21 Days of Prayer in Psalm 119 (Day #12)

Read Psalm 119:89-96

     “Appointment”

The verses that caught my particular attention this morning were verses 90-91,

Your faithfulness endures to all generations;
    you have established the earth, and it stands fast.
By your appointment they stand this day,    for all things are your servants.

As a result of the conservation movement in the last half-century, we have become very aware of a number of endangered species of wildlife and plants and have taken pains to preserve them for future generations. In some cases, animal populations have bounced back so vigorously that they have been removed from the endangered list. This passage today is reminding us that not only will God’s word never pass away, but that the faithfulness of the Lord will never become “endangered.” It endures the world’s faithlessness and touches all generations with the abiding promises of God.

This reflection of God’s faithfulness leads me to consider that to which his faithfulness extends. It is because of the Lord’s decree, or as the ESV translates the Hebrew word (מִשְׁפָּט mishpâṭ) “appointment” that the earth and all things stand fast. He is the solidity of the universe. He is the creator and sustainer of all things...including us.

 As Paul writes to the Colossians about the preeminence of Christ,

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Col. 1:15-17)

Everything in creation does that which the Lord appointed it to do…with one exception. Human beings chose to do what they wanted and broke the perfect harmony in creation through their self-love and desire for autonomy. Will we choose to step out of the rushing current of fallen patterns of existence to truly begin to live in the light of Christ’s marvelous grace? The psalmist does just that. He renounces ownership of himself and repents of any human pride and self-sufficiency. He knew whose he was and what he needed, “I am yours; save me...” (v.94).

O Lord Jesus, you who through your complete obedience made salvation possible for those of us who fall short, we recognize that we are yours and put our trust in you alone. Please keep us from making up ideas about you that are contrary to your word. Quicken our delight in your word because it tells us more about you, your care for all of creation, and your loving plan for us. Soften our hearts to respond to your direction as the psalmist, “I am yours” and strengthen our hands to serve you faithfully as part of your new creation! Amen.

Psalm 129 "Plowed & Pierced"

Psalm for Today = 129:1-4
¹ “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth”—

    let Israel now say—

² “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth,

    yet they have not prevailed against me.

Plowed field in Israel

³ The plowers plowed upon my back;

    they made long their furrows.”

⁴ The Lord is righteous;

    he has cut the cords of the wicked.

Comments:

I commented on the imprecation in verses 5-6 the last two times through the book, so I will focus today on the testimony in verses 1-4. 

The psalmist is referring to the national history of Israel, how they had been afflicted from the very beginning. If we were to go through the Bible and list the various nations that had afflicted Israel through the centuries, it would be a pretty long list. How many can you name? I came up with more than a dozen off the top of my head.

His repetitive line, “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth”, is iterated for emphasis, almost like rocking a stuck car to get it out of the snow or sand. Note that within these verses, he is also weaving in the role of the individual (me/my) within the community of faith (“let Israel say”).

What is the testimony that needs to be repeated? The righteous Yahweh delivered them by cutting off the yoke of their enemies. Yahweh is righteous; he keeps his promises. He had let Israel know ahead of time that if they turned away from him that he would use the other nations to discipline them, but if they turned and prayed to him, he would deliver them. This psalm is a testimony to God’s two-fold faithfulness to his promise — by discipline and deliverance.

 

How was this deliverance possible? It is by the stripes on Jesus' back and the holes in his body that I am set free from the bondage of my sin. As it is written in Isaiah 53:4-6,

"Surely he has borne our griefs

    and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

    smitten by God, and afflicted.

⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions;

    he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

    and with his wounds we are healed.

⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;

    we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

    the iniquity of us all."

Questions:

• So are we following the Lord wholeheartedly today, or are we in danger of his loving discipline?
• When we look back on our lives, do we remember both the difficult and the delightful, or have we forgotten the faithful times of God's deliverance?

Psalm 117 "Short and Sweet"

Psalm for Today = 117:1-2

Praise the Lord, all nations!

    Extol him, all peoples!

For great is his steadfast love toward us,

    and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.

 Praise the Lord!

Comments:

Photo by William Warby on Unsplash

This is the whole psalm…the shortest, yet it says a lot! In just a few words, the psalmist gives us a life-shaping perspctive.

The psalmist’s call to praise Yahweh is not just to the Jews, but to all nations and peoples. The kingdom of God is intended to be multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and cannot be contained by any one political nation.

Why should we praise him? 

We should praise God first because of the greatness, the might, the strength of his hesed (steadfast love/ loving-kindness / loyal love) towards us. When we praise him for it, it helps us to not forget how he feels about us.

We should also praise the Lord because of his faithfulness/truth never ends. He doesn’t stop being faithful and true no matter what we do or what the condition of the world may be. When we praise him for this, it helps us to become a bit more faithful and true ourselves! 

Hallelujah! (Praise the Lord!)

How different would our lives be if we could remember these three ideas?

Psalm 111 "With Faithfulness and Uprightness"

Photo by Sven Mieke on Unsplash

Psalm for Today = 111:7-8

The works of his hands are faithful and just;

    all his precepts are trustworthy;
they are established forever and ever,

    to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.

Comments:

Too often it seems that we sit in judgment on God and his works—critics and Christians alike. Critics look at God’s driving out the Canaanites before Israel as the moral equivalent of genocide. Surely they say, “Such a God is not worthy of worship.” But the psalmist provided commentary on such works of God…as “faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy.” As I have written elsewhere, when we don’t understand the reasons, we must rely on a default setting that embraces God’s faithfulness and justice.

But what about those who claim to be Christians? Do we really live like we believe that “all his precepts are trustworthy” and that they should “be performed with faithfulness and uprightness”? Because we are under a different covenant we often think we no longer have to live in harmony with God’s commands. This faulty view of the Bible produces a life of selfishness. Jesus said “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15) Later in the same chapter, Jesus said, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” (John 14:21)

So what are those commandments that we need to keep? It is true that there are commands in the Old Testament that pertain to diet, dress, and sacrifice within the Mosaic Covenant community that were fulfilled in Christ and while continuing to be instructive for us are no longer requirements placed upon us. Yet the heart of the commands continues. Jesus summed them up when he said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)

Because God kept his promises to liberate Israel from Egypt and bring them into the promised land the psalmist not only responded by giving thanks but by encouraging obedience. The psalmist here in Psalm 111 was calling for the same response from us that Jesus later confirms—love God and love your neighbor. All the rest is about helping us to understand what that means and how to do it “with faithfulness and uprightness”.