Its my hope that this year may find you making a new resolution or two concerning spiritual things. I gave up making them for myself a few years ago. This year I think shall be different. This year I am resolving to be a better disciple maker and to proclaiming our call to disciple making at BCC.
A significant part of being a disciple and disciple maker has to be the Word of God. For today’s blog, I want to consider a few rich details from Psalm 119: 33-37:
:33 Teach me, O LORD, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end. 34 Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart. 35 Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight. 36 Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. 37 Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word.
The psalmist makes 5 important requests of God in order for him to really be prepared to take in the word of God.
The first request is for teachability. We all have hard hearts at some point or another. We might be receptive about some things, but not about everything. There is a discipline to learning, but sometimes we do come to the end of our willingness to learn. When that happens, we need God to help us keep our hearts malleable and soft.
Request number two is for understanding. Its impossible to really understand in the spiritually dead condition we are born with. And even after salvation we live with the fog produced by living and being taught all our lives by the world and its philosophy. This prayer request is a recognition that we need God to grant us insight, first to take in the word, second to understand the principle, and third on how to apply it.
Direct me in the paths (35) does an adequate job of interpreting the verb form, which is a “causative” of the verb Darak. “Cause me to walk” is the idea. The psalmist is aware of our tendency to stray even when we know the right way to go. The psalmist prays that God would check that tendency to wander: “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it...Take my heart and take and seal it…” as the song writer wrote. May God always keep us and check us from getting off the path, and then from gettting TOO far off of it!
Request four is for turning our hearts. The evidence of our own lives, and how much more even scripture, tells us that human beings are born with black hearts that are ever ready to deceive and turn us away from the truth. Lord, keeps us aware of our tendency to self excuse, and help us to put to death those black hearts! The psalmist prays for help to turn our bent hearts back toward God.
Last, “turn my eyes away from worthless things.” All too often worldly things captivate us. Its not bad to admire beauty in our world. But there are things that are like candy for our souls. They may taste sweet, but they are not things you want to live on. Many things present themselves to us in this way. They look/taste sweet, and our eyes and life turns toward them. Maybe for a few moments...not too bad. But to be captivated? We end up making our souls feast on these things, but they only leave us empty. They are worthless in the big scheme of things. The word, by contrast, is a truly filling and healthy feast for our souls. The psalmist prays that we would not dwell long on spiritual candy, but to turn back to the word which truly satisfies.
In short, this could be a prayer you say when you are ready to take in scripture:
God, may my prayer here be heard
Make me a person that’s teachable,
May your word be understandable,
May my footsteps be directable,
Make my heart bendable,
And let my eyes be statisfied by your Word
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