GIVE ME UNDERSTANDING - Psalm 119:169-176 (God's Alphabet Song of Truth-TAW) - #22 Final Reflection

Perplexity.  We are perplexed.  Are we not?

Consider the questions that tend to confound us...

• why do eastern radical fundamentalists so passionately hate the west?
• how do you explain the unswerving popularity of a presidential candidate who has broken every sane rule of campaigning?
• why does racism persist?
• where does selfishness come from?
• why do the good die young, while those who promote evil flourish?
• why can't we eliminate disease, and even death?
• how could the incredible beauty, order, and irreducible complexity of life come (as some insist) from blind, unguided chance?
• why do I do the things I don't want to do, and fail to do the very things I want to do?
• how is it that even with every possible encouragement toward that which is good, my heart still wanders off into that which is bad?

There are more questions, of course.  You likely have your own list.  Our own ponderings come up short.  The perplexity persists.

Let my cry come before you, O Lord;

give me understanding according to Your word.

Let my plea come before You,

deliver me according to Your word.

My lips will pour forth praise,

for You teach me Your statutes.

My tongue will sing of Your word,

for all Your commandments are right.

Let Your hand be ready to help me,

for I have chosen Your precepts.

I long for Your salvation, O Lord,

and Your law is my delight.

Let my soul live and praise You,

and let Your rules help me.

I have gone astray like a lost sheep;

Seek Your servant, for I do not forget Your commandments.

I don't have all the answers; if you've read this blog before, you know that well.  Neither did the author of these final verses of Psalm 119.  

But, he knew where to find the best answers.  At least 9 times in 8 verses, he resets his lens on God's Word, the Lord's statutes, His commandments, precepts, rules.  UNDERSTANDING comes from a diet of deliberation of the ideas, words, concepts, commandments that proceed from the mouth of God.  Every word, Jesus said, when feasted on brings living.  Nurtures life.

Answers to the list of questions above can be found in God's Word, along with truth about how He alone rescues us from the present age and readies us for the life to come.

May you join me in this heart cry, and in a daily diet that attends it -- "Give me understanding according to Your Word."

Selah.

The GREAT SPOIL of GREAT PEACE - Psalm 119:162-168 (God's Alphabet Song of Truth-SIN & SHIN) #21

Should your every day living be attended by peace, you are indeed in a season of blessing.

The living of so many today is not.  A verse in the hymn "Just As I Am" (alway sung at the close of the crusade meetings of Billy Graham) admits that those coming to Christ  walk toward him with "fightings within and fears without."

The inner world of so many in our day is fraught with anxiousness, fright, restlessness, and the worst, loneliness.   Too many, having been nurtured by dysfunctional and spiritually rootless parents, have not been endowed with a center which assures them of who they are, nor of a God who has created them and loves them and has good plans for them.  Our hearts are starving for meaning and direction, and so often not able to settle down.

The world around us does little to soothe our souls.  The culture of our politics is driven by the anger of unsatisfied demands.  Inequity has (we feel) lanced our lives too.  Someone else is to blame for my current, inadequate lot in life.  Everywhere you turn, something wrong is trumpeted.  Some group unhappy.  People are displaced, starving, sick.  Some religion is ready to execute its god's judgment on your way of life.

Granted, painting a picture of doom should have its balancing limits.  Still, people's hearts are hungry for something more.  Love that lasts.  Centeredness that provides a lifelong vector.  Reasons for the next day that are more than simply the quest for yet another set of toys.

Peace.

Princes persecute me without cause

but my heart stands in awe of Your words.

I rejoice at Your word

like one who finds great spoil.

I hate and abhor falsehood,

but I love Your law.

Seven times a day I praise You

for Your righteous rules.

Great peace have those who love Your law;

nothing can make them stumble

I hope for Your salvation, O Lord,

and I do Your commandments.

My soul keeps Your testimonies;

I love them exceedingly.

I keep Your precepts and testimonies,

for all my ways are before You.

Throughout this extended Psalm, the writer does acknowledge that trouble has found him.  People in power have made him a target, for no good reason.  Surrounding are persistent expressions of what is wrong, what is false.  Each day owns substantive challenges.

But there is a great peace which attends his life.  He is in awe, not of his trouble nor his challenges, but of His God and at His God's stabilizing words  Words which provide sufficient help to prevent stumbling over the uneven experiences of living in a tough world.   

Great love for God and His word bring about a calm in the midst of a cultural and societal whirlwind.  This pilgrim loves what His Lord says and does what His Lord directs.  The ways of his days are before his Lord.    His lips have found the habit of rhythmic praise.

Awesome...

GIVE ME LIFE! Psalm 119:153-160 (God's Alphabet Song of Truth - RESH) #20

Sarah Groves' best album, in my view, is one entitled Conversations.  In one song from the collection, she sings about an aging friend, a widow, who "just turned 84" and confessing to Sarah that she's "afraid of dying."  Her husband passed years before, and though they had been married decades, (Sarah sings) "when he passed away, she still had more to say."  :-)

There was more life to share.

The song tenderly speaks of our longing to live.  Twice in these 8 verses, the Psalmist cries to God, "Give me life...!"  Affliction, persecutors, adversaries are pressing in hard.  People who disregard God and His testimonies.  Still, they have leverage to make our lives feel less than fully alive.

We all long to experience life in its fullness.  Whether it be  through relational opponents or physical decline,  we hate when our living is being robbed.

IS THERE LIFE AHEAD?

I too have a friend who is dying.  After yet another sojourn to the University of Iowa Medical Center, hopeful of another round of life-extending treatment, he and his wife were told no treatment would be successful nor helpful.  My dear friend is now at the marvelous local Hospice House.  Somehow he's preparing to exit.

Is this the end of life, or is there life ahead?

Look on my affliction and deliver me,

for I do not forget Your law.

Plead my cause and redeem me;

give me life according to Your promise!

Salvation is far from the wicked,

for they do not seek Your statutes.

Great is Your mercy, O Lord;

give me life according to Your rules.

Many are my persecutors and my adversaries,

but I do not swerve from Your testimonies.

I look at the faithless with disgust,

because they do not keep Your commands.

Consider how I love Your precepts!

Give me life according to Your steadfast love.

The sum of Your word is truth,

and every one of Your righteous rules endures forever.

The verse writer understands that life uniquely comes from God.  It comes from  honoring God's word, cherishing it, deriving one's perspective and hope from it.  From "keeping" God's commands.  Believing them.  Counting on His promise, His statutes, His testimonies.

One of the  Lord's best "testimonies"  about life comes from the lips of the Lord's Son. "I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.  And everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:26, ESV).

There is a life which comes to us from God that will never experience the thievery our present lives experience.  It comes uniquely from God.  The Lord to whom the Psalmist sang 3 millennia ago.  From the Son who died for us so that we who believe should never taste death.

Life in Him today.  Life from Him in unhindered fullness tomorrow.

"The same of Your word (thankfully!!!) is truth."

BEFORE DAWN - I CALL Psalm 119:145-152 (God's Alphabet Song of Truth-QOPH) #19

I rise before dawn and cry for help;

I hope in Your words

There's something special about getting up before everyone else does, before the chaos of the day begins, and coming face to face with the One who holds your breath in His hands.

With my whole heart I cry, answer me O Lord

I will keep Your statutes.

Apparently, Jesus himself did this, more often than his disciples perhaps noticed.  One morning, he was ahead of the day, praying, and his disciples came hunting.  "Everyone is looking for you!" they said.  But His Father had already given him the agenda.  "Lets get to the next towns," (Mark 1:38).  "They need to hear the good news as well."

My eyes are awake before the watches of the night

that I may meditate on Your promise.

It's a good thing to read Scripture before you lay your head down on the pillow.  Last-of-the-day thoughts can become nocturnal meditations.  I find myself awakened sometimes in the middle of the night with something of value having happened while asleep.  Something gelled.  Insight was granted by the Spirit.  A fresh understanding offered.

Hear my voice according to Your steadfast love;

O Lord, according to your justice give me life.

We know that somewhere in our day, we'll face some injustice, great or small.  Bothersome nonetheless.  Someone is likely to mistreat another.  Self-serving decisions will sting.  Someone will not be held accountable.  Rather than complain, we bring those things to the Lord.  We replace hurt with thanksgiving.  Our life comes from Him, not others.  Nor from the expectation that life will be fair.

But You are near, O Lord,

and all your commandments are true

Long have I known from Your testimonies

that You have founded them forever.

In the morning, we can remember that God will not leave us today.  That God's commandments can pilot our way through a maze of challenges.  Our enemy has tactics and methods he'll throw at us, but the timeless testimonies of God about what is right and wrong, true and false, wise and unwise, provide escapes to the paths of life.  

Early, before dawn, ahead of the crowd.  That's the time to set your compass again on True North.  To give voice to your questions and challenges.  To embrace your Father's agenda for the day.

Before dawn...

DELIGHT in TROUBLE - Psalm 119:137-144 (God's Alphabet Song of Truth - TSADHE) - #18

No one likes trouble.

All of us would prefer a trouble-free day.  A trouble free drive to work.  A body which doesn't need a doctor's visit, or a rush to the emergency room.  A trouble free marriage; a family that gets loves being together and encouragement shared between each other.

We'd prefer people like us and affirm what we do.  We'd prefer getting all the answers write on the test.  Better to have a car that you never have to take to the shop.  Better that our investments yield a 7% annual increase (or more).

No one wants to be attacked, or threatened, or bullied.

Yet in varying degrees, we all face trouble.  It happens in our lives, and sometimes we even open the door and (virtually) invite it in.  Trouble comes either from living in a world that is "fallen" in "frustration" (Genesis 3, Romans 8:20) or from consciously (and sometimes even unconsciously) making "fallen" choices.  Each day we live with this and we need help to manage this.

YOUR WORDS...THE KEY

Righteous are You, O Lord,

and right are Your rules.

You have appointed Your testimonies in righteousness

and in all faithfulness.

My zeal consumes me,

because my foes forget Your words.

Your promise is well tried,

and Your servant loves it.

I am small and despised,

yet I do not forget your precepts.

Your righteousness is righteous forever,

and Your law is true.

Trouble and anguish have found me out,

but Your commandments are my delight.

Your testimonies are righteous forever,

give me understanding that I may live.

Words from psalm writers like this one almost always express well what we personally feel deeply.  This 8 verse section gives voice to the life of a Christian - a great love for God's faithful, true testimonies and His compelling righteousness, combined with a walk through the days of life that can be tough, and frequently so.

"Trouble and anguish have found me out!  But...Your commandments (while I wrestle with the trouble) are my delight!"

Paul reminds us that nothing can separate us from the love of God found in Christ Jesus.  He lifts the sagging heads of the Corinthians in assuring us that we are always led in triumph by the Savior and His Spirit.  John reminds us in the book of Revelation that we can be overcomers.

"Give me (Your) understanding," says the Psalm, "that I may live!"  Lord, indeed, give us Your delight in days and times of trouble!!!

WONDERFUL TESTIMONIES - Psalm 119:129-136 (God's Alphabet Song of Truth-PE) #17

"Your testimonies are wonderful!"

Ever have that inside adrenalin rush?

For me, the eruption comes in a quiet moment when the sheer joy of knowing God and having His refreshing word close at hand shoots up inside like a geyser.

You sense in a fresh, soul-showering way that you are incredibly fortunate to have a relationship with your Creator that is more...more than the majestic display of His power in the universe...more than the assurance than He will bring all things to their proper end, and then regeneration...just more.

The more is that His witness to what is truly true ("Your testimonies") is visited in your life when you taste and see the the Lord is good.  When you find the words of God and you eat them.  When you discover afresh something that you may have neglected (like Josiah's find of God's law in the storage closets of the temple), and the Spirit reminds you through your find that God Himself is eager to guide and direct the course of your life.

"Your testimonies are wonderful!!" (119:129)

The more you allow your life to be informed and shaped and blessed by God's testimonies...well, the more you understand the last verse in this 17th section of Psalm 119.  Notice the first verse, then the last.

Your testimonies are wonderful,

therefore my soul keeps them.

The unfolding of Your word gives light,

it imparts understanding to the simple.

I open my mouth and pant,

because I long for Your commandments

Turn to me and be gracious to me

as is Your way with those who love your name.

Keep steady my steps according to Your promise,

and let no iniquity get dominion over me.

Redeem me from man's oppression,

that I may keep Your precepts.

Make Your face shine upon Your servant,

and teach me Your statutes.

My eyes shed streams of tears,

because people do not keep Your law.

The unparalleled benefits of the Lord's word are repeatedly celebrated in the middle verses.  The shout of joy over them at the first, then the deep sorrow over dismissing them at the last.  

Compassion for the hundreds of thousands of people we pass by in life -- that they neglect the light-giving, understanding-imparting, Face-shining statutes of the Lord -- causes a sobered heart at the least, and perhaps a flow of tears now and then.

We recommend the food at a delightful restaurant to our friends.  We'll share a helpful app on our smartphones with our colleagues.   We rarely hesitate to pass along a good idea or a helpful service to those in need around us.

Why not joyfully share with someone today...or at least soon...the wonderful testimonies of the gracious Lord himself?

ABOVE Fine GOLD - Psalm 119:121-128 (God's Alphabet Song of Truth - AYIN) #16

I love Your commandments above gold,

above fine gold.

"It's the economy, stupid!"

Ever hear that?  I did just yesterday.  From the candidates.  Those in the hunt to be elected to  (arguably) the most powerful executive position in the world (POTUS) usually say something akin to this in order to be chosen.  Give people more money - or lead so as to make the economy vibrant so that everyone has just about everything they want or need, and the POTUS -- the "people of the United States" -- will believe that you are the leader they need.

Is that your bottom line?  For someone's leadership?  For personal happiness?

Gold.  Fine gold.  When you whittle it all down, that's just about all I want, or need.

WELL...???

I stood behind a man in tattered clothes at a gas station quick-market.  He was trying to get his credit card to work in the card reader.  To buy lottery tickets. 

It's hard not to make what may be an unfair judgment when watching this.  Perhaps more accurate to my heart was sadness.

We run after many things that inherently have negative returns.  Often in 176 verses, Psalm 119's author asks God to keep him from foolishness.  "Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things" (vs.37).  "Put false ways far from me" (vs.29).   "Incline my heart to Your testimonies, and not to selfish gain" (vs.38).  

He realizes he must have a different economic philosophy for his life.  "The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces" (vs.72).  "I rejoice at Your word like one who finds great spoil" (vs.162).

With this PROVERBS agrees.  "How much better to get wisdom than gold" (16:16).

I have done what is just and right;

do not leave me to my oppressors.

Give Your servant a pledge of Good;

let not the insolent oppress me.

My eyes long for Your salvation

and for the fulfillment of Your righteous promise.

Deal with Your servant according to Your steadfast love,

and teach me Your statutes.

I am Your servant; give me understanding,

that I may know Your testimonies.

It is time for the LORD to act,

for Your law has been broken.

Therefore, I love Your commandments

above gold, above fine gold.

Therefore, I consider all Your precepts to be right.

I hate every false way.

You can hear the passion for something that lasts, something that lifts the press and fills the caverns of the heart with what it truly needed.

God's pledge of good, God's salvation, God's statutes, His testimonies, His commandments.  The Lord's right precepts.  A passion for a different good.

Finer, much finer, than a chancy ticket for gold.

CLEAR-MINDED CONVICTION - Psalm 119:113-120 (God's Alphabet Song of Truth - SAMEKH) #15

"There are," someone has quipped, "two kinds of people in the world.  Those who see everything as either black or white, and those who don't."

Clearly, not everything must be either "white" or "black."  Many if not most of our personal preferences are neither morally right nor morally wrong.  One of our recent Presidents didn't care for broccoli while others crave it every day.  You may root for either the Packers or the Bears.   In the grand scheme of things, it actually doesn't make any real difference.

But, in the grand scheme of things, what one consistently thinks about God and His Word is not merely a preference.  It's a matter of "white" or "black."  Inconsistency on certain matters like truth, of fearing God (or not fearing), is fatal.  

In other words, courting double-mindedness becomes a matter of destiny.   How sobering to live in a day when increasing numbers of Americans prefer to think in shades of gray about black 'n white truth.

I hate the double-minded,

but I love Your law.

You are my hiding place and my shield;

I hope in Your word.

Depart from me, you evildoers,

that I may keep the commandments of my God.

Uphold me according to Your promise,

that I may live,

and let me not be put to shame in my hope!

Hold me up, that I may be safe

and have regard for Your statutes continually!

You spurn all those who go astray from Your statutes,

for their cunning is in vain.

All the wicked of the earth you discard like dross,

therefore I love Your testimonies.

My flesh trembles for fear of You,

and I am afraid of Your judgment.

It is safe -- and accurate, according to Scripture -- to say that there will be no double-minded individuals standing before God in the day when destinies are declared.  Tens of thousands of people die daily and are immediately separated.  Jesus spoke of Lazarus (a poor wretch) and a rich man who died on the same day but individually went to two very different places: the former into a place of blessed rest, the latter to a place of relentless torment.

Permanently.   "A great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to (the other side) may not be able (to do so)..." (Luke 16:26, ESV).

Hebrews 9 says it bluntly.  "It's appointed to men to die once, and then the judgment."

No wonder the Psalm writer hated double-minded-ness, and those who persisted in it.  It has the veneer of open-mindedness, but the outcome of separation from God.  Such "cunning is in vain."  God spurns those who, without conviction, stray from Your statutes.  God disregards the wicked like worthless dross.

There is safety - today and in the forever tomorrow - in regarding God's statutes continually.  It is accompanied by a life-refining fear of the Lord, and the sobering reality of His judgment.

Get off the fence!  Love the Lord's testimonies!