The Question A friend asked me recently what verses came to mind when I was stressed out, or which I could think of off of the top of my head. I was a deer in headlights. I froze. I couldn’t think of anything. She then asked me if I had a verse or two that could be considered a “life verse.” Ummmm. Not really. No. I could do the cliche and quote the one about “For I know the plans I have for you…”, but that doesn’t really strike my soul. And then… I was reading a few mornings ago and found it! It kind of jumped off the page at me. “You ADONAI are a shield around me; My glory and the One who lifts my head.” (Psalm 3:3) There is so much wrapped up in that one, relatively small, verse! My shield: He is my protection, my guardian, my redeemer, my rescuer, my hedge. I hide behind Him and in Him when trouble comes. My glory: It’s His reputation instead of mine, His power that makes all things possible, His honor for which I was created and gifted , His fame that He uses me for. I worship Him in His glory. The lifter of my head: There is such incredible compassion in that one simple movement! When I am ashamed, afraid, sad, humiliated, I hang my head and I’m afraid to meet the eyes of my Abba. When I have broken a law (like Esther), I approach with my eyes low, awaiting my fate. When I am in awe of His immensity and power, I bow my head in reverence. And He gently touches my chin and raises me up until my eyes fall into His. In this one phrase there is compassion, kindness, mercy, hope, adoption, and so much love. Here is one who buys me back from the darkness, who says I am worthy to bear His name, who forgives me when I am wrong, who mixes judgement with mercy, who knows my weaknesses and gives me strength to stand, whose love washes everything else away. And in that, so much is said. He is my all.
This morning I am reminded to live what I speak – that God is holy and faithful. I’m in the middle of transitioning from one job (from which I just resigned) to another (where I have the signed offer, but much of the paperwork has yet to be finished), and things have just seemed to go wrong all over the place… I can’t find this paper that they need, then I have multiple accounts with different socials so I have to send in other papers explaining and proving which is me… it goes on. All of this in the midst of trying to prepare for two completely different classes than I have been working on all summer. And I find myself getting worked up, worrying, over these details. Yes, they’re important to me. But God is holy and faithful. He is in control, even if things seem chaotic. I need to remember to stop trying to hold onto things with a death-grip; I need to let go of my control (I use that term, control, loosely, as lately I don’t think I have any). I need to trust Him to work these details into place. I am not aware of the battles that go on in the unseen realms of our world. Thankfully, He has already won the war, and He is stronger than anything in this world. Psalm 119:132 Look upon me and be merciful to me, As Your custom is toward those who love Your name. Mercy is one of God’s attributes. Mercy here is favor and graciousness towards someone. Turn towards me, O God! If I turn away from someone I am angry at them; they have been condemned by me; they disgust me. How horrible when God turns away because of my sin! Yet He is full of mercy and abounding in love. As the author points out, it’s His custom, His manner, to be merciful to those who love His name. It’s part of who He is. And who loves His name? Those who are obedient to His commands (Torah). The very next verse asks for God to direct my steps according to His word and to keep sin from dominating my life. If I am obedient to Him, if I know His words, it will be much more difficult for sin (wickedness, evil, mischief) to control my life. So, I need to know His words. And I need to obey Him. The rest is up to God.
Psalm 119:41 Let Your mercies come also to me, O LORD– Your salvation according to Your word. I almost hesitate to even try to dig into this verse. Salvation is a confusing and misused word in a lot of ways, and I’m still trying to wrap my mind about it. But, oh well. My ten cents (or two cents, or whatever the saying is). Mercies First, I think I must be missing something because the Hebrew words given for this verse (via Blue Letter Bible) don’t seem to match with what’s written. The word for mercies is checed which means “kindness, faithfulness, and goodness.” No mercy anywhere. Oddly, or perhaps interestingly, checed also means “shame and reproach.” I’m not even going there. So anyway, the very first part of this is about goodness, kindness and faithfulness, not mercy. Come also to me The word for “come also to me” is bow and it means (among many things) “to come to pass, to come upon, and to enter.” So, it seems more like David is asking for YHWH’s faithfulness/kindness/goodness to come to pass or perhaps to even enter into him or his circumstances. Salvation Salvation, my favorite, is teshew’ah and it means: 1) salvation, deliverance a) deliverance (usually by God through human agency) b) salvation (spiritual in sense) Gesenius defines it as “help, welfare, or victory” (Gesenius’ lexicon via Blue Letter Bible). This is pretty different from our particular view of salvation. When this was written Yeshua hadn’t come, and the idea of forgiveness of sins was wrapped up in sacrifices and the Temple altar. So, I doubt David is talking about sin in the same way we do today. I thought that definition 1a was especially interesting because of the parenthesis: usually by God through human agency. In other words, God uses people to deliver others. Deliver them from what? Well, trying to put myself in the context of when this was written, I’d imagine it could be deliverance from many things: the idolatry of the nations that seemed to constantly be trying to steal into the Hebrew culture, the threat of warfare or death by these same nations whose idols were so slippery, even the plots and plans of men to overthrow, kill, or harm the monarchy. David could be asking for help or victory over these things. And if Gesenius is correct in his definition as “welfare” then perhaps David is asking even for God’s provision in time of need. Now you see why this word is complicated? Want to add one more layer to “salvation”? The word implies rescue at the very last, most dire moment, when