Psalm 119:81-96

Psalm 119, Day 6, passing the halfway point on this Psalm! We had a discussion in Freedom Road yesterday on a phrase from the Serenity Prayer, “…accepting hardship as a pathway to peace…”. I had recalled Ps. 119:71 from yesterday’s reading: It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes. So we talked about hardships and affliction, asking (in part) if there truly is gain from the difficulties that we encounter.

A good discussion yesterday, but applicable to today’s reading also where we again see “affliction”, today in Ps. 119:92. But that’s only the word “affliction”. The psalmist in today’s reading spends half of his verses in today’s first stanza ( Ps. 119:84-87) discussing his persecutors. This is not David writing/singing a lament. This is probably a post-exile priest or Levite hundreds of years later crying out to the Lord; he is frustrated at his enemies attacking him, even to the point of near-death (v. 87). Yet he remains steadfast in seeking God, expressing his continuing trust and, in particular, asking for deliverance.

That’s a lesson for us today in the face of our difficulties – continuing to trust and asking for deliverance. Of the two, I am certain that continuing to trust is the more important. Whatever is out there, we need to continue to hold on to our faith. We need to really mean it when we say the words that we pray so often, “Not my will, but Your will be done…”. For our momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (II Corinthians 4:17-18)

Psalm 119:65-80

Psalm 119, Day 5. The following phrase appears twice today: “…those who fear You…” (Ps. 119:74,79). Applying this Psalm to today’s world, I see “those who fear You” as believers. And I can see those two verses as very separate in time. That is, verse 74 can be the joy that older believers feel when someone new comes to the Lord: Those who fear You shall see me and rejoice, because I have hoped in Your word. Then verse 79 points to a later time when this new believer has matured in the Lord and has become a resource him/herself for other new believers: Let those who fear You turn to me, that they may know Your testimonies. I daresay that this is the truth for each of us. At some point we began to walk with the Lord at some “higher level” and, no doubt, there was someone or some group of believers rejoicing over us as they watched us grow. And now we’ve moved on, we’ve grown, and others look to us for leadership. That’s the way of the Christian life. It’s what discipleship is all about!!

(Please understand that this meandering of mine is not an interpretation, just my own reflecting. It’s what we need to do with Psalm 119.)

Psalm 119:49-64

Psalm 119, Day 4. You may recall three days ago that my intro to Psalm 119 included seven or eight synonyms for “the Law”. Those synonyms that I listed were “testimonies”, “ways”, “precepts”, “statutes”, “commands” / “commandments, “judgments”, “decrees”, and “word”. Six of those synonyms are straightforward substitutes, with no modifiers needed. Two however – ways and word – are awkward synonyms without a helping article or pronoun. A good “helper” for both of those synonyms is “My”, as in “My ways” and “My word”. We are fairly familiar with “My word” when we see it in either the first person (So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void…, Isaiah 55:11) or the second person (Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path…, Psalm 119:105).

Which brings me to “My ways”… This phrase is, I believe, my favorite synonym for “the Law” (notwithstanding John’s comment yesterday about “comfortable translations”). To me “the Law” and precepts and testimonies and other synonyms can indeed sound rigid if we don’t dig deeper into the loving meaning that the Lord had for us – again, thanks to John for initiating that discussion yesterday. But “My ways” brings me immediately into God’s heart. What are “His ways”? Everything that is good and wonderful and righteous and holy and…whatever descriptors you want to add. I find that I can more easily seek “His ways” than “His decrees”. I know it’s just semantic, but if I want to remember what Psalm 119 is all about, I want to remember it as reflections on “God’s ways”, not on His Law. It’s a warmer feeling!

Psalm 119:33-48

Psalm 119, Day 3. I typically read our day’s verses in the NASB first, then in the ESV. Today I had different reactions from one verse in the two translations. First, in the NASB, Establish Your word to Your servant, as that which produces reverence for You. (v. 38) Then in the ESV: Confirm to Your servant Your promise, that You may be feared. I found a major difference in my mind between God’s word “producing reverence” for the Lord as compared to fearing Him. The “fear” of which the Old Testament speaks is not something scary, as we typically think of fear, but rather is that holy reverence, that acknowledgement by us as to Who God is and why we worship Him. So the two translations are saying the same thing, but the word “reverence” catches my eye (and my heart!) while the word “fear” creates a pause in me that demands more reflection. Which is better? I like “reverence”!

Psalm 119:17-32

Psalm 119, Day 2. I noted yesterday that each of the 22 stanzas in this Psalm highlights a particular letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Today’s letter for verses 17-24 is “Gimel”; each of these eight verses begins with the letter “Gimel” in the Hebrew alphabet. For verses 25-32 the beginning letter for each of the verses is “Daleth”.

Scripture can open our eyes, even when we read it wrong: Take away from me scorn and contempt for I have kept Your testimonies. Even though princes sit plotting against me, Your servant will meditate on Your statutes. (vv. 22-23) Here the psalmist appears to have enemies, even enemies in high places, yet his focus remains on the Lord and His statutes. But when I quickly read this verse, the first seven words spoke to me: Take away from me scorn and contempt… I have known for some time that I have a problem with being judgmental – evaluating people from my perspective and not seeing them as God sees them, not knowing where they’re coming from or what the issues are in their lives. Mostly I’m not at a “scorn and contempt” level, but little sin or big sin, it’s still sin!

Verse 26a also spoke to me on my first read through today’s verses. Now it also seems to reply directly to what I wrote immediately above: When I told of my ways, You answered me… If I read “my ways” as that “scorn and contempt” sin in my life, then that verse speaks directly to confession. Acknowledging our wrongs before the Lord is the beginning of our repentance. His answer then, is His forgiveness and His offer of healing and new life. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

Psalm 119:1-16

Psalm 119, today and the next ten days after. Psalm 119 is an alphabetic acrostic, 176 verses long – obviously the longest Psalm in the Psalter. There are 22 eight-verse stanzas. Each stanza and each verse in each stanza begin with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet – 22 different letters for each of the 22 stanzas. We will be reading 16 verses each day for 11 days. I could have made it 22 days, eight verses each day, but eleven days on Psalm 119 seemed long enough.

My Study Bible was very helpful this morning. In essence, the entire Psalm 119 is about the Law – God’s word to His people. But my Study Bible pointed out that the author uses seven (I counted eight) other synonyms for “law” throughout, with at least six of these synonyms in each 8-verse stanza. Those synonyms are “testimonies”, “ways”, “precepts”, “statutes”, “commands” / “commandments, “judgments”, “decrees”, and “word”.

Two verses stand out today. How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. (v. 9) I recall hearing this verse quoted quite a bit when I was young in the Lord and connected with campus Christian groups. It seems to be a good verse for the young men around me! The second verse: I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. (v. 11) Credit to John here for his Bible memory focus and his encouragement to the rest of us to memorize Scripture!

Psalm 118:15-29

More deliverance. A number of verses for comment today.

First, very common for Avanza folks: This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. (v. 24) This is one of Carol’s gathering songs for our Avanza kids. They all know it (2^nd grade and beyond); they stand up and clap their way through it. I can’t read the verse without singing it!

The second verse is one close to me: The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. (vv. 22-23, NASB) During the spring before I went on to graduate school I saw a void in the market in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. No one was building poured-wall basements in an area where block basements were too porous to the high-water level in the area. No one, that is, except a contractor named Jesse James, an appropriate name for someone who did shoddy work! I had experience in this work through my family connections, so I found a partner who had cash available from his father and we started “Cornerstone Construction”. These verses, especially v. 22 were our “cornerstone” verses. I vividly remember praying them as we sat in a car before we went in to get a commercial loan; we did not get the loan, but we did get our first customer – the banker who was financing a new development south of town. Glory!!

Finally, a verse familiar to all of us: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! (v. 26a) This verse was sung by the “Hosanna” crowd upon Jesus’ Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem. Clearly the crowds people knew their Scriptures! This verse is cited in all four Gospels (Mt. 21:9; Mk. 11:9; Lk. 13:35; Jn. 12:13). Surprising to me, Jesus also spoke this verse in the context of His longer speeches in both Matthew 23:39 and Luke 13:35. If only we knew our Scriptures as well as the Jewish peoples back then…!!

Psalm 118:1-14

This is the last of the praise psalms that we began with Psalm 111. The psalmist in today’s reading offers praise and thanksgiving for Israel’s victory over her enemies. But which set of victories? Was it their deliverance from Egypt and from their enemies as they did battle in the Wilderness? Or was it King David defeating the neighboring nations – or perhaps his internal enemies (Saul’s or Absalom’s supporters)? Or was it the post-Exile victories over those nations and people who interfered with the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple? It could be any one of those, or even of other kings (e.g., Hezekiah) and their battles with the neighboring nations. We don’t know. It hardly matters to us thousands of years later which history we need to recall. What we see from the writer is praise and deliverance from those difficulties.

The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? (v. 6) That last sentence in this verse is one of my favorite lines of Scripture. However, for me it’s hard to relate to enemies around me. I think of my M.A. advisor who twice was not supportive of my proposed Thesis topics, but who then (truly) went blind the night before I was going to ask him to read my Thesis that he had never approved. (A different faculty member was assigned to me, and he approved and signed off.) I think of faculty who voted against my tenure at Texas A&M – a major blow for which I sought psychiatric help for the only time in my career. A few years later one person apologized to me for his wrong vote – that one person whose negative vote had hurt the most and for whom I had sought counseling. I think of my colleagues at EKU who denied me promotion (and $$!) for two or three years running. But then I was granted a Fulbright Scholarship, and how could they possibly deny me again? That’s about as far as I can go in thinking about worldly enemies. And truly, What can man do to me? The Lord was at work in each of those situations, and I was delivered from each of those difficulties – never in short order, but always eventually.

Sorry for this long recounting, but just as I suggested a few days back that each of you begin to document miracles in your life, I would today suggest that you look back to those most major difficulties that you have encountered and ask how the Lord has brought you through them. Then begin to make a second list of those deliverances. It is truly important for us to regularly look back at how God has been at work in our lives. We need those “strength points” when we run into new adversities. The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?

Psalms 116-117

Yes, two psalms today – but the second, Psalm 117 is only two verses long and fits nicely at the end of Psalm 116. Psalm 117 is not only the shortest psalm, it is also the shortest chapter in the entire Bible.

In today’s Psalm 116 the psalmist is concerned with death, specifically his own. See especially verses 3, 6, 8, and 15 as “death” verses woven into the text. Furthermore the deliverance prayer and the payment of vows (vv. 4, 14, 18) sound something like a “foxhole conversion”, as in “Lord, if you will deliver me from this battle, I will _____________.” (Frankly, I made my own promise to God during Catholic Mass while at our little base camp church my last week in Vietnam. Mine was more confession than deliverance, but that’s another story.) While the psalmist has a “death” focus interspersed in the psalm throughout, most of the remaining verses focus on praise and thanksgiving.

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his godly ones. (v. 15, NASB; the ESV has “saints” instead of “godly ones”) I have often thought of this verse when someone I loved and knew well died. I can even put a face to this verse, a lady from our first ever RTB at St. Andrew’s back in 2009. When she died, I remember thinking how joyful the Lord must have been to receive her. So whenever I happen upon this verse I think of that lady. What a marvelous godly person, a beautiful saint!

Psalm 115

Today’s psalm is not one with a full, inclusive theme; instead it scatter-shoots a bit. It’s a praise psalm, so many of the verses focus on praising the Lord. But other groups of verses look at idol worship and idol makers (vv. 4-8) and our trusting in the Lord and being blessed by Him (vv. 9-15).

Two verses stuck out for me. First, Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” (v. 2) This verse troubled me for today’s world. I could easily imagine the world asking that question of the Christians they see. Much of the Christian world sends a very wrong message, from pedophile ministers to far right evangelicals to far left ECO-worshipers. There is a “silent majority” of committed Christians who are not being heard, most likely because they (we) are not speaking up. We need to be who we are!

The second verse was verse 16, The heavens are the LORD’s heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man. Even as we need to speak to the people in the world around us, we also need to “speak” to our earth. It’s our responsibility, our stewardship. Maybe those “ECO-worshipers” are not so far off?