Psalm 119:155 What Are You Seeking?

Salvation is far from the wicked,
 for they do not seek out your decrees.
Psalm 119:155

If I was the driver of the white car in that picture of a switchback mountainous road, I'd be seeking a quick and safe way to get off that road.

But maybe that driver has a good reason to be on that road. Maybe the driver is seeking something that can only be gained by continuing to travel on that treacherous road.

What might it be?

What are you seeking on the road of life?

Many psychologists say most of us are forever seeking something we feel like we lost or never quite found as young children. It might be something quite different for each of us, although there are many common things people are looking for.

Maybe you're seeking the safety of people you feel you can trust, because you were lied to and betrayed when you were young.

Perhaps you're seeking the kind of close relationships you envy in other people's lives, the kind that have so often eluded you.

It could be you were born with a physical disability of some kind and have been hoping to find a way to be the person your heart hungers to be, but your body or brain have held you back.

God has been seeking you since you were a child. He wants to share His heart with you, and he provided His Word so you could search through its pages to discover His heart.

The best way to find what you seek is by seeking the heart of God. That's what we've all been searching for.

I have climbed the highest mountains
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you
I have run, I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I have kissed honey lips
Felt the healing in her finger tips
It burned like fire
This burning desire
I have spoke with the tongue of angels
I have held the hand of a devil
It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I believe in the Kingdom Come
Then all the colours will bleed into one
Bleed into one
But yes, I'm still running
You broke the bonds
And you loosed the chains
Carried the cross of my shame
Oh my shame, you know I believe it

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, by U2

Fruitful Politics: Peace

The politics of peace can be complicated, prompting a lot of disagreement and even more labeling.

Are you a hawk or a dove? An isolationist or an interventionist? Do you favor diplomacy or confrontation? Appeasement or bullying? Unilateral disarmament or mutually assured destruction? America First or a global perspective? Or perhaps something in between those choices or way outside the box?

Or are you a peacemaker?

Regardless of your stance or the opinion of whomever you're talking to about politics, is your first impulse to be a peacemaker? Or are you an argument instigator? The guy who always has to put in his two cents. Or the girl who always has to have the last word. Or, worst of all, are you a troll?

Or maybe you're the one who is quick to turn a conversation into a debate and then into a full fledged fight. All because, of course, you believe so strongly in the right-ness of your opinions. Forget the righteousness of peacemaking, you're going to make your point and you're not going to quit until you've either convinced your opponent or they run from you in fear.

Being a peacemaker is harder than being a troublemaker. To stir up trouble in any discussion, all you have to do is react, countering every statement with one of your own, answering every claim with a counter-claim, every spin with a counter-spin.

Being a peacemaker requires not reacting with the jerk of a knee, but instead intentionally responding from the depths of your carefully tended heart.

You've been putting down deep roots into the Word of God. You've been investing intense hours on your knees, struggling with the difference between your personal desires and the things God loves, between your opinions and God's priorities. And you've come through it with a changed heart, one that always and only wants to peacefully pursue His mission, That mission is to share His shalom - "a rest of will that comes from divine assurance about how things will turn out" (Dallas Willard) - with every person in every situation in every season.

Even in political season.

Where do you think all these appalling wars and quarrels come from? Do you think they just happen? Think again. They come about because you want your own way, and fight for it deep inside yourselves. You lust for what you don’t have and are willing to kill to get it. You want what isn’t yours and will risk violence to get your hands on it.
...
Don’t bad-mouth each other, friends. It’s God’s Word, his Message, his Royal Rule, that takes a beating in that kind of talk. You’re supposed to be honoring the Message, not writing graffiti all over it. (James 4:1-2, 11-12, The Message)

Psalm 119:154 What is Your Cause?

In the world of 21st century influencers, everyone has to have a brand - a well defined message, a specific cause at the center of all the content you produce for public consumption. If want to expand your impact beyond your base, you have to craft a platform to promote your brand.

What is your brand? What is your cause?

On Twitter, as @trripleplay, my brand is Mizzou Baseball fan. No one shares more links to Mizzou Baseball content. No one retweets more Mizou Baseball tweets. No one follows more Mizzou Baseball people - coaches, players, sportswriters, fans, and former coaches, players, sportswriters and fans.

Obviously I think it's OK to have a brand as a hobby, or even as a career. If I had been more energetic and more savvy about building my brand platform as a writer, I might have a more successful writing career.

Among my friends on Facebook, some have a brand or a cause that's quite clear. Some friends have branded themselves as not just pro-Conservative but virulently anti-Democrat, evidenced by the many funny memes they share -- at least they think they're funny.

Another Facebook friend maintains a carefully constructed - and yet quite genuine - platform for his brand as a business owner who practices servant-leadership toward his customers and employees. His posts seamlessly present his brand as a business servant, but also his related brand as a servant who goes out of his way to spend time and effort and money to help people in need.

I have another friend who posts stories about teaching children at church, being a good grandmother to her daughter's boys, and generally being a kind and helpful example of spiritual motherhood to everyone she meets.

Defend my cause and redeem me;
 preserve my life according to your promise.

Psalm 119:154

If you want to be able to ask God to defend your cause, you'd better make sure your cause is his cause.

You can have your own brand - God creates and molds the life of each person in a unique way. But you'd best make sure your brand is your personal expression of your Lord's cause.

If you do, then your life will be preserved, quickened, made to vibrate with energy.

Psalm 119:153 Not Distracted by Suffering

Look on my suffering and deliver me,
 for I have not forgotten your law.
Psalm 119:153

A quote from an article I wrote for Christian Standard back in February, 2016:

A once great nation is in the throes of transition from a democratic republic to a de facto dictatorship.

A neophyte has been given the reigns of power, to which some critics maintain he has no birthright. The gap between the super rich and the middle class is widening. People from other countries covet the benefits of citizenship, yet the nation’s reputation among the rest of the world is declining.

Christians find themselves increasingly at odds with the policies and morals of the nation. They’re seen as dangerous dissenters by those in charge and are increasingly marginalized and persecuted for their beliefs.

No, the neophyte leader’s name is not Obama and the nation is not America.

It's the Roman Empire during the reign of Nero. This was the world in which Christians were living when Peter wrote his first epistle to the saints in Rome. Many will see parallels between their situation and ours.

In one important regard, the situations are far from similar.

Peter, advising his readers how to respond, does not lay out a plan for political action. He doesn’t even mention Nero by name and drops only a few veiled hints to let them know he’s even aware of the current political situation in Rome. He doesn’t speak disparagingly about the government, doesn’t insult the leaders, and doesn’t pass along the latest rumors and jokes about the emperor.

Peter, faced with a political situation similar to what quite a few Christians see as our current circumstances, is somehow able to respond in such a different manner from so much of what is heard in many churches and posted by believers on social media today.

Who would have guessed that Peter, best known for blurting out the first awkwardly blunt thing that pops into his head, would be the one to let theology be his guide for how to be a Christian in the public square?

How did Peter change from the hot head to this highly focused wise elder? The same way David changed from young shepherd to wise King and spiritual leader.

Even while the political situations of their day were polarized and often dangerous for people of faith, they knew where to go to keep their minds focused and their motivations centered. Their driving influence was not their worries about suffering or their opinions about politics or their personal ambitions.

They trusted on God to deliver them to where He wanted them to be, because they never forgot His Law, the Word they had written on their hearts.

Fruitful Politics: Joy

How can godly Joy, second among Paul's listing of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, have anything to do with politics?

I wondered this myself until I stumbled across The Politics of Long Joy, a piece by Alan Jacobs at Books & Culture. I'd encourage you to read it in its entirety, but allow me to excerpt this paragraph that explains the phrase, "long joy":

"The politics of long joy" is an odd phrase, but a rich one. . . . the joy which comes from judging according to appearances and immediate circumstances, according to what we now like to call "outcomes," is always short. Only the joy of conforming our will to God's is long.

Jacobs goes on to explain the application of this "long joy" principle to his job as a cultural critic. We would do well to consider its implications for our involvement as Christians in politics.

As Christians we are free to express our opinions on political topics, free to support and even campaign for our chosen candidates, and free to speak clearly about how we see political ideas and politicians in light of the truths of God and the interests of His people.

We're also free to keep our mouths shut and keep our opinions to ourselves. There is no biblical command to have an opinion on every topic, nor is there any directive to always share what opinions we do have. Our biblical mandate is to be extreme and consistent in our love and to pursue God's mission above all else.

If our joy is sparked by the long term goal of conforming our will to God's, we're going to have a fruitful perspective on the implications and impact of political elections and cultural changes.

It's so easy to get caught up in the "short joy" of putting all our eggs into the basket of a particular candidate's victory, or in the passing of a particular bill, or the nomination of a particular breed of supreme court justices.

By our frantic reaction to every event (or pseudo-event) during the campaign season, we're declaring to the world that our joy as Christians is dependent upon the shifting sands of national politics. We telegraph our fear of the "wrong" candidate and the "wrong" policies to everyone around us - to our children, to the believers who look to us as mentors, and to both both seekers and skeptics who look to the Christians around them for a display of the "long joy" and confidence that comes from Jesus.

On election day - and the days following - will your family and friends and flock see you angry, distraught, or panicky if your candidate loses? Or will they barely see your disappointment because they're blinded by your dazzling "long joy"?

The world is indeed a mess. It has been since Adam and Eve first corrupted the glory of the garden. America isn't a godly nation. It never was, not to the extreme some would pretend. We are surrounded and have always been surrounded by sin, by wrongness, by failure.

But our joy as people of God does not depend upon such temporary things.

Quoting Alan Jacobs again:

The truth of who we are, given the extremes of divine image and savage depravity, is hard to discern. Perhaps we can only achieve it in brief moments; perhaps we only catch rumors of the glory that is, and is to be. But even those rumors can sustain us as we walk the pilgrim path.

Psalm 119:153-160 Resh

Look on my suffering and deliver me,
 for I have not forgotten your law.
Defend my cause and redeem me;
 preserve my life according to your promise.
Salvation is far from the wicked,
 for they do not seek out your decrees.
Your compassion, LORD, is great;
 preserve my life according to your laws.
Many are the foes who persecute me,
 but I have not turned from your statutes.
I look on the faithless with loathing,
 for they do not obey your word.
See how I love your precepts;
 preserve my life, LORD, in accordance with your love.
All your words are true;
 all your righteous laws are eternal

This refrain of Psalm 119 whips back and forth like a mountain trail. David frames these eight verses within the context of contrast - his relationship with God vs. that of those who persecute him.

Three times (verses 154, 156, and 158) David asks God to "preserve my life." It's a phrase he uses 11 times in Psalm 119, always carrying the meaning of revitalizing or quickening life. David's asking for a jump start, a spark of God's energy and glory to infuse his daily life.

Four times in this stanza David uses the word "not." In verses 153 and 157 he describes unrighteous things he does not do. In verses 155 and 158 he describes a righteous act other people do not do. It's an obvious intentional contrast between himself and others.

Throughout the eight verses David speaks of compassion and love, intermixed with loathing and wickedness. His attitude toward unrighteous people bounces back and forth.

What is it that keeps David trusting in God's deliverance from suffering and persecution?

What is it that keeps salvation near to him?

What makes makes him steadfastly different from those he loathes?

What quickens and energizes his life each and every day?

What keeps him pointed in the proper direction during the his journey down the 1 road of life?

All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal