The Wide Place of Obedience Text: Psalm 119:41-48
Introduction: The Great Inversion
We live in an age that has performed a great inversion. It has turned the dictionary of God upside down and tried to convince us that the words mean the opposite of what they plainly say. In this inverted world, slavery is called freedom, darkness is called light, and the law of God is called a burdensome cage. The modern worldling, in his desperate flight from God, believes that true liberty is found in the casting off of all restraint. He wants to be autonomous, a law unto himself, and he thinks that by doing so he will find a wide, open space to run and play. But what he finds instead is a padded cell, the dimensions of which are determined by his own lusts.
The great lie of the serpent in the garden was that obedience to God is restrictive, while rebellion is liberating. "You will be like God," he whispered, which is another way of saying, "You will be your own god, your own lawgiver." And we have been chasing that lie ever since. We think that God's commandments are a fence to keep us out of the meadow, when in reality they are a fence on the edge of a cliff to keep us from falling off. The world promises freedom and delivers bondage. Christ demands submission and delivers true liberty.
This section of Psalm 119, the Vav stanza, is a direct assault on this satanic inversion. The psalmist here shows us that the Christian life is not a cramped and narrow existence. Rather, it is a life of expansive freedom, of confident speech, and of profound delight. But this liberty is not found by seeking liberty. It is found by seeking God's precepts. The path to the wide place of freedom runs straight through the narrow gate of obedience. This is the great paradox of the gospel, and it is the central theme of these eight verses.
The Text
May Your lovingkindnesses also come to me, O Yahweh, Your salvation according to Your word; So I will have an answer for him who reproaches me, For I trust in Your word. And do not take away the word of truth utterly from my mouth, For I wait for Your judgments. So I will keep Your law continually, Forever and ever. And I will walk in a wide place, For I seek Your precepts. I will also speak of Your testimonies before kings And I shall not be ashamed. I shall delight in Your commandments, Which I love. And I shall lift up my hands to Your commandments, Which I love; And I will muse on Your statutes.
(Psalm 119:41-48 LSB)
The Foundation: Mercy and Salvation (v. 41)
The psalmist begins not with his own efforts, but with a plea for God's grace. All true obedience is downstream from God's initiative.
"May Your lovingkindnesses also come to me, O Yahweh, Your salvation according to Your word;" (Psalm 119:41)
He asks for two things to "come to" him: God's lovingkindnesses and His salvation. The word for lovingkindness is hesed, that covenantal, loyal, unending love of God. This is not a vague sentimentality; it is the steadfast love that God has promised to His people. And notice it is plural, "lovingkindnesses." This is the multifaceted mercy of God, new every morning, applied to every corner of our lives. He then defines this lovingkindness as "Your salvation." The ultimate expression of God's hesed is our deliverance.
But this is not a desperate, blind cry into the void. It is a claim on a promise: "according to Your word." The psalmist has read the contract. He is standing on the promises of God. He is not asking God to do something novel; he is asking God to be true to His own character as revealed in His own Word. This is the foundation of all confident prayer. We do not come to God with a wish list; we come with His own invoices and ask Him to honor them. Our salvation, from first to last, is an act of God's covenant faithfulness.
The Fruit: A Ready Answer (v. 42-43)
When God's salvation comes to a man, it has immediate, practical effects. The first is that it equips him to face his enemies.
"So I will have an answer for him who reproaches me, For I trust in Your word. And do not take away the word of truth utterly from my mouth, For I wait for Your judgments." (Psalm 119:42-43 LSB)
The Christian life is lived in the midst of reproach. The world hates the light, and so it hates those who carry the light. They will taunt, mock, and slander. And what is our defense? It is not our own cleverness. The psalmist says, "So I will have an answer." The "so" connects this directly to the previous verse. Because God's salvation has come to me, I have a response. The answer is not a witty comeback; the answer is the reality of God's salvation in my life. The answer is God Himself.
The basis for this confidence is simple: "For I trust in Your word." He trusts the promise, not his own performance. This is crucial. When the accuser comes, whether it is Satan or some earthly agent of his, he points to our sin. If our trust is in our own righteousness, we are sunk. But if our trust is in God's word of promise, we can point to Christ and say, "He is my righteousness. God saved me, according to His word." That is an unanswerable answer.
Verse 43 is the humble recognition that even this confident answer is a gift. "Do not take away the word of truth utterly from my mouth." He knows that if left to himself, he would falter. He needs God's continual grace to keep speaking the truth. His hope is fixed on God's "judgments" or ordinances. He is waiting for God's righteous rule to be made manifest, and he wants to be found a faithful spokesman when it is.
