Psalms 119:161-176
1 The faithful servant, persecuted by princes for no reason, is afraid, not of them, but of the Word; he is afraid to disobey it (v. 161). And yet it is his joy! (v. 162). May the Word of our God be a treasure to our hearts! Inexhaustible riches are hidden in it, but only those who allow the Word to rule their lives discover them.
To be able to give, one has to start by receiving: v. 171 reminds us that praise is the fruit of a heart which has been taught by the divine statutes. Being well nourished by them, we will know not only how to speak to the Lord, to praise Him intelligently, but also to speak out aloud, to the people around us, about our meditations (v. 172; cf. Ephesians 5:19).
The last verses, which summarize the psalm, now reveal the main thought of it. Israel will have been led by the tribulation to realise how they had gone astray (v. 176). They will have learnt in their affliction to love the law of the LORD (vv. 163, 167, 174), to bring their conduct into line with it (vv. 165-167), to hate evil (v. 163) and to look only to God for salvation (v. 166). Before the final deliverance takes place (v. 174), inner restoration will have occurred, thereby allowing God to act for the blessing of His people and to bring them into the blessing of the Kingdom.