Psalm 119:105-112 | Nun
Psalm 119:105-112 | Nun
Milt Reynolds | Last updated: February 23, 2022
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to keep your righteous rules. I am severely afflicted; give me life, O LORD, according to your word! Accept my freewill offerings of praise, O LORD, and teach me your rules. I hold my life in my hand continually, but I do not forget your law. The wicked have laid a snare for me, but I do not stray from your precepts. Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart. I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end. - Psalm 119:105–112, ESV
The Darkness of Affliction
A light, one carried in the hand, helps only in times of darkness, whether at night, in a storm, or in shadows cast in late afternoon. It cannot illumine but only a few yards of distance, in front or behind. It cannot illumine where I must go tomorrow. It offers at best only a hint of what's to come the next day. It helps me stay on the best path, but only from moment to moment.
How can the Words of God, the Holy Bible, guide me moment by moment? How are myriad desires and decisions sorted, considered and chosen in a single day, using the light of Scripture, choice by choice? Are there rules that regulate my life hourly? Nun considers affliction to be darkness that demands light..life-threatening conditions, situations, circumstances, or conflicts that have the potential to cause loss of life, especially my spiritual life.
Give me life, O LORD! Keep your promise given me by your Word!
Are there moments daily that threaten my life? Moments under my control..."in my hand"...that demand attention to the Word of God?
Affliction may certainly be the result of "a wicked snare"...a consequence of temptation or idolatry or careless forgetfulness of all that God has said and done.
Affliction is certainly something that demands that I make a careful, intentional decision: Are the words of God...the history and song of all that God as done and declared...good reason to praise God, to regard his Word as a "joy to my heart"?
Right now, in this present darkness of my affliction is my heart inclined to lifelong, heart-deep dependence and delight in all that God has done and declared?
Give me life, O LORD! Light my path!
A Lamp To My Feet
What do I use as a lamp, besides God's Word? On what do I rely that is not from God's Word? Other people's opinions andd sales pitches?
Faced with questions of where I ought to go or do, do I obey God's Word? When I am afflicted, is it from God's Word that I seek relief? How many thin slices of time given me daily are spent in praise and careful consideration of your Word, Lord?
I continually hold my life in my hand...every moment involves a decision of some sort, even in the midst of uncontrolled circumstances. Now that this circumstance has come to me, what is my decision? What has God said that should rule my response?
The wicked take advantage of my straying from God's Word in order to trap me irreparably.
Make your Word the joy of my heart, Lord. Incline my heart to keep your Word!
"I've taken an oath and confirmed it..."
What was that oath?
- I will follow you
- I will folow what you say
From the Book of Nehemiah:
...all these now join their fellow Israelites the nobles, and bind themselves with a curse and an oath to follow the Law of God given through Moses the servant of God and to obey carefully all the commands, regulations and decrees of the LORD our Lord.
(Nehemiah 10:29, NIV)
Christ fulfilled all the commands, regulations and decrees of the LORD his God, perfectly and completely. A Christian follows Christ, who followed God's Word.
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