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.
ע Ayin – An Eye
See or Understand (through experience)
“I have done what is just and right; don’t abandon me to my oppressors. Guarantee your servant’s well-being; don’t let the arrogant oppress me. My eyes fail from watching for your salvation and for [the fulfillment of] your righteous promise. Deal with your servant in accordance with your grace, and teach me your laws. I am your servant; give me understanding, so that I can know your instruction. The time has come for Adonai to act, because they are breaking your Torah. Therefore I love your mitzvot more than gold, more than fine gold. Thus I direct my steps by [your] precepts; every false way I hate.”
Yeshua writes to the congregation in Laodicea that they are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold. They have deceived themselves into believing that because they are rich, they don’t need anything –– including God. Yet, they are considered to be poor, pitiful, and blind. They do not have spiritual ‘eyes to see’ that what they consider important is not what God considers important. Yeshua tells these people: “My advice to you is to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich; and white clothing, so that you may be dressed and not have to be ashamed of your nakedness; and eye salve to rub on your eyes, so that you may see” (Revelation 3:18).
The people in Laodicea are the antithesis of King David. David doesn’t need eyes salve; he is not blind. He clearly sees the value of loving God’s commands and doing what is right. He desires that his eyes be opened to more ‘understanding’ God’s instructions.
Though he may have danced wearing only a priestly linen ephod, God never saw him as ‘naked’ and needing to be clothed in white.
He loves God’s mitzvot more than fine gold because they direct his steps and correct the errors of his ways. As the King of Israel, he had everything he could ever want or need; yet, God’s commands were worth more to him than all of his riches. As he was being refined as gold through the persecutions of arrogant men, he knew that his well-being was in trusting that God would never abandon him.
David understands the ‘grace’ of God as a powerful instructor. ‘Grace’ teaches him God’s laws and guides him into all Truth (John 16:13). David embraces the Spirit of God’s ‘grace’ promised by the prophets, the essence of the new covenant promise of a new pliable heart on which the Torah would be written.
David hates every false way. He doesn’t embrace anything that does not line up with God’s instructions, nor does he water it down until it has lost its value. He know that those who oppress him are breaking Torah. Everyone who understand being oppressed by arrogant, ignorant men can relate to David’s cry: “My eyes fail from watching for your salvation [yeshua].”
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