Psalm 119-153-160
“Look on my affliction and deliver me, for I do not forget your law. Plead my cause and redeem me; give me life according to your promise! Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek your statutes. Great is your mercy, O Lord; give me life according to your rules. Many are my persecutors and my adversaries, but I do not swerve from your testimonies. I look at the faithless with disgust, because they do not keep your commands. Consider how I love your precepts! Give me life according to your steadfast love. The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.”
The Psalmist is not being arrogant, nor do I believe he is demanding but he is bold in going before the Supreme Judge and asking Him to consider his case. Could it be you and I often find ourselves not following God’s instructions, so we do not address the Lord in this manner. I’m not sure if the Psalmist is asking for life on earth without all this hardship from his enemies or eternal life, but I would guess both. When I ask Jesus into my life, He never promised to give me life on planet earth free of problems, but He did give me life for He became my life, now and eternally.
Verse 155, “Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek your statutes.” It is so true and so sad, for the prophet Jeremiah tells us in Jeremiah 23:23, "Am I a God who is near," declares the LORD, "And not a God far off?” As we look at verse 156, we find a time of thanksgiving, a time of reflection and acknowledgment of our Father’s compassion to His children. “Great is your mercy, O Lord; give me life according to your rules.” A life lived outside of God’s rules is dangerous, empty. Like the person who has no regard for the laws of God or man and keeps going through red lights on the highway, they are going to have a wreck.
Often, when we stand against the wicked, and I’m not just talking about those who kill and steal, but those who developed a life outside of God’s standards and rules, of independent living, and being your own authority, and having none above you. This is the sad news many of them are your neighbors, family members, friends, and yes church members, but they have fallen back into a life of independent living. They have not examined themselves as instructed in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?”
My desire, and I’m sure it is also yours, is found in 159-160, “Consider how I love your precepts! Give me life according to your steadfast love. The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.”
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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