Psalm 119:33-40Amplified Bible
He.
33
Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes,
And I will [steadfastly] observe it to the end.
34
Give me understanding [a teachable heart and the ability to learn], that I may keep Your law;
And observe it with all my heart.
35
Make me walk in the path of Your commandments,
For I delight in it.
36
Incline my heart to Your testimonies
And not to dishonest gain and envy.
37
Turn my eyes away from vanity [all those worldly, meaningless things that distract—let Your priorities be mine],
And restore me [with renewed energy] in Your ways.
38
Establish Your word and confirm Your promise to Your servant,
As that which produces [awe-inspired] reverence for You.
39
Turn away my reproach which I dread,
For Your ordinances are good.
40
I long for Your precepts;
Renew me through Your righteousness.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
The Word of God gives us many insights into the real value of things.
In our reading for today, the psalm writer prays,
“God, Teach Me, Give Me Understanding, Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. Turn my eyes [soul] away from worthless things.”
All our earthly possessions will prove 100% worthless on the judgment day.
In contrast, the Word of God gives us the good news, the knowledge of complete forgiveness of sin, of God’s unconditional love and of guaranteed eternal life.
What can be more valuable than that?
Perhaps, a better understanding of God’s perspective through a writers “eyes?”
We need to be continually reminded to envision value from God’s perspective, because worshiping wealth remains a powerful attraction.
Jesus himself warned us, “You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24), instead, trying to teach us His value to “store up treasures in heaven.”
Using a much familiar and much beloved verse from Psalm 23 ….
Let us try to reach into God’s perspective through David’s eyes and experiences.
Let’s start by inviting God’s Holy Spirit into our minds to recall this promise:
“God Anoints Our Heads With Oil and Our Cups Runneth Over.” Psalm 23:5b
What incredibly deep imagery we are presented with by these poetic words.
But, what of our own understanding the words, their historical context, their connections from their writing, some three thousand years ago unto now?
Breaking down the ancient experiences, those ancient thoughts that ……
We are someway connected to its human writer, David, King and Shepherd?
Examining the Words and the Imagery, what David had envisioned of God?
“POURING OUT” OURSELVES INTO PSALM 23’S IMAGERY
God ceaselessly, continually pours the Oils of His Blessings upon our heads.
So much so that our Cups (How big and how deep are they anyway?) overflow.
They “overflow” and they “saturate” every part of our inner and outer bodies.
No parts of our hearts or our souls or our minds are left untouched by the oils.
No parts of our hearts or our souls or our minds are left uninfluenced by them.
Allowed to touch us, with our knowledge or without our knowledge, with our permission or without our permission, in clothes, in nakedness, we are touched.
Without exception, this anointing of “oils” reaches into every part of our lives.
This anointing of “oils” is the outpouring of the precepts of the Word of God by God’s Holy Spirit upon the welcoming, unwelcoming, repentant, unrepentant.
In more ways we can count or even allow ourselves to imagine, the “oils” are touching each and everyone of us right in this exact, exacting “God” moment.
A drop here, a drop there …. like an invisible eye dropper held over our heads being slowly and steadily squeezed out or just like standing in a rain storm.
We feel the “drops” or we don’t feel the “drops” – but they are definitely there.
They are absolutely unavoidable, no one can dodge them ….
We “feel” them and we can try to learn and understand them and their purpose.
We are touched by the “oils,” our souls will be unavoidably influenced by them.
Slowly, imperceptibly, subtly, drop by drop, until they become, by the hand of God, a steady flow, then an outpouring and then a flood, then an immersion.
In anticipation of joy or in anger, head scratching certainty or uncertainty, we start to acknowledge the flow, the goodness of it or the convictions behind it.
Our awareness of the “oils of anointing” presence, is kindled like a newly struck match with its inevitable flames, its light and its heat starting to become visible.
God’s “oils of anointing ,” outpouring and spreading, covering, saturating, immersing, overflowing : our knowledge, understanding of the Word of God!
Obediently, we stand in our places, feeling the outpouring, living inside its flow.
Life begins to subtly, perhaps suddenly begins to change ….
Thoughts and perceptions of events subtly, perhaps suddenly, begins to change.
We are either sure we like it or we will surely fight mightily against liking it.
With mounting Certainty or growing and maturing Uncertainty, we stand there.
We may try to run and hide to the furthest remotest places on earth from it.
But we can’t escape its influence upon everything our “life has been all about.”
We get tired so we stop running – and in whatever emotion we are then feeling;
How can we not eventually, subtly, suddenly, inevitably, not respond by praying
“Okay, something or someone has my undivided attention ….”
“No More Running ….”
“No More Hiding ….”
“One way or the Other …. “
“As the Deer Pants for the Waters ….”
“as My [a]soul [my life, my very self] thirsts for ???, as my flesh longs and [my soul] now sighs for [answers] In a dry, weary land where there is no water ….”
Psalm 119:33-40The Message
33-40 God, teach me lessons for living
so I can stay the course.
Give me insight so I can do what you tell me—
my whole life one long, obedient response.
Guide me down the road of your commandments;
I love traveling this freeway!
Give me an appetite for your words of wisdom,
and not for piling up loot.
Divert my eyes from toys and trinkets,
invigorate me on the pilgrim way.
Affirm your promises to me—
promises made to all who fear you.
Deflect the harsh words of my critics—
but what you say is always so good.
See how hungry I am for your counsel;
preserve my life through your righteous ways!
And now, perhaps begins the gradual ascent, by our humbled descent, into what David the Psalmist wrote, an appreciation of, greatest desire for understanding;
Psalm 23Amplified Bible
The Lord, the Psalmist’s Shepherd.
A Psalm of David.
23 The Lord is my Shepherd [to feed, to guide and to shield me],
I shall not want.
2
He lets me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still and quiet waters.
3
He refreshes and restores my soul (life);
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
for His name’s sake.
4
Even though I walk through the [sunless] [a]valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil, for You are with me;
Your rod [to protect] and Your staff [to guide], they comfort and console me.
5
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You have anointed and refreshed my head with [b]oil;
My cup overflows.
6
Surely goodness and mercy and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life,
And I shall dwell forever [throughout all my days] in the house and in the presence of the Lord.
A Well Considered Word About the Value of God’s Perspective
Isaiah 55:8-11Amplified Bible
8
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
9
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts higher than your thoughts.
10
“For as the rain and snow come down from heaven,
And do not return there without watering the earth,
Making it bear and sprout,
And providing seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11
So will My word be which goes out of My mouth;
It will not return to Me void (useless, without result),
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
When we do not think like God, we are not in His image.
We cannot say as Jesus did,
“He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
God, in His wisdom, has willed we grow in His image through exercising faith in what He says, buttressed by what He reveals of Himself through His creation.
The fundamental difference between the person of faith and the unbeliever is revealed by the way they judge things.
The unbeliever, of the world, judges things by worldly standards, by his senses, and by looking at his watch, his smartphone screen and by his calendar time.
The person learning to think like God brings God into everything, viewing things from His perspective, by His values.
He ascertains how the activity, event, or thing looks in terms of eternity.
He seriously meditates on God’s sovereignty over all things.
At times, doing this puts the screws to his trust because the Bible says God’s judgments are “unsearchable . . . and his ways past finding out” (Romans 11:33).
Faith holds a person steady.
Because we often do not think like Him, and because we do not have His perfect perspective, we often do not know nor fully understand, what it is God doing.
Only in hindsight do we understand what is occurring in our personal life, to the church, or in the world in the outworking of prophecy.
So we must trust Him, and in the meantime weigh His perspective against what we “perceive” is happening and what we understand is its “possible” outcome.
O soul are you weary and troubled
No light in the darkness you see
There’s light for a look at the Savior
And life more abundant and free
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in his wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of his glory and grace
His word shall not fail you he promised
Believe him and all will be well
Then go to a world that is dying
His perfect salvation to tell
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in his wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of his glory and grace
O soul are you weary and troubled
No light in the darkness you see
There’s light for a look at the Savior
And life more abundant and free
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in his wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of his glory and grace Helen Howarth Lemmel (1922)
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Holy and gracious God, you are the greatest and wisest of all. You are full of wonders and ways that no mere human can ever fully comprehend. Lord, I seek to understand you and your ways better so that I can more rightly live my life according to your commandments. I pray for your divine illumination in my heart and mind. Help me see what you intend for me to see. Help me understand what you intend for me to understand. Open my eyes and my ears to see you and hear your whispers. Amen.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 