Psalm 119:61 Freedom to Follow

Though the wicked bind me with ropes,
I will not forget your law.
Psalm 119:61

When Delilah set out to discover Samson's weakness, he told her a few fibs (Judges 16).

Samson answered her, “If anyone ties me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, I’ll become as weak as any other man.”

He said, “If anyone ties me securely with new ropes that have never been used, I’ll become as weak as any other man.”

He replied, “If you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric on the loom and tighten it with the pin, I’ll become as weak as any other man.”

By the end of that chapter we discover what really bound Samson: his own pleasure-seeking habits.


What's binding you?

Are you too tied up in bad habits - or wicked habits - to set yourself free to follow God's law?

As a friend told me once, "I want to want to be faithful." That's not a typo. He wanted to want to be faithful.

What he really wanted was to continue doing whatever he pleased.

Are your finances so tied up by your drive to satisfy your cravings that you can't free yourself to live a life with God as your portion?

Are you so bound up in your quest to "discover yourself" that there's no energy left for discovering who God has been molding you to be?

Have you lashed yourself to the mast of your career, unable to spare time and attention for the tasks God has prepared specifically for you?

It's easy to think of the wicked that binds me as being those other people. But the wicked person who gets in my way the most ... is me.

The best way to get yourself unbound from the things you're tied to is to bind yourself to the Word.

These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.

Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

This isn't necessarily a literal commandment, although it can be. My wife prints out scriptures and posts them in various places around the house where we'll be reminded of them daily. She's bound His Word on the bathroom mirror, on the refrigerator door, and above the stove and sink in the kitchen.

Binding the Word around the house and around your life can help to achieve what the writer of Deuteronomy was really getting at - to bind the Word of God on your heart, on your life, so that it transforms you and frees you from those other things that threaten to tie you down.

With the Word wrapped around your daily life, God will be enough.