Walk in a Wide Place
Scripture Reading: Psalm 119:41-28
Spurgeon called Psalm 119 “The Golden Alphabet,” borrowing from the Germanic reference to it as “The Christian’s Golden A B C’s.” Each stanza of eight lines begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is hard to capture that acrostic form when translated from Hebrew to any other language. The translators helped us by putting the English form of the pronunciation of each Hebrew letter at the head of each stanza. This stanza begins with “waw.” That is the first letter of the first word of this stanza, found in verse 41.
Verse 45 has this wonderful phrase, as translated into English: I shall walk in a wide place…
What does the writer mean? Others have translated this as walk in liberty or walk freely. This place is a place where there are no limits, checks, or restraints on a man. A place where a man does as he pleases. He gets to this place of freedom and liberty after declaring, I will keep your law continually, forever and ever (verse 44), and follows it up by giving us the reason he is so confident in this liberty: for I have sought your precepts.
The Psalmist is speaking of gospel liberty. The power of the Cross of Christ, our Lord, removes the restraints of our sinful inclinations and passions. Christ breaks the power of canceled sin. He sets the captives free. Satan seeks to convince us that God intends to restrict us and enslave us by His law’s demands. He has used this deceptive ploy since man was first placed in the Garden and he slyly whispered in Eve’s ear, “God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Humanity believes the devil’s lie. It believes freedom is defined by breaking the bonds of God’s laws. It can’t see that it forges the chains of its enslavement to sin when it rebels against its rightful king. The Psalmist sees past this delusion. He sees that true freedom is found in ordering life according to God’s laws.
He declares I seek your precepts because that is his spiritual inclination, not a labored constraint. He seeks freedom and finds it in God’s word. The oft-quoted statement of Jesus: You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free, is more often than not misconstrued and misunderstood. While it might have a broad application, it is pointing us to Jesus, the gospel, and life under the Lordship of Christ. Jesus is the Truth that sets us free to walk in a wide place.
