Our Practice

DEVOTION

PSALMS

OUR PRACTICE

Ps 119:49-56

49 Zayin

Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope. 50 My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life. 51 The arrogant mock me without restraint, but I do not turn from your law. 52 I remember your ancient laws, O LORD, and I find comfort in them. 53 Indignation grips me because of the wicked, who have forsaken your law. 54 Your decrees are the theme of my song wherever I lodge. 55 In the night I remember your name, O LORD, and I will keep your law. 56 This has been my practice: I obey your precepts.

NIV

Day seven in the longest psalm. There may be times in our life when things are not going just as we think they should. It seems this is the plight of the psalmist in this stanza. Asking God to remember his word consider his servant. The word of God gives us hope and comfort when there is some suffering in life. It is his word, his promises that preserve our life when things are going badly for us, at least when we think things are going badly. But if we are his servants, then our life is in his hand, and all things work for good to those who love the lord and are called according to his purpose.

Rom 8:28-29

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

NIV

Whatever we experience in life, we know that God is doing a good work in us, he is using our life experience, whatever that is, even suffering, for our good according to his purpose for our life. As far as the arrogant mocking us without restraint may well have to do with those periods in life when we are not experiencing what appears to be a victorious life. Because we have witnessed to them, because they know we are a born again, bible toting, believers in God, and they see us in a period of suffering, they mock our God. They could say something like, “If God is a God if love, why does he let you suffer so?” Or, “if you say God blesses you, why are you not looking blessed?” But it does not matter what anyone says, we will not turn from the Lord’s law. We remember his ancient laws that he gave to the Israelites, we remember the new covenant Jesus made with us. We remember that we are born again and we will inherit eternal life. We remember that God works everything for our good, because we love him and we are called according to the purpose he has for us as not just servants, but as co-heirs with Jesus, as his friend, as the children of God, citizens of the Kingdom of God. Yet at the same time, because they mock us, which is mocking God, horror grips us. When the psalmist says that indignation grips him because of the wicked, the Hebrew word means horror or burning heat, rage. This is indignation at its finest. How dare they mock our God! Who do they think they are? They don’t even know the truth! They are ignorant people, without knowledge of who God really is. Indignation grips us because of the wicked because they have forsaken the Lord and his law. Oh Lord, your degrees are the theme song of our heart. It does not matter where we lodge. If we lodge in a house of blessings or one of sufferings, we will always sing of your praise deep within our heart and thus that will shine from us to all we see and know us. As we lay in our bed at night we remember you are there, you are with us, and we recount all your works in our life and feel comfort, contentment and peace, because we know you love us. We commit our way unto you, Lord. We want to accomplish that which you have called us to. Yet, we also know that you are our strength and it is you working through us which gets it all done, according to your purpose. This has been our practice. Looking to you Lord for all things, which is obeying your precepts. This is our practice.

Authority

DEVOTION

PSALMS

AUTHORITY

Ps 119:41-48                                                                  

41 Waw

May your unfailing love come to me, O LORD, your salvation according to your promise; 42 then I will answer the one who taunts me, for I trust in your word. 43 Do not snatch the word of truth from my mouth, for I have put my hope in your laws. 44 I will always obey your law, for ever and ever. 45 I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts. 46 I will speak of your statutes before kings and will not be put to shame, 47 for I delight in your commands because I love them. 48 I lift up my hands to your commands, which I love, and I meditate on your decrees.

NIV

Day six in the longest psalm. There is a dedication in the voice of the psalmist. He is declaring his intent to never forsake the law of the Lord, nor his trust in him. He wants the Lord to know that all his hope in the law. For him, walking in the law is walking in freedom. This following the law has been an issue with us New Testament believers. We believe we are no longer under the law, because Jesus set us free from the law. In fact, the law was given to show Israel they could not follow it perfectly, and thus needed a Savior, the ultimate sacrifice for sin. It has always been about Jesus from the very beginning of the history of mankind’s first sin. Then that raises the question about if God knew Adam was going to make that bad choice, why did he create him with that ability, that free will. However that all worked out, if it was always the plan of God for man to sin, the giving of the law to show the need for Jesus, or it just happened and God reacted accordingly, the point is that Jesus did come and he fulfilled the law. This means that if we are in Christ, we have fulfilled the law as well. Then it just leaves us with all the word of God to trust in. We trust him for our salvation through Jesus. We trust him for life itself. We put our hope in his word, in Jesus for our salvation and eternal life. No one who has died as come back to tell us that eternal life is real, except all the eye witness accounts recorded in the New Testament. But they those who taunt us, do not believe this bible was inspired by God, but rather a big hoax perpetuated upon man by others with a scheme to control others. Everything we believe about eternal life is really a hope, it is by faith we believe, not by sight. Yet we have witnessed so many miracles by the hand of God that it would be foolish to reject this hope, this faith in him, in his word, is his commands, his everlasting love, and his promises to those who believe. Because Jesus fulfilled the law, we walk in freedom. We are not bound to the law, we are not chained to the law, because Jesus set us free and we are free indeed. However, that does not mean we are free to live however we please. The word of God still controls our lifestyle. Because we believe we live as citizens of the kingdom of God and thus live under the rule of the King. This is a fine line, not to live under the law, but to live under his authority. So we delight in his authority over our lives. That would mean we want him to have that authority, we defer to his authority. This means we do not make a decision on our own. We do not decide to do something, whether that be move, by a new car, change jobs, change anything for that matter, retire, or whatever without consulting him first. That means everything we are, everything we have, everything we do is under his authority and we can only be, have, and do whatever he decides is best for us and that which would benefit his kingdom. We therefore lift up our hands to his command. This is to say, we bow before him with extended hands in submission to his authority. We mediate on his decrees. We are always living in consideration of his authority, his word, and his commands in our life.  

Focused

DEVOTION

PSALMS

FOCUSED

Ps 119:33-40

33 He

Teach me, O LORD, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end. 34 Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart. 35 Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight. 36 Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. 37 Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word.  38 Fulfill your promise to your servant, so that you may be feared. 39 Take away the disgrace I dread, for your laws are good. 40 How I long for your precepts! Preserve my life in your righteousness.

NIV

Day five in the longest psalm. It does little good to learn the decrees of the Lord from another man. In doing this it might be way too easy to either forget what he has said because of his mannerisms or style of teaching or that he teaches something more of human ideas than the true decrees of the Lord. But when we learn from God, when he speaks his decrees into our heart, we will never forget and we will keep them to the end. Again we need to understand what his decrees are. What is a decree? In the Hebrew it is defined in various ways, but the first definition is the main usage and that is a statute, an ordinance, a limit, something prescribed, a prescribed task. This could be a combination of many tasks such as the Ten Commandments, and all the other laws given to the Israelites, in addition we have all the commands or laws given to us by Jesus, or in all the letters of the apostles, or it can be a singular task. We also know that no man can keep all the law to the end for we are all sinners saved by grace, we have all fallen short of the glory of God. How could we even expect to keep all the law, which was never intended to been able to be kept? The law was to show man he needed a Savior. So how could anyone keep it to the end? However, this prescribed task as seen as an individual task, or a calling could be keep to the end. When God puts a calling on us, how can we retire from doing that task? We will keep it to the end. We do not understand how a person called by God to do a prescribed task would plan their retirement, either from that prescribed task or from doing the will of God.  When God gives us that understanding we then will be able to keep his law and obey it with all our heart. Here it is again, direct me in the path of your commands. Again it is this calling by God to walk in a certain path. First that is the path of righteousness, or to walk in the path of Jesus, to be in Christ is the only path to walk, in that it gives us eternal life. But then this path is also the singular path he has called a specific person to walk. Some he calls to become a shepherd, another an evangelist, or a teacher. He calls some to be his voice in the wilderness. Whatever he calls us to, it is all for the furtherance of his kingdom. We do not work or toil or preform our assigned task for our own benefit. This life we live is not for us, but for the kingdom of God. The one who loses his life will gain life, the one who wants to keep his life will lose it. This is the meaning of our life. We live for the pleasure of God, not for our own pleasure. Now can we have some pleasures in life? Sure, God blesses us with many pleasures, both spiritual and material. He provides all we need. He has provided us with so much, in fact one of his promises that he allows us to test him about is in our tithe and offerings.

Mal 3:10-12

0 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty. 12 "Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land," says the LORD Almighty.

NIV

We will not have room enough to contain all the blessing of God, in addition all our material things will not wear out. No pests will devour our crops. We will be called blessed. Just think about that. Keeping his decrees brings so much to our life. Living for self instead brings nothing to our life. So we turn our heart toward God, not toward selfish gain. We turn our eyes away from worthless things. How can we say we love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul, spirit and strength when we are always looking with a longing for those worthless things? If we seek him first and his righteousness, he will add all those worthless things to our lives.

Matt 6:24-34

24 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. 25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

NIV

This is one of those decrees, those commands of Jesus, we should keep to the end.

God preserves our life, we cannot. If we try to preserve it we lose it, but if we put God above everything and everyone else we will have the most excitingly blessed life we could ever imagine. This is that contrast between a divided and a whole heart. Let us bless the Lord with a whole heart. Let us focus our eyes upon Jesus.

One Path

DEVOTION

PSALMS

ONE PATH

Ps 119:25-32

25 Daleth

I am laid low in the dust; preserve my life according to your word. 26 I recounted my ways and you answered me; teach me your decrees. 27 Let me understand the teaching of your precepts; then I will meditate on your wonders. 28 My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word. 29 Keep me from deceitful ways; be gracious to me through your law. 30 I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on your laws. 31 I hold fast to your statutes, O LORD; do not let me be put to shame. 32 I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free.

NIV

Day four in the longest psalm. When we consider our humanity, our state of being in this corruptible flesh and how weak it is, we lay low in the dust. How could we think so highly of ourselves? That is the life of the wicked. Although we are the children of God and we are his chosen people, in the sense we have accepted Jesus, we are still not supposed to think more highly of ourselves then we should. In light of the holiness and righteousness of God, we are still his creation, a human, not a god. It is by his power, his word, our life is preserved, not by ours.  We recount the ways we have lived, and we sought the Lord and he answered us, bringing us from that darkness into his light. We could say he shone his light into our darkness, but the result is the same. We now live in the light of the Lord. He teaches us his decrees, or statutes which are an enactment, an appointment of time, space, quantity, labor or usage. This could mean that we ask him to make known to us his will for our lives, what we are to do in time, space, etc. We also should be asking for him to teach us his precepts or his mandate for us. This mandate would first of all be accepting Jesus, but then how to live as a believer, living by faith, not by sight, trusting in him, not in ourselves. Because we are believers we meditate on his wonders, the work of his hands, not in the wonders of our hands. Life can become wearisome trying to live right, doing all the right things, not doing all the wrong things. It can wear at having an attitude of joy, thankfulness and contentment. Life has a way of dragging us into that pity-party at times. Just the aches and pains of getting old, or some other infirmity that makes life difficult. Our soul can get weary with sorrow, but it does not have to be because we have the Lord to strengthen us according to his word. His word gives us strength to live a joyful life, full of thanksgiving and contentment. His word keeps us from deceitful ways. Left to our own devises, without having his word hidden in our heart, we would live in deceit. It can show up in that façade we build to impress everyone, keeping them from seeing the real us. That is deceit in its finest form. Even if we tried, we could not pull off any deceit when it comes to the Lord, for he knows our heart. So we ask him to be gracious to us. In the Hebrew it says, may the Torah grant me grace. That is what the psalmist had, but we have Jesus, so we would then say, may Jesus grant us grace, which he most certainly does. The one thing we can do is set our heart on his ways. This goes back to that divided heart issue again. We either set our heart on his ways, or we don’t. We cannot set it in two ways, his and the worlds. We have chosen the way of truth. That is only one way, we cannot travel in two directions at the same time. One way, his way or the highway. We have to hold fast to that position in our life, his way, not our way. One way, only one path to run on. There is only one path on which our heart is set free.

Mighty Counselor

DEVOTION

PSALMS

MIGHTY COUNSELOR

Ps 119:17-24

17 Gimel

Do good to your servant, and I will live; I will obey your word. 18 Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. 19 I am a stranger on earth; do not hide your commands from me. 20 My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times. 21 You rebuke the arrogant, who are cursed and who stray from your commands. 22 Remove from me scorn and contempt, for I keep your statutes. 23 Though rulers sit together and slander me, your servant will meditate on your decrees. 24 Your statutes are my delight; they are my counselors.

NIV

Day three in the longest psalm. God has done good to us, he sent Jesus to be the sacrifice for our sin. How much more good does he need to do? Yet he continues to do good to us every day, with each breathe, he sustains us, he provides for us, he heals us, he protects us and he even directs our path so we are on the right way. How could we not obey his word? Sometimes it would seem we are blinded to the wonderful things in his law. Now of course we could, like the psalmist, be thinking of all the laws of the Old Testament. But, we have been freed from the law, we are no longer under that law, however, we have been given a new commandment. This is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, spirit and strength and to love our neighbor as our selves. Then there  is all the other guidelines, suggestions, well actually commands as to how we are supposed to live, such as getting rid of certain attitudes like anger, rage, malice, envy, jealously, contempt, lust, greed and a host of others. Then there are those attitudes we are to take on or what we are to think about, such as that which is holy, pure, lovely, righteous and just, naming only a few. But we get the idea, there are things we are to get rid of and things we are to add to our lives. So the Lord opens our eyes to these things, and we make every effort to live according to his word. Although we fail at times, we still get back up and try again. The point being is that we are strangers on earth, aliens as our citizenship is in the kingdom of God. This should mean that we are not part of this world, we do not even speak the same language, we are not in partnership with them, in league with their ideologies, philosophies, and general way of life. We have nothing in common with them.

2 Cor 6:14-18

14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common ? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."  

17 "Therefore come out from them and be separate,       says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you."  18 "I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters,               says the Lord Almighty."  

NIV

What is it that we do not see about this? Have nothing in common, do not partner with the world in any way, which means in any way. What does yoked mean? This is used in the farming context of putting two oxen of unequal strength under the same yoke, the team is only as strong as the weakest oxen. But we are not oxen and therefor this word is to show us about paring ourselves with the weak unbeliever. This has mostly been taught about marriage, but it applies to far more than marriage. It applies to every aspect of life. It can apply to joining ourselves in business with an unbeliever. This would be partnering with an unbelieving company by either being a partner, or investing in their business, which is being a silent partner. We have no say as to how they use our money. We are the light, they are the darkness, we are in Christ, and they are in Belial. We are a believer, they are an unbeliever. We are the righteous and they are the wicked. How can we ever think of being involved with them in any way? We are consumed with the ways of God, they are consumed with greed, lust, envy, hatred, lies, filth, unholy, immoral things. They are rebuked because of their arrogance, they say they do not need God, man is better than that. Although all those who rule their own lives, and slander us believers, we will mediate on the Lord and his ways. His statutes are a delight to us, they bring us life, not the death which the arrogant will see. We already have this eternal life, we love the Lord and want to live according to all his ways. We cannot live in both realms, the world and the kingdom of God. We cannot ride the fence either, we have to choose to be completing in the kingdom or not. God’s way, his word is the only counselor we need. Blessed is the man who does not take counsel from the wicked. That means no advice about our way of life. Only his mighty counsel.  

Live Accordingly

DEVOTION

PSALMS

LIVE ACCORDINGLY

Ps 119:9-16

9 Beth

How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. 10 I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. 11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. 12 Praise be to you, O LORD; teach me your decrees. 13 With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. 14 I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. 15 I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. 16 I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.

NIV

Day two in this longest psalm. This secret, although obviously it is not a secret, to keeping our way pure, even if we are older than a young man, is to live according to the Word of God. This might be seen as living according to the law, but the law as only put in place to show man he could not live by the law and needed a Messiah, a Savior. The world of all the scripture points to Jesus Christ. He is the word that became flesh.

John 1:1-2

1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.

NIV

So then we live according to Jesus. We seek Jesus with all of our heart and it is him who can keep us from straying. Again the secret to this, which is not a secret is hiding Jesus in our heart, as well as hiding the word of God, the scriptures so that when temptation comes, just as Jesus quoted the scripture, we can quote a scripture to resist that tempter from influencing us. It is difficult to quote one if it is not hidden in our heart. We don’t have time to whip out our bible, providing we have one on us at all times, and research to find the one scripture to quote. However, if we are always recounting his word on our lips, we will also always have one to quote. It is interesting that the psalmist is looking to the Lord to teach him about the Lord’s decrees. This has to mean there were no seminaries or bible colleges or professors to teach others about what they think the Lord has decreed. This has to go back to the Spirit leading us into all truth. How else would the psalmist learn? The other interesting thing is that this psalmist rejoices in following the Lords statutes as one rejoices in great wealth. How much effort some people put into obtaining wealth and believe they find joy, peace, and security in having wealth. This is the kind of joy that is found in knowing we are following after the Lord and how he desires we live. We are to spend each day mediating on the Lord’s precepts and his way of life for us. We are to delight in degrees, his commands. Never are we to neglect his  word. This is always being aware, all the time, never forgetting, even for a split second, that we are believers in Christ Jesus and we have him on our mind and in our heart and reflect him to others. This is not the easiest way to live, as we get distracted at times and lose sight of how we are to act, or responds in certain situations. Although we put that old self to death, it keeps wanting to resurrect itself. But, we keep trying, keep on keeping on. We want to be the person God desires us to be and he is the one who can help us live in accordance with Jesus. Thank you Lord for all you do for us, in us and though us.

Start to Finish

DEVOTION

PSALMS

START TO FINISH

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.