21 Days of Prayer in Psalm 119 (Day #13)

Read Psalm 119:97-104

“Meditation”

This stanza emphasizes the benefits of meditating on the Word of God. The verses I wanted to quote today are 97 to 99.

“Oh how I love your law!    
   It is my meditation all the day.
Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,
    for it is ever with me.
I have more understanding than all my teachers,
    for your testimonies are my meditation.”

Biblical meditation is not an emptying of the mind and embracing nothingness, but thinking deeply as we attach ourselves in devotion to the precious Lord that the Scriptures reveal.

It is through meditating on the Scriptures that we gain what I refer to as “supernatural understanding” an understanding that goes beyond simply education and strategic studies (teachers and enemies). It has been said that if you think about any particular word too long it loses all sense of meaning. However, when we think about God’s words in their intended context they grow in meaning rather than dissipate.

I recently was stuck chewing a piece of gum (in a place where I couldn’t spit it out) for way too long and not only did it lose its flavor it dissolved into a mushy mess. I didn’t want to chew gum for quite a while after that. Meditating on God’s Word is the opposite of that gum for the more we think about it, and mull it over in our hearts, the sweeter (v. 103) and more flavorful it becomes. In addition to understanding, and “flavor”, meditating on God’s Word sustains us and shepherds us away from the spiritually toxic wastelands of sin (v. 101, 104).

Ancient millstone in
Capernaum, Israel

Some years ago, in poetic imagery, I likened biblical, Holy Spirit-led, meditation to three things: the tumbling of a rock polisher, the grinding of the grist mill, and finally the chewing, tasting, and enjoying of a good meal. We are not looking to polish God’s Word or to separate the wheat from the chaff for all God’s Word is inspired and useful for training in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16-17). What we are trying to do in meditation is remove the opaque layers of pride and resistance, our cultural rationalizations so that we can see the beauty of God’s Word to us. We are trying to separate the grain of God’s truth from the chaff of our own bias, preconceptions, prejudices, and limited understanding. We spend time chewing because God’s Word is not only nutritious, but it is enjoyable. God wants to spend time with us. Remember that Revelation 3:20 was written to believers. Jesus wants to come into our midst and share a meal.

O Lord, thank you that your words are for the most part simple to understand, and yet they are not simple. The communication of your love and plan has weight, depth, and beauty to it. We welcome you to sustain and nourish us by your word, to teach us, and mature us in the faith through fellowship around the Scripture. We sign the waiver, giving the Holy Spirit freedom to use the scalpel of the Scripture to do whatever surgery is needed in our hearts for us to be whole (Heb. 4:11-12), and wholeheartedly devoted to you and to each other. May your churches be filled with those who truly desire to hear from you through your word, not just to be entertained or encouraged in their pet sins (2 Timothy 4:3-4). Amen.

I am including my poem (mentioned above) here for those who might be interested.

Spirit-led Meditation

Spirit-led meditation,

A Scriptural rock polisher,

Fine grit concentration,

Tumbling back and forth

In the mind, over time.

Rough stones of our understanding,

Emerging

Agates of God's truth.

Now we can see the beauty.

A Scriptural grist mill

Grinding together in

Familiar, well-practiced motion.

Truth's grain processed,

Separating nutritive value

From husks, chaff;

Preconceptions, personal bias, pride,

Worldly tomb of the mind.

Rightly divided,

That life might be released

Sustained, strengthened, shared.

Staple of life apprehended.

A Scriptural repast

Being chewed upon reflectively,

Taking time to taste, enjoy.

Thoroughly digesting, assimilating, using

What God places before me.

Savoring the things of God.

© Greg Dueker

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.

21 Days of Prayer in Psalm 119 (Day #11)

Read Psalm 119:81-88

     “Longing”

For what do we long? The things of heaven or the things of earth? In today’s stanza, we see an increased longing on the part of the psalmist for God to deliver him, to save him, from those who were actively persecuting him (mentioned 4-5 times). This longing is seen in the first two verses,

“My soul longs for your salvation;
              I hope in your word.
My eyes long for your promise;
             I ask, “When will you comfort me?” (v. 81-82)

Trusting God is no guarantee that you will get whatever you want right now. If fact it is often quite the opposite. However, he is with us right now in the midst of any trials we are facing. It is in the tough times that we can learn from the psalmist’s testimony. When facing persecution, he does not turn from the Word of God but hopes in it and keeps it all the more faithfully. May we have the same resolve when we are pressed.

