Psalm 119:144 Righteous Understanding

Your statutes are always righteous;
give me understanding that I may live.

Psalm 119:144

Which statutes do I strip clean of their righteousness?

The statutes of God don't stand on their own, a bare set of words and phrases connected together.

When you dissect and analyze the scriptures, do you dive deep into the definition and historical usage of the words? Diagram the sentences and the relationship between phrases? Great!

But are you ignoring the statutes' roots in the righteous character of God? Are you failing to place the context in the righteous history of God at work in the world? Not great.

When you study the last half of Romans chapter one, do you get lost in the list of sins, building a systematic doctrine of right and wrong? There's certainly a place for understanding what each of those sinful acts means. But if that's all you do, they can become nothing more than bricks in your personal wall of  religious opinions.

Look more closely at those verses in Romans 1. Search for the heart of God in what Paul is saying. See how that list is a reflection of God's righteousness, both his wrath against sin and his compassion and patience toward people.

These verses are not so much about a list of forbidden acts, but instead a description of a God who has revealed himself to us at many times in various ways (Hebrews 1:1), only to be willfully ignored. It's the story of a God who step by step gives people up to go their own way, hoping their deepening mess will jolt them into awakening from their self-imposed ignorance and will turn them back toward him. If they continue to run away from him, he finally lets them go all the way.

When you encounter people who have depraved minds, so depraved they do what ought not to be done, people who have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity, ones who are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice, are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful, people who invent ways of doing evil, who disobey their parents and have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy ... how do you respond?

With judgment only? Or also with compassion and patience? Is your reaction limited to the wrathful side of God's righteousness? Or do you seek out ways to righteously show compassion and build bridges of reconciliation?

Psalm 119:143 Delightful

Trouble and distress have come upon me,
but your commands give me delight.

Psalm 119:143

Which commands do you think aren't all that delightful?

This might seem like a somewhat odd question. Well of course, you say, all his commands are delightful.

Really?

I have to admit I have trouble always delighting in I Peter 2:13-17.

Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.

There are some government leaders whose behavior tempts me to rant and rail at them. My sarcastic side wants to ridicule them with the same sort of untruths and insults the politicians throw at each other. It would delight my worse self to join in on the ignorant talk of foolish people.

But that's not what God is about and it's not what I really want to be about. So instead I'll delight myself in being unique, approaching my freedom as an opportunity to do do things for the Lord's sake.

God commands his people to love their spouses and their children. We're to love our friends and neighbors and fellow believers. He even says to love our enemies.

Not all of those commands are easy or even comfortable. But if we give ourselves over to obeying for his sake, we will come to delight in his commands.

Psalm 119:142 True

Your righteousness is everlasting
and your law is true. 

Psalm 119:142

Which laws do you think aren't true?

Well, of course I think all God's laws are true! 

But do you really?

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you...

Matthew 5:44

Wait, really? Even the spouse who has been so oppressive/unfaithful/obnoxious that I don't think I can live with them any more? Even the politician who stands for everything I abhor and seems bound and determined to take away the rights and freedoms of religious expression?

Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Matthew 7:1-2

... except on social media, where no one can hear me dishing about the way that person always wants everyone to thinks they're so perfect on Facebook or this other person obviously has hateful and unholy motives for every opinion they tweet about. Unless in my "righteous indignation" I decide to post something to passive aggressively put them in their place.

Which laws do you think aren't true?

Psalm 119:141 Selective Memory

Though I am lowly and despised,
I do not forget your precepts. 

Psalm 119:141

Which precepts do you forget? Which of God's truths do you so easily ignore?

On one Monday evening on the way to Vandalia, Missouri, for the weekly prison ministry, Roy Weece told me he had accepted a speaking invitation. He had been assigned to speak five times on the theme "That's in the Bible?" The idea was to speak about five things that people tend to ignore or forget that are taught in the Word.

So we brainstormed possible topics.

The first one came quickly, considering our destination that evening. Matthew 25:31-46 lists several groups of needy people and the consequences of ignoring them.

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Matthew 25:41-46

Christians will sometimes say they're aware of scriptures like this one, but they'll add, "That's just not one of my spiritual gifts."

But Jesus doesn't qualify his statements as applying only to those who are gifted or called to help needy people. In truth, he says all who ignore the least of these will go away to eternal punishment.

Probably don't want to forget that precept.

Which precepts of God do you tend to forget or ignore?

Psalm 119:140 Testing

Your promises have been thoroughly tested,
 and your servant loves them.

Psalm 119:140

Which promises have you tested? And loved?

A few of my favorites:

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

Isaiah 40:29

He doesn't necessarily always give physical strength to Karen and I when we're weary and weak. But as we've grown older and our physical problems have multiplied, he has multiplied our spiritual strength to continue serving him by his power.

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

James 1:5

I've made some really ill-advised choices in my life. Actually, they were stupid choices, and some of them we're still paying for. And yet we continually have asked God to supply us with wisdom, even when we're in the middle of a mess of our own creating. And he has followed through on that promise, without wagging his finger at us and saying, I told you so.

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

II Chronicles 7:14

This is the promise I'm testing most right now. I'm trusting that if I encourage and exhort my fellow believers to humble ourselves enough to stop assuming our brand of politics or lifestyle is God-ordained, if we'll turn from our wicked ways of selling our holy integrity for a set of unholy deals with unholy politicians and false preachers, that God will indeed forgive our wayward ways and hear our land.