2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
In yesterday’s segment representing the spiritual meaning of the Hebrew letter, dalet, our Psalmist asserted his determination to obey the law of the Lord. He showed us his acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty in his life and in ours. It is significant that this passage (PS 119: 25-32) suggests a doorway to salvation provided by God. It ends with the Psalmist’s statement, “I will eagerly obey Your command, because You will give me more understanding.” This is a logical segue to the section we will look at today, PS 119: 33-40, which covers the spiritual meaning of the Hebrew letter, hay.
“Teach me, Lord, the meaning Your laws, and I will obey the at all times. Explain Your law to me, and I will obey it; I will keep it with all my heart. Keep me obedient to Your commandments, because I them I find happiness. Give me the desire to obey Your laws rather than to get rich. Keep me from paying attention to what is worthless; be good to me as You have promised. Keep you promise to me, Your servant-the promise You make to those who obey You. Save me from the insults I fear; how wonderful are Your judgments! I want to obey Your commands; give me new life, for You are righteous.” This passage has some very interesting aspects to it. For starters, a reader can really feel the human emotion behind its words. This is sincere emotion, not the simpering kind designed to manipulate the Parent. There are signs of spiritual maturity in it, such as the recognition that material wealth isn’t going to bring real happiness. There is also acknowledgment that the things pertaining to God are valuable than the things of this world. The Psalmist knows that God can lead him to things of value and seeks that leadership. He also knows that because God is fully righteous, His judgments are also that way and are in mankind’s best interest. Of paramount importance is that Psalmist’s understanding that God is the Source of “new life.” God is revealed in this kind of faith as a promise-keeper, the Sovereign Lord of his life, and as righteous. In looking at this passage, we can find the power of the word.
Verse 34 which begins with, “Explain Your law to me, and I will obey it…” can be seen from a Jewish perspective, as well as a Christian one. A faithful Jew, such as our Psalmist, recognizes that God is the Source of all knowledge we can obtain about His law, the way of life He wants us to live. He opens His heart in prayer and study of the word to God and learns what God has to teach him. In my humble opinion, he does not understand anything about the mechanism of how this happens, because he does not know Who the Holy Spirit is. He knows that God sometimes sends His angels to deliver messages to mankind as was done when God’s angel appeared to Abraham to tell him that he and Sarah would have Isaac, the child of the promise, even though they were well past the age when people could normally bear children (GN 18: 10), or when Gabriel appeared to Daniel and revealed the battle he had been fighting with the evil angel prince of the kingdom of Persia for twenty-one days (DN 10: 13). From this, we gain understanding of God’s will and His ability to defy physical laws of nature to bring it about. We learn about the existence of an unseen world of conflict between God’s angels and those of the devil.
To the Christian, we not only see what the Jewish person has learned, but because of our knowledge that Christ is the Messiah and that His Atonement on the cross opened the way to salvation for all those who believe, we are allowed to know the mechanism God uses to bring it about. Taking this one step further, we are aware of the Holy Spirit Who has the capability to teach us the meaning of God’s word. I believe the Holy Spirit does this intermittently for faithful Jews, but they don’t have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that a believer in Christ has. Our Psalmist understood enough to know that God is the Source of new life. But, his picture of what we know from 2 COR 5: 17 is incomplete. “When anyone is joined to Christ, he is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come.” Our Psalmist doesn’t live in a grace economy as we do, so he is not “dead to the Law” (RO 7: 4) and “dead to sin” (RO 6: 11). He doesn’t know the principle of RO 7: 6, “Now however, we are free from the Law, because we died to that which once held us prisoners. No longer do we serve in the old way of a written law, but in the new way of the Spirit.”
The grace system has always been known to God, but it wasn’t revealed until Paul’s ministry. God knew that mankind wasn’t ready to understand what grace [unmerited favor from God] meant before that. RO 5: 20-21 sheds light on this subject. “Law was introduced in order to increase wrongdoing; but where sin increased, God’s grace increased much more. So then, just as sin ruled by means of death, so also God’s grace rules by means of righteousness, leading us to eternal life through Jesus Christ.” From this, we can see that the understanding of our faithful Psalmist is a shadow of that which was to come to us through accepting Christ as our personal Savior.
I would be remiss if I didn’t comment about our Psalmist’s words in verse 36, “Give me the desire to obey Your laws rather then to get rich.” These are very mature words which must be very pleasing to God. I say this because of something I saw on TV the other night. On “20/20” there was a profile story on a young man who had made a lot of money designing Internet software for web sites to allow audio and video streaming of sports events and concerts. He had sold his company to another larger one and made a huge profit. Then, they showed how he got started (with a scam that conned a number of people out of money as a young lad) and his present lifestyle. He lives in a huge mansion with very little furniture and has no wife or children. He works all the time and has no one to care about or to care for him. When God compares his life to that of our faithful Psalmist, what do you think God’s opinion will be? While it’s not for us to judge, if we understand what God values in a person, the answer seems pretty clear.
PRAYER: O Lord, You are indeed a sovereign and righteous God. You blessed the Psalmist by giving him pleasure that came directly from obeying Your teachings. You bless us even more, by gifting us with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Psalmist’s example is one for us to learn by. His attitude about the comparative value of material wealth and spiritual wealth came from You and is meant to impart this same understanding to us. You allowed him to know long before Jesus Christ died to save believers in Him that You are the Source of a new and better life. Through Christ, You made that life possible for us. While we can never repay You for the blessings You give us, You deserve nothing less than our adoration, loyalty, worship, faithfulness, and humility. We dedicate ourselves to offering You those things along with praise, honor, and glory. In Christ’s name, amen.
God breathes life into His teachings by imparting an understanding of them and hunger for them in us by means of the Holy Spirit. How blessed we are to have been born in the age of grace! We can look back at faithful OT figures like our Psalmist with new found respect for them and their understanding of God’s principles when we realize that they didn’t live in the age of grace. God loved them and will deliver justice at the time of judgment. Never forget RO 8: 28, “We know that in all things God works for good with those who love Him, those whom He has called according to His purpose.” Feel loved today, because you are. Peter and I also send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn