“Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.”
My Notes
What Does Psalms 119:18 Mean?
The psalmist prays the simplest possible prayer for illumination: "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." The eyes need opening. The law contains wonders. The wonders are invisible without the opening. The prayer connects divine action (open my eyes) with human reception (I behold wonders) through a specific medium (thy law).
The word "open" (galah — to uncover, to reveal, to strip away the covering) treats the eyes as covered — veiled, hidden, blocked by something that prevents clear vision. The prayer asks God to remove the covering. The problem isn't the absence of light. It's the presence of a veil. The wonders are in the law. The eyes are covered. God's uncovering is what connects the two.
The "wondrous things" (niphla'oth — extraordinary, miraculous, surpassing human understanding) are already in the law. The prayer doesn't ask God to put wonders into the law. It asks God to reveal wonders already there. The law contains miracles the psalmist hasn't seen yet — not because they're absent but because the eyes aren't open enough to perceive them.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What 'veil' over your eyes might be preventing you from seeing wonders already in Scripture?
- 2.How does the prayer asking God to reveal (not add) teach about what Scripture already contains?
- 3.What has changed in your perception of familiar Bible passages when your eyes were suddenly 'opened'?
- 4.Do you pray for illumination before reading Scripture — and what would that change?
Devotional
Open my eyes. So I can see what's already in your law. The wonders are there. My vision is blocked. The prayer asks for one thing: the removal of whatever prevents me from seeing what you've already put in your word.
The eyes need opening — which means they're currently closed. Not physically blind but spiritually veiled. You can read the words of the law without seeing the wonders in the law. The text is accessible. The wonders within it aren't — until God opens the eyes. The same Bible you've read a hundred times contains things you've never seen. Not because they weren't there but because your eyes weren't open.
The 'wondrous things' are already present in the law. The prayer doesn't ask God to add content to Scripture. It asks God to reveal what Scripture already contains. The treasure is buried in the field you walk across every day. The diamonds are in the ground you've been standing on. The wonders are in the law you've been reading. What's missing isn't content. It's perception.
The uncovering (galah) treats the eyes as veiled — something between your vision and the text's content that prevents the full picture from being seen. The veil could be familiarity (you've read it so many times it's become invisible), assumption (you think you already know what it says), distraction (your mind is elsewhere when your eyes are on the text), or spiritual condition (the veil Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 3:15). Whatever the covering, the prayer asks God to remove it.
This should be your prayer before every encounter with Scripture: open my eyes. The wonders are there. I can't see them yet. Remove the veil. Let me behold what you placed in the text before I was born — the wondrous things that have been waiting for my eyes to be opened.
What wonder in God's law have you been missing because your eyes haven't been opened?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
My soul breaketh for the longing,.... His heart was just ready to break, and his soul fainted; he was ready to die,…
Open thou mine eyes - Margin, “Reveal.” So the Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate. The Hebrew word means to be naked; then…
Observe here, 1. That there are wondrous things in God's law, which we are all concerned, and should covet, to behold,…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture