Psalm 119:17-24

 

October 12, 2022

 

Your Word Is a Lamp to My Feet

 

Gimel

Deal bountifully with your servant, that I may live and keep your word.  Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.  I am a sojourner on the earth; hide not your commandments from me!  My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times.  You rebuke the insolent, accursed ones, who wander from your commandments.  Take away from me scorn and contempt, for I have kept your testimonies.   Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes.  Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors.

 

Before we jump into the Psalmist insights, let us explore the word Gimel, the third in the Hebrew Alphabet.  I looked this up on the internet, to see the meaning of the word; God’s Growing Garden. The Psalmist is pleading with God to get rid of the bugs and weeds in his life.  As a person who enjoys the art of gardening, the bugs and weeds are a continual battle, and the enemy of your soul has put many of them in our lives to derail us from following God’s written Word.  In my ESV Study Bible, the word Gimel is titled Deal generously and to give careful consideration to the Word of God. 

 

I know of no one who is a follower of Jesus that desires anything but to be dealt with generously, do you?   But I can testify that for years as a young convert of the Lord, I did not see myself as His servant.  I believe it was based on the Baptist religion, so to keep out of trouble with God, I must have time in the morning to read a Psalm and a Proverbs.  And I did, but it ended with that and I was on to work.  It was rare that it changed my day, for it was not about applying but a rule to keep out of trouble.  It was religion, and that has little to do with building trust in the Word of God.  It sure won’t keep the weeds and bugs out of your life.  

 

When one reads the Scriptures, one needs to ask God to open their eyes to His truth, to open our eyes to the fake news that is designed to build fear into our lives or to make us trust in men, and not in God.  

 

Each day we read about someone being killed, in an accident, or by some evil person with a gun or knife, often they are young, and often it is done by someone who they do not know. Could there be many both in and out of the Church, who have no understanding of this verse?  I am a sojourner on the earth; hide not your commandments from me!    James 4:14, “Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”   It has everything to do with our relationship for none of us have any understanding of what tomorrow will bring.     

 

It is clear as we observe the actions of the people who go by the title Christian that this is not their heart's desire; Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors.  Major Ian Thomas told me as a young believer in Christ, that the Church in America (the USA) was more of a Commercial Church, many show up on Sunday morning, but it is hard to find them about God's business during the week.  The reason he made the statement was Jan and I had just returned from England, and I was telling him how dead the Church was there.  He said Young man, the Church in England is very small, but it is also very strong, not like the Church in the USA.  Once again I understood the concept of foot-in-mouth disease.

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice