Psalm 119 (3)

Musings on Psalm 119

Beth: Verses 9 - 16 (NASB)

How can a young man keep his way pure?
By keeping it according to Your word.

Peter links obedience to God’s Word to the process of the purification of our souls (1 Peter 1:22). Paul admonishes his readers in Corinth to cleanse themselves “from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1).

When we are obedient to Christ we travel the Way of Christ and the Way of Christ is holy and pure for that Way is Christ. Christ is to be our Way of life.

With all my heart I have sought You;
Do not let me wander from Your commandments.

Are we hungering and thirsting for righteousness (Matthew 5:6)? Are we asking, seeking, and knocking (Matthew 7:7 - 11)? When we place God’s Word at the center of our lives in Christ we can know the truth of Proverbs 6:22, “When you walk about, they will guide you, when you sleep they will watch over you; and when you awake they will talk to you.”

Here is a prayer for everyday, here is a prayer for every moment of every day, “Do not let men wander from Your commandments.”

Your word I have treasured in my heart,
That I may not sin against You.

Jesus teaches us that we cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). Proverbs 3:13 - 15 tells us that, “How blessed is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. For her profit is better than the profit of silver and her gain better than fine gold. She is more precious than jewels; and nothing you desire compares with her.
Long life is in her right hand; In her left hand are riches and honor.”

What does this look like in our lives? In our thoughts? Our hearts? What lives within our souls? What is our goal in life? Our treasure? Do we ponder the stock market? Do we meditate on the DOW Jones? Do we contemplate the next materialistic acquisition? Do we strive for recognition and attention? Do we desire to be the center of attention in the church?  What is the treasure of our heart - is it Christ and His Word or is it self?

In and of ourselves we do not have the capacity for holiness, for obedience, for faithful witness to Jesus Christ and the Gospel. As the Word of Christ lives in us richly, His Living Word, that Word which birthed us (1 Peter 1:23), forms us into the image of Christ and saves our souls (James 1:21), making us not just “hearers of the Word but also doers”.

Blessed are You, O Lord;
Teach me Your statutes.

Do our souls bless the Lord? The psalmist cries out, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name” (Psalm 103:1). While we ought to seek the blessings of God, we ought also to live lives of blessing God. David writes (Psalm 34:1), “I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul will make its boast in the LORD; the humble will hear it and rejoice.”

Our souls naturally turn inward on themselves, we are naturally black holes seeking to draw all things into ourselves - this leads to death; our souls die when they are turned inward, our hearts and minds are poisoned. Jesus Christ delivers us from the gravity of sin and death and selfishness. As we seek the Face of God we are delivered from ourselves and are set free to serve God and others.

Another prayer to pray throughout the day is, “Teach me Your statutes.” We ought not to be so foolish as to think we understand His statutes by simply observing the “letter of the Law” or tradition or the natural understanding of His Word. The Word of God can only be revealed by the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians Chapter 2), and it is only as our minds are enlightened by the Holy Spirit that we can begin to “see” His Word - and to “see” His Word is to see the unfolding glory of Jesus Christ.

With my lips I have told of
All the ordinances of Your mouth.

In the Great Commission Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...teaching them to observe all that I commanded you…” (Matthew 28:19 - 20). Jesus says that “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My Words...the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him…”(Mark 8:38). Do we carefully select what to teach and what not to teach? Do we conveniently skip over passages of the Bible that might offend others? That make us uncomfortable? Are people in our congregations being taught “all” that Jesus commands us? Do we skip over sections of the Bible in our reading and study? Are we “marketing Jesus” in our image?

The preaching of the Cross is foolishness to the world, and it is very offensive (1 Corinthians 1:18 - 31; Galatians 6:11 - 18). We often “market Jesus” to remove the offense; we say we do it in the interest of attracting others to Jesus, and yet the Scriptures tell us that the message of the Cross is offensive. We market Jesus so as not to offend our pride and the pride of those we want to attract - and yet pride is a central problem in our lives, and pride (in the Biblical sense) is a deadly sin - it is at the core of our sin and rebellion.

The Cross shatters sinful pride and leads us to repentance; only the Holy Spirit can reveal our pride, only the Holy Spirit can bring us to the Christ of the Cross - and the Holy Spirit does this as we are faithful in teaching all  that Jesus commands us, as we proclaim all the ordinances of His mouth.

We may say that we are being considerate of others when we fail to proclaim all that Jesus commands, but that is an exercise in self-deception; if we love others we will tell them the truth, if we egotistically love ourselves we will avoid the offense of the Cross. If we love others we will compassionately teach all that Jesus commands. How many people are there in our congregations who have not been taught all that Jesus commands?

I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies,
As much as in all riches.

David writes (Psalm 4:7), “You have put gladness in my heart, more than when their grain and new wine abound.” We live in a society that worships success and the accumulation of “things”. We abound with American idols, we endorse them, we want our children to become idols of success and popularity. Our churches often support our idolatry - we do not pay attention to the humble, to the poor in spirit or in wealth - we will advertise that a CEO is speaking at a church function, or a sports star, or a famous actor - but do we ever advertise that a janitor is speaking or a grandmother who has spent her life on a farm?

If we won the lottery would we tell our friends? If a relative died and left us a fortune would we tell our friends? What causes us to rejoice? What causes us to have a bounce in our step and a vibrancy in our voice? Ought it not to be the Word of God? Where is our joy? Where is our excitement?

I will meditate on Your precepts
And regard Your ways.

Psalm One reminds us that we are to meditate in the Law of God day and night; our meditation in the Word is to be the foundation of our life in Christ, our roots are to sink deep into the soil of the Word, we are to draw our sustenance from the Word. The weeds of the world seek to smother the Word of the Kingdom (Mark 4:18 - 19). We grow in Christ as we allow the Holy Spirit to weed our souls and as we cultivate the Word. Weeding is as much a part of gardening as watering and pruning and fertilizing.

Our minds are transformed as we behold Jesus Christ and His Word (Romans 12:1-2; 2 Corinthians 3:12 - 18). The thoughts we think and the images we ponder, the messages we consider, are all shaping our hearts and minds and souls one way or another. We are either pondering the Word of God or the words and images of this age, an age that is passing away. We are either regarding the ways of God, which is the Way of God (Jesus Christ); or we are regarding the ways of a world that is lying to us and denying who God is and who we really are. The world professes to be wise, and it it is a fool; those who follow Christ may appear to be fools, but the Lord they serve is anything but a fool. God gives enough light so that those who seek Him will find Him, and He gives enough darkness so that those who do not seek Him will not find Him.

Shall we regard of ways of the all-wise God? Or shall we regard the ways of a world which cares nothing for us?

I shall delight in Your statutes;
I shall not forget Your word.

Where is our delight? Is it our intention not to forget His Word? Is this our confession today? What shall we do today, what shall we practice in our lives so that we shall not forget His Word?

Jesus says (Matthew 13:12), “For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.”

Roots of Death (2)

I mentioned in my previous post that I disinfected my shovel, loppers, and gloves after digging out and disposing the diseased roots of our Japanese privet. There was one other item that I disinfected - my shoes. My shoes had touched the roots, my shoes had been in the diseased soil.

Paul writes (Ephesians 6:15), concerning our spiritual warfare and the armor of God, that we are to have our feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. This is a reference to Isaiah 52:7, “How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation, and says to Zion, Your God reigns!” (Paul also quotes Isaiah 52:7 in Romans 10:15.)

Paul’s thought in Ephesians is that we be well-shod and ever ready to share the Good News of God in Christ reconciling us to Himself and making a way for us to have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1 - 11). But how can we share the Gospel of peace if we are not peaceable? How can we share the Gospel of the Prince of Peace if the Prince of Peace does not rule and reign within us?

We can be technically and philosophically and theologically “right” but if we share the Gospel in the wrong way we are wrong. If we lead angry lives how can we share the peace of Christ? If our hearts and minds are oceans of anger how can we share the love and compassion of Jesus in the Gospel? If our marriages are more akin to combat than mutual love and caring and deference how can we touch others with the peace of God?

Most of us give some thought, even if it is casual thought, to the shoes we wear everyday. We do not want to wear mismatched shoes - one black and one brown, we don’t wear one running shoe and one dress shoe. We normally want to wear shoes that match our clothes in some way. When we work in the garden we don’t wear dancing shoes; when we dance we don’t wear work boots.

If we do not leave our homes without thinking about the shoes we wear, how much more ought we not to leave our homes without prayerfully putting our feet into shoes of the Gospel of peace? How much more ought we to put our feet into these Gospel shoes as our feet hit the floor first thing in the morning? If we live with others ought we not to greet them in the morning with our feet in Gospel shoes? If we see our neighbors in the morning ought they not to find us wearing these shoes? As we drive to work ought not we to be wearing these shoes as our feet press the accelerator and apply the brakes?

We will walk in poisonous soil during the day and we must continually trust Christ to cleanse our minds, our hearts, our feet (John 13); we must prayerfully meditate on God’s Word (Psalm 1) lest we participate in the poison of our angry and vitriolic society, and lest we spread that poison to others.

Everyday we will be spreading something to others, will it be poison derived from roots of death, or will it be the Good News of peace in Jesus Christ?

Roots of Death

Yesterday I removed branches from our Japanese privet, then I carefully carried the branches to our brush pile in the woods, making sure that they didn’t touch any other plants or trees as I carried them - even though the disease isn’t carried in the leaves or branches I didn’t want to take any chances. Then I dug the roots up and put them in a large plastic garbage bag, tying the bag tightly and putting it in our garbage container. I made sure that I got all the roots, including small pieces. I checked the soil multiple times to ensure there were no remaining roots or pieces of roots...no matter how small.

Then I disinfected the shovel and loppers I used. Then I disinfected my gloves.

You see our privet has black root rot, a disease that is incurable. It manifested itself when sections of the privet starting turning brown and dying. I took clippings of the plant to the county extension service for analysis and they gave me the bad news. While the disease doesn’t infect all types of plants, it does infect boxwood - since we have boxwood ten feet from the privet I need to be careful when I move the privet debris.

The extension agent was emphatic that any tools used in the removal process must be sanitized with Lysol or they would transmit the disease to other plants and soil. The soil the privet was planted in should be sanitized - he gave us the names of some products to use.

While not all privet is susceptible to black root rot, Japanese privet is susceptible and the extension service does not recommend planting it. Our privet has been fine for years, whoever planted it didn’t know its susceptibility to the disease, and for years it was healthy; but now it must be eradicated and other plants must be protected from it. Things that look good may not always be good, and things that look good may carry inherent dangers.

Are there things in my life that are diseased? Are there roots that ought to be dug out, soil that should be sanitized? Are there things in my life that can carry disease into the lives of others? What is in my mind? My heart? What do my words carry?

“Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
And see if there be any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.” Psalm 139:23 - 24

Psalm 119 (2)

Musings on Psalm 119;

Aleph. Verses 1 - 8 (NASB)

How blessed are those whose way is blameless,
Who walk in the law of the Lord.

Of course there is only One Whose Way is Blameless, but in Him we rest in His righteousness and we learn, by His grace and the Holy Spirit, to live as He lives. For those who follow Him, our Lord Jesus, He is our Way and He is blameless. Just as our Lord Jesus delights to do the will of God our Father, so He teaches us to delight in doing the will of God. As the Apostle John writes, if we say we abide in Him then we ought to live as He lives - and indeed we can do so as He lives in us. Just as doing the will of the Father was sustenance for Jesus, so we learn in Christ to live by our Father’s will, we learn to walk in His Word, in His law.

How blessed are those who observe His testimonies,
Who seek Him with all their heart.

Jesus teaches that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled, and He teaches us to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all other things will be added to us. When we drive on our nation’s highways we observe traffic signs and signals, how much more ought we to observe the testimonies of our God as we travel the road of life?

They also do no unrighteousness;
They walk in His ways.

As John makes clear in his first epistle, the follower of Jesus Christ does not make sin the pattern of his life; we learn in Christ to live in His light and life and as we do so His blood cleanses us from all sin. When we sin we confess our sins and we know that Christ is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (see 1 John chapters 1 & 2).

You have ordained Your precepts,
That we should keep them diligently.

Psalm 19 dovetails nicely with Psalm 119 - in God’s Word we find life; we ought to seek them, to meditate on them, to dig deep into them. If treasure hunters dig deep into the earth for jewels and gold, how much more ought we do dig down deep in God’s Word to find the treasure that surpasses all that we can imagine. In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians Chapter Two) - what we find on the surface is only the beginning - who will dig down deep and then dig more, and more - discovering the riches of Jesus Christ?

Oh that my ways may be established
To keep Your statutes!

Here is a prayer that ought to be continually on our lips - that we might live lives of obedience to our heavenly Father, not being afraid or ashamed to be identified with our Lord Jesus as we follow Him in His Word. Consider the wise and foolish men of Matthew Chapter 7 - one builds his house on the sand, the other on the rock; this is the difference between a person who hears the Word of God but does not obey, and the one who obeys the Word in response to hearing. It is the obedient woman or man who will be established in Christ.

Then I shall not be ashamed
When I look upon all Your commandments.

There is pressure in the world, and in much of the professing church, to conform to the expectations of society, to take the easy way  out, to play to popular opinion rather than follow the commandments of God. Jesus says that He will acknowledge those who are not ashamed of Him (Mark Chapter 8), but that He will not acknowledge those who are ashamed of Him and His words. How many closet Christians are there? Not only in the public sphere, but even in the professing church? After all, who wants to be accused of making too much of religion? Who wants to be accused of seeking to learn the way of holiness? Peer pressure is real. Society’s disapproval is real. Even the church’s disapproval of those who seek to follow Jesus can be real. There is a shame and reproach associated with Jesus Christ and His Cross, as the writer of Hebrews says, let’s go outside the camp bearing His reproach.

I shall give thanks to You with uprightness of heart,
When I learn Your righteous judgments.

Shall we have joy in learning His judgments? His judgments will conform our hearts to His image. Without His Law, His Word, His precepts, His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments our hearts are bent and deformed, left to ourselves our hearts turn inward upon ourselves. Only the Word of God in Christ Jesus can cause broken men and women and children to stand upright, only Christ can teach us uprightness of heart. As God in Christ restores His image in us it is right that we should give thanks and praise Him - for once we were blind but now we see; once we were dead but now we are alive in Christ.  

I shall keep Your statutes;
Do not forsake me utterly!

Our desire is to keep God’s Word, but in and of ourselves we cannot do so, it is only as God’s grace works within us in Christ that we are able to desire Him and to keep His statutes. Let us never be so foolish to think that in and of ourselves we can produce an ounce of obedience - that is a fool’s thought. Just as our entrance into the Kingdom of God was initiated and consummated by Christ, in Christ, and through Christ; so our daily lives are completely dependent on Jesus Christ. Let us not be as the foolish Galatians (Galatians Chapter 3) who thought than having begun in the Spirit that they would then seek perfection in and of themselves. There is no breath that we breathe that is not dependent on the grace of God in Christ. There is no obedient response to God within us that is not utterly dependent on the Holy Spirit. As the Trinity lives within us, as the Word of the Trinity makes its home within us - we live unto the Trinity, in the Trinity, and through the Trinity. We have the promise of Jesus that He will be with us, even to the end of the age.

Psalm 119 (1)

Psalm 119 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Aleph. Verses 1 - 8

How blessed are those whose way is blameless,
Who walk in the law of the Lord.
How blessed are those who observe His testimonies,
Who seek Him with all their heart.
They also do no unrighteousness;
They walk in His ways.
You have ordained Your precepts,
That we should keep them diligently.
Oh that my ways may be established
To keep Your statutes!
Then I shall not be ashamed
When I look upon all Your commandments.
I shall give thanks to You with uprightness of heart,
When I learn Your righteous judgments.
I shall keep Your statutes;
Do not forsake me utterly!

This, the longest psalm in the Bible, and indeed the longest “chapter” in the Bible (remember that the original Biblical texts did not have chapters and verses), is certainly The Psalm of the Word of Yahweh (Yahweh is the covenant name of God and is typically translated into English “LORD” - all caps; there are exceptions, if you see GOD capitalized then that is usually Yahweh or Yah).

It has 22 sections with each section corresponding to a consecutive letter in the Hebrew alphabet; there are other structures in the psalm but that is beyond the scope of this meditation, as are conjectures regarding its author and time and place.

There is no substitute for reading this psalm at one sitting, it reinforces the Presence of the Word of God and the center of gravity that the Word should have in our souls. There have been a time or two when I have broken up my reading of Psalm 119, for instance, I may have spread it out over a week. My experience has been that this practice lacks the richness and depth of taking the entire journey at one sitting; but of course this is just me and perhaps if I were to read the psalm more frequently I would benefit more from shorter readings.

Some might say that there is unnecessary redundancy in the psalm, with themes repeated again and again. This is the observation of those who think the Bible is a data bank and that their relationship with it is geared to obtaining information - this is an error. The same complaint might be lodged against the book of Proverbs and the first epistle of John in the NT. The Scriptures are God’s self-disclosure to us, they are God’s invitation to us to listen to Him, to watch for Him, and to respond to Him in prayer and obedience. If we listen to a symphony and discern a motif, a texture, a recurring point and counterpoint, we do not leave the audience and say, “I don’t need to hear anymore, I know the composer’s pattern”; no, we stay and allow ourselves to be drawn into the music and its patterns as the composer and the conductor and the musicians escort us on a journey.

Perhaps these first 8 verses are an overture, perhaps they set the stage for what is to follow.

What do you see in these 8 verses? Do you see a similarity between them and Psalm 1?

What themes are introduced in this first movement of 8 verses?

All Breathed By Thee