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This week our concept word is COMMANDMENTS. No fancy translation or deeper meaning needed here- it is as we read it.But I noticed something completely different in how pulling these verses out left the construction. It actually drew out the RELATIONSHIP between man and God. I'm going to try to keep this simple- forgive me if I don't- so what I will do is put the main point of each section in italics at the end of each.
What I am trying to say is that I found a "we do- He does" pattern in these verses. The first group hold in v7 starts with how the writer would not be ashamed to look into God's commandments IF he turned his ways to keep God's statutes. V10 goes on to say he sought God with a whole heart. So here's the idea- seeking and actively doing the things he's commanded. As a result, God keeps him from wandering off-track (v10), He doesn't hide His commandments from the seeker as He does from the wicked (v19), and He actively rebukes the "proud", who refuse to seek Him.
Point: If we choose to seek Him, He will guide us. But if in pride we refuse, He gives rebuke.
The second set starts with the writer's promise to "run in the way of Your commandments", a term that means gearing his life as a whole to following God. (v32) God's responses are to "enlarge his heart" (which I believer John Gill explains the best:
...with the knowledge of God, his word, ways, worship, and ordinances; with his love more fully made known, and with an increase of love to him; with the fear of him, and a flow of spiritual joy and peace; and when delivered from straits and difficulties, from weights and pressures, and everything that may hinder walking or running; and being in circumstances which may lead and encourage to the one as to the other...)
And to "make me walk in the path of Your commandments"( v 35)- which is different from "running in the way" in that while the running indicates a whole life change, the phrase for walking means each individual step in that life.
Point: If we make our life follow His commandments, He will help us with each step along the way.
The third group starts with a series of our acts: Delighting ourselves in His commands (v47), physical worship, as in the lifting up of hands to Him (v48), meditation (also v 48), and making haste (in other words, not hesitating) to keep the commandments (v60). These are all elements of PRAISE. God's response is one simple line from v 66- that God will teach the commands, and you will learn good judgment from them.
Point: Praise of God leads to Teaching good judgment to you.
Fourth group has the simple one liner on our end: Belief in God and His commands (also v66). The result from God is a series: He made us (v73), He gives understanding (also v 73), The commandments are faithful in other words, they reflect His faithfulness; v86), and that faithfulness is our help against persecution (also v86).
Point: Belief recognizes God is in control.
Fifth section is kind of a corrolary to this. In v96, the writer claims to have seen "the consummation of all perfection"; which means man's idea of perfection falls apart. He goes on to say that God's commandments are "exceedingly broad"; he's never seen them fail. And through them, and through seeing their permanance, he is "made wiser than all my enemies" (v98).
Point: Man's wisdom passes away; God's is eternal.
Finally, I found a whole list of "our part" verses that point to one thing. They are: Keeping the commandments repels evildoers (v115); His actions against lawbreakers make me love Your commandments (v126-7), actions that prove that we long for His commandments (v131), being overtaken by trouble and anguish (v 143), and finally having gone astray (v 176). All of which add up to one thing- we can feel as though we've been lost. But God responds in 3 ways: He is near (v151); He has salvation we can hope in (v166); and He will seek us like the 100th sheep (v176).
Point: Even when we feel lost, He's right there.
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