Psalm 119 - LAMED

 Themes from the Psalm of Psalms

(Loving the God of Psalm 119)

Stanza 12

Lamed: Trusting in God’s word, works, and faithfulness to shield me from the wicked

89. Forever, O LORD, / Your word is settled in heaven.

90. Your faithfulness endures to all generations; / You established the earth and it abides.

91. They continue this day according to Your ordinances; / For all are Your servants.

92. Unless Your law had been my delight, / I would then have perished in my affliction.

93. I will never forget Your precepts, / For by them You have given me life.

94. I am Yours; save me, / For I have sought Your precepts.

95 The wicked wait for me to destroy me, / But I will consider Your testimonies.

96. I have seen the consummation of all perfection, / But Your commandment is exceedingly broad.

Our consideration of David’s Psalm of Psalms, Psalm 119, has brought us now to the twelfth stanza of eight verses. Each verse begins with the Hebrew letter Lamed, which has the sound of the English “L.” In Jewish tradition, the letter Lamed means both “teach” and “learn.” The way the letter is written combines two other Hebrew letters into one, one part reaching up toward heaven, and the other reaching downward to the earth. For, to the Jewish mind, true learning and wisdom must originate with God and then be brought down into the practical life of people here on earth. To TEACH, therefore, a person must first LEARN what God has to say.

In many of the previous stanzas of this psalm, King David has told us of his trust in the word of Yahweh, the covenant Lord of Israel, God’s chosen people. To the precepts and testimonies of God David has turned again and again in his troubles and his afflictions. Last time we looked at the King’s darkest time of struggle, a time of restless waiting in which he felt like “a wineskin in smoke,” hung out to dry and to become parched and cracked and brittle, even as the Lord seemed to have abandoned him for a time. But the tone of this stanza is very different. There is a renewed confidence in the word, and the works, and the FAITHFULNESS of Yahweh his God.

In the eleventh stanza, David cried out, “They persecute me wrongfully; help me!” And in this twelfth stanza he again cries out, but with the assurance that: “I am Yours, save me!” It’s like he has turned a corner and remembered not WHO he is, but WHOSE he is! Let’s walk through these eight verses now, and discover why David is so confident that he is one of God’s favored ones and can trust the Lord’s word, works and faithfulness to shield him from the wicked…

The letter Lamed is the first sound in the Hebrew words “forever,” and “ever,” and “never.” These are such all-encompassing words, and they season the thoughts of this stanza in a remarkable way. In the last stanza, David was wasting away spiritually, in a dismal time that FELT like forever! But here, in verse 89, he writes: “Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven.” Literally, “Your word STANDS FIRM in heaven.” We tend to think of “forever” in very limited terms. If someone in front of us in the grocery checkout is fumbling for their cash or credit card, we say that “they’re taking forever!” 

But we believe in a divine Being who is literally ETERNAL, without limits, no beginning and no ending. We worship a God who made eternal decrees in words that can never be revoked or contradicted or overruled. Many rulers throughout history, like Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon or Darius the Mede, would give pronouncements and claim that their laws could never be changed or altered. None of their laws are now in force, few are even remembered. But God’s words? They stand firm. There is no court of appeal beyond his seat of absolute authority. No one needed to advise Him before He spoke his word, and no one could ever challenge it once it left his holy mouth.

What a source of confidence to David and to us! With all the changes taking place in our laws, our governments, our culture and our lives, we have in our hands a book of divine truths that stands like a mighty mountain in the midst of the storm. No wonder that Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount: “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matt. 7:24). Those who ignore or disobey the words of Christ are building their lives on the sands of mere human wisdom. They might succeed in this life from time to time, trying to drown out the truths of God’s eternal word. But in the end, the houses they have built will be washed away on the Day of Judgment. Those who trust in the testimony of God’s mouth WILL STAND FOREVER.

With His all-powerful word, David’s God brought the entire creation into being. And not for just a day! The miracle of the original creation would certainly have proven God’s power beyond any doubt. But isn’t it the FAITHFULNESS of the Lord that causes Him to MAINTAIN the creation’s existence “to all generations”? You and I take that faithful hand of Providence for granted way too often! We walk out on a beautiful fall day and take in a lung-full of air, enjoying the smell of the fallen leaves, beholding the vibrant color of the changing season, never imagining that if God ceased His exercise of sustaining power, everything would simply cease to be! We think it no great thing when we awake in the morning from sleep and begin a new 24-hour day, not even aware that every day we live on this planet is a gracious gift from the faithful heart of our Maker.

Natural man–that is, unregenerate, unsaved people–assume that things simply exist and go on existing by their own power, according to fixed physical laws. That if there IS a God, He simply wound up the universe like a gigantic clock, and is allowing it to run down after stepping out of the picture, leaving both it and humanity on their own. This is FAR FROM the image the Bible paints for us. The Bible tells us that “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (Col. 1:17); “He is the radiance of His glory…and upholds all things by the word of His power” (Heb. 1:3); “You open Your hand,” says the psalmist, “and satisfy the desire of every living thing” (Ps. 145:16); Paul reminded the thinkers of Athens: “For in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). Verse 90 of Psalm 119 declares: “Your faithfulness endures to all generations; You established the earth, and it abides.” Or, literally, IT STANDS.

Verse 91 continues this thought: “They continue this day according to Your ordinances, For all are Your servants.” “They” refers to both “heaven” and “earth.” In other words, ALL the creation that God spoke into being by the sheer force of His word. Everything in heaven and earth were created, and are continually sustained, to be His servants–to serve His purposes. Job declared, when the Lord was testing and questioning him: “I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2). Even evil people, such as Joseph’s jealous brothers who sold him into slavery, were serving the good purposes of God (Gen. 50:20), as did Judas who betrayed the Son of God, even though his motive was to get 30 pieces of silver for himself! Every thing, every person, every good plan, every evil plan…Nothing exists or can ever happen outside of the sovereign purpose of our God!

Is this how we are living our lives, fellow believer? Or are we too often like Job, who wavered in his faith and began to ask God, “Lord why is this trial happening to me? I don’t deserve this treatment! I wish the day of my birth had never happened! You should have just let me die in my mother’s womb!” How reassuring it should be to us that God has unchangeably DECREED everything that is, and all that comes to pass in our lives. This is not mere FATALISM, or as Doris Day sang, “Qué Sera, Sera,” whatever will be, will be! Rather we should sing, “Whate’er our God ordains is right!” Isn’t this to be our ultimate shield against the wickedness of sinful UNBELIEF and UNBELIEVERS?

It was for King David. Knowing that God’s word, His works, and His faithfulness all STAND FOREVER, caused him to turn the corner from feeling like a forsaken “wineskin in the smoke,” to the realization that He belonged to a faithful, loving, sovereign Father in heaven. In stanza eleven, David’s soul was FAINTING for the Lord’s salvation. In stanza twelve, now, he is resting in the knowledge that: “I am Yours, save me!” (v. 94). Still, David gives credit where credit is due. Verses 92 and 93 tell us that it wasn’t his own willpower that brought him around that corner. “Unless Your LAW had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction. I will never forget Your PRECEPTS, For by them You have given me life!”

Yes, God is our Creator and Savior. Yes, He works all things for His good purposes toward those He loves. But it is in and through His LAW and His PRECEPTS that He reveals His love and His good purposes to us. His word is how we are truly connected to that heavenly wisdom and knowledge we must learn in order to obtain and enjoy not just life on this earth, but life everlasting! The letter Lamed is a visual picture of heaven connecting to earth for the purpose of teaching and learning. And the Lord Jesus Christ became the LIVING Word of God who was sent to bridge that gap after people had sinned and rebelled against their loving Creator. Jesus came to TEACH the saving wisdom of God, and then to provide salvation from the poisonous curse of sin that made us unable to LEARN of His love.

Until we have learned and taken delight in God’s word to us in Christ, we aren’t truly ready to LIVE! This word from the mouth of Almighty God is, at the same time, a source of TERROR to the sinner, and a source of DELIGHT to the saint. The instructions, or precepts, of the Lord not only prescribe to us the path to a life of peace and joy, they warn us of the terrible JUDGMENT that awaits the wicked, and reveal the Savior who came to bear that terrible punishment in the place of every sinner who will repent and believe into Christ. The universal DOOM of rebellious mankind can be turned to DELIGHT in the presence of a Holy God for all eternity!

King David, having the assurance of the coming Messiah who would defeat Satan forever, could depend upon the works, and the words, of his faithful God Yahweh to be an impenetrable SHIELD between him and his enemies. “I am Yours, save me!” he cries. But this is no longer a cry of a fainting soul who feels desperate and forlorn. It is the confident cry of one who has received the blessed assurance of life everlasting! Again and again we read in the books of 1 and 2 Samuel that David would inquire of the Lord before he’d take his mighty men into battle with the Philistines. He knew what it was to receive “precepts” or instructions, directly from the mouth of God! He knew that the battle’s outcome wasn’t in merely HUMAN hands, but as he testified when he faced and answered Goliath the Philistine warrior: “the battle is the LORD’s!”

“The wicked wait for me to destroy me, But I will consider [or, give attention to] Your testimonies.” Verse 95 tells us that David’s overall situation hasn’t really changed. He still has proud, wicked adversaries to face who have evil intentions, just waiting for a chance to ruin him. But this declaration actually makes light of them! David’s consideration, his focus of attention, isn’t on his enemies. His mind is focused on what GOD has to say, about them, about him, about the whole “ball of wax.” It sounds as if these enemies of his are just a minor annoyance, in view of God’s shielding power.

This trusting attitude of David can teach us a lot. We have enemies too, mainly spiritual enemies like a world system that hates or ignores its Creator. A crafty, murderous devil who seeks to deceive and devour all who stand in his way. A fleshly, deceitful heart within that resists the authority of God and His commandments. The TRUSTING Christian will be aware of his enemies, enough to resist them in the strength God provides. But for every look at the enemy, including the enemy within, our own flesh, we need to be taking at least TEN LOOKS at our Savior. Focus your attention on Christ and His word! With our eyes fixed on Jesus, our enemies will not alarm us, but will be seen as the defeated foes they truly are. By his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus removed the sting of death, sin and Satan forever.

David finishes this encouraging stanza by telling of another thing he’s seen: “I have seen the consum- mation of all perfection, But Your commandment is exceedingly broad.” The word “consummation” refers to the very END. The furthest extent of all the perfections we SEE in this world. The perfect sunsets, the perfect buildings, the perfect people, the perfect ideals, the perfect writings…but all of them have an END as well as a BEGINNING. Compared to our God and our God’s commandment: His word’s rulership over heaven and earth, even over eternity itself, how meager are the perfections of this world of mere SIGHT! When we reach the limit of earthly perfection, the perfection of God Himself is only just beginning! This is why we can trust Him to shield us from the wicked.

Father in heaven, teach us and help us to learn that “when we reach the end of our hoarded resources, our Father’s full giving has only begun!” Our enemies are as nothing when compared with Your almighty strength. May we always trust your words and your saving promises which stand forever.

Amen.

Psalm 119 - YOD

 Themes from the Psalm of Psalms

(Loving the God of Psalm 119)

Stanza Ten

YOD:

Desiring of God that my testimony before others reflect His faithfulness.

73. Your hands have made me and fashioned me;

Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments.

74. Those who fear You will be glad when they see me,

            Because I have hoped in Your word.

75. I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are right,

            And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.

76. Let, I pray, Your merciful kindness be for my comfort,     

            According to the word to Your servant.

77. Let Your tender mercies come to me, that I may live;

            For Your law is my delight.

78. Let the proud be ashamed, For they treated me wrongfully with falsehood;

But I will meditate on Your precepts.

79. Let those who fear You turn to me, / Those who know Your testimonies

80. Let my heart be blameless regarding Your statutes,

            That I may not be ashamed.

No man or woman who’s ever lived is unfamiliar with the emotion of SHAME. Even the best of us has thought, or spoken, or acted in ways that make us feel ashamed and fill us with guilt. We all have dark places in our hearts…skeletons in our closets…chinks in our armor…secret sins in our past that we hope and pray no one ever finds out about. 

David, the writer of this Psalm of psalms, certainly had his own share of weak moments. As a soldier, a general, a king and a statesman, David had let his sinful nature get the better of him many times, even committing adultery with Bathsheba and then trying to cover it up by having her husband killed. The shame he felt for his sins is thoroughly expressed in Psalm 51 where King David poured out his guilty heart to the Lord: “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin!” (51:2)

The shame that King David felt drove him to his knees in abject humility; we can read that in Psalm 51. And here again, in Psalm 119, we find him submitting humbly to the Lord who has afflicted him, accused him of his sin, and yet has extended to his sinful creature His “merciful kindness” and His “tender mercies.” The shame for his sins made him humble before God, but David knew that it wasn’t God’s will for David to REMAIN in shame. 

You and I needn’t live in shame either, and it is not because our sins don’t matter, or that they’re “no big deal.” Rather, it’s because our God is FAITHFUL. The Apostle John wrote in his first epistle: “When we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Those of us who believe in Jesus Christ have this promise, that the sins that cause us such deep shame can be WASHED AWAY. Made as if they never even existed!

The basis for this promise is the willing sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Every sin we commit is deserving of everlasting punishment in hell. And when Jesus, the God-man, hung on the cross, he was suffering that very punishment on behalf of every sinner who would place their trust in Him and His saving work. God afflicted His only begotten Son, so that you and I would never experience His wrath, and the eternal shame of separation from Him.

In this stanza of Psalm 119, we find David is concerned by another kind of shame: the shame of having a stained testimony before others. Remember that as king, David had a grave responsibility to live and act RIGHTEOUSLY before the people he was ruling. He couldn’t afford to see himself as an individual only answerable to himself. He was called to testify, by word and deed, to the character and the faithfulness of Israel’s God Yahweh.

Two times in this tenth stanza, David uses the term “those who fear You.” We have already seen that David’s great desire is to be among those “blessed ones” who fear Yahweh and walk in His ways. In the previous stanza we were told that “It was good that I was afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes” (v. 71). One of the ways God teaches us to fear, love and respect Him is by bringing adversity into our lives. We must learn that God is holy and faithful, not just for His own sake but for the sake of others!

