Psalm 119:58 NKJV
58
I entreated Your favor with my whole heart;
Be merciful to me according to Your word.
According to Your Word
My Notes
The Hebrew word for favor in this verse is פָּנִים pânîym (Strongs H6440), which is translated as “Your Face”
David is seeking the Lord in the most personal way possible, face to face. When we want to make sure we have someone’s attention, we try and look directly at them to see if they are paying attention to what we are asking. David also asks with his whole heart for mercy according to the Word of God.
How often do we come to the Lord as boldly as David did here? I believe it comes from David already realizing that the Lord knew what was on his heart, and to come to the Lord as earnestly as David did shows that he had received the Lord’s favor before and that David knew that what he was asking was according to the Word of God.
This is an example of how much we need to know the word of the Lord and to remember the times he has delivered us or others who have come to him with their hearts laid bare. Then we can have the confidence to know that when we come to the Lord earnestly and seek Him face to face, the Lord gives us the light of his presence and that He will not turn away from us in our need.
Note: Psalm 119 is an acrostic pattern. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet; each of the 22 sections is given a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and each line in that section begins with that letter. Today, we’re looking at verse 58, which is in the 8th section, which is called “Heth ח”. According to the hebrews4christians.com website has this letter is listed as “CHET where the NKJV lists it as “HETH”, the letter Heth ח is the 8th letter of the Aleph-Bet, having the numeric value of eight. The pictograph for Heth ח looks like a wall or fence, whereas the classical Hebrew script is constructed of the preceding two letters, Vav and Zayin, joined at the top with a thin connecting line.
Hebrewtoday.com lists this as the letter “HET” and has this to say:
The Hebrew letter Het is associated with a number of positive character traits. For example, the Hebrew word “hohma” (חוכמה), meaning “wisdom,” begins with the letter Het, as does the word “hasidut” (חסידות), which means “righteousness,” and “hen” (חן,) meaning “grace.” The numerical value of the letter Het is eight, which is often associated with super-spirituality or holiness, as it is one more than seven, which represents the holy realm of the Sabbath. When Jewish boys are circumcised and enter into their faith’s holy ancient covenant, it is commanded to be performed on the eighth day.
……..Bill
Commentaries:
Enduring Word
I entreated Your favor with my whole heart; be merciful to me according to Your word. Here, the psalmist understood both the urgency to seek and please God and the inability to completely do so.
i. The words translated Your favor are literally, “Your face.” To enjoy the face of God is to experience His favor. The psalmist here declares that he has sought the face of God.
ii. He sought the face of God with a sense of urgency, reflected in the words entreated and whole heart. The psalmist understood how important it was to seek the favor of God and to please Him with his life.
iii. He sought the face of God with a sense of inability, shown in the request be merciful to me. No matter how diligently the psalmist would seek after God and seek to please Him, he would always remain in need of mercy.
Be merciful to me according to Your word: This is a blessed and glorious apparent contradiction. The request for mercy is not based on it being a right or that he deserves it. The psalmist speaks as one who expects mercy according to the promise of God’s word.
i. While we have no natural right to mercy, there is a spiritual right to mercy for all who ask according to His promise.
(David Guzik)
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Matthew Henry
David, having in the foregoing verse reflected upon his covenants with God, here reflects upon his prayers to God and renews his petition. Observe,
1. What he prayed for. Having taken God for his portion, he entreated his favor, as one that knew he had forfeited it, was unworthy of it, and yet undone without it, but forever happy if he could obtain it. We cannot demand God’s favor as a debt, but must be humble suppliants for it, that God will not only be reconciled to us, but accept us and smile upon us. He prays, “Be merciful to me, in the forgiveness of what I have done amiss, and in giving me grace to do better for the future.”
2. How he prayed with his whole heart, as one that knew how to value the blessing he prayed for. The gracious soul is entirely set upon the favor of God, and is therefore importunate for it. I will not let thee go except thou bless me.
3. What he pleaded the promise of God: “Be merciful to me, according to thy word. I desire the mercy promised, and depend upon the promise for it.” Those that are governed by the precepts of the word and are resolved to keep them (v. 57) may plead the promises of the word and take the comfort of them.
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Charles Spurgeon
“I intreated thy favour with my whole heart.” A fully assured possession of God does not set aside prayer, but rather urges us to it; he who knows God to be his God will seek his face, longing for his presence. Seeking God’s presence is the idea conveyed by the marginal reading, “thy face, “and this is true to the Hebrew. The presence of God is the highest form of his favor, and therefore it is the most urgent desire of gracious souls: the light of his countenance gives us an antepast of heaven. O that we always enjoyed it! The good man entreated God’s smile as one who begged for his life, and the entire strength of his desire went with the entreaty. Such eager pleadings are sure of success; that which comes from our heart will certainly go to God’s heart. The whole of God’s favors are ready for those who seek them with their whole hearts.
“Be merciful unto me according to thy word.” He has entreated favor, and the form in which he most needs it is that of mercy, for he is more a sinner than anything else. He asks nothing beyond the promise, he only begs for such mercy as the word reveals. And what more could he want or wish for? God has revealed such an infinity of mercy in his word that it would be impossible to conceive of more. See how the Psalmist dwells upon favor and mercy; he never dreams of merit. He does not demand, but entreats; for he feels his own unworthiness. Note how he remains a suppliant, though he knows that he has all things in his God. God is his portion, and yet he begs for a look at his face. The idea of any other standing before God than that of an undeserving but favored one never entered his head. Here we have his “Be merciful unto me” rising with as much intensity of humble pleading as if he still remained among the most trembling of penitents.
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Albert Barnes
I entreated thy favor – Margin, as in Hebrew, “face.” That is, he prayed that God would lift upon him the light of his countenance; that he would not avert his face from him in anger.
With my whole heart – With sincere, undivided affections. See Psalms 119:2, Psalms 119:10, Psalms 119:34; Psalms 9:1.
Be merciful unto me according to thy word – See the notes at Psalms 119:41.
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John Gill
I entreated thy favour with [my] whole heart,…. Or, “thy face”; to see it; or thy presence, to enjoy it; to have communion with God, and the light of his countenance; than which nothing is more desirable and delightful to a gracious man: as also to be remembered with the special favor of God, in which is life; to have his love shed abroad in the heart; to have large views of interest in it, and to be rooted and grounded therein; and this the psalmist entreated, not in an hypocritical manner, but with all sincerity, heartiness, and affection, having tasted that the Lord was gracious. Or, “made thy face sick“; wearied him with supplications, gave him no rest until he obtained his request;
be merciful unto me, according to thy word: have compassion on me; sympathize with me in all my troubles; grant me fresh supplies of grace; and particularly show and apply thy pardoning grace and mercy to me, according to thy word of promise in the covenant of grace, in which provision is made for forgiveness of sins; see Psalm 51:1; Aben Ezra and Kimchi think reference is had to Exodus 33:19, but rather it is to 2 Samuel 12:13.
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Miscellaneous Comments
“I entreated thy favour,” or; I seek thy face. To seek the face is to come into the presence. Thus, the Hebrews speak when desirous of expressing that familiar intercourse to which God admits his people when he bids them make known their requests. It is truly the same as speaking face to face with God.—Franciscus Vatablus, 1545.
“I entreated thy favour with my whole heart“ I have often remarked how graciously and lovingly the Lord delights to return an answer to prayer in the very words that have gone up before him, as if to assure us that they have reached his ear, and been speeded back again from him laden with increase. “I entreated thy favour with my whole heart.” Hear the Lord’s answer to his praying people: “I will rejoice over them to do them good assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.”—Barton Bouchier.
“With my whole heart.” Prayer is chiefly a heart work. God heareth the heart without the mouth, but never heareth the mouth acceptably without the heart.—Walter Marshall.
“Be merciful unto me,” etc. He protested before that he sought the Lord with his whole heart, and now he prayeth that he may find mercy. So indeed it shall be; boldly may that man look for mercy at God’s hand who seeks him truly. Mercy and truth are wont to meet together, and embrace one another: where truth is in the soul to seek, there cannot but be mercy in God to embrace. If truth be in us to confess our sins and forsake them, we shall find mercy in God to pardon and forgive them.—William Cowper.
“According to thy word.” The Word of God may be divided into three parts; into commandments, threatenings, and promises; and though a Christian must not neglect the commanding and threatening word, yet if ever he would make the Word a channel for Divine comfort, he must study the promising word; for the promises are a Christian’s magna charta for heaven. All comfort must be built upon a Scripture promise, else it is presumption, not true comfort. The promises are pabulum fidei, et anima fidei, the food of faith, and the soul of faith. As faith is the life of a Christian, so the promises are the life of faith: faith is a dead faith if it hath no promise to quicken it. As the promises are of no use without faith to apply them, so faith is of no use without a promise to lay hold on.—Edmund Calamy.
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Cross-References
Psalm 119:2 (KJV)
2 Blessed are they that keep his testimonies,
And that seek him with the whole heart.
1 Kings 13:6 (KJV)
6 And the king answered and said unto the man of God, Intreat now the face of the Lord thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again. And the man of God besought the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored him again, and became as it was before.
Psalm 4:6 (KJV)
6 There be many that say, Who will shew us any good?
Lord, Lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.
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Closing Thoughts
You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, For in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength. Isaiah 26:3-4 NKJV
ח HETH – Hurrying to God with all my heart.
57
You are my portion, O Lord;
I have said that I would keep Your words.
58
I entreated Your favor with my whole heart;
Be merciful to me according to Your word.
59
I thought about my ways,
And turned my feet to Your testimonies.
60
I made haste, and did not delay
To keep Your commandments.
61
The cords of the wicked have bound me,
But I have not forgotten Your law.
62
At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You,
Because of Your righteous judgments.
63
I am a companion of all who fear You,
And of those who keep Your precepts.
64
The earth, O Lord, is full of Your mercy;
Teach me Your statutes.
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