God is My Portion – Psalm 119:57-64

ח HETH [1]

“You are my portion, O Lord. I have said that I would keep Your Words.” Psalm 119:57

David found his happiness in the Lord. Nothing less could satisfy his soul. Thus, he committed himself to remain faithful to God’s Word to the very end. [2]

In John 6:66-68, when Jesus asked His twelve disciples if they were going to depart from Him as others had, Peter responded, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

In Exodus 33:25-28, when Moses saw a rebellion afoot among his people, he said to them, “Whoever is on the Lord’s side—come to me!” Praise God! “All the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him.” About 3,000 rebels persisted in their sin and died that day.

“I entreated Your favor with my whole heart. Be merciful to me according to Your Word.” Psalm 119:58

In Luke 18:9-14, Jesus “spoke this parable to some who trusted that they were righteous and despised others: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Truly, all people have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. Some portions of the Bible convict us of our sin while other portions magnify God’s mercy. David wanted the Lord to be merciful to him in accordance with the Bible passages that speak of His mercy.

David approached God humbly. For what did David pray? He sought God’s favor. How did David pray? He prayed with his whole heart as in Genesis 32:26, where Jacob prayed, “I will not let You go, unless You bless me.” [3] On what basis did David pray? He believed God would answer his prayer based on the fact that God reveals Himself to us in His Word as being merciful.

In Exodus 33:18-19, when Moses asked to see God’s glory, the Lord told him, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” In Exodus 33:20-23, the Lord said to Moses, “You cannot see My face. No man shall see Me, and live. Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.” God was merciful to let Moses see as much of Him as he could without hurting him.

When we reach heaven, we will see God face to face as Job said in Job 19:25-27, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth. And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!”

“I thought about my ways and turned my feet to Your testimonies. I made haste and did not delay to keep Your commandments.” Psalm 119:59-60

David turned his feet and ran without delay toward the Lord’s testimonies. Are there any other examples of people running toward the testimonies of the Lord? Yes there are.

In Mark 6:54-55, when Jesus and His disciples stepped out from a boat, the Scripture says, “Immediately the people recognized Him, ran through that whole surrounding region, and began to carry about on beds those who were sick to wherever they heard He was.” People were running others to Jesus.

In Luke 19:1-6, when a very wealthy tax collector heard that Jesus was coming his way, “he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way.” “When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.’ So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully.” When Zacchaeus had the opportunity to meet the Word of God embodied in the human flesh of Jesus, he ran.

David took time to think about his ways. He pondered the path for his feet as Proverbs 4:26 says to do. His self-examination led to action. Once, he knew God’s will, he made haste to obey it. [4]

David chose to run on the path of God’s commandments. What path are we running on?

“The cords of the wicked have bound me, but I have not forgotten Your Law.” Psalm 119:61

Wicked men hated David due to his devotion to God. They wanted to keep David tied up with troubles so he could not propagate God’s Word. King Saul kept David on the run. Absalom confiscated his palace. The Amalekites plundered Ziklag when David’s family lived there. [5]

We learn from David’s example to place a higher value on God’s Word than on earthly treasures. In Matthew 6:19, Jesus advised us, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.”

In 2 Timothy 2:9, Paul testified, “I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains, but the Word of God is not chained.” I have found this verse to be true in my own experience. At times, I have been physically hindered from going places, but the Lord still managed to propagate His Word through me to those places by other means. Glory to God!

Though David lost many material things, he did not lose what mattered most. He could honestly say, “I have not forgotten thy Law.” [6] Like Job, David never stopped believing in God.

In Romans 8:35-39, Paul asked, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” Paul was “persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Faithful followers of Christ do suffer, but in 2 Corinthians 4:17, Paul says, “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”

“At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You, because of Your righteous judgments.” Psalm 119:62

Midnight symbolizes a round-the-clock commitment to thanking the Lord for making righteous judgments. If God did not intervene in our world, the devil and his minions would do to every righteous person on the earth as he did to Job. In Job 1:10, the devil complained because God had a hedge around Job and all he owned. He wanted God to remove it. Thus, we should thank God for every day that He maintains a hedge of protection around us.

Whenever David’s heart was stirred by God’s righteous works, he responded immediately with praise instead of delaying until those feelings faded. Rather than remaining in bed, David rose up to give God thanks. [7]

“I am a companion of all who fear You, and of those who keep Your precepts.” Psalm 119:63

David chose his friends wisely. A strong believer in God named Jonathan was David’s best friend. In 1 Samuel 19:1-2, we learn that Jonathan delighted greatly in David. He also warned David about his father’s intent to kill him. Jonathan was a loyal and reliable friend to David.

In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul warned them against forming friendships with certain kinds of people. In 1 Corinthians 5:11, he wrote, “Do not keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—do not even eat with such a person.” In 1 Corinthians 15:33, he wrote, “Do not be deceived: ‘Evil company corrupts good habits.’”

In Amos 3:3, the Lord asks us, “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?”

David gladly identified himself with anyone who feared the Lord, and so can we.

“The earth, O Lord, is full of Your mercy. Teach me Your statutes.” Psalm 119:64

God’s mercy is not limited to the land of Canaan, where He was known and worshiped, but extends throughout the entire world—even to places where He is ignored or rejected. [8] “He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

David wanted God to feed his soul with His statutes. He understood that his greatest need was divine instruction. Therefore, he asked God to teach him His Word. [9]

“Dear Heavenly Father, please graciously grant to each of us a heart that hungers and thirst for Your righteousness, and then, in Your mercy, please fill and leads us with Your Holy Spirit so that we walk with You. In Jesus’ Name, we pray, amen.”


[1] From Googles sources and Bible Gateway: “Psalm 119 is an acrostic poem. It contains 176 verses divided into 22 sections, with each section named after one of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Instead of just one line per letter, all eight verses in a given section begin with that specific letter. For example, verses 57–64 start with the ח HETH, and this exact pattern continues sequentially all the way through the final letter, Tau (ת).

חֶלְקִ֖י יְהוָ֥ה אָמַ֗רְתִּי לִשְׁמֹ֥ר דְּבָרֶֽיךָ׃
חִלִּ֣יתִי פָנֶ֣יךָ בְכָל־לֵ֑ב חָ֝נֵּ֗נִי כְּאִמְרָתֶֽךָ׃
חִשַּׁ֥בְתִּי דְרָכָ֑י וָאָשִׁ֥יבָה רַ֝גְלַ֗י אֶל־עֵדֹתֶֽיךָ׃
חַ֭שְׁתִּי וְלֹ֣א הִתְמַהְמָ֑הְתִּי לִ֝שְׁמֹ֗ר מִצְוֺתֶֽיךָ׃
חֶבְלֵ֣י רְשָׁעִ֣ים עִוְּדֻ֑נִי תּֽ֝וֹרָתְךָ֗ לֹ֣א שָׁכָֽחְתִּי׃
חֲצֽוֹת־לַ֗יְלָה אָ֭קוּם לְהוֹד֣וֹת לָ֑ךְ עַ֝֗ל מִשְׁפְּטֵ֥י צִדְקֶֽךָ׃
חָבֵ֣ר אָ֭נִי לְכָל־אֲשֶׁ֣ר יְרֵא֑וּךָ וּ֝לְשֹׁמְרֵ֗י פִּקּוּדֶֽיךָ׃
חַסְדְּךָ֣ יְ֭הוָה מָלְאָ֥ה הָאָ֗רֶץ חֻקֶּ֥יךָ לַמְּדֵֽנִי׃

Historically, each letter name corresponds to a concrete object. Over time, these pictures evolved into the letters used today. For example, ח HETH was the symbol for fence of hedge.

[2-9] Material developed, added to and edited from Matthew Henry’s Commentary