Psalm 119:137-144 English Standard Version

Tsadhe

137 Righteous are you, O Lord, and right are your rules.

138 You have appointed your testimonies in righteousness and in all faithfulness.

139 My zeal consumes me, because my foes forget your words.

140 Your promise is well tried, and your servant loves it.

141 I am small and despised, yet I do not forget your precepts.

142 Your righteousness is righteous forever, and your law is true.

143 Trouble and anguish have found me out, but your commandments are my delight.

144 Your testimonies are righteous forever; give me understanding that I may live.

After using two linesfrom these verses yesterday I revisited Tsadhe and read it all.

Yesterday we were discussing what we must do and why. Here in today’s offering we see truth laid out without argument. Every verse is true even if we do not have a perfect understanding of everything it involves.

Every verse speaks to me from a place of understanding because it has been lived out in my life in some way. I might not have understood it at the time but in time, by God’s Word, it now makes sense.

I cannot say this is true for everyone who reads these verses today, maybe for the first time. I trust the Lord will use this opportunity for someone. It might not be for everyone, it might not even be for two, but if it speaks to even one person, then my obedience has been well worth it.

His appointments are important, even if we should show up in the waiting room in awkward silence waiting for our name to be called. He knows us by name and He will call upon us.

Awkward silence is not the time to fill the room with the sound of your own voice.

That was how zeal once consumed me.

“The Spirit of Truth will write them in the sands of time and our time is coming when He will write them in the sand and we must walk away from those sins.”

This is in quotes because I ended yesterday’s offering with this statement.  Normally I rebel against being told I must do something. It flies against my desire for free will. At the core of choice we must have free will, so why have I contradicted myself by saying “We must”?

Acts 16:30 English Standard Version (ESV) Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

If the core of choice is free will, then some objective has to be put at risk. 

Example: “I have to be true to myself!”

I agree. Who do you choose to be?

We must walk away from sin, not because we love Jesus more than sin. We must walk away from sin because that is who we are now. We made the choice which put us on a different path than we once walked. We have already made the one choice that matters most of all. We chose to place our faith in Jesus Christ.

We live by faith and we still need to make choices, decisions, informed decisions, based on the Word of God, His promises and His plans. How well informed we are is a matter of the type of person we were and how much we have changed during our walk with Jesus.

We use words like babes, children, young, mature, wise, elder which have nothing to do with age, calling, talent, gifts, titles or beliefs. Growth in Christ is dependent on two things, God’s will and our attention to details. There is nothing we can do to change God’s will but we can pay more attention to detail.

We know that God is at work around us at all times. What He is doing is in the details. We can look at it in panoramic wonder or we can focus on the details. Grand scale is wondrous but we will discover His invitation to get involved in the details. We do not all see God’s handiwork with the same clarity. Clear vision in spiritual insight is not natural, it is developed.

Seeing an opportunity is not always an invitation to get involved. Sometimes it is nothing more than improving our spiritual insight and when we mistake it for an invitation to get involved, God’s will trains us by correction. Results of a test are not a pass/fail grade, but rather the mark upon the door frame indicating growth.

Righteous are you, O Lord, and right are your rules.You have appointed your testimonies in righteousness and in all faithfulness.