Read Psalm 119:153-160.
When we want to preserve something, we need ingredients that will act against decay: we pickle onions and cabbages in vinegar to keep them for long periods of time or we add sugar to fruit to make jams. Preservation, in cooking terms, requires additional ingredients to enhance the original item, which would not last long otherwise.
The psalmist prays twice in this stanza to be preserved, an ongoing theme and prayer within the psalm as a whole. He recognises that preservation, in a spiritual realm, requires the additional ‘ingredients’ only God can provide. ‘Preserve my life according to Your promise.’ (Ps 119:154) ‘Preserve my life, O Lord, according to Your love.’ (Ps 119:159)
God’s promises, Paul tells us, are always ‘YES’ in Christ (2 Cor 1:20). The psalmist has many other requests of God (‘look upon my suffering and deliver me… defend my cause and redeem me… see how I love Your precepts’ Ps 119:153, 154, 159), but each request is based upon the conviction of God’s goodness, compassion and faithfulness, ingredients which enable us to persevere through hostility, opposition and trials.
The psalmist is not impervious to the opposition he faces (‘I look on the faithless with loathing, for they do not obey Your word’ Ps 119:158). The steadfastness he displays despite persecution requires integrity and determination (Ps 119:157). But at the end of the day, the preservation is more dependent on God than it is on our own persistence or ability. ‘All Your words are true, all Your righteous laws are eternal’ (Ps 119:160), he concludes. Truth lasts. Jesus reminded the disciples just before He died that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). He is the One who keeps us from falling and is able to present us before God’s glorious presence without fault and with great joy. (Jude 1:24)