This passage causes me to look ahead to Revelation 12:10-11 where John describes the great age-long battle between the dragon and the people of God.

"And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the
kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death."

My fear is that our deep longing is not tied to our love for Christ and his Word but has become more focused on the earthly things that make for a comfortable life. I hope we would be able to stand “not loving our own lives even unto death” but I have my doubts.

O Lord, you know the desperate requests of your people around the world, the things they need to stay alive and to stand firm. I pray that you would fulfill their sacred longings even now. Please save, even those who don’t yet realize that they need to be saved. Please comfort the bullied, vindicate the persecuted, and embolden the harassed. Bring truth and justice to light along with the mercy available to us through the promises of your Word fulfilled in Christ! Enable us to stand in faith because you stood for us. Amen.

21 Days of Prayer in Psalm 119 (Day #10)

Read Psalm 119:73-80

     “Request”

Let your steadfast love comfort me
    according to your promise to your servant.
Let your mercy come to me, that I may live;
    for your law is my delight. (v. 76-77)

This stanza is filled with the faith of the psalmist making an extended request of the Lord. If, as the psalmist believes, the Lord was one who had made and sustained him then the Lord was the one to ask for understanding. After acknowledging the affliction from the previous stanza he launches into a five-fold request translated using the word “Let” or “May” that indicates an openness/readiness/eagerness to God doing what God does so well. Where does he start? For what does he ask? He requests

• Love—that God’s love would comfort him in his circumstances. (v.76) 
• Mercy—that God in his mercy would not only spare his life but bring new life. (v.77) 
• Justice—that God would humble the proud and those who accuse falsely (v.78). 
• Witness—that God would give him the opportunity to testify to others of the goodness and faithfulness of God as revealed in his word, influencing the next generation for the Lord (v.74, 79). 
• Devotion—that his own heart might be whole and undivided in its dependence upon the Lord so that he might not become that which is shameful (v.80).

These requests are “according to the will of God” and thus we can with certainty expect to see them come to pass…in whatever circumstances we find ourselves.

“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” (1 John 5:14-15)

Let’s pray for these kinds of requests this year…requests that don’t originate in our deceitful hearts but in the very heart of God for us!

O Lord, how we need understanding in a day filled to overflowing with foolish knowledge. We long to be comforted by your love and quickened by your mercy. We wait for your justice on the arrogant and pray that you would keep us from being counted among them. Lord, may your direct our lives so that we be favorable witnesses to your goodness and redemptive mission in the word, and may your Spirit of grace keep us close to your heart so that we may finish well the course you have set before us. We know that there is no way we can live blameless without making requests of you. Thank you for hearing us and supplying that which we need to be faithful. Amen

21 Days of Prayer in Psalm 119 (Day #9)

Read Psalm 119:65-72

     “Affliction”

It seems odd to me that in a stanza focused on affliction, the psalmist’s opening line is “You have dealt well with your servant” (v.65). Contrary to our culture of comfort and satisfaction, and our prayers for both to continue, the psalmist confesses that the affliction he had received was part of the Lord’s dealing well with him. He desires to learn “good judgment and knowledge” (v.66) but there are some lessons that we seem to only learn through affliction.

Two verses, in particular, 67 and 71, confess to the Lord and speak to us of the up-side of affliction,

⁶⁷ Before I was afflicted I went astray,
    but now I keep your word…

⁷¹ It is good for me that I was afflicted,
    that I might learn your statutes.

Perhaps we can say the same thing. There was something difficult that happened in my life. It wasn’t enjoyable or easy. In fact, it has had a lasting negative effect on my lifestyle. However, this affliction has taught me to trust the Lord as never before. I can confess that I am glad it happened for what I have learned and done as a result, not because I liked it.

The Bible often speaks of the discipline of the Lord being proof of his love (e.g., Deut. 8:5-6; Job 5:17; Psa. 94:12; Prov. 3:11-12; Heb. 12:3-13; Rev. 3:19). We don’t normally discipline someone else’s kids, so when God disciplines us it is evidence of his love. Will we get defensive and go our own way regardless or learn the lessons of which the furnace and the flood must teach us?

“For the moment all discipline seems painful

                                         rather than pleasant,

                          but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness

to those who have been trained by it.” (Heb. 12:11)

Even Jesus learned to obey through suffering (Heb. 5:8), so who am I to demand an easier way?

O Lord, you are loving and merciful even when you afflict your children. All good and perfect gifts come from you (James 1:17), even the discipline that we so desperately need though we kick and cry and moan about it. Thank you, Jesus, that you don’t ask us to do anything that you didn’t first do yourself and that you loved us enough to not give us everything we ask for. I pray that our hearts would long to be trained by your word and bring pleasure to you along the way, yet I recognize our utter dependence upon your gift of grace to do so. 

21 Days of Prayer in Psalm 119 (Day #8)

"My Portion"
Read Psalm 119:57-64

As our service was canceled this morning due to freezing rain and the resulting travel woes, I am continuing to post these daily readings and comments with prayer on Facebook and on my Honest 2 God blog on the Psalms.

Each day we are reading a successive passage of eight verses from Psalm 119. Almost every verse mentions the Word of God by one of several synonyms. So, in this psalm, we don’t look for the differences between these different terms (Word, Way, Law, Testimonies, Precepts, Commandments, Statutes, Rules, etc.) but look for the similarities. One other note, Psalm 119 is what is called an acrostic psalm. It is made up of 22 separate sections (of eight verses each) starting with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This means that all eight verses in the first section start with the Hebrew letter aleph, the next eight verses all start with beth, and so on. Today is the letter heth.

There is much in this section that I was going to teach today, but for this post, I will focus on the first two verses, 57-58.

The Lord is my portion;
    I promise to keep your words.

I entreat your favor with all my heart;
    be gracious to me according to your promise.

In verse 57, the psalmist’s concept of “portion” has a deep history in Israel. The Hebrew word is commonly used for “portion, share, part, territory,” but in meaning “portion” points to their inheritance, that which has been given to them by the Lord. And what is it that has been given? It is nothing less than the Lord himself. Nothing could be greater, or more undeserved, than the relational presence of the Lord in our lives.

(See Psalm 16:5; 73:26; Lam.3:24)

This acknowledgment of the Lord as his “portion” leads the psalmist to vow to keep the word of God—why? First, such obedience is the response of love to the given love of God; second, it is the Word itself that declares the Lord to be his portion. Hence, he would want to guard and cherish the word that itself is the guarantee of his inheritance.

Verse 58 testifies that the psalmist seeks God’s favor/grace with all his heart. God wants what is best for us but do we seek his grace with all our hearts? Do we ask this like we mean it? Do we ask it like we mean it? Too often we don’t feel our needs as intensely as we should for we minimize our own sin and exaggerate our own goodness. The truth is that we need God’s grace more than we know. It is as we come to the conviction of our own need that we will begin to seek his favor wholeheartedly. The sooner the better, since he longs to bestow it upon us. 

It is his promise, should we confess our need!

O Lord, I thank you that you didn’t choose to satisfy me with riches and other things, popularity and position, worldly power, hosts of angels, or libraries of knowledge. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you are my portion! You are my only hope which is a very good thing for in Christ all your promises are “Yes” and Amen! (2 Cor. 2:20-22)

21 Days of Prayer in Psalm 119 (Day #7)

Read Psalm 119:49-56

"Remember"

Does God need to be reminded about what he has said? This stanza, where all the verses start with the Hebrew letter Zayin, makes it sound that way. Sometimes amid troubling our circumstances we can feel that way. The verses that stood out to me today in my devotions were verses 49-50,

“Remember your word to your servant,

    in which you have made me hope.

This is my comfort in my affliction,

    that your promise gives me life.”

When the psalmist asks God to remember the word of promise that he had communicated, he is not suggesting that God had forgotten, or needed to be reminded, but was taking a stand in faith. It was because he trusted the word of the Lord that he calls on the Lord to remember it. The concept of remembering seems to have been used regularly in the sense of “call it to mind and act upon it.” The psalmist was asking God to bring to pass what had been promised. This is faith that prays. What has God said to us? Trust him enough to ask him to bring it to fruition!

If we read a little further, hopefully, we see that the psalmist also remembered and acted upon what he called to mind.

