The Camel (Part 2)

In the Gimel stanza, verse 18 reminds us just how much we need the Lord to open our eyes so we may see. What hinders our eyes from the beauty of God's order is our rising pride that we are able to see without His help. We must daily remind ourselves that we were born blind people and will continue without the Lord's revelation in our hearts.

-Raquel

The Golden Alphabet
Exposition of Psalm 119:17-24
by Charles Spurgeon

Psalm 119:17-24
Deal bountifully with thy servant,
that I may live, and keep thy word.
Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold
wondrous things out of thy law.
I am a stranger in the earth:
hide not thy commandments from me.
My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath
unto thy judgements at all times.
Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed,
which do err from thy commandments.
Remove from me reproach and contempt;
for I have kept thy testimonies.
Princes also did sit and speak against me:
but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes.
Thy testimonies also are my delight
and my counselors.

18. “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.”

“Open thou mine eyes.” This is a part of the bountiful dealing which he
has asked for; no bounty is greater than that which benefits our person, our
soul, our mind, and benefits it in so important an organ as the eye. It is far
better to have the eyes opened than to be placed in the midst of the noblest
prospects and remain blind to their beauty. “That I may behold wondrous
things out of thy law.” Some men can perceive no wonders in the gospel,
but David felt sure that there were glorious things in the law: he had not
half the Bible, but he prized it more than some men prize the whole. He
felt that God had laid up great beauties and bounties in his word, and he
begs for power to perceive, appreciate, and enjoy the same. We need not
so much that God should give us more benefits, as the ability to see what
he has given.
The prayer implies a conscious darkness, a dimness of spiritual vision, a
powerlessness to remove that defect, and a full assurance that God can
remove it. It shows also that the writer knew that there were vast treasures
in the word which he had not yet fully seen, marvels which he had not yet
beheld, mysteries which he had scarcely believed. The Scriptures teem with
marvels; the Bible is wonder-land; it not only relates miracles, but it is itself
a world of wonders. Yet what are these to closed eyes? And what man can
open his own eyes, since he is born blind? God himself must reveal
revelation to each heart. Scripture needs opening, but not one half so much
as our eyes do; the veil is not on the book, but on our hearts. What perfect
precepts, what precious promises, what priceless privileges are neglected
by us, because we wander among them like blind men among the beauties
of nature, and they are to us as a landscape shrouded in darkness!
The Psalmist had a measure of spiritual perception, or he would never have
known that there were wondrous things to be seen, nor would he have
prayed, “Open thou mine eyes”; but what he had seen made him long for
a clearer and wider sight. This longing proved the genuineness of what he
possessed, for it is a test mark of the true knowledge of God that it causes
its possessor to thirst for deeper knowledge.
David’s prayer in this verse is a good sequel to verse 10, which
corresponds to it in position in its octave: there he said, “O let me not
wander”; and who so apt to wander as a blind man? and there, too, he
declared, “With my whole heart have I sought thee”; and hence the desire
to see the object of his search. Very singular are the interlacings of the
toughs of the huge tree of this psalm, which has many wonders even within
itself if we have opened eyes to mark them.