Psalm 119:59 – Consider

I considered my ways
and turned my feet to your testimonies.

As I translate it, this looks a bit like a mixed metaphor, but “turning my feet” is a idiom for “changing my ways.” I’ve been following more older translations. (See my post on Psalm 119:58). In this case there’s not a huge amount of difference, though I’ll note that in the second line the Peshitta uses a word for “pathways” that makes a nice synonymous parallel with “ways” in the first line. In another interesting variant, the LXX says, I considered your (God’s) ways.

What I thought of during the day, however, was this matter of considering one’s own ways (sorry LXX!). It made me think of two of my own experiences.

The first was while traveling across Virginia, south to north. I could have taken an interstate, but I chose instead to stay on back roads. I like to do this when I have time, and I had the time. Now driving time is thinking time, letting my mind wander on various subjects. I took a look at the map and figured I had my route in mind. This usually works for me if the route is not complex.

Suddenly I brought my attention back to the present, and a road sign told me I was on a road that I couldn’t recall. I pulled over and studied the maps (and the clock, for that matter) and realized I had missed a turn and had driven on for more than an hour out of my way. Given the nature of back roads, I ended up losing almost two hours. My day was relaxed enough that I could handle it, but it was quite a shock to the system.

The second was while leading a mission team to Hungary where we (or rater “they,” as in the rest of the team) ran a children’s camp. Due to odd routing and timing I missed a connection in Atlanta, and ended up on a flight several hours behind my team. It was a bit disconcerting as I had to send two team members who had gotten in that long line ahead of me on their way, and they had never been on a mission trip before.

I was several hours behind and had to get a hotel room in Budapest. I got Jody (my wife) to get the travel agent to get me a hotel near the airport and definitely on the eastern side of the city, and change my rental car reservation to Budapest rather than Debrecen, our destination. This was because the van from our hosts would have been there the morning before to pick up my team, and wouldn’t be back to get me.

The travel agent apparently had no idea where anything was in Budapest, and got me a hotel room to the north and west of the airport, well away from my route to Debrecen–east. The rental car agent uttered those fateful words, “It’s not problem! I’ll give you directions! You can’t miss it!” Off I went.

Now note that while I have studied a number of languages, at least to the point of getting directions on the road, Hungarian is not one of them. I knew about a dozen words to the level of skill that results from reading a bit from a word book. About 20 minutes later I was looking out at the Danube River from a bridge I was crossing east to west. I knew I had a problem. Two hours and about half a dozen stops for directions I arrived at the hotel.

In the first instance, I had a ready means of considering my ways. In the second, I was subject to others, and was unable to comprehend the instructions well enough to successfully consider my ways.

I was able to use that story throughout the trip. In a church in a Roma community in western Ukraine I was asked to give the children’s moment. I was also to give the sermon for the adults. I spent many hours preparing the message for the adults from 1 Peter. It was a complete flop. But I told the story of being lost in Budapest to the children, who received it was gales of laughter. I used the text “There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of it are the ways of death” (Proverbs 14:12). At each point, I told them, I headed out on a way that seemed right to me, but in each case it turned out that it was no such thing.

I found the hotel because all of a sudden I saw it as a drove by on the far side of the road. It only took another ten minutes or so to get around the block and find the hotel entrance.

At the end of the service, nobody said anything about my sermon. It was a flop. But the head elder of the church was copying the rough maze I had drawn on the chalk board as an illustration and taking notes on my text.

There is a sermon that seems right to the preacher or Bible teacher, but the end of it may be a dead end. It may not reach the folks who need a message.

The last minute, unplanned children’s message may be precisely the word that the congregation needs to hear. Young or old!

“Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it” (Psalm 127:1). Might I paraphrase it as: “Except the Lord give the message, he labors in vain that presents it”?

What “way” do you need to consider today?

(Featured image is a picture of Budapest, Hungary, a beautiful city, from Adobe Stock By Horváth Botond. Licensed. Not public domain.)