Psalm 119:96 Official Story

Google knows everything.

A friend was talking about a tree in Africa known as the miracle tree because every part of it, from the bark to the leaves to the seeds, has some sort of practical or medicinal use. While he was describing it to a group of us, I took out my phone and Googled Africa miracle tree. I discovered moringa is the actual name of the tree. I passed around the phone so my friends could see a picture of the tree with its unusual-looking pods.

One of my friends chuckled, saying, "And there's Tim.. always straight to his phone for the answers." He finds it humorous that I, the oldest by far among our group of friends, am always the first to turn to the internet for detailed information.

I find it startling that people would sit and discuss a topic at length, sometimes even debating the details, pooling their combined lack of knowledge, and never think to turn to Google and find the answers.

Google is my default for information and obscure details, especially as my aging brain cells lose contact with my stored memories of much of what I've learned over my 60-plus years. It would be great if technology were advanced enough to just implant Google and all its indexing system directly into my brain.

To all perfection I see a limit;
but your commands are boundless.

Psalm 119:96

For life and godliness, the Word is my default. God knows everything and He's given us His Word as our access point to that knowledge.

The Hebrew term David uses in this verse for the scriptures is mizvah, translated here as commands. It carries the idea of authority, that the one who gave this command has unquestioned authority to make commands, thus lending that personal authority to the command itself.

If God's Word has that kind of authority, why shouldn't it be our default when we want to know how to conduct ourselves on the 1 road of life?

It should be so much our default that we move beyond using the scriptures as though they are God's Google. We're under-valuing the mizvah if we treat it only as a search engine to find the question of the moment or today's problem.

The full value of the Word comes from reading it continually, diving into it, wallowing in it, devouring it. I want to get the Lord's commands into me so deeply that I begin to think like God thinks. Then I'll also act like He acts and talk like He talks.

And then I'll be able to come up with those answers to the problem of the moment without having to search for them. I know God's heart on the topic because His Story is engraved on my heart. My aging brain may not be able to recall the exact scripture reference on a topic, but my heart knows what God has said and what He has done and how He has touched my own heart.

Resolve to dive deeply into the Word in the days and weeks and year ahead.

Psalm 119:95 Our Story

Every story has protagonists and antagonists. Protagonist Sherlock Holmes tries to solve the mystery while antagonist Moriarty tries to stop him. Luke Skywalker tries save the galaxy while Darth Vader tries to conquer it. Poor Bob Cratchit only wants a Merry Christmas for his family, but Ebenezer Scrooge wants to make everyone else as miserable as he is.

In many stories, the protagonist makes an agreement, either formal or informal, with allies who will help defeat the protagonist. Holmes had Doctor Watson. Luke had Leia and Han. Bob Cratchit, unknowingly, had the Christmas ghosts.

When the antagonists in your life threaten to get the better of you, who do you count on to stand by you?

The wicked are waiting to destroy me,
but I will ponder your statutes.

Psalm 119:95

The word David uses in this verse for the scriptures is eduth (used 23 times in Psalm 119). The NIV translates it as statutes, the KJV as testimonies. Either way, it's a legal term for the stipulations on each side regarding the terms of an agreement or covenant.

In the story of God and His people, there are protagonists and antagonists. God vs. Satan. The people of God vs. Satan.

Whatever shape the conflict takes, at whatever time in history, the covenant agreement between God and His people always serves as a reminder that we don't have to wage this war alone. God is on our side.

Psalm 119:94 Details

I'm sure it's just the writer in me, but I'm generally more interested in the trees than forest. Actually, I'm more interested in the leaves and the veins on the leaves. It's the details I care about.

I'm an avid - some would say obsessive - fan of Missouri Tigers Baseball. When I'm at the game I'm watching the batter's stance and the rituals he goes through as he steps up tot he plate. I'm watching the way the fielders shift positions depending on the hitter at the plate and the game situation. When I'm absorbed in the details, all other thoughts disappear.

But if I'm unable to go to the game, I'm barely interested in the final score. The score isn't what it's about for me. It's about the details.

It's the same with reading a book or watching a TV series. Spoilers don't bother me. I've read the entire graphic novel series of The Walking Dead, which is considerably ahead in the timeline compared to the TV show. So I'm seldom surprised at the direction of the plot, unless they intentionally change something.

But that's okay, because I watch the show for the details. I love it for the gradual character development and the individual conversations and scenes that all combine to move the plot forward.

With novels, I'm not interested in reading something just to see what happens, unless it's well written and fascinating in the details.

I don't really understand people who approach such things differently than I do.

Save me, for I am yours; 
I have sought out your precepts.

Psalm 119:94

In the story of life with God, there are also two different ways of living it out.

Some people are content with a generalized faith. They believe in God and in the general, overarching themes of the Bible. But they're not much interested in the details.

David calls those details the precepts. He uses that word 21 times in Psalm 119. He tends to use the various terms for the scriptures somewhat randomly, but each one carries a slightly different connotation. The Hebrew word pikkudim is used to describe the mandates of someone who is in charge, the particular instructions of someone who cares to spell out the details.

Many people are content to cry out, "Save me, for I am yours!"

David cares about the details enough to go beyond crying out for salvation. He wants to go deeper, seeking out the precepts, digging down to the details of the story God wants to write through him.

I want to dig deep too - not to discover the minutiae of theology, but to understand the fullness of God's plan for my life.

Psalm 119:93 Live!

I will never forget your precepts,
for by them you have preserved my life.

Psalm 119:93

In the movie Stranger Than Fiction, the plot is driven by Harold Crick's reaction when he discovers that the author who is scripting his life, Karen Eiffel, plans to kill him off.

At the conclusion of the film, she is convinced that instead of killing him off, as she does to the main characters of all her novels, she decides to save his life. The plots twists, changing from the story of his death to the tale of how he lives.

When you were born, God began spinning out the tale of your life. He had great plans for you. He knew you when you were in your mother's womb (Psalm 139:13-16) and began weaving together the person you would become and life you would live.

But God has a co-author in the story of your life. An essential part of the plot-line of your life, and of every other person into whom God has breathed life, is free will.

You have the option, at every plot point, to choose your path. Make your choice according to the guidance of God's precepts. Or choose to live according to some other set of principles. It's your choice.

David learned the hard way that when he remembered to follow God's precepts, his life was not only preserved but energized. As I've noted before, eleven times in Psalm 119 David uses the phrase preserve my life. It always carries the concept of quickening life, as the KJV translates it.

God's precepts renewed and empowered David's reason for living - as often as he remembered them.

Store God's precepts in your mind and in your heart. Recite them, re-read them, share them with others, so that you will never forget them.

And live!

Psalm 119:92 Continuity

From The Hunger Games Goofs on imdb.com:

During the Reaping, when Katniss yells, "I VOLUNTEER!" her hair is messed up and ruffled, however, when she states "I volunteer as tribute," her hair is combed again.

Despite the best efforts of the Continuity Editors, nearly every movie or TV show has small goofs, or continuity errors. Such things happen because film directors usually don't film the scenes in chronological order, and often do numerous takes of the same scene. After several takes, a makeup artist will step in an make sure the actors are still looking good, but the don't always make sure the are still looking exactly the same.

There's a famous flub that took place during the filming of Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest, where a young boy among the extras is seen putting his fingers in his ears right before a gunshot. Apparently he had sat there through several takes of the scene and was tired of the loud noise, and the editors either didn't catch the goof or they didn't think anyone would notice. They did.

Such continuity errors don't really have an impact on whether people enjoy a movie, because most viewers aren't paying that much attention. But I've seen some movies where the errors made the movie hard for me to enjoy.

Some of the highest grossing films of the past few years have been the Star Wars sequels. Several fans noticed details that caused those movies to just not hold together. They found the story unbelievable because of the errors.

Others scoff at the notion that a Star Wars movie is in some way rendered "unbelievable", since the movie is based on unbelievable concepts like the Force, sentient droids, and a death star. But if the presentation of the death star, for example, doesn't mesh with basic scientific facts, it renders the internal believability of the entire construct to fall apart.

Film editors call this verisimilitude: "the quality of fictional representation that allows reader or viewers to accept a constructed world." (The Film Experience: An Introduction)

If your law had not been my delight,
I would have perished in my affliction.

Psalm 119:92

In God's story, the story of the Word and the world, He has set up certain rules by which things work to maintain continuity. These  include rules about gravity, climate, and biology.

He's also set up rules for behavior, psychology, and community., along with rules for righteousness, justice, and holiness. These rules are called the Law, which we read about in the scriptures.

Sometimes life gets messed up, usually because people aren't following the script. We tend to be too lackadaisical about making sure there's a continuity between our lives and God's construct of how the world is supposed to operate. A large percentage of suffering and affliction is due to a breakdown of the continuity of our part in God's story.

The only sure way to get yourself back in synch with God's script is to stop treating the details of His Law like they're no big deal. When people cut corners on the Law, it's not a goof or a flub. It's a continuity error that has the potential to unravel your entire connection to God's plan.

As  David says, the best way to fit yourself back into synch is to delight in the Law. eagerly play the role God has assigned you.

Hit your marks, know your lines, and shine before the watching world.