Commentary - Psalm 119:113-120

Bird's-eye view

In this fifteenth stanza of the great Psalm 119, the section governed by the Hebrew letter Samekh, the psalmist draws a sharp and necessary line in the sand. This is the great biblical antithesis on full display. There is no middle ground, no negotiated truce between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world. The man who loves God's law is a man who must necessarily hate all that stands against it. This section is a declaration of allegiance, a prayer for divine stability in the face of wickedness, and a profound recognition of God's righteous judgments. The theme is not one of quiet contemplation, but of robust, clear-eyed spiritual warfare, where the believer’s safety is found in his singular devotion to God and His Word.

Outline

Verse 113

I hate those who are double-minded, But I love Your law.

The psalmist begins with a strong declaration that would make modern evangelicals blush. He hates. But what does he hate? He hates the double-minded. This is not a petty dislike for the indecisive. The word here refers to a divided heart, a divided loyalty. It is the man who wants to serve God and mammon. It is the man who wants the blessings of the covenant without the obligations of the covenant. He has one foot in the kingdom and one foot in the world, which is to say he has no footing in the kingdom at all. James tells us that a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways (Jas. 1:8). The psalmist hates this instability, this compromise, this spiritual schizophrenia, because it is an affront to the singular glory of God.

The antidote to this hated double-mindedness is stated plainly: But I love Your law. The contrast is absolute. God's law is not a collection of arbitrary rules; it is the perfect revelation of His character. It is integrated, whole, and singular in its purpose. To love the law is to love the coherence and righteousness of God Himself. A love for the law straightens out the heart. It provides a central, unifying principle for all of life, chasing out the shadows of compromise and duplicity. You cannot love the clear, straight lines of God's law and simultaneously have a high tolerance for the crooked, wavering path of the double-minded.

Verse 114

You are my hiding place and my shield; I wait for Your word.

Because the psalmist has drawn this sharp line, he knows he is in a battle. The world does not applaud such clarity. Therefore, he declares his absolute reliance upon God. You are my hiding place and my shield. This is intensely personal. The God who gave the law is the God who protects the man who loves the law. He is a hiding place from the storm of opposition and a shield against the arrows of the wicked. Our safety is not in our own cleverness or strength, but in God Himself. We hide from God's righteous judgment only by hiding in God Himself, which is to say, in Christ.

His confidence is not a vague optimism. It is grounded. I wait for Your word. The word for "wait" here is better understood as hope. "My hope is in Your word." This is not a passive, thumb-twiddling sort of waiting. It is an active, confident expectation. He has read the promises. He knows God's character. And so he stands on the word of promise, expecting God to be and do all that He has said. This is the bedrock of Christian stability in a chaotic world.

Verse 115

Depart from me, evildoers, That I may observe the commandments of my God.

Here is the practical outworking of the hatred expressed in verse 113. It is not enough to have an internal disposition; it must affect our associations. Depart from me, evildoers. This is not a call to be a rude hermit. It is a recognition that fellowship with evil is incompatible with obedience to God. Bad company corrupts good morals, and the psalmist is zealous to protect his own integrity. He is building a wall, not to keep people out, but to keep sin out.

And the reason is entirely positive. He separates from evil That I may observe the commandments of my God. He knows that the constant pressure, temptation, and worldview of the wicked is a direct hindrance to his sanctification. He wants to obey, and so he takes practical steps to remove the obstacles to that obedience. Holiness requires separation. If you want to run the race God has set before you, you cannot be tethered to those who are running in the opposite direction.

Verse 116

Sustain me according to Your word, that I may live; And do not put me to shame because of my hope.

The psalmist is no stoic. He knows his own frailty. His prayer is one of utter dependence. Sustain me according to Your word, that I may live. He is asking God to prop him up, to hold him fast, based on the promises of the Word. He knows that spiritual life is not self-generating. It must be sustained by a source outside of himself, and that source is God, ministering life through His Word. Without this divine sustenance, he would collapse.

And this plea comes with a concern for God's reputation as well as his own. And do not put me to shame because of my hope. He has publicly placed his trust in the Lord. He has banked everything on God's promises. If those promises were to fail, he would be ashamed, and more importantly, God's name would be dishonored. This is a bold prayer, appealing to God's own covenant faithfulness. "Lord, I have trusted Your Word. Now, for the sake of Your own glory, vindicate that trust."

