|
25 Dejected, my soul clings to the dust;
revive me according to Your word! 26 Disclosing my ways I spoke; and You answered me; teach me Your statutes! 27 Discipleship in Your precepts, make me to understand; and I will meditate on Your wondrous works. 28 Dissolving for sorrow is my soul; strengthen me according to Your word! 29 Deceitful ways put far from me and graciously teach me Your law! † 30 Discipleship of faithfulness I have chosen; Your ordinances I set before me. 31 Devotedly I cling to Your testimonies, O LORD; let me not be put to shame! 32 Discipleship to Your commandments I will pursue, when You enlarge my heart! ד (DALETH) – Part 1 Verses 25-28 “The Struggle of Discipleship” “Come, follow Me” He says and calls us to turn away from the things of this world. And no matter how glorious is the turning toward, with all the promises, glory, forgiveness, life . . .; still the turning away is hard. It will involve “Thy will be done” and it will include the breaking and hindering of my will – not only the things of this earth; also the heart of this earth. My soul clings to the dust with a love for the dust and trouble letting go of the dust. I am dejected, disappointed, and hoped for better of myself. Revive me Lord. Give me life again! Give me that life that comes only from You, because that is the only life that endures forever. Give me life by Your living Word. And so I empty my soul, bringing my confession of who I am and how I am. Taught by Your word I learn the truth about me and I say it to You, no matter how painful it is . . . and You answer! You speak the truth about Yourself as the Savior, the Good Shepherd, the Lamb of God; and about me as Your own, bought with the price of Your own blood. These are the statutes – the truths that You are writing into the whole creation, making the whole creation new. Teach me these, for as You teach them my soul hungers for them – indeed I find a new hunger for them as I learn them; and the more I learn them the more I hunger for them. And this is how You call me into discipleship: “Discipleship in Your precepts” (v. 27); “discipleship of faithfulness” (v. 30); and “discipleship to Your commandments” (v. 32). First is “discipleship in Your precepts” and v. 27 speaks of it with longing – “make me to understand.” God’s precepts are His teachings of what should be in His universe, in the world and in life. They have to do with wondrous things, with the amazing acts of God, creation by His word; and then salvation through His blood! The psalmist calls out in prayer that his soul may meditate on what God does, looking to God’s works and not to the things of dust. We want to have our heart and soul focused on the acts of God and not distracted by the many lures of the world that are nothing by dust and must return to dust. But we find ourselves wandering and unable to walk as disciples with the dedication and spiritual vision we long for; so in our soul there is sorrow – “dissolving for sorrow,” and then the cry comes forth again, “strengthen me!” Strengthen how? The only way possible – again and again the same answer – by the Word, in the Word, according to the Word! And the hunger becomes deeper and deeper for the words and promises of God. Without them we have no strength. They are our life because those words and promises are entirely bound up in the person of Jesus and He is our life! He is God’s “Yes” and God’s “Amen” to us. What is the reason why discipleship in God’s precepts is this – this focus on His works and being given strength from His Word in the path of discipleship? Simply this: It was the path and walk of Jesus. With His eyes set on the plan of God, drawing His strength from the words and promises of God, He is the Great Disciple. He is “the faithful witness” (Revelation 1:5) who speaks what He hears from His Father, and does what He has learned to do from His Father. (Jesus talks about His relationship with His Father and uses words of discipleship in detail in John chapter 5 and then all the way through the rest of John, to Easter) The prayer life of Jesus is described in Isaiah 50:4-7. He talks about the “instructed tongue” and says “He awakens My ear to hear as those who are taught.” The Savior took His place under the word of God – day by day, as He did in the 40 days of fasting and prayer, saying “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4) He took that place of prayer so that He could sustain the weary “with a word”. (Isaiah 50:4) The work and the teachings of Jesus come from that deep relationship with His Father through Scripture and prayer. Therefore His face was set on the path of our salvation. Prayer: Lord, call to me. Call to my soul through Your word. Call to my heart through Your promises, and lead me away from the things of dust. As You have walked the road, teach me the path of discipleship – to follow You, to seek and hold to the things of eternity. They are the treasure You have won and earned and given to me; and for them I praise You. Amen. 21 Cursed, insolent ones You rebuke; who wander from Your commandments.
22 Contempt and scorn take away from me, for Your testimonies I have kept. 23 Crowned princes even, conspiring against me, still Your servant will meditate on Your statutes. 24 Cherished indeed are Your testimonies to me;they are my counselors. Verses 21-24 “My Hope in a Foreign World” We are connected again in Christ. We have life. We belong to God. But we still live as strangers in this world. We cannot get away from that. In fact, belonging to God means we are even more strangers here. Around us there are those that the psalm calls “insolent,” and they have things to say, insults to fling, and things to do. We find this out when we dare to talk about right and wrong (God’s commandments, and especially in our day the commandment about morality); or about Jesus as the only way of salvation. Whether we are new to the faith or have many years as Christians we want to tell about Jesus. But the message about salvation in Jesus often is greeted with contempt and scorn. Sometimes it is outright rejection, or else an impatient “we’re tired of hearing about Jesus.” We really are strangers here! The Christian and his faith is mocked. And talked about. And things happen: in school; at work; in our other relationships. As a pastor friend once said, “They hate you because of your good character.” What do we do? How do we face this? God answers with a warning and a promise. (Law and Gospel.) God rebukes the insolent, the ones who wander away, who disregard His commandments. There are those who say God’s opinion of right and wrong just does not matter. “The Lord does not see.” The Lord does not hear. The Lord will not act. (Psalm 94:7) Their turning away is not even a questioning; but rather a “who cares.” Right and wrong don’t count. And they don’t just leave God; they abandon what they are made to be – moral and spiritual beings. Pride against God turns into something strange, and we hear them teaching that we are nothing but smart animals. It has turned upside-down and the self-degrading is stunning. But this is the fall and this is the curse, and we are all caught in it. It is a contempt, a scorn and a rebuke we have all deserved. How can we find our way free of this? It is Jesus! Again the answer is found only in the one who has taken the scorn and contempt on Himself. He was talked about, ridiculed as out of his mind, plotted against, and for Him it was the rulers, all who had power. But even more, Jesus took on Himself the scorn and condemnation that was hanging over us. A part of the suffering of the cross, was the shame of the cross. Judged and condemned by the earthly authorities, He was also judged and forsaken by God the Father. He presented Himself before His Father with all the sins of the whole human race, and accepted the shame and condemnation that went with it. The verse in the Old Testament says, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” and that verse was prepared for Jesus. So Paul says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” (Galatians 3:13) He has lifted off of us the rebuke and the shame and carried it away so we may be free forever. (John 8:36) Lord, because You have taken this contempt, rebuke and curse away; help me then to bear the contempt and scorn that comes from belonging to You. Even if the high and mighty, the cool and popular in this world conspire to shame, call me Your own and it is enough. With that in mind the psalmist holds to the words and promises of God. He keeps the “testimonies,” the story of God’s saving work in Christ, because in Jesus we have all the riches of God promised and given. He meditates on God’s statutes – how God has set up and put together the world. He turns them over and over in his mind remembering the promise to come, “Behold, I make all things new (Revelation 21:5), that even now everything is being made over and recreated, founded on the cross of Jesus and His empty tomb. “God has exalted Him to the highest place and given Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow . . . and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” (Philippians 2:9-11) But He is exalted and everything is built around Him because He took the lowest place, because Jesus “became obedient unto death, even death on the cross”. (Philippians 2:8) This is the way Jesus walked, holding to the testimonies, the plan and story of salvation. As the psalmist, and as we treasure the testimonies and meditate on the statutes, we are doing nothing else than hearing His voice calling and saying, “Follow Me,” and knowing our Shepherd has called us. His voice tells us of salvation. His testimonies lead us. His teachings are our counselors. And how do we see them but to cherish these words of life. In this dark world; in this strange and alien place they connect us with life and truth; and with who we are in Christ. Prayer: Lord Jesus, Good Shepherd, be with me in this world where it is so often hard to follow You and stand for what is right. Give me courage by Your Gospel, by Your walk of faith and by the promise of Your cross and empty tomb. Let Your words take such deep root in my heart that they may guide me in every place and in every situation to live as Your disciple. Amen. 17 Charitably deal with Your servant, that I may live and observe Your word.
18 Clear-sighted make my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Your law.† 19 Cast off; I am a sojourner on the earth; hide not Your commandments from me! 20 Consumed is my soul with longing all the time for Your ordinances. 21 Cursed, insolent ones You rebuke; who wander from Your commandments. 22 Contempt and scorn take away from me, for Your testimonies I have kept. 23 Crowned princes even, conspiring against me, still Your servant will meditate on Your statutes. 24 Cherished indeed are Your testimonies to me; they are my counselors. ג (GIMMEL) – Part 1 Verses 17-20 “Keeping it Real” For the new Christian when it gets difficult, everything should be blessing and delight. The heart is reconciled. Sins forgiven. All is founded and built on the Mighty Acts of God in Jesus. Why must the psalmist cry out? How can it be that God should seem distant? But that is where he finds himself, so much that he calls to God to deal charitably or he will not even survive. And there is an added desire woven in with the basic cry – “and observe Your word.” Life is not simply to continue breathing and having a heartbeat. It is to be connected to God through His word. Going one step deeper, it is an interesting phrase “observe Your word.” It goes beyond hearing the word of God; works out from believing God’s word; develops even beyond meditating on God’s word. It means to look, watch, trust, and see with eyes of faith as God’s word works into and changes every part of life, as every bit of history is taken captive by the kingdom and plan of God. To see that by faith calls for more faith and a different vision than any of us can bring. “Charitably deal with Your servant.” We might think of Peter in Matthew 16 suddenly seeing, “You are the Christ,” and Jesus saying, “Blessed are you Simon . . . flesh and blood have not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” Even more to the point, think of Jesus in the garden praying, “Father, if it is possible [and the answer is, “No”] let this cup pass [again, “no”], yet not my will, but Yours.” “Let Me live and see Your word acting, conquering, victorious.” But there is only one way for that to happen and it is the cross. Isaiah 53 says, “Because He poured out His soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors.” (v. 12) Because of that He will live and observe “Your word.” Again, “out of the anguish of His soul He shall see and be satisfied.” (v. 11) In this way Jesus has joined us in our separation, our sojourning – to find us, to meet us and to bring us back by showing us that He knows our cry and makes it His own. Verse 18 repeats the prayer slightly changed to open it up even more. “Clear-sighted make my eyes.” If God does not do this, if the Holy Spirit does not guide and open these things to us there is no way we can see any of the acts of God or any of His Word, or grasp any of the revelation (Torah) of God. (Verses 19-20) This is the only answer we have in our wandering. For all those times we feel cast off (and they are many), or a sojourner (wandering without plan or home), when the word of God seems closed and we call out for a word, a commandment, a revelation – for anything! When we are overtaken with longing and it gets to the point where it seems to be “all the time,” there is the Sojourner of God, the Lamb forsaken, the Servant (“Behold My Servant!” (1)) struck down. And He is there to bring the charitable dealing – the GRACE (2) of God with the wonderful “It is finished,” and we are connected again! Prayer: Lord Jesus, You came to me in my wandering, bearing my burdens and meeting me in the place of separation. When God seems distant, when heaven seems closed, remind me of Your sojourning, of Your walk of faith, of Your prayer in the garden, and how You know all that is in my soul. Help me when I am in the middle of things I do not understand – help me then to lean on You and know that no matter what anything seems or feels like; You are my Lamb forsaken and my companion in my journey every day and every hour. Amen. Notes: 1 For further reading: The Servant Songs of Isaiah show us Jesus as the suffering Savior. Piece by piece His ministry is revealed through: Isaiah 42:1-9 – the Servant will bring salvation to the world. Isaiah 42:18-21 – the Servant must walk by faith, not by sight, and so exalt the words and promises of God. Isaiah 44:1-5 – the Servant brings together all the Old Testament purposes of God and sends His people out as witnesses to the world. Isaiah 49:1-13 – the Servant, sent first to the people of Israel, has His mission expanded to the whole world. Isaiah 50:4-9 – the Servant draws His strength from the word of God in order to comfort and encourage, and in order to face the suffering that is involved in bringing us salvation. Isaiah 52:13-53:12 – the Servant goes to suffering for our forgiveness. Isaiah 61:1-3 – this is the preaching of the Servant, as preached in the Synagogue at Nazareth, and it describes the results of His ministry. 2 GRACE = God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense 13 By my lips I declare
all the just decrees of Your mouth. 14 Blissful, I exult in the way of Your testimonies as over all riches. 15 Bound to Your precepts I meditate and I fix my eyes on Your ways. 16 Boundlessly I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word. Verses 13-16 “Celebrating Blessings” It comes out of the deep relationship (the deep connection) with God. It comes to us through His words and promises. And remember that the Word of God became flesh, and in Him are gathered all the promises of God. Out of this comes the celebration and praise. Jesus said to His disciples on the way to the cross, “I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” (John 16:22) It is a joy founded and built on the work of Jesus. So: By my lips I declare Blissful I exult I meditate I fix my eyes . . . The wondrous works, the amazing ways of God come together and they are the story of salvation. These are the testimonies of God – the telling of all that God has done from the beginnings of the promise (Genesis 3:15); to the amazing pictures in Genesis 22; Exodus 12; Leviticus 14; Isaiah 51; to the story of Jesus entering our world (Luke 1-2). And then the Testimonies of God come to us in the preaching of Jesus, from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7); to the words of Jesus before the Council and Pilate . . . and on the Cross: “Father, forgive them” . . . “Today you shall be with Me in paradise” . . . “It is finished.” And then the testimonies of God call us into the joy of Easter in the garden (John 20), on the Emmaus road (Luke 24) and in the upper room (Luke 24 and John 20). These are so clearly the testimonies of God that the onlookers in Acts 2 said “We hear them telling . . . the mighty works of God.” This is the one story – the word of God calling to us in Jesus is where God is bringing all our stories together – gathering us together within “the mighty acts of God,” the story of Jesus To have and to know Jesus is worth more than all other riches. Celebrate! Sing for joy! Maybe even dance! You have everything in Jesus because of the cross and empty tomb! That is why we are right there with the psalmist: (v. 13) By our lips we declare all the just decrees of Your mouth – because Your words declare that I am justified, made holy by Jesus and all that He has done. (v. 14) Blissful, we exult in the way of Your testimonies as over all riches – they are our true riches; riches of life and blessings forever. (v. 15) Bound to Your precepts we meditate – we want to think on and ponder and hold in our souls what You have decided and set down. (v. 15) We fix our eyes on Your ways – focused in on what You have done and how You have done it. (v. 16) Boundlessly we delight in Your statutes – being taught by God is beyond compare; learning from Jesus is better than anything else. So it should go without saying that we will not forget Your word – because of all that Your Word is to us. But we are who we are. Lord, by Your Spirit keep Your word in our hearts and minds. What more is there to say? The delight in God’s word and His teaching knows no bounds. There is no limit. The blessings, the joy, the peace, the life and everything else. The celebration is endless as God’s walk with us is endless. How could we; how would we ever forget His word? Prayer: Lord, fill my heart, my eyes, my thoughts and my words with the joy of Your blessings; with exulting in the gift of life, peace and forgiveness in Jesus; with the wonder of the blessings to come; and with the sweetness of Your ways of walking with me. Amen. 169 Welcome my cry before Your face, O LORD; give me understanding according to Your word! 170 Welcome my supplication before Your face, deliver me according to Your word. 171 Worshipful shouts my lips will pour forth, for You teach me Your statutes. 172 Wake, my tongue! – to sing of Your word, for all Your commandments are righteous! 173 With Your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen Your precepts. 174 Watchfully waiting for Your salvation, O LORD; what great delight is Your Torah† to me! 175 Would that my soul may live and praise You, while Your ordinances deliver me! 176 Wayward I have wandered like a lost sheep – seek Your servant!* Wherefore I will never forget Your commandments! *Or, “Wayward I have wandered like a lost sheep – You seek Your servant. Wherefore I will never forget Your commandments!” The translation depends on the vowel pointing. Meditation: “Tau” It is now Thanksgiving, and it is a special delight that we have come in this writing to the meditation for the letter Tau. Several things come together. Number one, I learned at some point in my education that there is a Proto-Hebrew or Paleo-Hebrew. During the history of the language the shaping of the letters shifted to be much closer to the letters of Aramaic. Aramaic was spoken in many more countries and was a more popular and widely used language. The Aramaic letters were more squared and “boxy.” There were less curves and angles. Number two, while taking a class in Ezekiel we studied chapter 9. While in exile in Babylon Ezekiel said (in typical Ezekiel imagery) that the Spirit of God picked him up by the hair and carried him off to the temple in Jerusalem so he could see what they are doing. While going to the temple Ezekiel saw: altars to foreign gods; what I can only describe as a “frat-boy bug-eating” cult. Outside Ezekiel saw the worship of sun, moon and planetary bodies. “And shall they not be swept away?” But beforehand in chapter 9 a man in a white linen garb with a tablet and either brush or pen was commissioned to go through Jerusalem and mark with a Tau on their foreheads all the faithful who would be preserved. Number three, and then the ad came on the radio that the Field Museum in Chicago would be hosting a display of the Dead Sea Scrolls. There was only one thing to do. Pack a few things in the car and the wife, who is also interested in languages, and head off for a seven hour drive to go see. So after seven hours of driving, and an overnight stop at my mother’s, we got to the Field Museum and went in. I spent hours staring at and reading everything that I could on the Dead Sea Scrolls, and went over to the Paleo-Hebrew display. Now, the Paleo-Hebrew Tau was very different. The more modern begins at the top left and has a horizontal line that then curves downward and follows the right-hand of the block of the letter and reaches the bottom right. There is at the bottom left what looked to me like a backward L and then a short stroke off to the