The Result: True Liberty (v. 44-45)
Here we come to the great inversion I mentioned. The world sees God's law as a prison, but the psalmist sees it as the key to the yard.
"So I will keep Your law continually, Forever and ever. And I will walk in a wide place, For I seek Your precepts." (Psalm 119:44-45 LSB)
The man who has received God's salvation and trusts His word does not say, "Great, now I can do whatever I want." He says, "So I will keep Your law continually." Grace does not lead to lawlessness; it is the fuel for lawfulness. True gratitude for salvation expresses itself in a desire for obedience. And this is not a temporary burst of enthusiasm. It is "forever and ever."
And what is the result of this wholehearted, continual law-keeping? Bondage? A cramped, narrow life? No. "And I will walk in a wide place." This is biblical liberty. The Hebrew means a broad, spacious place with no obstacles. This is the opposite of being in a tight spot, cornered by enemies or by your own sin. The man who walks in God's law finds that the path is clear. He is not constantly tripping over the consequences of his own folly. Sin is what narrows your life. Sin puts you in the tight spot, the corner, the prison. Righteousness is what opens up the field before you.
The reason is given: "For I seek Your precepts." He is not a reluctant conscript. He actively seeks, searches out, and pursues God's commands. When you desire what God desires, you find that your will and His are aligned. And when you are walking in step with the sovereign Lord of the universe, you will find that the way He has laid out for you is a very wide place indeed.
The Expression: Boldness and Delight (v. 46-48)
This liberty is not a quiet, private affair. It spills out in public testimony and personal worship.
"I will also speak of Your testimonies before kings And I shall not be ashamed. I shall delight in Your commandments, Which I love. And I shall lift up my hands to Your commandments, Which I love; And I will muse on Your statutes." (Psalm 119:46-48 LSB)
The man who walks in the wide place of God's law is not intimidated by earthly power. "I will also speak of Your testimonies before kings." Kings are used to being flattered. They are not used to being told that there is a higher authority to whom they must give an account. But the free man in Christ knows that the King of kings is his true sovereign. Therefore, he can speak God's truth to earthly rulers without fear or shame. He is not ashamed because he knows he is speaking the ultimate reality. He is an ambassador of the true throne, and he will not be embarrassed by the message he carries.
This public boldness is fueled by a private passion. "I shall delight in Your commandments, Which I love." This is not mere duty; it is desire. The law of God is not a bitter pill he has to swallow. It is his joy, his pleasure, his delight. He loves it. This is the mark of a truly regenerate heart. The unregenerate man may obey externally for fear of punishment, but only the Spirit of God can make a man delight in God's law.
And this love is not just an abstract feeling; it is an embodied, active worship. "And I shall lift up my hands to Your commandments, Which I love." Lifting hands in the Old Testament was a posture of prayer, of reception, of swearing an oath. Here, he lifts his hands to the commandments. It is a gesture of wholehearted embrace. He is eagerly reaching for them, welcoming them, pledging his allegiance to them. He loves them, and so he embraces them with his whole being.
Finally, this love cycle is completed through meditation. "And I will muse on Your statutes." To muse is to meditate, to ponder, to turn something over and over in your mind. He doesn't just read the law and then forget it. He chews on it. He fills his mind with it. And because he meditates on it, he loves it more. And because he loves it, he delights in it. And because he delights in it, he obeys it. And because he obeys it, he walks in a wide place. And because he walks in a wide place, he is not ashamed to speak of it before kings. It all begins with a cry for God's hesed and salvation, according to His word.
Conclusion: The Liberating Law
Our culture is choking on its own definition of freedom. It has defined liberty as the right to do wrong, and as a result, it is enslaved to every passing desire and terrified of every dissenting word. It promises a wide place but delivers only the straitjacket of self.
The psalmist shows us the way out. The way to true freedom is the way of submission to the Word of God. When God's saving grace comes to us, it does not abolish the law. It writes the law on our hearts, so that we no longer obey out of slavish fear but out of joyful love. We begin to delight in the very things that once seemed like a burden.
This is the great promise of the new covenant. "I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts" (Jeremiah 31:33). When this happens, obedience ceases to be a restriction and becomes an expression of our truest, freest self. The law becomes our liberty. We find, to our astonishment, that the ancient paths are not a narrow rut, but a wide and glorious place. And in that place, we are free to stand before kings, free to delight in our God, and free to love His commandments.