Psalm 119:12-14 God in the Grooves

When I'm on the Mizzou campus I see legions of collegians walking to and from class, listening to the music coming from their electronic appendages. Their heads bob and their stride synchronizes with the digitized rhythms.

In the "old days", when I was considerably younger, we would have called this "grooving" to the music. I suspect that may have been partly because we weren't listening to data bits but to the sound of actual grooves, cut into a vinyl (later a polycarbonate) disc.

Don't expect me to explain how a tiny spiral pathway of cut grooves and pits produces music. The science of such things has always been beyond my grasp.

What I do know is that the grooves and pits do not actually produce music. Musicians make music, with their voices, hands, and other instruments. The record or disc delivers a representation of how the sound waves from the original performance engraved physical grooves into a physical format.

That's why thousands of music-lovers will pay exorbitant prices to attend live concerts, when they can buy the record albums for considerably less. With one format, they're experiencing the actual performance, with countless variations, both rehearsed and impromptu. With the other, they're experiencing a static representation of a past performance.


The Hebrew word hok or hukka originally meant to engrave, to inscribe, to hew, to cut in. The ancient Hebrews, of course, weren't engraving vinyl or polycarbonate, but on stone.

Those words then came to also be used for a statute or decree,  no doubt because of the physical cutting required to record those decrees. The word occurs 22 times in Psalm 119.

Praise be to you, Lord; teach me your decrees (hukka). With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.

Psalm 119:12-14

Few people today will ever read the Lord's statutes in an actual engraved form, except for archaeologists or antiquities scholars. Most will read those decrees as written in ink on paper, or digitized as part of a website or app.

Whatever the format, the image of words on a page are not actually the decrees of the Lord.

God makes decrees. He establishes statutes, the verbalized expressions of His divine nature and His intentions for the people he created.

Consider the vinyl record album again. If you're old enough - or enough of an audioophile - to have experience listening to vinyl records, you know they are not perfect. There are pops and clicks among the reproduced music, caused by tiny imperfections in the cut grooves and by dust. All those carefully engraved grooves are no longer conveying the pure sounds of the original performance.

For those of you who have never heard the pops and clicks of a vinyl phonograph record, check out Vinyl Crackle FX on YouTube (you'll want to turn up the volume) or Scratched Vinyl Before & After Restoration. There are people who greatly prefer vinyl records to more modern

Now consider again the written Bible. It can also develop pops and clicks that alter the original intent of the Lord's decrees and statutes.

Some of those clicks come when good-hearted people become too focused on organizing the words and verses into a framework of teachings and doctrines to suit their own way of thinking. The result is similar to what happens when a hip-hop DJ moves a vinyl record quickly back and forth to produce rhythmic sound effects. This scratching and sampling can sound fantastic when done by a skilled DJ, but the resulting music only vaguely resembles the original performance.

Other pops and clicks occur when we study the Bible if we're not diligent to keep our minds clear of the dust of the ideas and philosophies of the world we live in. It's easy for our hearts to become so clogged with extraneous bits of post-modern culture that our spiritual ears can no longer hear the clear voice of God as represented by the words on the page.

The best reproduction of the Lord's decrees and statutes happens when we open our minds to allow Him to teach us, allow him to engrave those decrees and statutes on our hearts, and then become - through our own words and deeds - the best representation of His character.

Like the vinyl records, like the printed page, we will bear a flawed version of his statutes. We travel the one road of life from dust to dust, accumulating pops and static, quirks and defects. But if we focus on His perfection, our imperfect lives will glorify Him.

Psalm 119:11 Hiding the Word

I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you.

Psalm 119:11

Over a year ago one of my foster sons, now an adult with a family of his own, sent me this text, unexpectedly:

Thank you mom and dad for what you gave us, so long ago. Though I was lost for awhile, because of you both, my faith in God feels stronger now than ever (and growing), and I want my family to have the same relationship that you worked so hard to instill in us. We are so blessed to still have you all in our lives, and thank you. Love you both so much! 

I not only haven't deleted that text, but I've copied it into one of my Google Docs, where I keep all sorts of things I don't want to forget.

If this had been even a decade ago, the note would probably have been on paper, written in his hand. And that paper would be filed away somewhere special, perhaps between the pages of my Bible. More than once I've looked through the bible of a loved one who passed away and always discover treasured memories tucked in among the treasured scriptures.

When David says I have hidden your word in my heart, he uses a term for a treasure that is hidden away.

David didn't say, I have filed away your word in my brain, so that I might compile an encyclopedic knowledge of your Word. There's a place for studying for theology or studying for outlines. But the Word is meant to transform your heart, not just educate your mind.

He also didn't say, I've hidden your word away so I don't have to share it with anyone else or let them know how much I treasure it. The Word isn't meant to only be kept in a place of reverence, rarely opened and seldom shared. The large family bible on the coffee table or bookshelf may be beautiful with it s plush cover and gilded pages, but it's just another stack of flattened wood pulp if it's never used or shared.

The best purpose for treasuring the word in your heart is that I might not sin against you. That requires more than just storage.

Memorization is the topic usually associated with this verse, but it goes beyond that. It's not just recommending the filing words and phrases away as though your brain were a filing cabinet, but memorizing the meaning and intent of the words as well – Memorization with Meditation.

Studying and meditating on the Word is about absorbing the words, pondering their intent and implications, and actively allowing them to transform your heart.

With the Word of God in your heart, your path will be straight, your focus pure.

Psalm 119: Road Words

“A man of my acquaintance once wrote a poem called "The Road Less Traveled", describing a journey he took through the woods along a path most travelers never used. The poet found that the road less traveled was peaceful but quite lonely, and he was probably a bit nervous as he went along, because if anything happened on the road less traveled, the other travelers would be on the road more frequently traveled and so couldn't hear him as he cried for help. Sure enough, that poet is dead.”

 ― Lemony Snicket, The Slippery Slope

“Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason”

― Jerry Seinfeld

Psalm 119:9-10 Pure Direction

How can a young person stay on the path of purity?
By living according to your word.
I seek you with all my heart;
do not let me stray from your commands.

Psalm 119:9-10

David begins the second octet of his trip diary with a question nearly everyone has asked at one time or another.

How can a young person stay on the path of purity?

When we think of purity, we generally think about sexual purity. Or maybe pure thoughts and purity of our speech. Each of those is a different aspect of life where purity comes into play. But they are only the outward sign of inward purity.

Purity is single minded focus. It's about focusing on one thing, unpolluted by distractions.

Purity means not letting the uniqueness of my own way, my identity, and my interests, overwhelm the purity of God's way. There is only One Road, and it is God's road, not mine.

Jesus answered, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me." 

John 14:6

No one comes to the Father through focusing on pure doctrine -- no matter however good and beneficial proper theology may be.

No one comes to the Father through focusing on morality - although the Father certainly expects righteousness from his followers.

No one comes to the Father through focusing on politics. Or the politics of morality.

No one comes to the Father through focusing on works -- even though he has re-created us for the purpose of doing his good works.

No one comes to the Father through focusing on engaging with culture - no matter how integral that might be for effective evangelism in the 21st century.

No one comes to the Father through focusing on anything except by focusing purely on Christ.

Put his Word in your heart and treasure it. Meditate on it. Delight in it. Breathe it in deeply. Wallow around in it. Absorb it in through your pores.

By meditating on the Word you'll be getting to know the Word who is God.

The key to purity isn't found in focusing on God's commands as a list of rules, but  in God Himself. Purity comes through seeking a pure relationship with Him. David says, “I seek YOU with all my heart”

My heart seeks God’s heart. I seek to understand the heart and mind that produced His commands. I seek to line up the direction of my heart with the clear direction of His heart.

The reason police officers ask drivers to walk a straight line is because a drunk person has difficulty keeping their mind focused on the right thing. They'll either focus on the officer's directions to walk "a straight line", and thus look down at their feet and the imaginary straight line, or they'll be looking all over the place at whatever is a momentary distraction. A person in their right mind knows to just focus on something in the distance, along the path you want to walk, and just begin walking.

The pathway to purity is the pathway to God.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12

Psalm 119:9-16 Pure chance?

Sometime in the late 1950’s, the administrator of Methodist Hospital in Sioux City, Iowa, was interviewing candidates for the job of Purchasing Agent. Among the men he interviewed was a young man in his upper 20’s.

A veteran of the U.S. Navy, this fellow showed up with a greased-back pompadour atop a long and lean body as thin as a fence post. He had managed a PX in Florida during the Korean War and had parlayed that into a job in the purchasing office of the local Swift’s Meat Packing plant.

He knew nothing about hospital supplies, but Jim Dack and the young man hit it off in that interview. Like Dack, the young man had a young family. He knew from experience how caring for his own wife and pre-school sons and daughters motivated him to work hard, and suspected this young father would be equally driven to provide for his children: three boys under five, including a newborn.

The job was offered and accepted. As Jim Dack and Gale Robertson, my father, shook hands that day, the path of my life was forever changed.

Mr. Dack, as I knew him, left Sioux City for another administration job at a larger hospital in Columbia, Missouri. A year or so later, in late 1964, he found himself in need of a purchasing agent at that hospital, and called the young man who had become his good friend.

Dad moved us all to Missouri in 1965.

Have you ever thought about the decision points that forever changed the direction of your life, even before you were ever born?

I suspect I might still be a writer if I had grown up in Sioux City, Iowa. Like most writers, it seems to be something that comes from deep within me, not a choice I made consciously.

I would have grown up in the Morningside Church of Christ in Sioux City, rather than Westside Christian Church in Columbia. The Sunday School teachers and preachers who influenced me would have been different people, but would have taught me to believe similar doctrines.

Given the family in which I grew up, I would likely have chosen to go to Bible college after graduating from an Iowa high school, just as I did in Missouri. But in Missouri my family was heavily involved with Central Christian College in Moberly, Missouri. In Sioux City, the church had a close relationship with Nebraska Christian College, in Norfolk.

And that different choice of where I would go to college is where the change in my life would really accelerate. It was at Central Christian College that I was greatly influenced by one professor in particular, Wayne Kessler, who introduced me to an entirely different perspective on scripture. And I was taught by Dan Schantz, who encouraged my interest in being a writer.

And, more importantly, it was at Central that I met – and married – Karen Ward, who has been my wife ever since.

Because of her cousin, Lora Hobbs, we decided to become foster parents, a decision which would come to dominate our lives for decades. Because of my experience with the Christian Campus House at Mizzou, we quickly became involved there after we moved to Columbia. And because of that connection, we eventually wound up leading the CCH prison ministry.

None of which would ever have happened if Jim Dack and my dad had not hit it off during that job interview.

Every day we make decisions. Every decision affects our journey on the one road.

How can a young man keep his way pure?
By living according to your word.
I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.
I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
Praise be to you, O LORD; teach me your decrees.
With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth.
I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.
I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.
I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.

Psalm 119:9-16

Psalm 119:7-8 Upright Rebar

My friend Steve invited me on a mission trip to Mexico in 2007. We were taking a group of 30 college students to a town called Villa Union, where we would spend five days doing a construction project for a small congregation.

Steve told me up front that what he needed most from me was to do a lot of driving (24 hours one way), and to help corral the students and keep them on task. He knew that I wasn't going to be a big help in terms of my construction skills. He'd seen first hand why I said I would be scared for my family to live in a house I built myself.

While Steve, who had extensive experience in construction, supervised what had turned out to be two separate construction projects, he assigned me to jobs that I couldn't hardly mess up. Twisting wire. Moving rocks. Straightening rebar.

It's that last one that turned out to be the most difficult. The Mexican preacher quickly showed us how it was done, turning out three perfectly straight bars in just a couple of minutes.

A day later Steve put me together with three students who were as un-handy as I am, and told us we needed to straighten out some of the supposedly-straight rebar that looked more like a herd of snakes in motion.

I knew that Steve, who could do a job like this in his sleep, was working hard not to be impatient with us. I'd heard him grumble on more than one occasion, back in our real lives, about students who wanted to help but only made things more difficult.

But he patiently took a few minutes, which he did not have, to give us a few tips.

After he had moved on to another task, one of the students in my charge looked at Steve's retreating back and then at me, and said, "We don't know how to do this. He could do in half an hour what it's going to take us the rest of the day to do, and a lot better."

"You're right," I told the young man. "Problem is, he doesn't have time to do it. Everyone else is doing other projects. The four of us don't know how to do much of anything on this construction project, but we're the only ones available  to do this job. So let's do the best we can, even if it takes us all day."

It only took us about three hours. I kept my little team working at it until we had that pile of rebar a little bit straighter than it was when we started.

I will praise you with an upright heart 
  as I learn your righteous laws. 
I will obey your decrees; 
  do not utterly forsake me.

Psalm 119:7-8

God could fulfill his mission much more efficiently without having to use a mess-up like me. But he doesn't give up on me. He lets me learn; he lets me grow.

Developing an upright heart is a process. It's a journey through all sorts of experiences that train me in obeying God. Every step I take involves a choice of moving forward in the direction of God's way or meandering off on a path of my own making. 

But as a redeemed child of God, I begin that journey with a grace-cleaned heart. I'm not on my way to earning the title of "upright". I'm on a journey to work out what God has worked in to me.

He doesn't expect me to immediately do things as well as he would. He just expects me to do.

Psalm 119:5-6 Shame

Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees!

Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands.

Psalm 119:5-6

As a dedicated follower of Jesus, Bill knew that he should read his Bible and pray. And so he would set aside time each evening to open up the scriptures and spend time with God.

At first his young wife thought this was a wonderful idea. Bill, a former drug addict, was prone to moods, and perhaps this daily time with God would help him.

But when Bill read the Bible, all he could see, over and over again, was his sin. He compared himself with what he read and understood just how wretched a person he really was. And when he compared his wife to the Bible, he came to the same conclusions.

His nightly devotional time would turn into a nightly bout of ranting and raving, keening and moaning, frightening his wife and their infant daughter.


Another friend of ours, Nicky, was just a baby Christian, with no church background whatsoever.

She wanted to know more about the Bible, so she began to read. But she confessed to us that reading the Bible frightened her.

"I read the Bible and all I see is how much God must hate me."

That's the flip-side of the Bible. It can bless us so much, but one of the blessings is that it's also a two-edged sword, cutting right to the heart of the matter.

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

Bill and Nicky both properly saw their sin more clearly because of God's Word. We all need to be forced to acknowledge the horror of our lives.  That's the starting place for the journey toward being steadfast in obedience.

What a wretched man I am!
Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?
Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Romans 7:24-25