His master’s voice

Your teachings are wonderful;
I obey them with all my heart.
The explanation of your teachings gives light, and brings wisdom to the ignorant.
In my desire for your commands
I pant with open mouth. (verses 129-131)

Read Psalm 119:129-136

The recording company His Master’s Voice (HMV) used as its logo the picture of a dog looking intently into the amplifying tube of an early-model record-player. The story behind the logo was that HMV recordings were so faithful to the original that a dog would recognise the voice of its master.

How do these verses put the believer into that picture? At first it seems obvious that the believer must be like the dog. ‘In my desire for your commands, I pant with open mouth’ sounds like a dog waiting for its master to throw the stick for it to fetch. So the believer, in this picture, waits on a command from the Lord. But try out this thought, that the believer is like the record-player, giving such a faithful rendition of the teachings of the Lord that anyone observing the believer’s life would think they had heard or seen God in action.

As with all the psalms, these verses find their true fulfilment in Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus, for so faithfully living out the will of God that, when I see and hear you, I see and hear God. Let your Spirit reproduce your life in me. Amen.

by Peter Pfitzner, in ‘Assurance for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2004)

Visit the Daily Devotion archives page.