Psalm 119:165 Those who love Your law have great peace, And nothing causes them to stumble. Obedience to His law causes peace. Knowing His law keeps me from messing up. It’s like knowing the speed limit on a street. If I know it, I’m less likely to go too fast and get a speeding ticket. Sure, I can know it and disregard it; however, if I LOVE it, I’m probably not going to knowingly ignore what it says. There is peace in knowing that I am walking in the right path and doing what God asks of me. Sometimes I wonder if, as long as I’m obedient to God’s law, He isn’t all that concerned about the other choices. In other words, my choices are all fine as long as they are in alignment with His law. I’m not going to make decisions that break His law if I love it. And there’s a peace in knowing that. Perhaps the focus should shift from making the right choice about something to obeying His laws and commands and then weighing what I do against that standard.
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 119:126 It is time for You to act, O LORD, For they have regarded Your law as void. The reason this verse caught my eye is because the next two verses start with “Therefore…” and they’re about the writer’s love of God’s commands and his hatred of all evil. I wondered, “If these are the effects, what is the cause?” It would seem to lie in this verse. This verse is a call to action. Whoever “they” are have ignored God’s law (that would be the Torah – it’s even in the text). Doing this is grounds for action (an effect). And David loves God’s commands and hates evil because he knows that God will act when the people ignore God’s laws. And, even though this wasn’t something I thought about immediately upon reading this, Christianity has done this today – regarded the Torah as void. This is grounds for action today, too! Looking at God’s response to idolatrous nations (here’s an interesting article on what that means), I’d really want to be on the other side – the one that obeys Torah and doesn’t regard His laws as void. Can I say that I love His commands more than gold? That I consider all His precepts to be right about everything? David does. I should, too. God doesn’t make mistakes. God is a god of action. And He requires action from me, too. The questions beg an answer: Do I love His commands more than my stuff? Do I truly consider Him right about everything? Do my actions (the way I act and live) reflect my answers to those two questions? That’s the real question.
Isn’t it interesting how the truth changes over time? You’d think that the truth is the truth and doesn’t change, but you’d be wrong. Or rather, you’d be right, but our definition of the truth is wrong. For example, Genesis 1-3. The truth is that there is more to that story than what we get told in Sunday school, church, or the media. Reading it in English barely scratches the surface of the intricacies and implications hidden in the Hebrew words. Or, take a more controversially “known truth” about the early “church.” There’s the truth we learn, that they removed themselves from Judaism, threw out the Torah, and started building congregations in pretty buildings. Okay, maybe not quite the pretty buildings, but you get the idea. And then there’s the truth of actual history where they were followers of the Way, a so-called sect within the Hebrew community, who meticulously followed Torah, observed the Sabbath, and celebrated the Festivals with the rest of the community (until around 300AD when things started to change). Pretty shocking, right? Nearly heretical! Why? Is it so hard to believe that Yeshua followed Torah? He was, after all, Hebrew. He did say that He didn’t come to abolish the Torah but rather to fulfill it. Is it that we are trained not to question our teachers? Not to question tradition? Not to question “inspired” Words that have already been subtly tweaked to reinforce “the truth”? As a teacher, I find that my students rarely question what I say (scary thought, considering what some people tell them). I find that I rarely question people I trust. I never dreamed of questioning the status-quo of what I had been taught at home and at church until Skip Moen stepped into my church and turned my world on its head. Maybe I was the only one in the entire congregation whose foundations cracked, rippled, and shifted that day, but God’s not worried about how long it takes for light to break through. He’s incredibly patient. So, the question is, “What is Truth”? Or perhaps, “Who is Truth?” And then, two more questions: How do you know? and … Do you really want to know? Read Dr. Skip Moen’s post on Paul’s statement that he has “kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:7). Read more here >>>
Psalm 119:76 Let I pray Your merciful kindness be for my comfort According to Your word to Your servant. This verse seemed rather self-serving the first time I read it. My first thought was that David was asking for physical comfort, and then I wondered if he was seeking emotional comfort. So, I looked back to the Hebrew to see if it helped. Not a lot. The word for comfort means “comfort, take pity, to be sorry, to console oneself.” It’s a little clearer. Then I found that the first word in this verse is become (as in “to come to pass”). Since verbs are more important than nouns, it wasn’t completely surprising that it all started with a verb. It seems that the first part is asking that his consolation be found in God’s faithfulness and reliability (that’s what the word for merciful kindness means). The last part in Hebrew just says “to Your word to Your servant” [1]. In one translation word means “utterance, spoken word,” and in another it translated it as” Torah.” Either way it’s interesting. Let my consolation become from God’s faithfulness to what He has spoken to His servant. The Torah is more than just laws… it also reminds His people of His covenant. God is faithful to what He says. Just because time changes the way we dress, speak, travel, and live, it doesn’t change His covenant – neither it’s promises nor its requirements. When my life seems crazy or out of control, I can be comforted by remembering that God is true to what He says and to His nature. Always return to the Torah, because in it God reveals Himself and His love and His nature through His interactions with His people. I begin to understand more and more how some people say that everything else is just commentary. [1] “Psalm 119:76 Hebrew Texts and Analysis.” 2010. Biblos.com. 03 August 2010 <http://biblos.com/psalms/119-76.htm>.
