Psalm 119 is about loving God’s Torah, His statutes, commands and precepts. It is broken up into sections with strange looking words or letters which are the Hebrew alphabet. In the Hebrew Scriptures, each line of each section starts with a word beginning with this letter. This is called an acrostic poem. Each Hebrew letter also has a word picture associated with it giving greater meaning and symbolism to each line of the specific letter-ed section.
Vav – Nail or Peg
Binding, being tied together or nailed to
“May your grace come to me, Adonai, your salvation, as you promised; then I will have an answer for those who taunt me; for I trust in your word. Don’t take away completely my power to speak the truth; I put my hope in your rulings; and I will keep your Torah always, forever and ever. I will go wherever I like, for I have sought your precepts. I will speak of your instructions even to kings without being ashamed. I will delight myself in your mitzvot, which I have loved. I will lift my hands to your mitzvot, which I love; and I will meditate on your laws.”
The first line bind grace and salvation together. Many times people are taught that ‘grace’ means ‘undeserved merit;’ however, this definition has become confused with the Greek eleos meaning ‘mercy, pity, and compassion’. The Greek word charis has been translated 156 times as ‘grace’ when it actually means the ‘power of God to overcome sin.’ The real and true grace of God doesn’t simply cover over our sin and allow us to live however we desire, it empowers us to overcome sin (1 John 2:1). This is the reason God gives ‘grace to the humble’ and one can ‘fall from grace’ (Proverbs 3:34, Galatians 5:4).
David is crying out for yeshua and the empowering grace that overcomes sin. God gives each of us the same empowering grace through His Holy Spirit. When we are born again and receive a new circumcised heart of flesh, the Torah is written on our hearts. Through the Holy Spirit we are given the power to overcome sin and speak the Truth just like Peter (Acts 2).
David, as the King of Israel, was given the Spirit of God. He knows and understands that he always has God’s precepts in his heart. He delights in and loves the Torah of the God of Israel. He has meditated on the laws and lifts his hands in worship the eternal words of the Creator. As an anointed King, he had the opportunity to give the wise instructions found in Torah to the kings of the surrounding nations. He taught them without shame or embarrassment. Remember, it was a younger David who stood his ground against the Philistine giant in order to bring glory to the God of Israel, and yeshua to the people of the nation.
As the holy ones of God, we also have the binding of salvation and grace. We have Yeshua as our salvation, and we have been given power through the Holy Spirit to keep Torah and overcome sin –– our testimony to the world where earthly kings still reign and need to hear the wisdom of God’s Torah.
“Here is a call for the endurance of the holy ones, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Yeshua” (Revelation 14:12).
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