“I remember your name in the night, O Lord,

    and keep your law.” (v.55)

Tonight, as you think about the promises we have in Christ, remember his name (his entire nature and character) and act on it by both obeying what he has commanded and by trusting what he has promised—for life is the result of his promises being fulfilled, in his name, on our behalf. Doing this is truly a blessing!  “Just Zayin!”

O Lord, remember who you made me to be, and what you have called me to do. I cannot accomplish it in my own strength. Let my heart be filled with songs of trust and praise when I think of you and may you bring to harvest the seeds of promise you have sown in my heart. Amen.

21 Days of Prayer in Psalm 119 (Day #6)

Psalm 119:41-48

"Steadfast Love"

This section of eight verses speaks of the psalmist’s determination to keep God’s Word and to deliver the Lord’s message even to kings (v. 46), for God’s Word was his delight (v. 47), but why was this his determination? We also should speak the testimony of the Lord, we should delight in what he has said, and we should be determined to keep his commands. But why? For the same reason as the psalmist that is found in v. 41-42 which is my focus today.

Let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord,

    your salvation according to your promise;

then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me,
    for I trust in your word. (v. 41-42)

If we have received his lovingkindness or steadfast love (hesed) then we will have the courage to do what it takes to respond to that love. In this verse, steadfast love and salvation are used parallel to each other. Does this remind you of a verse in the New Testament?

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

If we know, beyond any doubt that we are loved by God then we will be emboldened to stand up against any taunts the world might throw at us. If we have seen the Lord’s faithfulness to his promise to send this love/salvation how can we do anything else but trust what he says all the more?

O Lord, the God who loves us faithfully—even unto your own death in our place—who seeks us out when we have gone astray and runs to meet us when we realize we have nowhere else to turn (John 15), may our hearts be set free to love you in return! May our souls be set on fire with a longing to know you more, to speak of you often, to obey you consistently, all because of the gift of your steadfast love to us. Lord, you walked among us as a man for over 30 years and you above all know how faithless we can be—let your steadfast love be pressed down into our soul in a way that we are changed and can love you and each other according to your steadfast way! (Read Romans 8:31-39)

It may not be easy, but it will be awesome—because that is the way you are! 

21 Days of Prayer in Psalm 119 (Day #5)

Photo by Vladislav Babienko on Unsplash

Psalm 119:33, 35-37

         "Your Ways"

³³ Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes;

    and I will keep it to the end…

³⁵ Lead me in the path of your commandments,

    for I delight in it.

³⁶ Incline my heart to your testimonies,

    and not to selfish gain!

³⁷ Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things;

    and give me life in your ways.

Psalm 119 is unique. Almost every verse mentions the Word of God by one of several synonyms. So, in this psalm, we don’t look for the differences between these different terms (Word, Way, Law, Testimonies, Precepts, Commandments, Statutes, Rules, etc.) but look for the similarities. One other note, Psalm 119 is what is called an acrostic psalm. It is made up of 22 separate sections (of eight verses each) starting with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This means that all eight verses in the first section start with the Hebrew letter aleph, the next eight verses all start with beth, and so on.

The psalmist has the wisdom to ask the Lord not just to teach him his statutes but the way of his statutes. The Hebrew word is "derek" and it is used both literally and figuratively for the action of going or journeying (verb), for the actual path in which one goes (noun), and descriptively for the mode in which one might go (adjective). This word is used in both verses 33 and 37, with a synonym used in verse 35.

It is my opinion that many choose to live their life in opposition to God’s statutes which is to their own harm. Others, seek to live in obedience to God's statutes but sadly miss the way in which this is to be done and settle for a weak and often offensive legalism. Disciples of Jesus, seek not merely to obey the letter of God’s Word, but its spirit as well. This latter course is not the way of compromise, for it is a harder path to follow, for it stands against the external challenge of those who reject God’s revelation and against the internal challenge to relegate God’s Word to mere rules that only touch a part of our lives. Instead, it seeks to be fully present relationally with both God and mankind.

O Lord, teach me your ways, not just your words! Let me be more concerned about adoring you than about seeking attention for myself. May I be drawn by your love to plug into your life-giving word more than I am distracted by the “worthless things” that clamor for my time. You do not merely send me on a journey, but you walk with me along the way. In fact, you are the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6)! Lord, teach me about you so that I might more fully enter into fellowship with the Father! Amen