Psalm 119:20 | “My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times.”

The Hebrew verb translated “consumed,” garas, carries the sense of being worn down, ground away, or languishing. The psalmist’s very soul is worn thin with longing for the guidance and hope found in God’s word. Spurgeon writes, “The desires of gracious men after holiness are intense, they cause a wear of heart, a straining of the mind, till it feels ready to snap with the heavenly pull. A high value of the Lord’s commandment leads to a pressing desire to know and to do it, and this so weighs upon the soul that it is ready to break in pieces under the crush of its own longings. What a blessing it is when all our desires are after the things of God. We may well long for such longings.” The psalmist aches to know what God desires of him and what God will do on his behalf. As Willem VanGemeren notes in his commentary, “The word of God is the psalmist’s comfort because of the close connection between the Lord and his word.” To hunger for Scripture, then, is to hunger for God himself.