left. The Paleo-Hebrew Tau is what looks like a lower case “t” leaning off to the left 45 degrees. I’m not going to ask you to look it up and see if you think it does not look like a cross, leaning to the left 45 degrees, but it sure does look like that. It’s like if you picked up a cross, put a shoulder under the junction of the upright and the crossbar, and started dragging it along the road, outside the city of Jerusalem. Again, I may not tell you to be impressed by the significance of that, but I sure am. Impressed by how this amazing Psalm, finds its way at the end to the cross of the hill of Calvary. This amazing meditation on the Word of God and all of the related terms comes home. And I remember that same professor who taught Ezekiel said “Torah” can be translated in many ways, including one of them being “Gospel.” Exactly! That is also why I chose throughout the translation to render the word “Torah” as the same word “Torah” with an inserted superscripted small cross following the “h”. Now to verse 169. There is the concentration of more frequent words beginning with the appointed letter. (In English it is W.) (There is a bit more alliteration going on in this section.) 169 Welcome my cry before Your face, O LORD; give me understanding according to Your word! Verse one is a call out from a sheep, a disciple, who must walk following his shepherd in an alien and hostile world. But God is the God who hears and the God who welcomes our cry. 170 Welcome my supplication before Your face, deliver me according to Your word. And why should our prayers and supplications be heard? Simply because they, and we, are carried along in the prayers of Jesus from the cross. There are three: one “Father, forgive them . . .” ; two “Eloi, Eloi” (My God, My God); three, “Father, into Your hands . . . “ 171 Worshipful shouts my lips will pour forth, for You teach me Your statutes. Now the cry out of the sheep, disciple, becomes the celebrating shout of worship. Assured, we celebrate because You connect me with Your Word. 172 Wake, my tongue! – to sing of Your word, for all Your commandments are righteous! And the call goes forward, “Wake my tongue!” That is similar to Psalm 103, “Bless the Lord O my soul.” The sheep, disciple, calls out to his own tongue, and then shifts who he is addressing and calls out to God, to sing of Your statutes. 173 With Your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen Your precepts. And again the call out of prayer. He is not only the God who welcomes the prayer, not only the God who welcomes our worship. He is the God who acts “with Your hand. . . “ It goes together like two apologetics books back in the 1970’s titled “He is There” and “He is There and He is not Silent.” There specifically defined, He is not silent; He answers with His hand. He acts. Is He worth following then? Yes, yes, oh yes He is! Even if I do not see? More than me seen - He sees; and He acts. Yes, yes, yes He is! There is someone who comes along carrying and dragging what looks like a Paleo Tau. It is a cross, and He says “Follow Me.” And what the Spirit has put inside me, calls out in response “Lord!” And though my little-faith steps are faltering and I have no way of keeping up with Him, He patiently leads and guides. I know Him as my Shepherd and Savior. 174 Watchfully waiting for Your salvation, O LORD; what great delight is Your Torah† to me! Watchfully waiting, yes. What great delight indeed is Your Torah! And again, the final completion of the Torah, is the cross. 175 Would that my soul may live and praise You, while Your ordinances deliver me! The great desire is to live in praise and experience God’s great story of delivering. 176 Wayward I have wandered like a lost sheep – seek Your servant!* Wherefore I will never forget Your commandments! *Or, “Wayward I have wandered like a lost sheep – You seek Your servant. Wherefore I will never forget Your commandments!” The translation depends on the vowel pointing. Wayward have I wandered - notice the alliteration. It is the prayer of one who is far from God. Again, pointing to the cross and the middle prayer from the cross “Eloi, Eloi . . . “ He had to come all this way to meet me where I was. He comes all this way to stand with me and to carry my separation. He calls out “follow Me” as He begins to head home. Psalm 22 verse one, “Eloi, Eloi” must be the path that leads to Psalm 22:22 “I will praise You in the assembly.” There He will gather us, and as the One with the cross gathers us, it becomes the place of blessing. “Follow Me.” And then a little puzzle. Is it “You seek Your servant” or “seek Your servant!”? “You seek Your servant” is an imperfect (hifl) and a statement of faith. The first vowel point looks like a capital “T”, but it is a vowel point that comes from the “A” vowel. The other possible translation, “Seek Your servant!” is an imperative (piel). It is a call out to God in the prayer. The first vowel point that looks exactly like the other, looks like a capital “T”. Its origins are from a short “o”. They sound exactly the same. Look exactly the same. I spent a week trying to figure out which one it had to be, and concluded it’s a matter of take your pick. My choice is to take it as an imperative in the prayer. In the Hebrew, piel, it is an intensive form of the word. Great passion is expressed. The Psalm has been leading up to this great expression of feeling for one hundred seventy-six verses. Prayer: Psalm 119 is a Psalm of great feeling. In no way is it a dry psalm, listing 176 things I can say about the Word. Rather it is the Psalm of the Great Disciple, Who comes to gather His sheep, to stand with His sheep, and call to His Father as He begins to bring us home It is the Psalm of journeying and questing, discovery and gathering, the cry out and the long journey back home to where there will be celebration forever. Oh Lord, My Friend, You have come to seek and to save, and to bring us home. When I hear You call “Follow Me” and see Your cross, help me to know what lies ahead: the gathering, the celebrating, the rejoicing to be together and the long, long, path of eternal life. Amen.  11 Buried deep in my heart I hold Your promise,
