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DEVOTION

PSALMS

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Ps 119:1-8

119:1 Aleph

Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD. 2 Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart. 3 They do nothing wrong; they walk in his ways. 4 You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed. 5 Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees! 6 Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands. 7 I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws. 8 I will obey your decrees; do not utterly forsake me.

NIV

Day one in the longest psalm, which in Hebrew is an acrostic poem. Not sure how we can determine that for sure, but that is not the truth we are looking for that can apply to our lives. The key words in this first stanza are blameless and steadfast. We cannot be sure how anyone in the Old Testament could have ways that were blameless, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We, on the other hand have been declared holy and blameless in his sight because we are in Christ. Did whoever, and we think it was David who wrote this psalm, really walk according to the law of the LORD? We think not, as we know his sin regarding Bathsheba and the ensuing attempt to cover it up by getting her husband sent to the front line, a certain death sentence. This idea of those who keep his statues and seek him with all their hearts doing nothing wrong, has to be speaking about people who lived during and after Jesus. No one who lived before Jesus every lived a perfect life, doing nothing wrong.  But the true wrong in a person’s life is rejecting Jesus. Because we seek him with all our heart, and that goes back to this divided heart issue, we have done that which is right, therefor we have done no wrong. We walk in the way, in Christ. It would seem what the psalmist says is boastful in his humanity about being steadfast in obeying the Lords decrees. Certainly the LORD did lay down his percepts that were to be fully obeyed, but were they really fully obeyed? We know the history of Israel and how they continually disobeyed God. That is our life as well. We are not a perfect example of obedience to God. Our hearts get distracted and thus could be considered divided. We want to seek the LORD with all our heart, we want to do that which is acceptable, which in the grand scheme of things we have, because we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior. That is the most important right thing we have ever done. However, we will praise the Lord with an upright heart for the Lord has made our heart upright. We cannot make our heart upright, for in our humanity it is not perfect and thus it gets bend toward self from time to time. He is the only one who can make our heart upright as he declares we are holy, upright, and blameless in his sight. Nevertheless we will learn and continue to learn his righteous law, which in our case, is the law of love. That is the new commandment Jesus gave us. To love the Lord with all, not part, but all our heart, soul, spirit and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. The psalmist had many laws to keep, many commandments of God to adhere to, we have these two. For all the law, all the commands of God the Old Testament Jews had to keep are wrapped up in the two that Jesus gave us. That seems easy enough. But it still requires a great deal of reliance on the Holy Spirit. To deny self and put others first, which is this loving our neighbor thing, is not as easy as it sounds. All too often we want what we want and not what they want. But that is our goal, which is what we are trying to be steadfast in doing. We will not give up and throw in the towel. We will keep on keeping on, even when we make a mistake, when we fall. We will get back up, seek him, and get on with living to please him. As long as we keep at it, he will never forsake us. He is the one who started this good work in us, and he is the one who will complete it. He is the one who is the start and the finish.