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⁷³ Your hands have made and fashioned me;
    give me understanding that I may learn your commandments.
⁷⁴ Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice,
    because I have hoped in your word.
⁷⁵ I know, O Lord, that your rules are righteous,
    and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
⁷⁶ Let your steadfast love comfort me
    according to your promise to your servant.
⁷⁷ Let your mercy come to me, that I may live;
    for your law is my delight.
⁷⁸ Let the insolent be put to shame,
    because they have wronged me with falsehood;
    as for me, I will meditate on your precepts.
⁷⁹ Let those who fear you turn to me,
    that they may know your testimonies.
⁸⁰ May my heart be blameless in your statutes,
    that I may not be put to shame!

What do we expect the Lord to do in us and for us as we hear and obey his word? We have seen from the beginning of this Psalm that we are to expect blessing. But what does this look like? This section gives us an idea. 

In verse 73 we are reminded that the Lord who speaks in the Bible is the creator who made us. So his word truly is “the makers instructions” for how we are to live. No wonder that we are blessed if we listen and obey!

In verses 76 and 77 we see that we are to expect to feel the presence of the Lord as we hear and obey. God’s word - in particular his “steadfast love”, his covenant promises to us which are all fulfilled in Jesus - comfort us. We experience and know his mercy towards us as sinners who have found refuge in Christ. We delight (an emotional word) in God’s covenant revelation of himself and his ways (his ‘law”). 

There will also be an effect on other people as we hear and obey God’s word. Don’t underestimate the encouragement you are to other believers if you hear and obey God’s word (vs 74). We might think “I can’t do much. Life is so hard I’m barely keeping going, I don’t have any spare energy to help out at church, or do the kind of things I see others doing”. But if you are faithfully trusting and obeying the Lord when things are tough then other Christians see you and rejoice! A great testimony of the Lord turning a hard situation round is great to hear, but it’s even better to see the Lord’s power at work in enabling a Christian to keep going despite great hardships. Often they are the Christians with the greatest wisdom to share (vs 79). 

We can also expect that those who hate the Lord will be affected by our faithful obedience. In verse 78 the Psalmist talks about the insolent (those who have turned away from God’s word and hate the Psalmist) being put to shame. The world’s predictions about Christianity never prove true. Christian missionaries were driven out of China in the late 1940’s. When the country opened up again, the Chinese church was in a far healthier state than before! 

Finally in this section, we can also expect that this side of heaven we will not be satisfied. The Psalmist does not feel like he’s arrived (vs 80). If the Lord Jesus continued to learn obedience through his suffering, and grew in his knowledge of the Lord through his life, then how much more will we?