Psalm 119:21 You rebuke the proud–the cursed, Who stray from Your commandments. After reading the post on Skip Moen’s website this morning, I thought that I’d do something light here, some fluff, shiny happiness. Yeah. Then God had this waiting for me. No fluff today, I guess. To really understand where I’m coming from with this verse, you really ought to read the post this morning. It might help to understand the context from which I’m coming. In some ways I feel like crying. Anyway, here we go. Here’s the last few lines of the post (in case you didn’t read the whole thing) and you’ll see why I sighed when I started reading Psalm 119 this morning: Of course, He isn’t husband to all nations or to just anyone who happens to acknowledge that He is God. He is husband to Israel and to all those who take upon themselves the obligations of the marriage contract given to Israel. Did you get that? What happens to the martial contract when someone who does not accept the terms of agreement between God’s chosen and God decides to step into the place of the wife? What would you do in your marriage if someone claimed he or she had replaced you? [1] Coming off of that question, I faced the verse in Psalms. So, of course, I looked at the Hebrew to get a deeper understanding of the verse. The word for rebuked is ga’ar and it means to rebuke, reprove or corrupt. Hmmmm, our nation has become rather corrupt lately… perhaps God is rebuking/reproving/corrupting. The word for the proud is interesting, too. It sheds some light on why the proud might be: they are the zed, the arrogant, presumptuous ones. Is the church today presumptuous in assuming that Israel is no longer chosen, that she has been replaced? The proud are cursed. Scary thought. The word for stray (or err) is shagah and it has lots of meanings: 1) to go astray, stray, err a) (Qal) 1) to err, stray 2) to swerve, meander, reel, roll, be intoxicated, err (in drunkenness) 3) to go astray (morally) 4) to commit sin of ignorance or inadvertence, err (ignorantly) b) (Hiphil) 1) to lead astray 2) to lead astray, mislead (mentally) 3) to lead astray (morally) [2] I particularly thought “to commit sin of ignorance or inadvertence” was interesting, as the majority of those in the church today would completely disagree with much of what Skip proposes about the validity of the Old Testament covenant, and the inappropriateness of replacement theology. I don’t think they ignore God’s commandments, His Torah, maliciously (I certainly didn’t), but in ignorance and centuries of swerving, meandering theology has slowly caused a swerving in the Way. And finally, mitzvah is the word used for commandments, and it means pretty much that. The commands of God. Interesting how what I read in Psalms today dovetails with the study from Today’s Word. Perhaps God was speaking despite my ignorance. Perhaps God is speaking. Period. [1] Moen, Skip. “Today’s Word» Status: Married.” Hebrew Word Study | Skip Moen . N.p., n.d. Web. 15 July 2010. <http://skipmoen.com/2010/07/15/status-married>. [2] ”Psalms 119 (Blue Letter Bible: NKJV – New King James Version).” Blue Letter Bible. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 July 2010. <http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Psa&c=119&v=15&t=NKJV#conc/21>
Romans 14 talks about not letting the small differences of opinion about the right and wrong way to do things separate us as believers. Paul gives many examples – what day of the week is the holiest day, wether or not to eat meat, and so forth. The crazy thing is that we still get stuck here today. We have all these denominations that split the christ following church because one group believes it should worship on Saturday and another says they’re wrong, they should worship on Sunday. Others say drinking wine is a horrible sin, while others don’t see the problem as long as it’s in moderation. Some churches believe any music with a drum set is from Satan, and others use a rock bank to lead worship. We divide ourselves with petty differences, and I believe this weakens us. Paul urges the church to put aside these small squabbles and love each other so that the church doesn’t become and obstacle to others coming to know Jesus. Sadly, in many ways, we, the church of Jesus, His followers, are that obstacle because we don’t love those who think differently. We look down our noses at the unmarried couple with their children. We avoid even looking at that guy with all the tattoos and piercings. We raise our eyebrows at kid who dresses all in black and sits quietly in the back row. And we yell angry, unkind words at people leaving bars at night telling them that God doesn’t love them and they’re going to hell. We wonder why the world hates Christians. But, in our zeal to do what we think is right, we alienate those hurting people around us because it’s what WE think is right – not what GOD thinks is right. And sometimes what we think is right is the very thing that keeps us from making the impact that God would like us to have. All in all, LOVE. Jesus didn’t care if that person was pierced, tattooed, dressed all in black, screamer-band listening, motorcycle driving, smoking, or drinking. He LOVED them anyway. By letting our opinions about what is right and wrong split us as believers, we give the enemy small victories, weakening our effectiveness, and shoving people who could have believed back into the darkness with our judgment. And I’m guilty of this sometimes, too. But I’d like to think that I’m becoming more open about remembering that the only thing that matters is JESUS. Do you love Jesus? Then that’s all that I should worry about. God will sort out the rest. LOVE one another – no matter what seemingly strange or weird things seem to separate you. Jesus loves you (and them), no matter what. If we are to be Christ-like, we must love no matter what, too.