The Devotional - 1502 - The Word of God - Continued

The Devotional – 1502 – The Word of God – Continued

I have changed the two paragraphs of yesterday! 

Psalm 119:9-16 – How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You! Blessed are You, O Lord! Teach me Your statutes! With my lips I have declared all the judgments of Your mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, as much as in all riches. I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways. I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word. 

Comments and Challenges:

BET

1.      How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to Your WORD.

2.      With my whole heart, I have sought you, don’t let me wonder from Your COMMANDMENTS.

3.      I have hidden Your WORD in my heart, that I might not sin against You.

4.      Blest are You YAHWEH, teach me Your STATUTES.

5.      With my lips, I have declared all of the ORDINANCES of Your mouth.

6.      I have rejoiced in the way of Your TESTIMONIES, as much as in all riches.

7.      I will meditate on Your PRECEPTS, and consider Your ways.

8.      I will delight myself in Your STATUTES, I will not forget Your WORD.

The stripping away of SIN in our life is not to be taken lightly, our nature is sinful. Okay most of us agree with this but some believe that there is no such thing as sin. If this is true of you then, my dear friend… YOU are not living according to God’s WORD. Romans 3:23 is a blanket statement of the apostle Paul “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. But if you care to know more, the first three chapters of Romans will help to identify that the entire world (including you) is subject to the penalty of SIN; which is death.

The psalmist explains that his WHOLE heart is needed in the search of God; otherwise he would wonder away being led by SIN. He needs personal help from God to keep him from wondering from God’s Commandments. You and I are no different today; without the help of the Holy Spirit we cannot live in the victory of being justified by faith as God has planned for us through Jesus Christ. So the psalmist understands that just “knowing” God is not enough, all church groups claim to know God, but all church groups do not have faith in God. 

We could spend our time searching this thought out, but I would rather that we understand as the psalmist does, that it is the WORD OF THE LIVING GOD that we must cling to and not the doctrines of “church groups”. To have a faith in a church group is a system of sinful works that adds debt to the one who practices a religion, religion is a debt that cannot be paid. Notice how the writer of our Psalm expresses his understanding of this in verse 4. “Blest are You, GOD, teach me Your STATUTES”. 

He is asking God to fill his soul with rejoicing, the same JOY that God has, since the word BLEST or BLESSED means “multiple joy or complete “holiness”. If we do not have the JOY of the LORD as a source of comfort provided by the Holy Spirit, then the system of religion we are practicing is full of debt, produced by the works of religion. Here is an interesting consideration of the words selected by the psalmist in verses 5 and 6. Basically he is saying that within the circumstances of his daily life as a prisoner of war, the ORDINANCES of life are controlling this confinement. 

Now verses 7 and 8. Not the ordinances of the camp which he has to obey and are depressing, but the ordinances of God which are God’s Statutes within the camp that work to bring peace in those who are trusting in the WORD of God. Do we not know that in the midst of suffering and waiting for the unknown to happen that there are the daily TESTIMONIES of God, that when seen are like GOLD refined in the fire? 

If we do not know this then we are missing the true riches associated with PRECEPTS of the moral and spiritual conduct of being led by the HOLY SPIRIT of God. In conclusion today the writer of this Psalm understands just as we should too that it we are not delighting daily in the Living WORD of God and are not allowing God to teach us His STATUTES, we are simply forgetting how AWESOME and PERSONAL God is and that it is HE alone who will meet and exceed with JOY, a joy that exceeds our sin and despair.

This despair is the fault of our religious system of worship plus works rather than “faith alone in Christ, resulting in true worship”.