Psalm 119: You are good and do good; Teach me Your statutes. This verse is another reminder of why I need to learn to read Hebrew. In the Blue Letter Bible, it uses the word towb for “You are good” and for “do good.” I can’t tell from looking at the actual Hebrew, whether the word towb is actually repeated (which would mean the author is emphasizing this particular point) or not. And there’s a word in the phrase that doesn’t correspond to any of the words given in the concordance, so I don’t really have any idea what it means. Sigh. Anyway, towb is good, right, pleasant, benign, appropriate. And God is these things. These things aren’t a part of Him, they are Him. Take them away, and God ceases to be. Take away God, and towb ceases to be. Therefore, every thing He does is also good… including His Torah, His statutes. And speaking of statutes… The word “to teach” is lamad which means to exercise in, train in (it’s an active learning process, not a head-knowledge thing). And statutes (choq) means: 1) statute, ordinance, limit, something prescribed, due a) prescribed task b) prescribed portion c) action prescribed (for oneself), resolve d) prescribed due e) prescribed limit, boundary f) enactment, decree, ordinance 1) specific decree 2) law in general g) enactments, statutes 1) conditions 2) enactments 3) decrees 4) civil enactments prescribed by God Notice some familiar things in there? Like portion, decrees? David asks to practice, to train in God’s specific laws, civil enactments, prescribed boundaries. We think of these things as bad and limiting to our happiness and “freedom,” but God and goodness cannot be separated, and His statutes are good, too. Learning to live by them takes practice. God doesn’t sit us down in a celestial classroom and dump knowledge into our brains. But, He did give us His words. And He does provide hands-on training. The question becomes, “Am I willing to learn?” Remember Isaiah, who prophesied, “Your ears shall hear a word behind you saying “This is the way walk in it” Whenever you turn to the right hand Or whenever you turn to the left.” (Is. 30:21) Ready to walk?
Psalm 119:57 (HETH) You are my portion, O LORD; I have said that I would keep Your words. Several things strike me as interesting about this verse. My first question was, “What is a portion? And what does it mean to be someone’s portion?” Looking at the Hebrew it says that a portion is a share, a possession, or an award (usually from God). That still seemed pretty vague, so I looked down at the entry from Gessenius’ Lexicon where it elaborated that a portion could be an inheritance or a fellowship/common possession with someone. [1] That was interesting. An inheritance suggests that the Lord, or the knowledge of Him and of how to obey Him is passed down from generation to generation – from father/mother to child. It’s part of heritage. The part about it being a fellowship or common possession emphasizes the importance of community to the Hebrew people. Knowing and serving YHWH is a precious inheritance to be shared and practiced with my community. I am not disconnected, nor am I alone. In a world of insanity, He is my place where I belong and where I can rest surrounded by friends and family who help me to walk in greater obedience to Him. The last things I looked at were the verbs in the second part of the verse because I’ve read that Hebrew verbs are either finished or not finished. There is no past or future. That being said, “I have said” is a verb that is finished. But, “I would keep” is unfinished, so it’s probably closer to “I am keeping” because it’s not something I’m going to do, it’s something that is not finished – I’ll continue to do it until it’s finished (which would be when I die). So sometime previously a decision was made to obey His words (a.k.a. His commands – which would be laid out in Torah to Moses). And this action of keeping/obeying His words is ongoing. And somehow the keeping His words is connected to God being my portion/inheritance/fellowship. Perhaps as I keep His commands, I enter into fellowship with others who also obey His commands. Obedience makes me part of a particular community because it sets me apart from the world. Then, too, I become part of the legacy and heritage of Israel, obligated to pass on what I know and how to obey to my children. I all begins with obedience – Keeping His words. Do I? Am I? Will I? [1] Blue Letter Bible. “Dictionary and Word Search for cheleq (Strong’s 2506)“. Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2010. 27 Jul 2010. <http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H2506&t=NKJV >