that I might not sin against You. 12 Blessèd are You, O Lord; teach me Your statutes! Psalm 119:11-12 “Lord, Build My Faith and Life on Your Words” Therefore – because God has planted His word in my soul – because He has put His hand on me – only because of that – I bend my heart; turning to seek God. Deep in my heart I hold and treasure His promise. Notice verse 11 does not say “promises.” Yes, there are many promises from God, too many to count. But they all come together in the One Promise. This One Promise is the Promise with hands and feet. He is God Himself who gives Himself for us, to win us back from being lost. It is Jesus who brings all the promises together in His cross and empty tomb! And He gives Himself to us, so that our life is bound together with His life and His life is connected to our lives forever. His life flows into and through our lives. He binds Himself to us. Day by day He is our Savior, our Shepherd, and our Brother. Week after week He gives Himself through words of blessing and in the meal of bread and wine. Together with His body and blood He gives the promise, “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” Day and night He hears my prayers; and all through the years to come He has promised to be with me. How do I respond to all this? How can I respond? I am caught up in the wonder of it all! I have a treasure that is beyond price, beyond riches, beyond imagining! His word, His grace, His Spirit, His love – all of these work deeply in the soul. They move, they call, they invite and they draw me to Him. They change me. The promise comes from God and is enfleshed in Jesus. He comes into this world to bring the promises in Himself. He then teaches and brings the promises into our ears, from God, spoken deep within me and those words and promises begin to change me – first by creating a new heart and new me. And then God’s word works out into every part of me. Because of what He has done, I want to guard this treasure through the strength of His word. I want to desire what God desires. So, the whole idea of wandering off from God and forgetting His word, His commandments and His promises – Preserve me dear Lord, may I never! This is not because I am afraid of God and think I had better obey; but simply because He is my God who has loved and saved me, and these are His words. They are my treasure. It is like something I learned about my grandfather. When my parents were going through papers, they found letters from my grandmother, and exclaimed, “He saved every one of her letters from before they were married!” So it is with God’s words and promises to me. They are His. They are from Him. And they call my soul. They are love letters from God. All of this leads to the cry. It wells up and comes from deep inside. “Blessed are You, O LORD; teach me Your statutes!” What do I want, O Lord? I want more of You! Prayer: Blessed are You Lord, my Savior and God. Blessed are You for Your promises of life, salvation, glory, fellowship. Blessed are You for every answer to prayer; and blessed are You for the hidden blessings held within Your wisdom. Blessed are You because You are the promise and You are the blessing. Guide me and lead me in Your word all through life . . . and forever! Amen. ב (BETH) – Verses 9-16
9 By what means can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to Your word. 10 Bending all my heart I seek You; let me not wander from Your commandments! 11 Buried deep in my heart I hold Your promise, that I might not sin against You. 12 Blessèd are You, O Lord; teach me Your statutes! 13 By my lips I declare all the just decrees of Your mouth. 14 Blissful, I exult in the way of Your testimonies as over all riches. 15 Bound to Your precepts I meditate and I fix my eyes on Your ways. 16 Boundlessly I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word. ב (BETH) – Part 1 Verses 9-10 “Remember Your Creator in the Days of Your Youth” (Ecclesiastes 12:1) Where do I; where can I find a firm foundation? On what do I build my life? On what can I rest my soul when so much in life is shifting and uncertain? I heard a saying decades ago: “Only when you are prepared to die are you then prepared to live.” All too often we think of our youth, our childhood, and our teenage years as a time of carefree wandering through life, putting off the days when we will have to get serious. The God of the Bible calls us to know Him in our youth. Never underestimate the importance of how God calls us even from our early years. Never underestimate the potential in your life, or in those around you of following, of having discipleship beginning to form at a young age, or of beginning early on to learn to share God’s love. One of the wisest people in the history of the world was Solomon. He looked back over his life and wrote down what he had learned. Part of it is, “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth . . .” (Ecclesiastes 12:1) Think about David as a youth learning to walk with God and then standing up to danger and evil. Think about a young girl in Damascus telling about the God of Israel (2 Kings 5); or about the prophet Jeremiah called and sent by God in his youth (Jeremiah 1:6-7); or about Timothy the young pastor (1 Timothy 4:12). Through the centuries millions of us have learned this truth; that in our early years Jesus invites us to follow Him. He calls to us, He speaks His words of life and our lives are changed. All over the world He is even now calling children, young people and young adults to “Follow Me.” We hear story upon story of God calling the young. It makes sense. After all, Jesus was only a youth, 12 years old, when He was there in the temple with the Rabbis and teachers of the law asking and answering questions, and amazing them. (Luke 2:46-47) Think about the life and the prayer life of Jesus. As the psalm says, “From my youth I was cast upon You.” Jesus grew from infancy in a constant walk with God, a constant walk of faith. He tells us of His prayer life in Isaiah (50:4). “Morning by morning He awakens me; He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.” And earlier in the verse, “the Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary.” Notice how Jesus treasured the word; how He focused all His heart on the words and promises of God. Jesus has words of hope and comfort for our time of need. All of this comes from standing under the trials of life holding to those promises. And so He calls us to follow Him in every time and age of our life. And then realize this truth. Even before our youth, God has called to us and invited us into relationship with Him. He knew me before I was me. He said to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. . .” (Jeremiah 1:5) David says, “You knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” (Psalm 139:13) And John the Baptist was still within the womb when he leaped for joy responding in faith to Jesus. (Luke 1:41-44) Prayer: Lord, call us to You in the days of our youth. Build in our hearts the foundation of Your word. Let my life be intertwined, woven together with, and held together by Your promises. Let me grow in faith, and in my soul let me treasure You in all that You are. In that way let me receive Your blessing and Your discipline, that I may grow as a disciple of Jesus. Amen.
Can our lives fit the words of v. 3 “they do no wickedness”? It is a question we cannot escape. V. 3 sets the mirror of the perfect law before us and we fall short. We are condemned. But God stoops down with His mercy. The second half of v. 3 says “but walk in His ways.” What are God’s ways? Look closely at the ways of the One who said, “follow Me.” His ways are mercy, grace, forgiveness and so much more. Jesus said, “Come to Me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls . . .” These are the ways and the works that God loves to do. The ways of God are the way to Jerusalem and the way to Calvary. They are the path He walked to purchase me; and He calls me there to know that I am His. The ways of God include the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-34) and walking with us in eternal life. Our psalm called to us and invited us to walk in the “Torah” of the LORD – to have our world filled with the things and the acts of God. Now it calls us to walk in His ways. This means to go through life with God’s ways and His doings all around us, and to follow and have our lives molded and shaped in harmony with His words and His ways.. The next 3 verses (4-6) are prayers voicing desire and longing – to be keeping His precepts (God says how I am to live); and to be steadfast in His statutes (God declares what is to be). If I could only be in complete harmony with God’s ways, His precepts, and His statutes; why then I would never be put to shame. If only . . . But again, God stoops down to me. He comes into our lives and into our world. Jesus gives us His words. His words do not tell me what I must do to win eternal life. They point to His mercy. They tell how He has won the victory for me. He has carried the burden, suffered the punishment, won the victory and opened up life. Now I find myself being built on His words; and on His words I am like a house built on the rock. No matter what comes; no matter the wind, the storm, the floods even – we are built on His words, and they are a firm foundation. They are eternal. (Matthew 7:24-25) He is the One who said about the Law, “until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away” (Matthew 5:18) He says to us, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.” (Matthew 24:35) The word of the Lord endures forever. But those words are words of life and words of promise to us. He speaks them to me, into my soul; and when the eternal word of God is in my soul – that is eternal life! We thank and praise and celebrate what Jesus has given us! (How can we do anything else?) So we say with the psalm, “I will” “acclaim You;” and “I will” “attend to Your statutes.” This Word of God truly is our life and salvation! God sets His Promises, His words and hopes before us in so many ways. He tenderly invites us. He calls to our hearts. But I am a sinner. I know that I am not worthy to have Him stay in my life. The last prayer in Part “Aleph” is “do not forsake me” – specifically “do not forsake me beyond enduring!” (Verse 8) “Beyond enduring” would mean to be left by God, to have an eternity of being without Him. The sinner cries out with this prayer and yet knows: It is actually what I deserve! But again God is there with His mercy. Jesus came to take what we have deserved, even taking up the very word “forsaken.” If there was ever a thing beyond enduring it was for the sinless Son of God to be forsaken and condemned for others’ sins. He was forsaken so I would never have to be. In this way – the most extreme of all acts of salvation – He has taken us sinners brought us in, given us His own holiness and made us His saints. To God alone be the glory! Prayer: Lord, Your word calls, Your word restores, and You surround me with Your words and promises. Help me to treasure the “Yes!”, the “Amen!”, and the promises in Jesus; so the sustaining, strengthening promises I have in Him may fill my hours and moments, my days and nights. Amen.
Verse 1 opens up into an amazing thought, a remarkable idea. What does it mean to walk in the “Torah” of the LORD? Torah is the word that is almost always translated in English as “Law.” And once we hear “Law” we immediately think of commandments – the should’s and should-not’s. But the word Torah means so much more. In fact the Torah is the first 5 books of the Bible with every word from God and every thing that happens in them. It is God revealing Himself, God creating, and then blessing Adam and Eve; and through them all of humanity (Genesis 1:26 ff). It is the story of how God, when He found Adam and Eve having wandered off and rebelling, did not sweep them and us away into destruction; but instead promised a Savior, the Seed of the woman. He would be born for us and would conquer sin and death; and He would be wounded in the battle. It is the story of God calling Abraham to go to the mountain of God and act out “the sacrifice”—the sacrifice on the mountain where only God the Father would actually go through with it. So Abraham goes three days, puts the wood on his son, answers Isaac by saying, “God Himself will provide the Lamb,” and then receives his son, his only son whom he loves, back from the dead. It is a picture of Jesus. It is the story of God redeeming His people, through the blood of the lamb, again a picture of Jesus. He brings them through the waters, and to His mountain. He says, “I am the Lord your God who brought you out . . .” and calls them His people. We could go on endlessly, but . . . These are the events, the scenery and the heritage of our lives. It’s like the landmarks, the scenery and all the familiar places of our youth; and what it would be like if we could go back and find them just like they were, landmarks that endure and places to savor the memories. But these are the landmarks of God, the places and memories of His plan of salvation. Walking in the Torah is walking through His story and finding things are just like He said they would be. When we see all the parts of how God has revealed His love, His will, and His plan of salvation; walking in these things is very special. It goes way beyond rules and commandments. It is a much deeper experience. It is at the beginning of everything we are and everything in our lives. To walk in the Torah of the Lord is to journey through life, from one day to the next with the things of God all around us. It is, within our souls, to look at the world a certain way – filled with the promises of Eden, the drama of God talking with Abraham, the promise of the lamb “who takes away the sin of the world,” and the word of God as our map through all the questions of right and wrong. It is to live in the relationship that God has given us in our creation and in Jesus Christ. Only one person has ever truly walked in the Law / the Torah of the Lord. This is the One whose way is blameless. It is Jesus and the Torah is His story. He is “the seed of the woman,” the “Lamb of God,” the Passover, the way through the sea to freedom. He is also the One who takes the curse – though He was blameless and innocent He took our punishment. By His cross and tomb He takes my story and makes it His; and then He takes His story and makes it mine. My sin is placed on Him. And what is written about Him becomes mine: blessed, blameless and called a child of God. We are clothed by the holiness of Jesus and will stand before God innocent and pure. What an amazing gift of grace! And then we look at the world all around us; and we see the hand of God in so many things that happen in our lives. We go through the day with an awareness of God. He is present with us everywhere. And at the end of the day we rest from all the turmoil. We commit ourselves into the hands of God, and trust in His mercy and His goodness. Walking with God also means that this world is not our home. We have an amazing relationship with God and all the promises of eternity. We look back on our history, and look over our life (thinking again of Abraham) and we say, “My father was a wandering Aramean.” (Deuteronomy 26:5) It is both part of our family history and the hope of our future. As Abraham did we also “look forward to a city . . . whose designer and builder is God;” (Hebrews 11:10) a city, right now being formed and gathered by Jesus Christ. That is why the first verse, that talks about walking in the Torah of the LORD, leads right into v. 2. “Blessed are those who keep His testimonies.” We keep, treasure and hold these things in our memories. God has told us about His love and His plan for us. He has witnessed to His Grace and mercy through every act and part of the plan of salvation. And the witnesses and the testimonies are more than we could ever list. Read Hebrews 11. And then remember the “faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead” Jesus Christ. The greatest of His testimonies is the one written in the flesh of His own hands. It is the testimony that we will one day see in the hands of Jesus when He gathers all His people on the Day of Resurrection. Prayer: Lord and Savior, You walked with Abraham, showing Your plan of salvation. You walked with Moses and led the people of Israel through the wilderness. And then You walked with Your disciples, feeding, healing, praying, dying and rising. You did all this so I might walk with You forever. As You filled their lives so fill my days with the things of God. Let me understand Your ways and Your purpose in gathering Your kingdom. Lead my heart and mind that they may be filled with Your words and may I see Your hand and Your mercy in every part of life. In Your holy name I pray. Amen. |
Rev. Mark WilligPastor Willig is pastor emeritus of Friends in Christ Lutheran Church. Archives
May 2023
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed