These Wondrous Things!
"Open my eyes, that I may see
wondrous things from Your law."
Psalm 119: 18
Scholars call Psalm 119 a devotional acrostic. Psalm 119 has
176 verses extoling the beauty and merits of God’s Word. The
176 verses are grouped into 22 stanzas following the order of
the Hebrew alphabet.
Each verse in a stanza begins with the same Hebrew letter.
Verse 18 expresses the psalmist’s heart as a prayer: “Open
my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.”
What are these wondrous things? The psalmist may have used
Psalm 19:7-11 as motivation. This passage groups God’s Word
into six categories: law, testimony, statutes, commandments,
fear (one’s response to the Word), and judgments.
They're perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, true, and righteous. They
revive, make wise, give joy, give light, endure forever, and are most
precious. “And in keeping them there is great reward” (verse 11). No
wonder the author of Psalm 119 called them “wondrous things.”.
Use Psalm 119:18 as a prayer each time
you open God’s Word. Then look for the
wondrous things it contains.
"The Bible is God’s book,
not man’s book."
J. Gresham Machen
