Embrace the Word for Friday, November 6, 2026
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Psalm 119 is a celebration of God’s Word. Psalm 119:161-168 continues the exploration of the “blessed” life. Each verse in this twenty-first stanza begins with the twenty-first letter of the Hebrew alphabet (which is sin or shin). The twenty-first stanza highlights the condition of the Psalmist’s heart amid persecution. While all of the twenty-first stanza is a conversation with the LORD, there are no petitions to the LORD in this stanza. This twenty-first stanza expresses deep and strong affections to the LORD. The Psalmist’s love for the Word of God is explicitly stated three times (119:163,165,167). The first sub-stanza of the twenty-first stanza contrasts the troubled situation the Psalmist faced with the posture of his heart (119:161-164), while the second sub-stanza connects the Psalmist’s heart posture to his relationship to the Word of God (119:165-168). The LORD and His Word is controlling the thoughts and affections of the Psalmist’s heart, not the persecution that he is experiencing.
The Psalmist opens Psalm 119:161-168 with a statement about his external circumstances: “Princes persecute me without cause” (119:161a). It is the second to the last stanza of Psalm 119, and the Psalmist’s external circumstances have not changed. Ever since the third stanza “princes” have been targeting, plotting, and seeking to harm the Psalmist (119:23). The term “princes” suggest people of great power, such as high ranking civil authorities or those from the prominent class of nobility. In other words, people who have the wherewithal to create great trouble. All that the Psalmist is experiencing is “without cause.” There is a fundamental injustice to the affliction and oppression that the Psalmist has referenced throughout this Psalm. That there is no reason for the Psalmist to be treated the way he was being treated only added to his distress. The Psalmist’s troublers have not gone away. Yet the Psalmist sees beyond his present situation: “but my heart stands in awe of your words” (119:161b). The Psalmist’s response to his extended troubles reflect the reality that his heart was not under the control of the “princes,” but the LORD. The Psalmist was not in fear of the “princes;” he was in fear of the LORD. He feels the fear of the LORD because of what the LORD has shown him in His Word. The Psalmist’s present heart posture is aligned with a later admonition: “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (See Matthew 10:28). A proper fear of the LORD is always coupled with assurances of a Heavenly Father’s loving care: “Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:31). The Psalmist is looking at his present troubles through the lens of faith (See 2 Corinthians 5:7), for “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (119:105).
The Psalmist not only experiences a proper fear of the LORD that resets how he sees his persecutors, but his heart is filled with additional emotions: “I rejoice at your word like one who finds great spoil” (119:162). There is much joy in the Psalmist’s heart. A proper fear of the LORD does not prevent the possibility of joy; it paves the way for true joy. The Psalmist locates the instrument of his joy to be the Word of God. What the Psalmist has found in God’s Word is likened to finding “great spoil.” The term “spoil” speaks of the plundered treasure that comes as a result of a victory. In this context, the usage of the term “spoil” suggests that the Word of God has instilled into the Psalmist’s heart an expectation of victory over his present persecutors. The Psalmist’s deep emotion of joy sprung from his deep affections: “I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your law” (119:163). The Word of God has worked in the Psalmist’s heart to reorder his affections—what he loves and what he hates aligning with what the LORD loves and hates. Loving what ought to be loved, that is what is lovely, requires hating what ought to be hated. The proper fear of the LORD had set the Psalmist’s loves and hates in order. Out of such reordered affections, joy was felt. Such joy turned the Psalmist upward in worship: “Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous rules” (119:164). It seems likely to suggest that the statement “seven times” reflects a posture that repeatedly acknowledges the praiseworthiness of the LORD. The particular focus of the Psalmist’s praise is his confidence that all that the LORD will bring to pass is consistent with the righteousness expressed in His Word.
The Psalmist transitions from addressing the contrast between his heart and his persecution (119:161-164), to acknowledging the connection between his heart and God’s Word (119:165-168). The Psalmist continues expressing all that is occurring within his heart before the LORD: “Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble” (119:165). The Psalmist’s joyful praise of the LORD was built upon his properly ordered love. This love for God’s Word brings the added emotion of peace. The Psalmist, through what the LORD had revealed in His Word, had a profound sense of not only his safety from all danger, but also his absolute well-being. The “great spoil” had led him to experience a “great peace,” that is, a rich and deep peace. Such peace was joined by a stability in the paths that he walked. The very Word of God that instills peace also imparts guidance, for God’s Word not only mediates the LORD’s presence, it also provides navigational aid such as the LORD’s perspective, promises, and precepts. The Word of God would keep the Psalmist from being tripped up by his persecutors (or even his own heart posture from going astray), for it will show him the way. The Psalmist’s confidence is found in God’s Word: “I hope for your salvation, O LORD, and I do your commandments” (119:66). With the Word of God supplying much hope or confidence for the future, the Psalmist renews his resolve to practice God’s Word at the present. Just as the Word of God enabled the Psalmist to have properly aligned loves and hates, so too did God’s Word foster in him a conviction that he must not think he might rest on what the LORD promises, while at the same time rejecting all that the LORD requires.
The resolve to practice what the LORD requires in His Word completes this stanza: “My soul keeps your testimonies; I love them exceedingly. I keep your precepts and testimonies, for all my ways are before you” (119:167-168). With statements of “My soul keeps” and “I keep,” the Psalmist emphatically declares his resolve to obey God’s Word. The Psalmist offers two explanations as to why he is so emphatic in his resolve. First, the Psalmist has an exceeding love for the Word of God. Just from what he has said in this stanza alone, the Psalmist loves God’s Word because it instills a proper fear of the LORD in him, it reorders his affections, it ignites in his heart patterns of joyful praise, it imparts a sense of peace in him, it reassures him with clear direction in the present and confidence for the future, and it inclines his heart toward obedience. The Psalmist’s resolve is not an external pressure, but an internal persuasion. The second reason for the Psalmist’s emphatic resolve is the fact that, “all my ways are before you.” The Psalmist knows that wherever he goes, whatever unfolds in his life, he is ever under the watchful gaze of His God: “The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry” (See Psalm 34:15). The Psalmist is fully known by the LORD, but also fully cared for by the LORD. While the Psalmist was living out his life before the presence of his persecutors, he was also living out his life before the presence of the God who loved him. In that sense, both reasons behind the Psalmist’s resolve to obey is connected to love: his love for the LORD, but also, the LORD’s love for him.
As we reflect on Psalm 119:161-168 we can consider the connection between persecution and rejoicing. The Psalmist acknowledges his persecution, but he also affirms his joy. The Lord Jesus Christ instructed His followers to express joy in their experiences with persecution: “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (See Matthew 5:11-12). As the Lord Jesus Christ sought to prepare His disciples for the persecution that they would face after His departure, He promised: “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy…So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (See John 16:20,22). Jesus promises joy for His persecuted people, and the joy He gives is His very own joy: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (See John 15:11). Living in the face of persecution (or whatever the suffering might consist of), need not define our thoughts and emotions, for we can come to understand that we live before the face of God who reassures His people: “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (See Romans 8:32).
That’s all for Embrace the Word for Friday, November 6, 2026. I look forward to being back with you for the Monday, November 9, 2026 episode of Embrace the Word as we take a look at Psalm 119:169-176.