Psalm 119:176 The Shepherd

I have strayed like a lost sheep.
 Seek your servant,
  for I have not forgotten your commands

Psalm 119:176

I've often pictured myself as a gallant knight on a great journey, striving to do great things for the Lord. With my wife, a true soldier princess, by my side, we're ready for whatever he throws our way.

But, if I'm to be honest, I'm more often like a stupid sheep.  I stray...daily. I've been completely lost a few times, clueless about where I was and where he wanted me to go next.

Except I always seem to want to make it all about me. If I only could grasp hold of my special role in the Lord's grand plan, I tell myself, then I'd finally make it.  I'd arrive at the pinnacle of life.

Every time I think I'm getting in step with the Lord on this road of life, I stumble and fall flat on my foolish face.

I think it's no coincidence that on the same week I finally sat down to write this final blogpost about the final verse on Psalm 119, I was also preparing to lead our Life Group in a conversation about Romans 7.

As someone who has loved Psalm 119 all my life, I've resisted and wrestled with some of Paul's comments about the Law.

What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead.Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.

Romans 7:7-11

Some preachers and writers today are interpreting verses like that to say we should at all costs avoid preaching and teaching people to follow rules. It's all grace, all the time, because the laws were never any good.

The truth is, the flaw in the law has always been interconnected with the flaw in us. As Paul says, the sin in us seizes the opportunity presented by the law and turns us into even worse sinners.

And  yet Paul spends a large portion of his epistles teaching the early Christians how to be transformed from unrighteous rule-breakers to righteous rule-keepers.

The law - both the capital-L Law of Moses and the numerous rules and commandments of the New Testament - represents the heart of God about how He intends for His people to live. Under the New covenant, He has given believers the Holy Spirit and written His laws on our hearts.

If we put our main focus on trying to obey the rules, we'll fail as badly as Paul describes his own efforts in Romans 7. If instead we focus on praising the Lord (Psalm 119:175) and rely on Him to seek us and guide us as our Shepherd (v. 176), then we'll be fulfilling His best intention for His Word.

On the one road of life, I'm no one special. I'm a stupid sheep, just like everyone else walking alongside me.

What makes me different is this: I know the Shepherd. And the Shepherd knows the way.

And most of the other sheep on this path not only don't know the way, they don't know the Shepherd.

Stupid sheep.

Who will point them to the Shepherd?

I will. Because I have not forgotten His commands.

Psalm 119:175 One Road, One Purpose

When I drive for rideshare, I've learned to be intentional in how I go about it. I've studied the rideshare market here in Columbia and I know where and when the best passengers, the ones seeking good long trips that will pay the best, are most likely to be found. So I drive during those peak times and intentionally park in the spots most likely to be near those passengers.

I could be like a lot of rideshare drivers, who spend their time driving around town, constantly on the move, hoping to get lucky and be in the right place at the right time.

I used to be one of those drivers, when I first started driving rideshare. Until I realized I was just wasting gas and eating up all my potential income. Sometimes I really would get lucky and get a lot of calls for rides. But more often the rides I got weren't that great and my income was hit or miss.

For most people, daily life, moment-by-moment life, is lived unintentionally. We go about our days by habit, led by routine, with no grand purpose other than making it to lunchtime, going home at 4:00, eating three meals a day, working five days a week, and escaping the routine on the weekends - often just replacing the weekday routine with the weekend routine.

We think all that unintentional living will somehow satisfy us, but it seldom does. At best it numbs us, turning us into caricatures of what God intended us to be.

Even a lot of Christians seem stuck in their unintentional lives. The only difference is they added Sunday church attendance and a few other church-related habits. Maybe they've also adopted an unhealthy taste for Pharisaical moral judgment and politics.

Whether spiritual or non-spiritual, the vast majority of people traveling alongside each other on the road of life seem to have stumbled into one of these unintentional ruts.They stay there because they don't realize there's a better way. They've become satisfied with the happenstance rewards of unintentionally living.

But there is a better way. There is a reason for living, a purpose for the journey.

David waited until the second to last verse of his trip diary to spell it our for us.

Let me live that I may praise you,
 and may your laws sustain me.

Psalm 119:175

God didn't give you life so you could spend it stumbling blindly along, with no vision, without purpose. He gave you life and He sustains your life so you can fulfill His greatest intention for your life: that you may praise Him.

The reason for continuing the journey is to praise God with every choice you make. A life spent pursuing anything else is pointless.

The goal is not a destination. Yes, God has promised eternal life with Him in heaven. But that's not the goal of the journey. The goal is to praise God along the way.

Praise Him with your voice of worship. Praise Him with your voice as part of your daily conversation with your fellow travelers.

Praise Him on your knees in prayer. Praise Him with your hands and feet as you walk through your days among people who have no purpose.

Praise Him by loving each of your fellow travelers who are unaware they're also seeking God. Praise Him by helping them, listening to them, counseling them, encouraging them. Praise Him by keeping your spiritual senses attuned for the divine opportunities He puts along your pathway to plant and water and cultivate seeds. Praise Him by being the light in the world's darkness, by letting your words be seasoned with salt.

If that sounds like God is asking a lot of you, He is. That's why He made you a new creature, re-creating you to do the work He has prepared for you.

And He doesn't expect you to do it alone. He'll send other intentional people to walk and work alongside you.

And He'll continually turn your attention back to His Word, His laws that are not only written in a book but have been inscribed on your heart. The laws can help you by reminding you in hundreds of ways how to intentionally live to praise Him. They sustain you and keep the pilgrim progressing.

Intentionally.

Psalm 119:174 Delight

I long for your salvation, LORD,
 and your law gives me delight.

Psalm 119:174

I continually long for salvation.

I long for your salvation, Lord, when I'm in a rut. The road of life is filled with ruts. When I realize I'm stuck in one, I go back to God's Word, where you save me from my doldrums with a renewed perspective and purpose.

I long for salvation, Lord, when I'm feeling alone. Even surrounded by people, I often feel like no one looks at life the way I do. When I'm having a personal pity party like Elijah, I take time out to listen for the still small voice of God. It's often just a simple phrase, a verse, or a forgotten story from His Word that delights me all over again, and fills me with feelings of love and community.

I long for salvation, Lord, when I feel overwhelmed by the people I encounter on this road we're all traveling. Sometimes they're just too much. Too much rudeness and too many sharp opinions. Too many voices clamoring to be heard, even if all they have to say is memes and snark and flippant remarks. An over-abundance of us vs. them and a drought of empathy and kindness. Your Word, though, keeps me centered in your holiness and lovingkindness. It trains my eyes to see the world the way you see it, filled with people longing for your salvation, just like me.

I long for salvation, Lord, when changes descend on my world too quickly. Nothing stays the same. My comfort zone keeps moving around when I'm not paying attention. My job changes. Or my career of four decades comes to an abrupt end. I'm getting older, and countless physical changes accompany aging. More than once in my life, my circle of friends has dissipated overnight. And then I take a step back and revisit your never-changing but always new Word. I delight in seeing how the old, old story speaks to my new situations in surprising ways.

I long for salvation, Lord, when I've failed you miserably. When my hands are dripping with blood, my heart is hardened with apathy, and my mind has been corrupted by the world, it's then I long for your salvation. I can manage the mess I've made. I can pretend to care again. I can try to hide from the lure of the world. But only you, Lord, can clean my hands and soften my heart and transform my mind. Only you can restore delight to my soul.

Psalm 119:173 Choices

May your hand be ready to help me,
 for I have chosen your precepts.
Psalm 119:173

God is ready to give a helping hand while you're traveling the road of life.

Are you?

Are you ready to help people make the most important choices of their life?

When I first wrote the previous question, it was Are you ready to help people make the most important choice of life? But it should be choices.

The difference is vital.

In 1978 I made a choice of whom to marry. It was a very good choice, one I've never regretted. 

I've made the choice each and every day since then to continue being married. I keep making that choice because choosing to be with her and stay with her is part of choosing His precepts.

We've chosen many times to be patient with each other. We've chosen to support one another, to be honest with each other, to never talk smack about one another to other people. We've chosen repeatedly to communicate, to make decisions together, to make time for each other.

When we went through heart-rending times as foster parents, we agreed together to choose to not let the stress tear apart our bond, but to make the hard choices that would cement our bond even tighter by working through the tough times together.

Everything that's important in life requires making a choice. And making that choice again and again.

God has always been there with us when we're making choices. Even if we skipped a few days or weeks, forgetting to live intentionally and choose intentionally, He chose to hang in there with us, waiting patiently for us to choose again.

God's precepts are also always there when we're making those choices. It can become all too easy to fall out of the habit of making good choices, but making the good choice to meditate on God's precepts every day is the best way to stay on track or get back on track.

Another good choice to make, and to remake every day, is the choice to help others make good choices.

I used to think my job as a Christian is to convince people to choose to believe and be baptized, and once I did that I could move on to someone else.

That's so short sighted.

There are people I encounter every day who need to be encouraged to make good choices in small ways. As a rideshare driver I regularly encounter people who need just a little piece of advice or a word of encouragement about relationships, their job, their children, or their choices about setting boundaries.

I could easily rationalize that I'm just there to give them a ride and I shouldn't get all up into their business. And I don't butt in. I don't force myself into their lives. But I do make the choice to ask the kind of questions that prompt them to open up a little. God and I can use that window to help travelers along their way toward discovering His heart.

Because that's the destination. That's where we're all headed to on this journey of life, whether or not we all know it.

We're returning to the heart of God.

And we're in it together.

Psalm 119:172 Rigtheousness

May my tongue sing of your word,
 for all your commands are righteous.

Psalm 119:172

A few things I've learned about God's righteous commands during my travels on the one road:


All of God's commands are righteous because they all reflect the righteous heart of God. When I learned to focus my study and prayer on knowing the heart of God, rather than on dissecting the commands, obedience and faithfulness became much easier.


Time spent in the Word led me to God's commands about righteousness and purity, like II Timothy 2:22

Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

Moral purity has always been a struggle for me. Oh the joy of realizing I should stop obsessing about those evil desires. I've learned instead to pursue purity by pursuing a pure obsession with God's heart of righteousness, faith, love and peace.


I spent years trying to prove I possessed all the right opinions about all the right things. After I learned to stop taking so much pride in my opinions, I then got off track by becoming obsessed with demonstrating how I had reconsidered those opinions and now was in possession of a better brand of right opinions about the right things. Our obsession with being right is so difficult to shake.


I still remember the day I actually understood II Timothy 2:15 for the first time, after having considered it one of my favorite verses for years.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. (II Timothy 2:15)

It shocked me when I realized how stupid I've been, only paying attention to the last part of the verse. Correctly handling the Word of truth is extremely important, but that's not the point. The goal isn't to prove my correct understanding of the Word of truth. It's to step up and present myself as a willing worker, approved by the blood of Christ. Only through doing the work given to me by God will I begin to correctly handle the word of truth.


It's not about carefully accumulating the right opinions. It's about training to be a workman after God's own heart.


The more I've allowed myself to walk alongside people whose beliefs and experiences are different than mine, God has proven this statement to be true:

The fruit of that righteousness will be peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence forever. (Isaiah 32:17)

I used to looked at those others as people to either avoid, tolerate, or correct. The fruit of my self-righteousness was arguing. I saw my job as letting them know I'm part of the "in" crowd and they're not, an attitude that only leads to belligerence and arrogance.

But once I learned to trust God and His righteous commands, I learned to see my interactions with the others on the one road as opportunities to bring out the God-flavors and God-colors of life.

Psalm 119:171 Tell It

I grew up with the sure knowledge that I was blessed to have born into a family that went to the right church and knew the right things. . . If the Truth was a place, we were already there. Our task was to bring people to the same place we were.

That's a quote from People of the Book, the blogpost at the beginning of my three-year-long trip diary through Psalm 119.

No doubt, I was blessed to have been born into a family that taught me to love God and His Word. For all the misdirected teaching and the self-righteousness of the "right church", I was getting a better start on the one road of life than most of the people I've encountered traveling alongside me over the past 60-plus years.

And no, I'm not talking about the "faith-only Baptists" or the "annual-communion heretics." I'm glad to claim many of them as my brothers and sisters and co-workers in Christ.

I 'm talking about the young lady in her 20's who admitted she had never been to church, not even once in her life. I'm talking about the 30-year old woman who admitted that the first time she was sent to prison was the first time in her life she had a bed of her own she could count on to be there each night. I'm talking about the co-worker who gave lip service to faith but had been raised in a streetwise culture of 'grab whatever you can whenever you can'.

Another thing that church taught me was about the greatest mission anyone could possibly have in life. Sure, the way I understood it back then ("our task was to bring people to the same place we were") was condescending and misdirected. But I've never lost sight of the lifelong call to be a reconciler, drawing people toward Christ (not to my church or my personal theology).

All of those people - all the others, the fellow travelers who aren't like me - they're all on the same road, traveling alongside me. They're all heading toward the same destination, whether they know it or not. That doesn't make me better than them. It doesn't mean I should avoid those other people and stick with the travelers who are like me.

My job is to help them all understand why we're all on this road together. If I don't tell them, they'll just keep on thinking we're all just plodding along aimlessly from birth to death.

I can't help them understand unless I'm actively, eagerly, and intentionally walking beside them, helping them along the way.

My job - your job - is to let our lips overflow with praise for the God who is also walking alongside us all.

May my lips overflow with praise,
 for you teach me your decrees.
Psalm 119:171

Psalm 119:170 Walking and Talking

May my supplication come before you;
 deliver me according to your promise.
Psalm 119:170

The most joyful and productive way to travel on the road of life is with continuous two-way communication with God. Supplications from you to God; promises from God to you.

Too often our supplications come in the form of random requests to God for help, while we're living life as we please. A more productive approach is to talk to God while reading about His promises in His Word. Put those promises to test in your life while asking God to help you live them out. Two way communication.

Since my heart attack I've prayed a lot to the Lord.

Oh Lord, won't you carry me over to another day of life, another year, another decade of life? I'm in a tough spot, Lord. Here's what I need. Give me what I want.

That's one-way communication.

My prayer life has been much more effective and joyful when I've buried myself in His Word and His promises. What does He have to say about living a healthy life? What are His promises for people who focus on a life spent serving Him?

Every day I refresh my knowledge of His promises and His purposes, to motivate myself for the day ahead. While I consider His Word, I pray for His help in living the the life He's laid out for me. I thank Him each morning for carrying me over to another day: a new day to find new ways to praise Him and draw others to Him.

Life on the one road can be hard. But you don't have to walk it alone.

Isn't it a long hard road, baby,
Isn't it a long hard road;
Isn't it a long hard road, baby,
Isn't it a long hard road;
But doesn't it feel good to know, baby,
You don't have to walk it alone.

Five Man Electrical Band

Psalm 119:169 Understand

May my cry come before you, LORD;
 give me understanding according to your word.

Psalm 119:169

Everyone I encounter on the one road is trying to understand life.

Many people desperately want to understand how to piece together a daily life that isn't a constant struggle. They see others who lead seemingly seamless lives, progressing forward on a straight line to some semblance of success. They long to understand the secret to such a life.

If they could only learn to cry out to the Lord without ceasing, every hour of every day. True understanding about purposeful living is available to all who seek Him and rely on His Word.

The lives of many more are disorganized and unproductive. Their focus is on the current moment, on the feelings they're grappling with right now. They want to understand how to get out of the cycle of poverty, the grip of addiction, the pipeline to prison, or the strait-jacket of mental illness. They don't understand why every move they make seems to take them further down into the whirlpool.

If they would learn to cry out to the Lord in the company of others who are also crying out to God for understanding, they might find a productive pathway to abundant living.

I walk the road of life with others who are wholeheartedly crying out for understanding of how they can live the sort of spiritual and purposeful life they crave. There's a knowledge in their hearts of the possibility of something more than physical existence. But that meaningful life remains just outside their grasp because the highest authorities they cry out to are so-called experts, the cultural gurus of wind-chasing.

If they ever actually consider the possibility of a god, of a higher power, something inside them pushes back against any possibility of actually knowing the One True God. If only they would cry out to the God who just might be there, they might discover he is there, and he is not silent.

All of  these people have at least one thing in common. They're all fellow travelers on the same road of life I'm on.

As I walk along, crying out to the Lord and seeking understanding through His Word, my purpose - and yours - should be to reach out and help our fellow travelers to understand the Word and to join us in crying out to the Lord.

Psalm 119:169-176 Taw

May my cry come before you, Lord;
 give me understanding according to your word.
May my supplication come before you;
 deliver me according to your promise.
May my lips overflow with praise,
 for you teach me your decrees.
May my tongue sing of your word,
 for all your commands are righteous.
May your hand be ready to help me,
 for I have chosen your precepts.
I long for your salvation, Lord,
 and your law gives me delight.
Let me live that I may praise you,
 and may your laws sustain me.
I have strayed like a lost sheep.
 Seek your servant, for I have not forgotten your commands.

Psalm 119:169-176

As David begins the final 8-verse stanza of this trip diary, each verse is a purpose statement.

This is why I'm on this road, he is saying. This is how I will travel on the one road. These are my goals as I walk down the path of life.

We all have the same one purpose in life.

We are all on that same one road. None of us walks it alone.

.

Psalm 119:168 Known

I obey your precepts and your statutes,
for all my ways are known to you. 

Psalm 119:168 

When I was young I took great pride in knowing myself and knowing the world around me. I can remember proudly telling my dad how self-aware I was one day while we were on our way somewhere in the car. I told him I had a special talent for for it.

I was extremely aware of his indifference, as evidenced by the distracted grunt he delivered as his response. I, in all my magnificent self-awareness, was completely unaware that I was full of baloney.

In college I told one of my friends that I always have a reason for every little thing I do. She told me that was kind of creepy.

I still can come across to people like I have an enormous amount of self confidence. I know who I am and I don't pretend to be something I'm not.

That's generally true. The problem is, I'm not always very proud of who I know myself to be.

I've learned I'm most confident when I trust God to know who I am. He knows everything about me. And in His Word I continually read things that strike me directly in the heart of who I am.

If only I had learned years earlier that the true key to knowing myself is through the precepts and statutes of the one who truly knows me.

Psalm 119:167 Obey & Love

I obey your statutes,
for I love them greatly. 
Psalm 119:167

Seems so simple. And yet so often we get it so wrong. Which of these have you substituted for David's simple approach to life and the Word?

     I study your statutes, for they stimulate my mind greatly.

I organize and manage your statutes, for they challenge me greatly.

     I outline your statutes, for I love PowerPoint.

I interpret you statutes, for I love my opinions greatly.

     I stand firm on your statues, for I greatly love being right.

I turn your statutes into memes, for I love going viral.

     I critique your statutes, for I love being a respected and distinguished scholar.

I shrug off your statutes, for I love freedom from laws.

     I wink at your statutes, for I love my lifestyle more than I love your statues.

I sarcastically refer to your statutes, for I love being cynically woke.

     I twist your statutes into pretzels, for I love being both woke and spiritual.

I obey your statutes,
for I love them greatly. 
Psalm 119:167

Psalm 119:166 Wait & Follow

I wait for your salvation, Lord,
and I follow your commands.
Psalm 119:166 

I'll have to admit I've often been reading the scriptures and been baffled. Sometimes it's even a verse or paragraph or chapter I've read before and understood completely, but now, reading it with the benefit of additional years on the one road of life, the very same passage leaves me wondering what it means.

That's the way the Word works on your heart. Like Hebrews 4:12 says, "the word of God is alive and active; sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart" ... and it can be like a multiple procedure intensive surgical operation over an extended time period. Salvation is promised, but you might have to wait a long while to fully grasp its particulars.

When I had my heart attack in October of 2018, I learned a precious lesson about myself. As a lifelong believer, you'd think I'd be confident of my final destination when death finally comes. That would seem to come naturally for someone who has been a Christian since I was 11 and has been a preacher and teacher and counselor and writer and prison minister and small group leader for Christ in the 50-plus years since.

But you know as well as I do that it isn't that cut and dried. Can you honestly tell me you know for a certainty how you'll react when that moment comes and you're facing the very real possibility of imminent death, staring into its cold dark vacant eyes? Are you positive you'll be positive about what's next, without fear?

Of course you can't. If you've never been at the edge of the precipice and you claim to be certain, I don't believe you.

And yet, when that time came for me, I was sure. I'm not bragging, I'm just reporting what I felt because I want you to think about it for yourself.

During the hours they were preparing me to go into surgery for the heart catheterization, with a significant percentage possibility I wouldn't survive, I was sure. Even when the procedure stretched from one hour to two to three and almost four hours, with me waking up in the middle of it (which isn't supposed to happen), I was sure. 

As it stretched on an on, I remembered my wife, Karen, asking the doctor how long the procedure would take. His answer was that if it takes less than an hour, it probably means they immediately found out it's going to be a bigger deal requiring open heart surgery. If it takes two hours, that probably means it was a simple procedure with one, maybe two, stents. If it goes to three hours and beyond, it's not good at all and the odds of survival begin to drop.

Even as my catheterization went into the fourth hour, I was sure.

Now, I was afraid for what my death would mean for my wife and my children and others being left behind. But I wasn't afraid for my own future. I knew - I know - whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day. (II Timothy 1:12).

That confidence comes from spending a life deep diving into the Word of God and doing my best to seize the opportunities He puts in front of me to live out that Word and share it with others.

I've wondered whether God had some greater purpose in putting me through the awful experience of a heart attack.

This past January, on the first Sunday of the new year, I picked up a man named Mike at the University of Missouri Hospital. The Lyft app told me he needed to go to Kirksville, Missouri, 88 miles to the north. The pick-up location and the long destination told me immediately this was a patient being released from the hospital and Medicaid was using Lyft to get him home.

I've learned to be very careful about which of those long trips to accept. The pay is great, but if it's the wrong day, the wrong time of day, or the wrong sort of passenger, it isn't worth it for a 63 year old guy who has had a heart attack. But something deep in my heart told me to go ahead with this trip.

This fellow was almost as old as me. He was dealing with cancer, of a type grown men don't like to talk about. The prognosis wasn't good and the next steps of treatment promised to be painful.

During that long trip north we began talking about trivial things, but soon I was talking about my experience with the heart attack. I've discovered people want to know exactly how it felt. They want the details. And Mike was no different, so I told him.

I told him how it felt to have every blood vessel in my chest burning like they were filled acid. I told him that still today I have PTSD-like nightmares about waking up and feeling the long catheter being pushed up through the blood vessel in my arm.

I also told him about my unequaled joy at discovering I really do believe with all my heart in the promise of eternal life.

In response, he opened up and shared his fears and his frustrations and a few graphic details of his own experience. And I was able to encourage him to open up to the people in his life who would be there for him in the weeks and months to come.

I'm certain I'll never see him again. I don't know his full name and have already forgotten his address.

But I know for certain it wasn't the Lyft algorithm alone that paired that passenger with me for that trip.  I'd been waiting for the Lord to reveal His reasons for putting me through that extended nightmare on the procedure table. I kept myself open to follow His lead, and was prepared for the divine appointment he had in store for me on that long Lyft ride.

Since then, God has provided several similar opportunities to share with friends and the strangers who populate the passenger seats of my car. 

And I'm certain the best thing I can do is to continue to wait for Him to act and follow where and when He leads.

Psalm 119:165 Steps to Peace

I used to have a general attitude of peace about life and my future. When I laid down in my bed for sleep, I could drift off into slumber with a peaceful feeling. If I woke up in the night, I'd roll over and drift back into the stages of sleep.

During my days, I'd go about my business with a vague sense of well being, comfortable in my habits. My diet and exercise were based on a general understanding of what all the self help books recommend.

I had peace like a river.

Until the night my my river plunged me over the edge of a massive waterfall and dumped me into rapids that threatened to pull me under.

A heart attack messes with that vague peaceful feeling. You no longer trust your heart to keep on beating like it's supposed to. You begin to seriously question your habits.

I have a different kind of peace now. It's based on a fully awake awareness that, as my cardiologist says, I am now a heart patient and always will be. There's a lot to be said for knowing exactly where I stand and what my circumstances are.

I also have a confidence that comes from knowing there's a stent in my heart, helping to keep things pumping along. That horrific three and a half hour heart catheterization was no fun, but at least now I know the doctors have taken a long (really long) look inside my heart and done the invasive and intricate work my heart needed.

That experience gives me motivation to eat and exercise and live with a more realistic approach.  Oddly, that gives me a sort of peace about my health I didn't have before.

Great peace have those who love your law,
and nothing can make them stumble.

Psalm 119:165

The more I dedicate myself to spending time in the Word of God, the greater I open myself to the expert work of the Great Physician. He implants His Word - the expression of His very own heart - into my heart. With His Word written on my heart, I have a greater confidence each day to  be in tune with His plans for me. I'm better able to notice the opportunities He places before me to exercise my spiritual fitness in my world.

Psalm 119:164 Obsessed

Seven times a day I praise you
for your righteous laws. 

Psalm 119:164

You can read the Bible.

Or you can apply yourself to being a student of God's righteous laws.

You can make the Word your obsession, the habit you turn to every chance you get.

You can open the pages of God's revelation not just once a week on Sundays, not just every morning before breakfast, but frequently and repeatedly throughout your day.

You can simply peruse the scriptures or you can wrestle with it, deal with it, allow it to use its sharp edge on your heart, eagerly open yourself wide to allow the Word to judge the thoughts and attitudes of your heart.

Like David says, seven times a day you can be so absorbed by your encounter with God's laws that you cannot help but sing and shout out your praise and gratitude for the way the Lord has opened His heart to us for inspection and transformation.

Repetition and habit, digging deep and bathing in righteousness, builds a depth of wisdom and experience to carry you through every day and through your whole life.

Psalm 119:163 Been There, Done That

Because I'm a rideshare driver in Missouri, occasionally I have to drive on unfamiliar road that are hilly and curvy. Turns out the best way to learn to drive hilly curvy roads by driving hilly curvy roads.

I've had to take a passenger from Columbia to California, MO, and another to Dixon, MO. Both involved back highways with extremely steep hills and constant curves. Worse, both trips were timed so that I was making the return trip in the dark.

I'll admit to be a bit nervous during those sojourns. But I wasn't anywhere near as nervous as I was the first few times I ever drove on roads in the backwoods of the state.

I've gained experienced and learned some good tips for navigating hills and curves over the years.

• Don't be in a hurry, even if you're in a hurry. Yes, there are locals who come up behind you like they're driving the Autobahn and are obviously frustrated by being stuck behind some outsider who doesn't know how to drive in the Ozarks. That's okay. They'll deal with it. There's no reason to drive faster than feels safe to you.


• On the other hand, don't drive so slowly you're causing accidents. Work consciously at gradually increasing your speed to the fastest you can feel comfortable with.


• That said, be aware this isn't the time to set your cruise control, because you're going to need to continually adjust your speed. Slow down a little as you enter a curve and then speed up when you're in the middle of the curve and about to come out of it (I learned that from my Driver's Ed instructor when I was 16). Slow down a little when you're topping over a blind hill, because you don't want to hit the down slope out of control. Some of those rural hills turn into sharp curves without warning.


• Make sure you stay in your lane, as far to the right side of the road as is safe, especially when topping over a hill. Some people get overconfident driving those roads and will speed down the middle of the road, even as they come over the crest of a hill.

I could go on, but you get the idea. You'll learn, but only by taking advice wherever you can get it and by driving on some curvy and hilly roads a few times

I hate and detest falsehood
but I love your law.

Psalm 119:163

David is saying, in effect, "Been there, done that, prefer this."

The best way to learn how to deal with people who are liars and whose lives are filled with falsehood is ... wait for it ... by dealing with people who are liars and whose lives are filled with falsehood.

There's really no substitute for experience. I'm pretty good at spotting liars, but only because I've been around several liars. I used to work with a man who would lie just for the fun of it, even if there was no other reason to lie or anything he could possibly gain by the falsehood. His whole life was one falsehood after another.

Having spent a few years around him helped me not be fooled by other habitual liars. There are some salespeople and quite a few politicians who are obviously habitual liars, but people who haven't studied liars are easily fooled by them.

Along with experience, though, you've also got to be a student of both falsehood and truth. There are some good books about body language and about liars.  The best, though, is the Bible. And the more you read the Word, you'll appreciate its richness of truth and reliability compared to so much of what is written and said in the rest of the world.

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12 

Psalm 119:162 Treasure

 

I rejoice in your promise
like one who finds great spoil.

Psalm 119:162

The Bible is not a treasure map.

The Bible is a trip diary diary and the people who wrote it are regaling us with true stories about the treasure they have found and how they found it along the one road of life. They have been there and done that and found that.

David tells us about the treasure he has found in the promises of God. But there's an unexpected aspect to this tale of where and how he found this treasure. It's unlike nearly every other story of found treasure you've ever read.

The treasure is still there to be found by you and me!

All any of us has to do is get on our feet and put on our walking shoes and start moving down the path God has set out in front of you.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

God has called you to a purpose. The treasure is in pursuing that purpose, all the while knowing God is working alongside you toward that purpose

Just like David did. Just like Paul did. Just like Jesus did.

Psalm 119:161 Trembling Heart

 

Rulers persecute me without cause,
but my heart trembles at your word.

Psalm 119:161

My heart TREMBLES. Why?

The Hebrew word is pachad, to dread.  Persecution by people in power might cause you to tremble with dread, but the Word should cause even greater dread. 

I suspect anyone who spent their childhood as part of a church remembers the visiting missionaries. They would come to the church and speak about their mission, often with a slideshow with pictures of exotic foreign places and people (with an obligatory sunset picture at the end). It was exciting because they had been there and done that, unlike me - and unlike most of the people in my church. We hadn't been anywhere or done much of anything, by comparison.

The part I always liked best was when they told stories of persecution. They had been there and experienced that. I still remember the stories of people smuggling Bibles across the border of the iron curtain. When I was young I pictured an actual iron curtain between one country and another, with communist soldiers hiding in the curtains like a cheesy murder mystery.

The stories of what would happen and what did happen to God’s smugglers if they were caught made my heart tremble. Even now when I read stories in The Voice of the Martyrs magazine about people in other countries being persecuted, I'm tempted to think of it as reading an adventure tale where everything is going wrong for the hero. I'm sure it's not much of an adventure for the real people in the stories, a realization that again causes my heart to tremble with second hand fear.

Jesus makes a backhanded sort of promise to his disciples that because the world will hate them because the world has hated Him. That could be unnerving for those of us who seek to be serious about following Christ.

When I fully invest my imagination in reading the stories of someone like Stephen, inserting myself into the story, standing before the Sanhedrin alongside him, falling to my knees in front of the people holding large stones, my heart trembles.

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?  Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.  Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:

     “For your sake we face death all day long;
      we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:31-39

Words like these make my heart tremble a bit, because it seems so daunting. But when I read these promises and others, my heart trembles at the words of God.

My heart trembles when I read the scriptures because their promise is so amazing, so life-altering.

My heart trembles with the sure knowledge that in the adventure God has set before me He will be standing beside or kneeling in the dirt beside me, no matter where God's mission takes me to.

I don’t need some politician to pass laws to protect me from persecution. My first line of defense against my persecutors isn’t a good lawyer.

When I am actively doing the things God has tasked me to do, when my heart is trembling and I feel a hand on my shoulder, I can trust that it’s not the hand of my persecutor. It’s the hand of my Savior

Psalm 119:161-168 Sin/Shin

Rulers persecute me without cause,
 but my heart trembles at your word.
I rejoice in your promise
 like one who finds great spoil.
I hate and detest falsehood
 but I love your law.
Seven times a day I praise you
 for your righteous laws.
Great peace have those who love your law,
 and nothing can make them stumble.
I wait for your salvation, Lord,
 and I follow your commands.
I obey your statutes,
 for I love them greatly.
I obey your precepts and your statutes,
 for all my ways are known to you.

Psalm 119:161-168

It's a long road.

To a young person, the road of life can seem so long there is no end. It matters little what you do right now or whether you keep your focus on the road at all. There are plenty of miles and numerous years to go before it makes a difference.

At my age, now in my 60's, the end of the road is always there ahead of me. It could be just over the next rise or around the next curve.

Or not. A year and a half ago I thought the road was going to end any moment as the blood vessels in my chest burned like they were flowing with acid and the EMTs loaded me into the ambulance.

There were so many things that came to mind in those moments, things I wished I had done better before reaching the end. So much time wasted on trivial pursuits.

And yet not once was I afraid about what comes after the end.

This is not a brag on myself. It surprised me to discover this to be true. Because even as a lifelong believer, you still wonder whether your faith will be strong at the end of the road.

I know why my faith didn't hesitate. I've spent my life allowing God to write His Word on my heart.

My parents began the process, teaching me to value God's Word above everything. As I've written before, some of the ways they and the church taught me to cling to the Bible were excessive and misguided. Some of their best efforts were misappropriated by me. But nevertheless, they started me off right, with an extremely high opinion of the Word.

That devotion to the Word has stayed with me throughout the journey. I've been a student of the Word, a debater of the Word, an experimenter with the Word, a challenger of tradition because of the Word, a counselor from the Word, a lover of the Word.

And the Word has never failed me.

Long is the road that leads me home
And longer still when I walk alone
Bitter is the thought of all that time
Spent searching for something I'll never find

Take this burden away from me
Bury it before it buries me
. . .
Steady is the hand that's come to terms
With the lessons it has had to learn
I've seen the things that I must do
But Lord, this road is meant for two
So I am waiting here for you

So take my hands and set me free
Take my burdens and bury them deep
Take this burden away from me
Bury it before
Bury it before
Bury it before it buries me

from "Cold is the Night" by the Oh Hellos

Psalm 119:160 Tethered to Truth

All your words are true;
 all your righteous laws are eternal.
Psalm 119:160

How often can you count on words to be true? In the 21st century, less often than ever.

During the past few months the facts and stories we've been told about the coronavirus pandemic have been shifting around faster than most of us can keep up. From one day to the next we watch as scientists contradict other scientists, politicians interpret the science according to whatever fits their political agenda, and the internet and social media are full of intentionally misleading and alarming pseudo-news aimed at sowing seeds of chaos and panic.

It's not new with this current crisis, though.

Increasingly over the past few years it's become common to see tweets and hear official statements from political leaders that are contradictory to verifiable fact or are the opposite of what the record shows they said previously. It's become a regular feature on Twitter and other platforms for some enterprising person to dig up a previous tweet or video clip of a politician making the exact opposite statement of "fact" or declaration of "principle" as whatever they're now saying.

But it's soon to become even more difficult to count on words being true.

arstechinca.com: Adobe demos “photoshop for audio,” lets you edit speech as easily as text

Adobe has demonstrated tech that lets you edit recorded speech so that you can alter what that person said or create an entirely new sentence from their voice. It seems inevitable that it will eventually be referred to as "photoshop but for audio."

The tech, dubbed VoCo (voice conversion), presents the user with a text box. Initially the text box shows the spoken content of the audio clip. You can then move the words around, delete fragments, or type in entirely new words. When you type in a new word, there's a small pause while the word is constructed—then you can press play and listen to the new clip.

Here's a video of the demonstration.

Thank God - literally - that we can trust in His words. All of His words are true.  And they will remain true for all eternity, no matter how much our culture is cut loose of any tether to truth.

Psalm 119:159 I Love the Book

See how I love your precepts;
 preserve my life, Lord, in accordance with your love.
Psalm 119:159

Like David, I love God's precepts.

I love the Word the way I love other books that are my favorites. My favorite books are the ones that draw me into the world of the story told in the book.

I love the westerns of Louis L'Amour, in part because they pull me into the world of the Old West. I once took a vacation with  my family to central Kansas because my wife has relatives who live there. More than once during that week I drove off into the middle of the rolling plains and sat in the middle of a field surrounded by the native tall grasses. I read one of L'Amours novels set in that part of Kansas. Reading his description of riding across the plains on a horse, part of a cattle drive, I could easily picture myself right in the middle of the action.

When I read the Bible I like to use my imagination. When I read about David tending his sheep and playing songs to God on his stringed instrument, I can picture myself doing that very thing, only with my Alvarez guitar. I can even picture tending sheep because I've chased a few of my father-in-law's sheep over the years.

But even more than imagining myself into the action, I can live out the actions recommended by the Word. When I read Psalm 119, I can imagine David is writing directly to me. I can stop in the middle of reading and let my mind organize David's thoughts into a plan of action of my own. David's life becomes my life.

Which leads into another way that I love God's precepts. I love how it provides a window for me to see God's heart. It also provides a window into how David became a man after's God's own heart. And it provides practical guidelines for how I can live a life of joy and adventure.

When I read the Word I absorb God's love for me as expressed in His precepts. His Word lights a flame deep in my heart, to empower me to live a life filled with God's glory.