David’s gross sin with Bathsheba resulted in terrible consequences, not only for the two of them, but for the entire nation. Even though the Lord forgave David and didn’t take his life, the baby who was the product of their adultery became sick and died. David’s family became the source of wickedness and violence. Eventually the Jewish nation was divided and became unfaithful, largely because of David’s unfaithful behavior. His example, his testimony, became tainted and reflected poorly on the character of Israel’s God.

As the writer of Psalm 119, it is clear that in this stanza, the writer is considering the view that others have of his life. He confesses in verse 73 that he is the product of the divine Maker and Designer who alone can “Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments.” What is the foremost thing that should concern us in how we are viewed by other people? Well, the first step ought to be toward the One Person whose hand has made us, and whose word alone can guide us. Many people are driving down the highway of life with no guide-rails, veering this way and that, ready to run off the road and crash and burn, because they ignore God’s basics for life and happiness, the Ten Commandments.

If we have learned God’s basic rules, that is no guarantee that we will follow them, but if we habitually break those rules, there is no way that we can testify rightly about a holy and loving God. We must at least “understand” this in order to even make a START toward a Christ-honoring testimony before people. Worshiping only the true God, forsaking our idols, honoring God’s name, honoring His day of rest and worship, honoring our parents and other authorities, honoring our marriage vows, preserving the gift of life, respecting each other’s rights and reputations, being content…all of these basic virtues flow from the commandments of our faithful, righteous Creator. Our obedience to them testifies of our love for Him, and our desire that others should know of His goodness and greatness.

“Those who fear You will be glad when they see me, Because I have hoped in Your word.” David isn’t merely concerned about his own reputation before the people of God. He desires that his faithful, obedient behavior points BEYOND himself to the One whose word has been his source of HOPE. Let us ask ourselves that question: When others see us, does it make them GLAD? If so, for what reason? Are we known as persons who have a settled hope in the word of God? Is it known to others that we love and trust and seek to obey God, not only for OUR sake, but for the sake of those around us? Do we have a reputation for LOVING others? Honoring them, respecting them, showing concern for them, being generous without complaining and griping? Do we make others GLAD?

“I know Lord, that Your judgments are right, And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.” If that verse sounds familiar, it should. Stanza nine was about God teaching his servant through affliction. Here it is again. David adds the twin thoughts that God judges rightly and shows faithfulness toward us even when He is sending us trials that discipline us and test our faith. Remember that it is far easier to be faithful and content with the Lord when all is going smoothly in our lives. But the only way we can GROW in our faithfulness is when our spiritual “muscles” are strengthened in the gymnasium of trials. When others consider our example, is our testimony teaching them to be patient under affliction, or do they see us murmur, gripe and complain when things are hard? That kind of reaction is telling others that our God is a harsh taskmaster, rather than a loving Father who only wants the best for us!

Verses 76 and 77 begin a 5-verse segment, each verse beginning with “Let.” These two verses both speak of the tender and kind mercies of our faithful God. David already confessed that his Father in heaven shows His faithfulness when He evaluates us and when He afflicts us with trials. How much MORE then, does our Maker display that faithfulness when He is TENDER, MERCIFUL & KIND? Another of David’s sweetest psalms is Psalm 30 where he exclaims, “His anger is only for a moment, but His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning” (30:5). Do you and I reflect these godly qualities to those around us? Is our example, our testimony in word and deed, revealing to people that the God we believe in is a gentle Shepherd, a Savior who is full of kindness and compassion? This reflection of God’s loving heart can draw others to faith in Christ!

David had to learn humility in order to fully appreciate the Lord’s faithfulness. It was when he acted proudly and vainly that he overstepped the bounds of God’s law and sinned so terribly. Verse 78 tells of people who had told lies about David and “treated [him] wrongfully.” But certainly there were those who knew of the king’s sins in the past, and probably figured that the lies they told about him would “stick” or be believed by others. This verse reminds us that even the best of human reputations will have flaws and mistakes that others will latch onto and exaggerate because of malice or jealousy. Proud folk will often seek to tear us down, even when we do our best to please God and make others glad. David leaves such liars and nay-sayers in God’s hands, determined to turn his own thoughts to precepts of his faithful God, because he’s confident that Yahweh will make the fairest judgment, bringing permanent shame to those who deserve it—those who refuse to repent and trust Christ.

God’s testimonies—His own pronouncements concerning all things in His creation, His are the testimonies that count not only right now, but forever and ever. They determine reality, and are taken to heart and trusted by all who fear Him. Whatever the Bible says is true and righteous and reliable. It can be trusted, as David learned full well. He also trusts that God’s people can turn in his direction and accept him as a fellow believer. He need not fear that the lies of proud people, or even the sins of David’s past, would prevent those who loved Yahweh from embracing a humble, penitent sinner who turned to God for forgiveness and cleansing. God is “faithful and just to forgive us our sins”!

Yes, there will be consequences when we step beyond the boundaries of God’s law. There are times when I have to repent and confess my sins, turn from them, and then do what I can to mend the damage my wrong choices have cost both me and other people. That can be painful and bring shame and disappointment, and even cause me to doubt my own salvation…

But remember, brother and sister, that it is not the Father’s will that ANY of His beloved children remain bound up in a life of guilt and shame. The guilty soul can be washed whiter than snow. David concludes this stanza with the plea: “Let my heart be blameless regarding your statutes, That I may not be ashamed.” 

It is only when we realize that our kind and merciful Creator has provided the perfect, faithful Savior, His only Son, that we find forgiveness and cleansing through His blood that was shed on the Cross. Jesus Christ gave up His human reputation and bore our shame as He hung naked on the cruel Cross, so that believers in Him could have every sin and stain removed from our hearts and stand BLAMELESS, and delighted to keep the statutes of God.

Dear Father, Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, bore our sin and shame in His own body on the tree. He lived a flawless life with no shame before you, yet He was put to shame so that we sinners could stand before you UNASHAMED. Please help us to remember this as we praise you for your faithfulness and testify of your grace and mercy and eternal joy before the watching world. In Jesus name,

Amen.

Crutch...or Craving?

 People are incurably religious. Even the most ardent atheist will acknowledge this fact when he charts humanity both historically and geographically. Wherever people dwell, religion springs up like weeds in a garden, impossible to fully eradicate. Atheists such as Freud and Nietzsche faced this fact squarely in the 19th Century and concluded that religion was the product of those who feared things in nature that threatened their lives. 

These fearful people would “invent” spiritual beings dwelling in, or with power over, such things as disease, drought, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and so on. They would try to plead with or appease such spirits in order to find protection for themselves. They invented “heaven” and “hell” to act as ultimate reward or punishment for people’s moral and immoral behavior, motivating one another to act in beneficial ways for the good of the community.

Various competing religious systems have led to conflict among people for millennia. This fact has been a boon to advocates of atheism, who usually blame religion for most of the wars and other degradations of mankind that have occurred. And it is certainly true that when a religion obtains enough adherents to become too powerful, it can also become oppressive of individual freedom, as well as a persecutor of weaker religious systems.

The problem with this view of religion in general is, in my opinion, that it defines religion much too narrowly.

Primarily, it assumes a very dim view of what it means to be human in the first place. The psychological need in us to “invent” spirits that can help us control nature is itself a mere surmise by the atheist who seeks to deny any deity’s existence. But when I observe people around me, the motivation I see operating in them is seldom a fear or phobia that some natural disaster might hurt them. Rather, they are motivated by the desire to devote themselves to a great ideal. A hunger for meaning and significance.

The typical man or woman wants to matter…matter to someone or something beyond himself or herself. People are survivors. They are good at dealing with threats to their existence. They hide, they build shelters, they migrate, they congregate, they enter into contracts and covenants, they put up armed defenses. But deep inside, each person wants to be valued as an individual—valued by a valuer that really MATTERS.

Simply put, where is the need to protect oneself from nature coming from? Why the desire to extend one’s life and safety, if not to become significant in some way? If I have no meaning or value, why go on living in the first place? If life itself is nothing more than a blind struggle for survival, then “all is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:1).

I am born into a family and a community that expects certain things from me. I am expected to behave properly, learn things, do chores, practice a trade, fit in to prescribed roles and systems, add value to the group. But if that is all I am here for: to meet the expectations of the collective, then what am I, really? Just a cog in a machine?

The human spirit rejects that kind of paltry answer to the question of “why?” And that spirit of unrest is what truly leads to the religious impulse in man. The hunt for ultimate meaning beyond the material world. We know in our hearts that we are made for MORE. And if my place within the collective cannot supply what I know I am made for, Who can?

Can I look to my heroes? Even my “super-heroes”? Somebody with more strength, more smarts, more success, more celebrity, more money, more influence? Some idol carved out of stone, wood, metal or plastic? Some drugged-out guru who got a hallucinogenic vision? Some scientist who comes up with a new formula or computer model or A.I.?

If there’s anybody out there who can unravel the mystery of my significance, here I am. Show me if and how and why I even matter in this world! That is the pure human spirit that motivates the NEED for religious answers.

And there is, thankfully, a BOOK. A human book authored by the CREATOR of humans. A wonderful, flawless, fascinating, profitable, essential book with all the answers we longing humans are craving.

MNA 8/14/2023

 

Psalm 119 Stanza 7

 Themes from the Psalm of Psalms

(Loving the God of Psalm 119)

Stanza Seven

Zayin: My hope is secure in Him who remembers His word to His servant.

49. Remember the word to Your servant / Upon which You have caused me to hope.

50. This is my comfort in my affliction, / For Your word has given me life.

51. The proud have me in great derision, / Yet I do not turn aside from Your law.

52. I remembered Your judgments of old, O Lord, / and have comforted myself.

53. Indignation has taken hold of me / Because of the wicked, who forsake Your law.

54. Your statutes have been my songs / In the house of my pilgrimage.

55. I remember Your name in the night, O Lord, / And I keep Your law.

56. This has become mine / Because I kept Your precepts.

Today I want to teach on a special theme that we find in King David’s “Psalm of Psalms” ---Psalm 119. As we’ve learned in previous lessons, every stanza of this Hebrew poem contains eight verses, each one of which begins with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet. We’ve come to the seventh stanza, beginning with the seventh letter: called Zayin, which sounds like our letter “Z.”

The letter Zayin and the number 7 are both important in Hebrew thought, and I believe they have an importance to believers in our day as well. When God created the universe, He finished His work of creation on the sixth day. That was the day the Lord God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let him have dominion over” all the earth. Last time we read and learned about the letter Waw, the sixth letter, which represents man. 

In my study, I discovered that the letter Zayin is formed by taking the letter Waw and adding a stroke to the top of that letter, giving it a kind of crown. So the seventh Hebrew letter represents a kind of CROWNED MAN, or KING. And in the story of creation, what happened on the seventh DAY? That was the day God rested and called that day HOLY in a special way. The Sabbath day became the day of the week to rest from normal labor in order to worship the King of Creation. Of course, after Jesus rose from the dead, the Christian day of worship became the first day of the week. Jesus is the “crowned Man” who became the King of kings when He ascended into heaven!

Hebrew teachers have also taught that seven is important because it stands for the coming Kingdom of the Messiah: The seventh thousand years of human history. And what are Christians now waiting for? The return of King Jesus to judge mankind and create a new heaven and new earth where his people will reign with Him forever and ever! So, the seventh letter in Hebrew can make us think not only of our Lord and King, the crowned “Son of Man,” but also of his second coming to the earth. 

Also, the name Zayin has two meanings in Hebrew: SWORD and SUSTENANCE. Actually the letter resembles a sword, with a blade going up and down, and a handle at the top. These two meanings go together in a unique way, for the sword has often been used throughout history to make people feel secure, able to feed and protect their families and their crops. When Jesus comes back to earth, he will not be coming as the suffering Servant, like before. He will come as a righteous, avenging Judge, with the sharp sword that will bring the godless nations to an end!

We find great comfort and hope in the word that comes from our Savior’s mouth, both in the knowledge of who He is, and in the promises He has made to those who willingly serve Him. In this seventh stanza, we find our hope is secure in the one who remembers His word to his servants.

The author of the psalm, almost certainly David, begins the stanza by asking the Lord Himself to “remember the word to Your servant upon which You have caused me to hope” (v.49) Psalm 119 explores every aspect of God’s word, calling it His “law,” His “judgments,” His “statutes,” His “testimonies,” His “precepts,” and many other names. God’s word is precious to the psalmist, as it ought to be for you and me. We look at the vast beauty of the world and the universe, and might marvel at the supreme Being who could bring all these things into existence…

But we would have no cause for HOPE unless this supreme Creator chose to speak to us in words we could understand. In Psalm 19, David also praises Yahweh both for His revelation to us through the things He has made…and through His “perfect” law—His word by which He gives life to the soul. God’s word, David says, “revives the soul…makes wise the simple…gives joy to the heart…gives light to the eyes…endures forever…is altogether righteous…more precious than much pure gold…sweeter than honey…and a pathway to a great reward.”

Our Bible is a gift from God that is full of HOPE. God cared enough for sinful people to share His word with us. And from the very beginning after Adam and Eve sinned, God’s sentence against them included words of hope: “I will put enmity between the serpent and the woman, between the serpent’s seed and her Seed. He will crush the serpent’s head, and his heel will only be bruised.” This was the first prophetic “good news” that one day, our Savior-King would come. This gracious promise would have been enough to give Adam’s offspring hope for the future.

But God’s word continued to be spoken over the centuries leading up to the advent of Jesus Christ. Because of our sin natures, most of the time we denied or rejected His word, disobeyed His laws, resisted His commandments, rebelled against His leadership. But David gives his sovereign God the credit for CAUSING him to find his hope in God’s word.

 

On our own, we reach out and grasp at other things to hope in: our money, our relationships, our good name, our good works, our political party, our nation, our social status, and many others. Many of those things look stable enough to hope in, but, unlike the word of God, all these temporal things will one day fail us. They will all pass away. It is up to God to change our hearts and minds so that we “wake up” from the false hopes of this world.

So, why does David tell the Lord to “remember the word to Your servant”? Is he fearful that His all-knowing God will somehow FORGET what He has said, what He has promised? No. Rather, he is simply praying back to the Lord what He has promised to do. Again and again in the years prior to David’s reign, God promised His people that He would “remember His covenant” with them and would not utterly destroy them, even when they failed to remain faithful. God not only remembers what He has promised. He actually brings it to mind and faithfully ACTS upon it.

Notice that in the other verses of the stanza, David speaks of himself as being in “affliction,” “in great derision” by the proud, needing to be “comforted,” feeling “indignation” at the wicked, and so on. In times like those, we are often tempted to feel the OPPOSITE of hope, which is DESPAIR—the desire to just “give up” and succumb to total helplessness. Become a victim of others, or of circumstances.

David’s message to us at such moments would be: “Don’t give up!” “Don’t see yourself as a helpless victim!” “You DO have hope!” “You have the true, faithful word of your faithful Father in heaven!”

In affliction, first of all (v. 50), God’s word comforts us because it is a source of LIFE. Affliction would include anything that happens that seems to oppose, attack, or threaten us with harm. Job was one who was afflicted by Satan himself. Job’s wealth, health and family were all taken away from him, and all this happened with the permission of his loving Father! But again and again, in the story of Job, we find him reminding himself of God’s righteous character and his hope of being blessed in the end. Satan would gladly have killed this righteous man, but God had commanded the devil to take away many things from Job, but to “spare his life.” And in the end, God commended Job to the world for his steadfast faith. This should comfort us with the lesson that as long as God gives us LIFE, He is our hope.

After affliction, David mentions DERISION. To deride something is to say it is stupid or without any value. Proud people in King David’s life accused him of being worthless and foolish because he kept trusting in Yahweh—a God he could not see. Christians today are ridiculed as well, and because of that they are tempted to compromise the truth of God’s word. For example, the world says that creating the world in six days cannot be true, that it is a foolish notion! But that is what the Bible, God’s word, tells us. Who are we to believe? The theories of scientists…or the testimony of the true God? David refused to “turn aside” from God’s law, even when proud and wicked men held him in “great derision.”

Next, in verse 52, he tells his audience that he has found COMFORT by remembering the judgments of his God. Here again is David’s hope. He has a positive outlook for the future by gazing into the past and realizing that God has not only spoken His word, but has also openly acted upon it! Think of the way God sent a world-wide flood upon the earth in the days of Noah. And the confusion of languages He performed at the tower of Babel to judge the rebellious city builders. And the fire and brimstone poured forth on Sodom and Gomorrah. And the ten plagues God sent to judge Pharaoh and the Egyptians. He is a loving God, true. But He is not a God to trifle with. He will judge all who oppose Him. He will act in His wrath against those who hold his people in derision. In this, we can have hope.

Is it ever right to be ANGRY? David felt an indignation taking hold of him because of the wicked who forsake the law of Yahweh. There is indeed a proper, righteous, necessary kind of anger. A holy anger. Anger against sin. Against injustice. Against those who injure and slander and kill other people. We are justified in having anger at the things that oppose and ignore and break the laws of our good God. The New Testament tells us to “be angry and sin not.” Jesus felt and expressed great anger at the sellers and money changers in the temple: He drove them out with a whip made of cords! He called them robbers and accused them of turning His Father’s house into a common market. Anger must exist for those who believe in true, godly LOVE. If we long for God’s love to prevail, it must displease us when anyone displays a lack of love, by turning away from the commands of the Creator.

In verse 54, the psalmist speaks of his “pilgrimage.” A pilgrim is one who is traveling far from his real home. Along the way, the pilgrim may find many houses in which to stay for a night or two. But his longing is always to one day return home where he truly belongs. And the hope for that return may be a cause for him to sing familiar songs that make him remember his home. To David, his love for God and his hope to meet Him face to face in an ETERNAL home…that love and hope bring him a joy that must express itself in SONG. Music has always been a characteristic of God’s people. A way of giving thanks, of expressing praise, of adoring the awesome One who created and provides for all our needs! Putting God’s word to MUSIC is a beautiful way to learn, meditate on, and rejoice in God’s truth.

Now, at the end of this stanza, night has fallen. Perhaps David is recalling a night when he was in a temporary dwelling far from his home, singing his songs softly to the Lord as he drifted off to sleep. His final waking thought was the NAME of his God: YAHWEH. The great I AM. The God who ever keeps His covenant promises to His people, and the special promises to King David himself. He says that his thoughts are of God’s name because “I keep Your law.” In verse 56: “This has become mine because I kept your precepts.” God’s rules and his teachings are so precious to him that he KEEPS them, he holds them close. He treasures them like gold and silver. They give him a secure hope that money can never buy. His good, loving God has spoken good, loving WORDS.

