rules.
44 I will keep your law continually,
forever and ever,
45 and I shall walk in a wide place,
for I have sought your precepts.
46 I will also speak of your testimonies before kings
and shall not be put to shame,
47 for I find my delight in your commandments,
which I love.
48 I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love,
and I will meditate on your statutes.

Years ago, a Christian missionary named John G. Paton translated the Bible for a tribe in the South Pacific. As he searched for the right word for “faith,” he realized that the tribe had no word that directly captured the idea of trusting or believing. One day, a local woman came into his hut, and the missionary tried a new approach. Sitting down on a chair, he put both feet on its rung and leaned back restfully. When he asked the woman to describe his attitude, she told him he was leaning completely, wholly, on the chair, without any other support. Paton realized this was the perfect translation for trustful faith. Faith, he wrote, is leaning your whole self upon God and His Word.

Psalm 119:41–48 is all about such faith. This soul leans wholly on God’s steadfast love and salvation, finding in His Word both freedom and delight. The psalmist not just reads scripture but loves it. He does not merely learn or recite the commandments, but he shapes his whole being and life by them.

Hence his prayer — “Let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise.” His humble request is not for wealth, success, or recognition. He desires the one thing that sustains his soul — God’s covenantal love and saving grace.

This love is not performance-based, but is a unilateral and loyal commitment to love to the end. It begins with God, and arouses love in response. It is the love that drove Abraham to move out of his country and his father’s house, looking for a country yet to be revealed. This was the love by which God made and kept his unilateral covenant with Abraham to bless him and make him the father of many nations through faith. It’s not a love that depends on how well he performs or how faithful he has been. It’s a unilateral love — one that begins and ends with God.

In the ancient Near East, both parties in a covenant would walk between the slain animals. This symbolized the death of the one who broke the covenant thus made. When God made his covenant with Abraham, he cast Abraham into a deep sleep, and passed alone between the split animals (Genesis 15).. In effect, the covenant was backed and executed by God alone, and if it was broken, he would bear the cost.

That is the love the psalmist appeals to. God’s salvation is also a gift that cannot be earned or bought. Hence the appeal of humility – not the demand for wages rightfully due. God’s salvation is of grace, and not the reward due to our merit.

Despite the failures with which his enemies taunt him, asking “Where is your God now?”, the psalmist trusts simply in God’s steadfast love. Our defense in the face of our weakness is not in our goodness or achievements. It is simply that God keeps his covenant love throughout everything, as he has revealed in his word.

So the psalmist clings to that Word — not as a scroll to be studied, but as a lifeline to be held. He says in verse 43, “Take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for my hope is in your rules.” The promises of God are honorable and a great privilege, and he puts all his hope in them, shaping every decision by his need to obtain them through the obedience of faith.

But in Psalm 50:16–17 God says to the wicked:

“What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips?
For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you.”

God’s Word is not a tool for empty religiosity or cunning manipulation. When those who despise God quote his word, they make meaningless sounds. But the psalmist treats the scripture with reverence. His aim is to live by it forever, as verse 44 declares.

There’s no hint of drudgery in his tone. This is not the obedience of a slave, but the devotion of God’s servant who admires and follows him. He delights in God’s Word because he delights in God Himself. The commandments are not burdens to him; they are his life because they lead him into salvation in the paths of the One who loves him.

This love leads to freedom. In verse 45, he says, “I will walk about in a wide place, for I have sought your precepts.” Obedience to God’s Word is not confinement; it’s liberty from guilt, bitterness, anxiety, and bondage to one’s own lusts. It brings us into a life unhindered by these.

God’s laws are not restrictions, fences that limit pleasure or self-expression. In truth, they are boundaries that protect freedom. Real freedom is not the right to do whatever we want; it’s the power to do what we were created for.

The Victorian biologist Richard Owen once remarked, “There is no greater anomaly in nature than a bird that cannot fly.” When human beings live outside the will of God, we are not free, no matter what we think or say. We are created in the image of God. Only in living that way do we fulfil His design.

This love for God’s Word makes the psalmist bold, as he says in verse 46, “I will speak of your testimonies before kings and shall not be put to shame.” He is unashamed to proclaim God’s truth before the highest of men. His reverence for God drives him to uphold the holiness of God’s law even in the presence of the powerful and noble. For there is none greater than God, for him.

Many of us remain silent about our faith because we fear rejection, ridicule, or misunderstanding. But those who truly love God’s Word cannot keep it hidden. It overflows in life and in speech.

The psalmist continues, “For I find my delight in your commandments, which I love.” It’s striking how often he repeats the word love. The psalmist’s heart beats with affection for God’s Word. For his whole pride and trust are in the security that he finds in God’s law.

As he concludes in verse 48, “I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes.” That phrase — lift up my hands — is an act of worship and surrender. He doesn’t just read the Word; he repeats it in his heart, pondering it until it is part of his thinking. As Psalm 1 describes, the happy man is the one who “delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night.” And so, the song ends where it began — with love for God, and for His Word.

After his resurrection, the Lord asked Peter, “Do you love Me more than these?” He did not need reassurance. Rather, the question drove Peter to realize the central place of love in following the Lord. Our careers, entertainment, possessions, and even ministry can subtly take the place of intimacy with God.

The same question lingers: “Do you love Me more than these?” Our answer is revealed in our relationship with His Word. Is it duty or desire, sacred obligation or freely performed joy?

Let us make space for the steadfast love and salvation of God to once again visit our hearts. Let His Word dwell richly in us. Let it shape our speech, enlarge our steps, and fill our days with freedom and joy.

Let us lean our whole selves upon the promises of God, rest our weight on His Word, confident that it will never fail. God bless.