Verse 117

Uphold me that I may be saved, That I may have regard for Your statutes continually.

This verse continues the theme of dependence. The prayer to be sustained is now a prayer to be upheld. Uphold me that I may be saved. Salvation here is not just the initial act of justification, but the entire process of being kept safe, of being preserved to the end. The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints is not that we persevere, but that God perseveres with us. He upholds us, and because He upholds us, we are safe.

And what is the goal of this divine preservation? It is not so we can relax on a spiritual sofa. The goal is obedience. That I may have regard for Your statutes continually. God saves us from sin in order to save us to righteousness. The end game of our salvation is a life of joyful, constant, and willing obedience to the God who saved us. He keeps us so that we might keep His commandments.

Verse 118

You have rejected all those who stray from Your statutes, For their deceitfulness is a lie.

Now the psalmist turns his attention from his own need to God's sovereign judgment. He is comforted by the fact that God sees the antithesis as clearly as he does. You have rejected all those who stray from Your statutes. The word for "rejected" can mean to tread down or to make light of. God Himself spurns those who wander from His path. This is not some arbitrary decision; it is the necessary consequence of their rebellion against His revealed character.

And why does God reject them? For their deceitfulness is a lie. The word for deceitfulness refers to their cunning and trickery. All the clever schemes of the wicked, all their self-justifying arguments, all their sophisticated evasions of God's law, are ultimately a falsehood, a sham. They deceive others, but most of all they deceive themselves. Their foundation is a lie, and therefore the entire structure of their lives must collapse under the gaze of a holy God.

Verse 119

You remove all the wicked of the earth like dross; Therefore I love Your testimonies.

The metaphor here is powerful. God is a refiner of precious metals. You remove all the wicked of the earth like dross. Dross is the scum, the impurity, the worthless waste that rises to the top when metal is heated. God, in His sovereign judgment, is purifying His creation. He skims off the wicked. This is a promise of ultimate justice. History is not a random series of events; it is a refining process, overseen by a holy God who will not forever tolerate evil.

This vision of divine justice does not cause the psalmist to despair; it causes him to rejoice. Therefore I love Your testimonies. His love for God's Word is directly connected to his confidence in God's judgment. Because he knows that God will ultimately sort everything out, that He will vindicate the righteous and remove the wicked, he can love and trust the Word that promises it. A God who does not judge is not a God worthy of worship, and His testimonies would be empty words.

Verse 120

My flesh quakes for dread of You, And I am afraid of Your judgments.

This stanza concludes with a statement of holy fear. This is not the cowering terror of a criminal before a judge, but the awe-filled reverence of a creature before his holy Creator. My flesh quakes for dread of You. The psalmist has a visceral, physical reaction to the majesty and holiness of God. He understands that the God who removes the wicked like dross is not a tame God. This is a healthy, righteous fear.

He is not just afraid of God in the abstract; he is afraid of His judgments. And I am afraid of Your judgments. This refers both to God's decrees (His laws) and His acts of justice. He sees the perfect standard of the law and trembles at his inability to keep it perfectly. He sees God's righteous acts in history and trembles at His power. This fear is the beginning of wisdom. It is this holy dread that drives him to God as his hiding place, that fuels his hatred of double-mindedness, and that keeps him on the path of obedience.

Application

The message of this passage is a bracing tonic for a compromised age. We are called to see the world in black and white, not in endless shades of gray. A love for God's law necessitates a hatred for the double-mindedness that seeks to blur the lines God has drawn. This is not about being ungracious, but about being clear.

Our response to this clarity should be threefold. First, we must flee to God as our only refuge. In a world hostile to truth, our only safety is in Him. Second, we must actively separate ourselves from the influence of evildoers, not out of self-righteousness, but out of a genuine desire to be holy as He is holy. Third, we must cultivate a holy fear of God. We must tremble before His majesty and His judgments. This fear is not something to be run from; it is the very thing that will keep us running to Him. When we fear God rightly, we will fear nothing else.