PSALMS 119
ZAIN
February 9, 2006
Psa 119:49 KJV Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.
There is such a Word as comes to all of us at certain times in our lives that causes us to hope in God’s purpose. There is such a Word that causes us to challenge the high waters of the sea to bring God’s ship to port. There is such a Word that compels us to leave the comforts of Ur and of Egypt (Gen 12:1; Heb 11:27)) to walk paths unknown for the sole purpose of following and honoring the God that created and called us to a greater purpose.
At times, when the road is long and hard, we tend to forget this Word that has caused us to hope. We tend to want to return to the comfort of Ur and Egypt. We lose sight of the heavenly vision, of the goal that propelled us to endanger life and limb for the ideal of God.
At such times my friend, as the proverbial pilgrim, look into the book of Promises. Inspire and encourage yourself with the stories of old, of how God supplied for His children on the road to Canaan. Remember how He honored those who did not trust in the uncertain riches of mammon, but put their confidence in Him who owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psa 50:10). The book of Promises will renew your vision as you read of those who did not trust in their own arm for salvation, but totally and fully trusted in the Lord their God who had sent them.
Is God dead? What He has done in the past, can He do today? Oh, my friend, He is more alive today that ever. Dare to trust Him, dare to challenge Him to keep His promises and you will see Him “as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and”, rejoicing “as a strong man to run a race” (Psa 19:5), ready at any moment to impress you his beloved bride with the power of His might, and the bounty of His wealth.
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
(Heb 12:1-2 KJV)
February 10, 2006
(Psa 119:50 KJV) This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.
These are some of David’s afflictions. He had to repent from his love affair with Bath-Sheba. He lost his first son and had a loathsome disease. His daughter was raped by his son who was in turn murdered by his other son, in front of whom, he had to flee Jerusalem in disgrace. In the midst of all this, and without the help of modern psychology or of mood-altering drugs, he had to run his kingdom and fight surrounding enemies.
David, the young man who protected the house of Israel against its enemies with the same integrity and courage as when he protected his father’s sheep came to a time when he lost the innocent child-like faith he inherited from his father and indulged in disobedience. The consequential results of his actions drove him to the limits of his heart’s endurance. This “limit”, is where he found his God in a new and mature way. He had learned the age-old lesson, “when all you have left is God, you suddenly realize that God is enough”; and “when all you’ve got left to stand on is the Word, you realized then that the Word is enough.”
When he was discouraged and weary of the battle, it is when he heard the small voice of the Lord that the prophet Elijah was renewed (1 Kings 19:12-13). When after fasting for forty days and forty nights, Jesus, in His physically weakened state has a face-to-face confrontation with Satan, it is the Word that gives Jesus the strength to withstand him (Mat 4:1-11).
Are you afflicted? Are you depressed? Are you sad? The same Word that “quickened” King David will also “quicken” you. His Word is His gift to you, His gift of power, strength and comfort.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
(Col 3:16 KJV)
February 11, 2006
(Psa 119:51 KJV) The proud have had me greatly in derision: yet have I not declined from thy law.
The proud, the ungodly, those who in spite of their insignificance think they are masters of their fate; those who refuse to see the ways of God in the world or in their lives always deride the Godly and the ones who acknowledge their need for dependence on their LORD. They will unleash their cruel mockeries as a weapon to lash our hearts; they will torture our souls to blackmail us into surrender to their humanist cynicism. Misery loves company and the goal is to get us to join them in their hell-pit.
Have you felt it, have you heard it in the songs, in the movies? Have you read it in the schoolbooks, in the magazines? They will even disguise themselves with light to better deceive you into being swayed by their evil propaganda.
This, friend, is the world of today. This is the world we live in--a world where, more than ever before, faith in the God of the universe is under the attacks by the father of lies. Our only safety, our only sanity, the only way we will not “decline” is to stay filled with His Words. We need not to fight the lies, the mockery, and the derision. This is what he would have us do, leave our secure position to fight him against whom really we have no strength. Our only hope is to stay fastened to the Word of Light as our eternal refuge.
2Pe 3:3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
Pro 18:10 The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.
February 12, 2006
(Psa 119:52 KJV) I remembered thy judgments of old, O LORD; and have comforted myself.
As we go through each day of our life, it is easy for things to get out of perspective to the point that we can’t see the forest for the trees. We can get so wrapped up solving the little problems of each day that we lose focus of the “big picture”--the spiritual perspective. This is a wicked plot devised by the enemy so that all we then see is the continual pouring out of our own effort, while we forget that the Lord is the one actually doing it all.
If we would sometimes pause from our feverish activities; if we would but take the time to look back while in prayer, we would suddenly see all the ways in which the LORD is doing all the work for us. We would get excited in seeing Him work, sending the impossible manna in the desert so that all we have left to do is gather His many blessings.
Today, if you feel distressed and overwhelmed; if you feel that you are left alone having no one to turn to, take the time to count your blessings; play the “glad” and see all the ways in which our gentle LORD has been with you, and this will His gift of comfort for you.
His gift is not that He doesn’t let bad things happen to us, but that he is always with us when they do!
O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.
(Psa 42:6 KJV)
February 13, 2006
(Psa 119:53 KJV) Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.
Today, the ungodly, the rebellious, the proud laugh at the idea that one day they will have to account for their actions. Those who defiantly refuse the atoning payment of sin as provided by the mercy of God through Jesus-Christ’s sacrifice have no clue of what awaits them. For as high as heaven is, so deep is hell; as beautiful His Kingdom is, so ugly is hell; as agreeable the scent of the kingdom of God, so suffocating the stench from the abyss.
This is the horror that should take us “because of the wicked”, the horror that awaits those who, when the day is done, may not be found in the Book of Life (Rev 20:15). Today, they defiantly spread themselves like the “green bay tree” (Psa 37:35), they rage and imagine a vain thing (Psa 2:1), but “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure”. Psa 2: 4-5
Do you know someone in such a case? Do you have a friend, a relative who has not yet come to the breaking point of repentance? Has horror taken you at the thought of what will happen to your kin and acquaintances if when all is said and done they do not find Jesus? But also, has “horror” taken you at the thought of facing the Lord with the knowledge that because you knew that person, you were partly responsible to show them the way?
You cannot push it, it is a work of God, but you can pray like everything depended on prayer (because everything DOES depend on prayer), and be a partner of concern with God who always answers the “effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man” (Jam 5:16). And along with your prayer, you can also be the sample that will draw them into the fold.
Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.
(Eze 3:17-19 KJV)
February 14, 2006
Psa 119:54 KJV Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.
When the children of Judah where exiled in Babylon, people came to them wanting to hear one the songs of Zion. They wanted to know about the place that God had so miraculously given to His Children. Eventually, it pained them to do it because, even though the rebuilding of the Temple and the restoration of the city was prophesied in their books, it reminded them so much of Jerusalem which laid in ruins (Ps 137).
During our exile on this earth, Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us so eventually we would be there with Him (Joh 14:3), and this place, my friend, doesn’t lay in ruins. It is the New Jerusalem, which is described for in many details (Rev 21-22). We need to look forward to it with the joy that fills the pilgrim who has finally attained his goal, encouraging and reminding ourselves us of its sweetness and safety by singing its songs. Hopefully, someone will then come along and ask us to “sing” one of the songs of Zion that tells them about the beautiful place God has prepared for them that love Him.
We are in this world for only a short time as pilgrims and strangers. Let’s remind ourselves with pride of where we are from and where we are headed, knowing that God’s Kingdom is much better than any of the kingdoms of this world. It won’t be long now; someday soon, our soul will leave this earth-bound clod to reside in its eternal home.
What songs do you sing during this pilgrimage on earth? Are they the songs that bring the Spirit of God down so people want to know more about the Kingdom of God, or songs that glorify the decadent world of man?
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
(Eph 5:19 KJV)
February 15, 2006
Psa 119:55-56 KJV I have remembered thy name, O LORD, in the night, and have kept thy law. (56) This I had, because I kept thy precepts.
It is easy to claim trust in the Lord when in the light, when everything goes well. The difficult thing is to trust Him when in the dark of night, when everything goes wrong. But God sometimes puts us in the dark to prove to us that He is light, and all a shadow proves is the presence of the sun somewhere!
At times darkness in our lives can be so thick that it feels you can cut it with a knife, but in the same way that His grace much more abounds in sin, a candle will shine brighter and brighter as the darkness grows deep. During such times, we are often tempted to stray, but if in the deep of night, we remember the LORD, He will be that candle that will light the path for you to help you keep His Law with integrity.
You cannot chase the darkness of night on your own; all you can do is turn on the light, the light of His name, and the darkness will flee away on its own.
Never doubt in the dark what God has spoken in the light. He has promised that He will be with thee and never forsake thee; that He will carry you so that you would dash you foot against a stone. Remember His Name and His promises when in the dark and He shall be more to you than a light and better than a known way.
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
(Heb 12:2-4 KJV)
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