“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 119:151-152).
In this passage of Psalm 119, that begins with verse 145, the Psalmist is calling on God to save him from the oppression of evil doers. He places his hope completely upon God’s promises and steadfast love (vs 149). The question is, “Why did the Psalmist place his hope in God’s Word?” What is it the Psalmist sees that tells him he can place his hope in God’s Word? The answer comes in the last two verses of this passage.
The Psalmist knows that God’s commandments have been established forever. Since the beginning of time until the farthest reach of eternity God’s Word will stand. It is on this bedrock that the Psalmist builds his hope for deliverance and salvation. All in this world will pass away, but the Psalmist tells us that God’s Word will not pass away, it will last forever. Included in God’s Word that will last forever are His commandments and promises. Notice something very important about the Psalmist’s hope.
The Psalmist hope is built on personal knowledge of God’s Word. The Psalmist is not blindly trusting in some unknown promise or commandments. The Psalmist has built his hope upon God’s Word through personal knowledge of it. Read verse 148, “My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promise.” The Psalmist does not just blindly go along hoping in God based on minimal knowledge of the words of others. The Psalmist has personal knowledge of God’s promises and commandments because he reads them himself!
If we wish to have a confident hope like the Psalmist in Psalm 119, then we must be wiling to base our hope upon the same foundation he had. We must place our hope in the eternal nature of God’s Word. We must believe they are eternal and we must have read them for ourselves.
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