A Thought for the Day – 084 –
Hope
Psalm 119:10 – With
my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your
commandments!
Comments and
challenges
Well most of the morning I have
been playing around with a Bible Study Tools program on the computer. This tool
is new to me so I was not able to find exactly what I was looking for and that
would be the second section of eight verses of Psalm 119 which is the Hebrew
“Beth” character in which all of the eight stanzas begin with that second
character of the Hebrew alphabet. Or at least this is the way I remember the
Psalm when I first studied it many years ago. The character “Beth” is shaped
like a square with the left side of the square missing.
Now there is significance in
meaning of the shape of the “Beth” character of which I have forgotten and of
which I have spent too much time looking for this morning, but I will say that
the character reminds me of a shield and when the Psalmist says; “How can a young man cleanse his way? By
taking heed to Your Word. With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not
wander from Your Commandments!” He is not saying that he is afraid of losing
his grip on keeping up with God”.
In fact; it is just the
opposite, he understands that “Hope deferred makes the heart sick” Proverbs
13:12-13 and that the one who does not study the Word is unprotected and lacks
the confidence of moving forward. A soldier with a shield can move forward,
because he is protected. Also, looking at Psalm 119:11 confirms for me that it
is vital to hide the word of God in the heart for the sole purpose of keeping
from sin. So last week we looked at “Faith”, not the word; but the outworking of
faith in the heart of those who believe God in the sole area of
“justification”.
Yet FAITH like HOPE and also
LOVE, gifts of God to you and me (1 Corinthians 13:13) go beyond being
justified, even though the apostle Paul states that the greatest of these three
gifts of God is faith, the larger picture of following God after justification
is a growing confidence in HOPE and LOVE. This being my thoughts over the
weekend will lead me to look into the next step of God’s plan for you and me
after being justified by faith which is being sanctified in the grace and
knowledge of walking with God each moment after being justified.
Now all of this makes complete
sense to me and I hope it does for you as well the reader, but if not please
hang in there, I am sure that this will be a blessing for all of us since there
is nothing better than the Study of the Word of the Living God.
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