Psalm 119:106 – Determination
I have sworn and I will uphold it
that I will keep your righteous judgments.
Not everything in scripture is something you ought to do. Even if it’s written by a good person.
Let’s consider for a moment Jephthah’s oath as he heads off to battle with the Ammonites. You’ll find the whole story in Judges 11. He promises to offer the first creature that comes out to meet him when he comes home as a whole offering to the Lord (verse 31). When he returns, he is first met by his daughter, his only child (vv. 34-35). It is possible that you shouldn’t follow the example of this rash oath.
On the other hand, you might think a rash oath, or asking for a sign, or various similar things are always wrong. Then there’s the story of Abraham’s servant who was looking for a wife for Isaac. He asked for a sign in a way that I might question, but the Lord honored his request for that sign (Genesis 24:10-27).
Now you might think I’m preparing to say that this verse represents a bad idea that we shouldn’t follow. How can a Christian who believes in grace and rejects any form of salvation by works accept a statement such as this. Shouldn’t I be finding a way around it?
I do actually have a way around “it,” if by “it” you mean that this verse means our eternal salvation is tied to our ability to keep an oath such as this. But in this life we still live in a world in which you reap what you sow, and that’s if you’re fortunate or blessed. Frequently, you’re reaping what someone else has sown. I heard a tragic story today of a young man killed by a drunk driver. The driver sowed and the young man reaped.
Grace, and with it the love of God and the fact that God views us as his children, tells me that we remain children of God, that God loves us and is near to us when things go terribly wrong, and we remain God’s children. Grace hasn’t abrogated the law of sowing and reaping. What it has done is tell us we remain in Christ. We belong to God.
It’s a good thing to make choices. It’s a good thing to determine to do right, or just to do better than we have on something. Every morning I have a list of things I’m going to try to get done. My life right now is very unkind to schedules. I can’t really change that. So when I make a mental list of things I’m going to try to do, I know that I’m very likely not to have the time I am hoping for. But I don’t know that. So I try.
If I got up in the morning and said, “I’m going to be interrupted so many times today that I won’t get anything done, so I might as well just not bother,” I’d get much less done than I do. The determination is important, even knowing that it’s not going to be fulfilled.
Why don’t I leave some things off, so that I can feel better at the end of the day with more of my list checked off? Or maybe all checked off?
Because as soon as I take my eye off the goal, I start falling back. I determine to do what might be possible of all goes well. When reality intervenes, I recognize reality and readjust the list. Well, that’s another determination. I determine to recognize reality, and that based on interruptions, I have to adjust. Accomplishing that is hard. I want all that stuff done.
The psalmist is expressing his determination. He’s promising to do. Somewhere along the line, he, like the rest of us, likely didn’t keep up with that.
When that sort of thing happens to you, you have two options. You can pick yourself back up and keep your eyes on the prize, no matter how distant it is, or you can be discouraged and decide not to bother. You can decide to bring the goal down to your level.
The psalmist is giving an example of aiming high. He has an answer for those bad moments to. Spoiler alert! He ends the Psalm by saying he has gone astray like a lost sheep and asking God to seek him. That’s a knowledge of God’s grace.
What will you make your goal today? When life intervenes, will you remember the God who seeks you?
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