Psalm 119:41-48 Waw or Vav

May your unfailing love come to me, Lord, your salvation, according to your promise; then I can answer anyone who taunts me, for I trust in your word. Never take your word of truth from my mouth, for I have put my hope in your laws. I will always obey your law, for ever and ever. I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts. I will speak of your statutes before kings and will not be put to shame, for I delight in your commands because I love them. I reach out for your commands, which I love, that I may meditate on your decrees.

Psalm 119:41-48

Waw (or Vav) is a unique letter in the Hebrew alphabet, unlike anything in English. When used at the beginning of a word or sentence, it's the conjunction junction: and...so then ...also...but...

When David wrote an entire stanza starting with waw, he had little choice but to tie the eight verses together in a single, continuous train of thought.

Perhaps this octave should be read as one thing leading toward another, building on what has already been said.

41-42 So, May your unfailing love come to me, Lord, your salvation, according to your promise; and then I can answer anyone who taunts me, for I trust in your word.

43-46 And Never take your word of truth from my mouth, for I have put my hope in your laws. and I will always obey your law, for ever and ever. and so I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts. And then I will speak of your statutes before kings and will not be put to shame,

47-48 and I delight in your commands because I love them. So I reach out for your commands, which I love, that I may meditate on your decrees.

Psalm 119:40 Seeking His Righteousness

How I long for your precepts! In your righteousness preserve my life

Psalm 119:40.

If you've been reading along in Psalm 119 while you've been reading my blog posts, there's probably something about this verse that sounds familiar. That's because not too far back David wrote this:

I am laid low in the dust; preserve my life according to your word

Psalm 119:25

And then, just a few verses later...

Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word

Psalm 119:37

Actually, David uses that phrase, preserve my life, eleven times in Psalms 119. The King James version translates it as quicken me, the ESV says give me life, and the NASB revive me.

The Hebrew word comes from the root word for life. David is saying over and over that the Word gives him life, a life that quickens him when he's feeling worn out and lifeless, a life that is worth living.

In each of these verses he provides a detail about how the Word gives life. Here in Psalm 119:40, David makes a connection between longing for God's precepts and righteousness, with a life worth living.

God's precepts are a codified representation of His righteous character, defining the way you should live in order to become righteous like He is righteous. That's not going to happen through occasional reading or through picking up whatever bits of His Word you might pick up from sermons. It only happens when you're spending so much time deep in His Word that you long for those precepts, like a former couch potato learns to long for exercise.

Like regular workouts at the gym, the habit of going deep into the Word will produce changes in you. When you're feeling down, instead of reflexively retreating into a pity party, you'll eagerly seek out God's Word. When you're frustrated, instead of lashing out in anger, you'll dive into His precepts. When the things you see in the news and in pop culture make you feel sick, instead of a knee-jerk political reaction, your instant reflex will be to open the pages of the scriptures.

All of those changes in how you respond to life add up to righteousness. You're looking at life like God does, you're living your life like Jesus did.

Your devotion to the scriptures has reworked your heart toward righteousness, which will give you a new life like you never knew before.

 That new approach to the Word, to righteousness, to life, begins and is sustained through prayer.

Lord, pull me toward your precepts. Grant me the discipline to develop a longing for your Word and for your righteousness. Preserve my life and jump start my life by injecting me with your righteousness. I want to be like you, Lord. I want the life you intended for me.

Meditation Metaphor: Get Off the Couch

It's Christmas morning, and I can guarantee you this: I'm already a tiny bit frustrated.

No, I'm not frustrated with Christmas. At the age of 60, Christmas isn't what it was when I was 6, but it's still a special day. We'll get together with our grown kids and their kids and celebrate with family time, food, and a few presents in the stockings. It may or may not be happening today, because juggling the works schedules of five different households is tricky. But on this morning we're either getting ready for the get together to happen soon, or we're basking in the warm holiday memories of the recent gathering.

But yes, I will be frustrated a tiny bit this morning. What I'd really like to do on a day off is to get up early and be at the door of the ARC (the local gym) as soon as it opens.

But it's closed on Christmas. Imagine that.

This is very much unlike the person I used to be. In my younger years I was all about sleeping in as long as I could whenever I could. I was very much frustrated if I didn't get to spend as much time as I liked lounging around on a comfy couch or in a favorite easy chair, reading a book or watching TV.

But then I started going to the ARC, because all that laziness was ruining my health.

At first it was extremely difficult to sustain the habit of working out. I'd drag myself there, unless I found some excuse - any excuse - to skip a day.

The thing is, the more you habitually exercise, the more your body longs for it. As I got used to the routine of working out at the gym every Wednesday & Thursday and Saturday & Sunday, my entire schedule started to revolve around that routine.

And even beyond the routine, I found myself desiring that workout in situations I never would have imagined during my sedentary years.

When I feel myself starting to get sick, the first thing that pops into my head is this: I need to get to the ARC. Many times I've actually warded off a minor sickness just by sweating it out of my body.

When I feel myself descending into a blue funk, depressed and listless, I know the best thing for me is to head to the ARC. The body chemicals that drag me into depression are highly vulnerable to a muscle-stretching, heart-pounding workout.

Even on the days that my 60-year-old body, with its deteriorating knee and imperfect lungs and aging heart, is incapable of lasting very long at the gym, I'm still glad I went. My wife and I will confess to each other that we just didn't have the stamina or strength today, but, "at least we went."


Have you developed a habit of exercising your mind in the Word? The sort of habit that makes you eager to do it again, habitually?

Are you so into your routine with God's scriptures that you find yourself frustrated when other things interfere with your scheduled time in the Word?

Just like training your physical body to need that regular strenuous exercise, you can train your soul and spirit to need scheduled strenuous time in the Word. The sort of time in the Bible when you combine the heavy lifting of going deep into books like Romans and Jeremiah, but also the familiar, heart-pounding pace of re-reading the Psalms and the Gospels.

The New Year is coming. But don't wait until next week to get started with training yourself to eagerly desire the Word of God.

If you're like most people, you're going to have more down time than usual today and throughout the coming week. You can use it to catch up on the shows you've been wanting to binge-watch on Netflix. That can be fun. But you can also use it to binge-read your way through the New Testament or through the books of Poetry.

Take some time to figure out what your schedule is going to be for the intensive Bible workouts you need. Enter that schedule on your Outlook calendar, or whatever you use to keep track of your other important appointments.

Get up off the comfortable couch you've allowed your spiritual life to settle for, and prepare yourself for the adventures God has in store for you this next year.

Psalm 119:39 Disgrace

Take away the disgrace I dread,
for your laws are good.

Psalm 119:39

Let's take a look at a few more of those 100 Ways to Meditate on the Word:

• Gnaw on the Word, Gorge on the Word, Soak up the Word, Bathe in the Word, Marinate in the Word, Scrub Yourself With the Word, Let the Word Dwell in You Richly. Stop thinking of Bible Reading as something you ought to do. Let it become a part of who you are.
• Read the Word for Information. It is helpful to learn and remember details and facts from the Bible
• Read the Word for Application. Read and think about how it applies to your daily life
• Read the Word for Transformation. Let the Word seep deeply into your spirit and change you.
• Step Into the Stories of the Word. Imagine yourself as part of the story you are reading. What would you ask the people in the story? How would you act differently than they did?
• Personalize the Word. Insert your name into the passage.  For example, John 3:16 – For God so loved Jean. Or Romans 6:1 – What shall Suzette say? Shall she go on sinning that grace may increase? By no means! Suzette died to sin!
• Personalize the Word for Someone Else. Insert the name of someone else into the verses. 
• Read the Word From the Perspective of Someone Else. How would an atheist react to the verses you are reading? Or a skeptic? A church drop-out? Your grandmother?
• Let the Word Be Your Guide in Making an Inventory of Yourself. Let the Word teach you about yourself, to understand where your heart is in relation to God’s heart, and how you’re progressing
• Look for God at Work in Every Part of the Word. Every book, every chapter of the Bible is about God’s plan to bring us back to Him through Jesus Christ.
• Wade Through Guilt to Grace in the Word. Make a personal list of “grace” passages in the Bible. Reading the Bible can produce a deep sense of guilt in your heart. Always claim your guilt and deal with it honestly, then turn the page (physically and spiritually) to read about God’s grace and claim it your own.

Father, guide me as I read your Word, so I will not only learn to see myself for who I am, but to see you for who you are, the God of Grace and Forgiveness.

Psalm 119:38 Melting Hearts

Fulfill your promise to your servant,so that you may be feared.

Psalm 119:38

One of the chief reasons God had a Chosen People in Old Testament times was to demonstrate to the rest of the world what happens when a people live in a godly way and rely of the One True God (Deuteronmy 28:9-11).

The stories of Israel's repeated failure to live up to that purpose makes up a great deal of the Old Testament. And yet, God's fulfillment of His promises to Israel was noticed by the people of other nations.

In Jericho, Rahab the prostitute talks about it:

Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. 

Joshua 2:8-11 (compare Joshua 5:1)

Nehemiah wrote of the same thing happening during his time:

When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.

Nehemiah 6:16

You and I are not citizens of the nation of Israel, and this is not 1500 B.C. But does it still hold true that God's fulfillment of His promises to His people, the church, will strike fear into the hearts and minds of people outside the church?

It did in the 1st century church. You'll recall the story of Ananias and Sapphira, who got together to conspire a plot to cheat the church and get ahead. After they both died, Acts 5:11 notes, "Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events."

But, you may say, I haven't seen anyone dropping dead during the offering time. How does this relate to today, in 2017 A.D.?

The world is still watching to see whether God fulfills His promises to His people. When we claim to our neighbors and co-workers that God is real and that He blesses us, what evidence do they see of that? When we claim to have been changed by our relationship to God, do they see any actual change?

God has promised that the Spirit within His people will produce fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). Do the non-Christians you encounter on the job or online notice that you are actively bearing the fruit of love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? If they do, they will gain a new respect for our claims about the God who is real.

Doing our part to lay claim to the promises of God is one of the most effective and powerful way of drawing people to Christ. They see how the Lord has changed our lives, and they gain a new respect, or what the people in the Old Testament would have called fear, for God.

It's not about getting what was promised for my own sake, but for God's sake, for the sake of drawing people to Him. The best way to change your approach to God's promises is by praying.

Lord, teach me to eagerly seek the blessings you've promised, so that I will be a magnet, drawing people toward God. Help me to counteract their skepticism with acceptance of who God is.

Psalm 119:37 Let the Word be About the Word

Turn my eyes away from worthless things;preserve my life according to your word.

Psalm 119:37

We need to understand what David means when he uses the Hebrew word translated as worthless.

The same word is used in one of the most well-known verses in the Old Testament:

You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

Exodus 20:7

Yes, that's one of the Ten Commandments. I learned it as Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. It's not talking about using swear words, but about ascribing negative or foolish attributes to God. Or, as it's also often used, to worship an idol that is a false or vain or worthless god.

This idea then connects us over to another scripture where the same word appears:

Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for he grants sleep to those he loves.

Psalm 127:1-2

Anything you try to accomplish without relying on the one true God is pointless, vanity, worthless. This includes offering sacrifices to God without also humbling yourself before God, as Isaiah says.

Stop bringing meaningless offerings!

Isaiah 1:13

With this understanding of the way the term is used throughout the Old Testament, it's clear that David, in Psalm 119:37, is asking God to help him turn his attention away from an approach to the scriptures that doesn't honor the God who wrote the Word.

The Bible isn't just a collection of verses that we can twist or construe to say whatever we please. The purpose of the written Word is to help us know the Word who is God and who is with God. Reading the Bible in any way that ignores the character of God is pointless, worthless, vain.

On the other hand, studying the scriptures in order to understand the heart of God will gradually change the reader's heart to be like His.

I'll ask the same question again. What's the best way to stay focused on honoring the character of the God who wrote the Word? The answer is the same, of course.

Pray.

Father, remind me over and over as I read your Word, that You are the Word, that every thought, every doctrine, every part of the scriptures is a reflection of your character. Help me, Lord, to not waste my time trying to find things in the scripture that are disconnected from you and your heart.

Psalm 119:36 Selfish Again

Turn my heart toward your statutes
and not toward selfish gain.

Psalm 119:36

Selfish Ways to Approach God's Word:

Read the Bible as a Self-Help guide.  Considering Jesus clearly says the two greatest commandments are to love God and to love others, why do so many believers only use the Word like it's their personal self-help book? You help yourself by getting out of yourself and investing in the lives of others. The Bible is a guide on how to do that. (Philippians 2:3-4; Matthew 20:28)

Focus on discovering proofs of how right your theology is and how wrong other groups are.  This is pretty much what I grew up thinking the Bible was for: a way to prove those "denominationals" wrong. When you're focused on putting down someone else, that's envy. That's not what the Bible is for.   (James 3:16; Proverbs 18:1)

Concentrate on what the Bible says about the sins of the flesh. Oh, yes, there's plenty written about the sins of the flesh. But some people seem to be obsessed with the fleshly sins of the world, while ignoring the spiritual and attitude sins in their own hearts. (Romans 8:5)

Search the scriptures for things you can use to control the actions of others. If your goal is to tell other people where they're sinning, to set up rules for their behavior, then you're just being selfish. Sounds a lot like what the Pharisees were good at. (II Peter 2)

Read the Bible and then go and live however you want. Throughout history there have been many church-going people who will listen to sermons, read the Bible, and go through the rituals of religion, but then live their daily lives according to the selfish and sinful ways of their heart. We read verses like Romans 2:8 and think it's talking about non-Christians who "are self-seeking and reject the truth and follow evil." But there are plenty of outwardly religious people who are doing the same thing.


So what can you do to break your habits of selfish Bible reading? Pray before (and during) your Bible reading. As Tim Challies has put it so well, Prayerlessness is Selfishness.

Do you really think you can rise above your selfishness, your preconceived notions, the influence of the mass media, and understand the path of God's statutes without his help? Of course not.

Challies quotes H.B. Charles Jr:

“The things you pray about are the things you trust God to handle. The things you neglect to pray about are the things you trust you can handle on your own.”

Father, help me to not interpret your Word according to my own selfish way of seeing things. Through your Holy Spirit, illumine and inspire, so I can fully understand your heart and be directed in your way. Guard me from the conceit that I can do this without you. 

Psalm 119:35 Path Illogical

Dr. Phil's guests describe their unproductive habits and the resulting mess of their lives, and his response is always,

"And how's that working for you?"

No one is quite sure who first said or wrote another popular phrase:

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results”

Both of these address a behavior we all know to be true, because we've all been guilty of it. We know what we ought to do. We know that what we're currently doing is causing problems for us. And yet we keep on doing the same self-defeating things over and over again.

Paul expressed something similar in Romans 7:15.

"I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do."

David confesses to God that he needs help with this problem.

Direct me in the path of your commands,
for there I find delight.

Psalm 119:35

Like the psychologist's patients who hear the doctor's advice week after week but fail to actually follow through, many people  approach God's commands like a pep talk, but never actually obey them. James knew this:

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.  Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror  and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.  But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

James 1:22-25

James' "they will be blessed in what they do" echoes David's "delight comes from doing."

So, how can you work toward changing what seems to be an endless cycle? How can you shift toward actually taking steps down the path of obeying the commands?

The answer is to pray before you read the commands of God. Pray every time before you read the Word.

Lord, as I read your commands, plant them not only in my mind and in my heart, but in my feet! Guide me through your Word so I can explore practical ideas for living it out in my daily life. Help me to make plans and to carry out those plans to pursue the path you've laid out, the path that results in delight. Lord, I need some delight in my life. Shake me up so I stop ignoring the guidance you've provided in the scriptures.

Psalm 119:34 Making it Fit

Give me understanding, so that I may keep your lawand obey it with all my heart.

Psalm 119:34

I'm not very fond of shopping for new clothes.

Oh, I like having new clothes. But when I go clothes shopping I'm remind that I don't have the money to buy just whatever I want. I'm also reminded that I'm not a kid any more so I shouldn't buy things that will make me look like a silly old man. I get wound up in my own mind, thinking about what my son will think of what I buy, or my wife, or my co-workers.

But worst of all, shopping for clothes reminds me I'm over-weight. For years I've been right at that dividing line where many of the clothes stop at the size just below mine, or if they have my size, there's only one style or color for me to get. But I'm also at the size where the Big & Tall section also doesn't have much for me, favoring people either bigger or taller than I am.

The worst part of shopping for clothes is when I know I have to get new clothes because I've outgrown the clothes in my closet. When I was 8, that was great. It's not so great at 60.

And so, even though I really could use two or three new pairs of pants, I only get one, telling myself I'll work on getting back down into the clothes I already have (and the ones in that box up on the shelf that's labeled CLOTHES TO SHRINK INTO.

Woe is me. That which I want to do is not what I end up doing, and that which I don't want to do any more is precisely what I know I'll end up doing.


Some of us approach the Word of God the way I approach clothes.

Your life habits have slipped a bit lately, so you avoid those parts of the scriptures you know won't fit the current you very well. Or your thoughts about certain topics have shifted somewhat because of the pressure of the world and the popular culture, so you work hard at finding a different way to think about what used to be clear and plain in the Bible, but now you need it to fit into your evolving way of thinking about the world.

The best way to keep from trying to force the Word into fitting your way of thinking, rather than the other way around, is to pray every time you open the Bible to read. Every time.

Let the one who wrote the Word help you to be changed by the Word as it disciplines you for godliness.

Lord, Give me understanding so I can be all in. Help me to push myself to let the Word change me, to make me strong in the faith. Pull me back, Lord, from trying to fit the Word into the way I want to live.