My prayer, friends, is that you and I will cherish, love, trust, and hope in “every word that proceeds from the mouth of God,” even as our Lord Jesus did when facing His enemy Satan. Remember how kind and gracious God was to send his only Son from heaven to die on the cross for poor, wretched, hopeless sinners like you and me. He has been, is, and always will be, true to His word, remember and act upon all His promises. We can place our hope and trust in Christ, the Crowned Man who now rules in glory, and will soon come back to make all things new!

Amen

Close...Close Enough?

In earlier articles, I’ve written about the Christian’s reluctance to name the name of Jesus Christ in his daily conversations, and even, at times, in his prayers. Astonishing as it may be, we are often ashamed to be known as a heartfelt follower and disciple of our one and only Savior.

Recently I watched a film presentation that I found both challenging and troubling. It concerned a fictional small town in Texas called Promise, where a husband and wife were mourning for a child who had died, and where the residents had been suffering from a severe drought for a number of years.

Mysteriously, a young boy about ten years of age wanders into this town, claiming to have come on a mission from God. This lad brings with him some sweet words of encouragement, some remarkable signs and wonders such as healings and prophecies about coming rainfalls, etc. He is even present when a girl who dies from an overdose is brought back to life. He also gives a ministry to the grieving mom. She agrees to make prayer mats for all the residents of the town, because the boy tells her that they all need to begin talking to God.

Toward the end of the movie, Gabe (the little boy) ministers to a dying doctor, who was the attending physician when the couple’s child passed away. The doctor says how unworthy he feels to leave this earth and get into heaven, but Gabe assures him that he is worthy, thanks to the blood of Christ. Then the doctor smiles, begins glowing with a heavenly light, and finally dies.

Throughout his ministry in the small town of Promise, Gabe claims that he is only a messenger, with no inherent power of his own. Then, at a town meeting where the folks are remembering the departed physician, Gabe finally reveals himself to be the angel Gabriel, complete with huge, spreading wings, causing everyone to respond with awe.

Now, obviously, this movie was a parable, designed to communicate the value of faith, hope and love, primarily to audiences who already have a basic belief in “God.” For that purpose, I found it entertaining and effective, keeping my interest and making me wonder who or what the boy Gabe would turn out to be. The fact that this character eventually used the term “the blood of Christ” with the dying doctor was reassuring, for I had feared that the making of the prayer mats was some obscure reference to Islam. Up to that point in the story, the “God” Gabe was serving was something of a puzzle.

So much of our media today portrays faith in God as a kind of panacea, that is, a cure-all for the troubles, pains, disappointments and fears that plague us as human beings. God is so good and so loving, we are told, that He cares about our dying loved ones, about our crops that need rain so desperately, about our dangers and afflictions. But it troubles me that so many of the viewing public, especially people who only attend church occasionally and read their Bibles only sporadically, may be forgetting that it’s not enough to “come close” when it comes to trusting “God.”

The true God–the only God who deserves our trust, the only God who EXISTS–is not only perfectly GOOD. He is also perfectly holy and just, and He hates our sins so much that He sent His beloved, eternal Son to suffer the judgment of HELL on the cruel cross. This God who is the ultimate Reality, determines reality for all those He has created. He has revealed this reality in a Book that tells the ultimate truth. He has revealed the reality of who He is in His Son who IS ultimate Truth: the Lord Jesus Christ who died and rose again!

God warns us in His book that if we go on resisting His truth–truth about who He is…truth about who WE are…truth about the judgment awaiting sinners…truth about the only Savior from sin–then there will come a day when that truth will be taken away from us. And we will then be left with the watered-down half-truths of wandering, wishful storytellers who may occasionally “come close” to eternal life…

But not close enough to save anybody.

MNA

4/26/2023

As She Walked Away

Somehow I could tell she wasn’t acting

as she turned her face into the camera and 

a liquid glimmer caught light number two,

the one that Jerry set just so, to angle

feathery gold fringes of the hairdo

she arranged to get the night before.

Could she sense the extra pause? I faltered

with the dialogue, lines over-practiced

in between sips of neglected brandy

cross-legged on my sectional settee.

Late distraction when I heard her breathing

over in the corner, closed eyes smiling.

That was when I had to ditch my doubting

and admit my acting had to shut down

soon as this unending shoot wrapped up,

then I would tell her of the other writer

and the script my brain scanned unrelenting,

in between the wooden words we quoted.

Finally, our speeches were expiring

and the hip director beckoned blithely

for the cameraman to zoom in slow,

very slow, so slow as we sat clutching

for that final shot, then as we parted, 

she was magic as she walked away.

MNA

4/6/2023