RESH
153 Consider my affliction and deliver me,
For I do not forget Your law.
154 Plead my cause and redeem me;
Revive me according to Your word.
155 Salvation is far from the wicked,
For they do not seek Your statutes.
156 Great are Your tender mercies, O Lord;
Revive me according to Your judgments.
157 Many are my persecutors and my enemies,
Yet I do not turn from Your testimonies.
158 I see the treacherous, and am disgusted,
Because they do not keep Your word.
159 Consider how I love Your precepts;
Revive me, O Lord, according to Your lovingkindness.
160 The entirety of Your word is truth,
And every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.
The combined merit and benefit of God’s Word as the exclusive nexus, or means, for attaining all that is necessary for life, both presently and in the hereafter, is underscored by the three-fold repetition in the “Resh” stanza of the phrase “revive me” (lit., “give me life”; 154b “according to Thy Word”; 156b “according to Thy ordinances”; 159b “according to Thy lovingkindness” [i.e., His paternal-covenantal faithfulness, as described and exemplified in His Word]), signifying the superlative—i.e., the most of something—the point being that God’s Word, consistent with its record and affirmation of God’s lovingkindness, is able to supply each of us with the utmost degree of life. — Wechsler, page 288.
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Neither suffering (v.153) nor fear (v.157) could weaken Messiah’s affection for the Bible, nor cause Him to swerve from its teaching. On the contrary He prayed that it might continually be the source of refreshment and strength to Him …
Only a sinless heart could say “I do not forget” (v.153), “I do not swerve” (v.157), and “Consider how I love Thy precepts” (v.159). In David’s lips such words would have been untrue, self-righteous, proud, and pharisaic; but no so in Messiah’s lips. — Williams, page 398.