defeat seems certain unless help arrives. It’s at the darkest moment before dawn. And then the light breaks through, help arrives, and the tide is turned. It’s not necessarily the moment of victory, but rather the turning point from defeat to triumph. But it’s only because someone else (in our case, God) arrived at the crucial moment (and not a moment too soon) to reverse the course of the battle. Your word And finally we reach the end – according to Your word. The Hebrew for “Your word” is imrah and it means the “Word of God, the Torah.” Remember, when the Psalms were written, the only part of the “Bible” that these people had were the writings of Moses (the first few books of the Bible). There were no books of Kings or Prophets or Proverbs or probably even 1 & 2 Samuel. There certainly was no New Testament and letters from Shaul or the others. So, David’s salvation, his rescue, would come from or through or “according to” the Torah – the laws that YHWH had laid out through Moses. If this rescue was from the corruption of the surrounding nations, then the remedy was to live according to God’s laws. By living according to God’s law, then Israel would continue to be in line with the covenant and would receive God’s blessings. If not, then the covenant would be broken and, well, we know what happened when Israel failed to keep YHWH first and only. The Point So, what’s the point? The application? I’m not sure. In some ways digging just confuses me. However, it all seems to be tied up in the last phrase “according to Your words.” The first is related to the last – the rescue is related to God’s faithfulness and goodness and it is all according to His law. And it’s recorded there in the Torah, too, so it can be remembered. Not only the law, but also His past faithfulness. Perhaps we need to look there more often to be reminded of His faithfulness, goodness, and kindness, as well as for deliverance from falling into the pattern of the corruption of this age.
I read an interesting post today. I often think of what God wants as obedience. He wants me to obey and He wants me to love. Based on Micah 6:8 God wants justice, mercy, and a humble walk. Granted, all of these require obedience to Him, but it was an interesting look at our ideals and values.
Then we might discover His unfathomable mercy wrapped around His infinite holiness. This quote is from Skip Moen’s blog entry this morning. I thought it was beautiful. I think there’s a tendency to either see God’s mercy or His holiness, not both at once. But Skip makes the point that even when God has every right to demand things of us, He often chooses to ask gently. I wonder how often he chooses to discipline gently instead of throwing the book at us… Here’s the post. You might want to go back and read yesterday‘s post, too, to understand the first part of the verse.
Romans 9:18 So you see, God shows mercy to some just because he wants to, and he chooses to make some people refuse to listen. This has always been a point that amazes and kind of saddens me. God created and creates some people to refuse to listen, to be the “bad guys” in history. For example, He made Pharaoh in Egypt refuse to listen and let the Israelites go so that He could show His glory through the situation. He chose Jacob, but rejected Esau (even before they were born). So, God makes some people bad in order that His glory may be shown more clearly. I guess it’s kind of like bad things happening. God could stop all of them and we’d never suffer, but then God’s miraculous provision and mercy wouldn’t be as obvious. I don’t think we’d depend on Him as much if we never had a need. So, God’s allowing or creating some people to be the bad guys makes His glory and His love and His mercy shine that much more significantly. Maybe that’s why God still saves those people who are on death row for horrible crimes against people. He made them, too, and maybe they’re like Pharaoh, chosen to reject God for a purpose, but given a chance for repentance in the end so that all people may come to know the love of Christ. That’s pretty hard to fathom, and I’ve never understood how God could love some people like child molesters and murderers who torture people. But if I look at it in light of this verse (and the other ones in context), it makes a little more sense.
Zechariah 7:9-10 This is what the LORD Almighty says: Judge fairly and honestly, and show mercy and kindness to one another. Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and poor people. And do not make evil plans to harm each other. You’d think that these guidelines would be common sense, that people would do this naturally. However, maybe it’s because of the sin in our world that we no longer naturally judge fairly and honestly, are merciful and kind, and take care of others. I suppose if you look at the news it’s even more obvious that these laws are broken all the time… But then you hear stories that bring a smile to your face. This morning on the news (while I was waiting for my computer to wake up – it’s worse than I am!) I heard a story about a law firm here in Orlando that is giving away 1000 turkeys for Thanksgiving! I thought that was awesome! There were some men lined up at 4am to get a turkey for their family because they didn’t have the money to buy one otherwise. In a time when the message seems to be all about plenty and getting more and more and more I am challenged to remember just how blessed I am. Have times been easy? No! But God has so faithfully provided us with everything we need, and a little extra to do some things for Christmas. No matter how many packs of diapers we’ve needed or how much food the little ones were packing away, He’s always put the money there to cover it. We are healthy (mostly) and have good doctors to get us well if we need it. We have a place to live that is comfortable. We have family that loves us. We have a church we love. We are truly blessed. There is still honestly and goodness and kindness in the world. No, it’s not everywhere, but little things like the generosity of this law firm remind me of how much we’ve been given and that there are people who want to do good for others. So, as we start out this holiday season (or continue in it, depending on your perspective), I want to remember to give a little more away – even if it’s just a kind word or deed. I think that makes God smile. And that’s a great thing!