The Devotional - 1504 - Beautiful Counselors

The Devotional – 1504 – Beautiful Counselors

Psalm 119:25-32 – I am laid low in the dust; preserve my life according to your word. I recounted my ways and you answered me; teach me your decrees. Let me understand the teaching of your precepts; then I will meditate on your wonders. My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word. Keep me from deceitful ways; be gracious to me through your law. I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on your laws. I hold fast to your statutes, O LORD; do not let me be put to shame. I run in the path of Your Commands, for you have set my heart free. 

Comments and Challenges: DALETH

25. My soul is laid low in the dust: revive me according to Your WORD.

26. I declared my ways and You answered me, teach me your STATUTES.

27. Let me understand the teaching of Your PRECEPTS, then I will meditate on Your wondrous works.

28. My soul is weary with sorrow: strengthen me according to Your WORD.

29. Keep me from the way of deceit: grant me Your LAW graciously.

30. I have chosen the way of TRUTH, I have set Your ORDINANCES before me.

31. I cling to Your STATUTES, YAHWEH, don’t let me be disappointed.

32. I run in the path of Your COMMANDMENTS, for You have set my heart free. 

Many of the Psalms are personal pleas of the writer to align with God in Mercy, Truth, Grace and in the Joy of being in the LORD. And I would suppose too that in many lives that it is not until there is a specific suffering or sorrow of heart that our soul begins the process of “reaching out” to the LORD. I remember the days of suffering when my daughter passed into the arms of the LORD Jesus. 

Oh! I am not alone in this and there is the knowledge that you too are at this moment facing the remembrance of the loss of a child, parent or sibling. For bringing you to such are remembrance, I do not apologize since these are bitter remembrances “yes”! But these are “sweet” as well. The loss is but one issue, but it is the Beauty of the LORD experienced; that is many things. God is Beautiful in all things since His glory surpasses the suffering of any moment in time and you know as I do, He is there waiting for the day when He will lead you through the next one.

This section of Psalm 119 is certainly speaking to me today since it is very easy to picture my soul in the dust. Yet He has revived my soul like that of a young warrior ready for battle. Some may think that I am just pumping out words to fill up the devotional (well I do, do that at times I must admit) but not so today. Since I have declared my ways to the LORD and He has answered me; not just in the nick of time, NO but in His perfect time. My ways like yours are not God’s way, my thoughts are not His Thoughts, but in saying that, I will be eternally thankful that He has never dropped one thought about me. Somewhere in Isaiah, you can look it up as I have an appointment at 9AM and it is 8AM now.

 

Thus I can say confidently, teach me LORD your STATUTES for in these, there is REJOICING of SOUL. Yes LORD, make me to understand the WAY of Your PRECEPTS, since in these I will see and gain the Wisdom of Your WORD. This does not mean that my SOUL is not weary, it is but my strength is not in myself, it is in accordance with the LIVING WORD of GOD.

All of my personal views of current events; that is the current events of my flesh have been wrong, thus in the flesh my soul sags in grief, but my help comes rapidly because I have been STRENGTHENED according to HIS WORD. It seems to me that in the flesh of our lives there is much lying, some intentional and some presumptuous as in Psalm 19:13, therefore I like what the writer of Psalm 119 says in verse 29. Separate me from lying, and grant me Your LAW in grace.

Now if you are not suffering over some issue in life, all of this may seem as nonsense or the melancholy (broken spirit) of an old man; bah humbug! Don’t be a fool as in one day your life can change and you will find yourself clinging to the WORD of God. Young or old, your soul is as fresh in you as in the day that God gave it to you. The LIFE we speak of then is not in the flesh, so it is not your flesh that needs revival; it is your SOUL which belongs to God. If your soul is clinging to the dust, then it is not clinging to His TESTIMONIES.

Therefore I chose to run in the way of God’s commandments, not in the letter of the law; Romans 7:6 and 2 Corinthians 3:6 but in the power given to me through God’s everlasting love; Romans 8:31-39 and the promise that the Holy Spirit will guide me through the suffering of this present time and the glory of God will sustain me; Romans 8:18-30.