Threads from Henry's Web

Category: Bible Study

  • Psalm 119:149 – Mercy and Life

    Psalm 119:149 – Mercy and Life

    Hear my voice according to your lovingkindness (hesed).
    Oh LORD, give me life according to your judgments.

    This is a very interesting verse. I think it is also challenging.

    We see two aspects of God’s grace and mercy working together here. First, the psalmist asks for mercy from God, and so should we. Listen to us as one who is merciful.

    But what is the result of this mercy? We often think mercy as the part where the authority cancels punishment or removes other negative effects of something one has done. But here mercy leads to the next part, giving life, and this life is according to God’s judgments. Those judgments call on us to be merciful. (See Hosea 6:6 in the Hebrew scriptures.) Jesus used this very concept in the beatitudes, with Matthew 5:7: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”

    But this goes back to the call of Abraham in Genesis 12, where Abraham is told that God will bless him and others will be blessed through him.

    It’s easy to get this in reverse. We like to feel that we earn things. But the starting point is receiving God’s mercy, and one of the results is that we will learn to become merciful ourselves. We can think of this as a special action by God, but I would suggest that it is built into the fabric of the universe God created. We find this as the law of sowing and reaping. If we sow mercy, we reap mercy. That is, we help create an atmosphere in which mercy rules.

    Matthew 7:1, “Judge not, that you be not judged,” should likely be read in a similar sense. Don’t sow judgment and condemnation. Sow grace and forgiveness. Do this because you have received grace, and do it because grace is a good thing, and you can spread it to others. One of the best ways for someone to learn of God’s grace is to see God’s grace working in one of God’s professed (and hopefully real) followers.

    When we cry out to God, as this section of the Psalm has been describing, God doesn’t merely waive a penalty for things we have done. Yes, God does that. But God does much more. God begins to work, according to God’s judgment, on giving us life.

    And in all this we become partners with God in creating this life and this atmosphere of mercy and caring. We’re not God’s partners because we came with something new to contribute. Rather, we can give because we received.

    I want to add something the Psalm is not addressing. Mercy and caring are not economic goods. That means they are not scarce. You can care about additional people without running out. Caring about one person doesn’t mean you have to despise another. All people, not just the ones you or I happen to like, can receive God’s mercy and God’s care. And all people should receive our care.

    Who can you have mercy on today as God has had mercy on you?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI. First try, too!)

  • Psalm 119:148 – Meditating

    Psalm 119:148 – Meditating

    My eyes stay open during the night
    to meditate on your word.

    It’s nice on the 148th day of a series of meditations to have a verse (really another verse) about meditating.

    I will mention again what I said yesterday regarding the time and circumstances. Look for the time and place you can meditate. Don’t expect that you have to duplicate what is working for someone else. If you are getting a good night’s sleep, don’t imagine that your spirituality is substandard, and hope for sleep loss in order to be more holy.

    There are some things that are important about meditating on God’s word. We often start and unfortunately also often stop with exegesis, with getting a historical understanding of the data. Knowing what various prophets or kings did in the far past is important, but it is most important as a foundation for understanding your present relationship with God and your present calling. That involves more than historical data.

    For me the time reading the Bible is important to most other aspects of my life. It is a time when I can receive new light, when I pray, when I find strength for my next task, when I can feel God’s presence.

    The history is important. We should always be anchored in what the text actually says and what it meant when first spoken. But as believers today, we need to understand the application to the moment. That often goes well beyond that historical study.

    Here are some of those things I find are important:

    1. There is no shortcut. It takes time. This is not just time to read reference works, but time to let the text sink in.
    2. It takes both extensive and intensive reading. Don’t look down on the fast reader or on the one involved with nit-picky details. Both extremes have value. Try to incorporate different ways of approaching the text.
    3. It is part of worship. Meditating on God’s word brings you closer to God.
    4. It should be corporate, i.e., the study of the Bible should not be just about your individual time and your individual view. Test your results against what others learn.
    5. It should be individual. While working with others is important, learning to hear from God yourself is also critical. Be tested by the crowd. Don’t be led by the crowd.
    6. The Bible itself is more important than commentary. Put some emphasis on reading the Bible.
    7. There is value in those who have studied before. Let them help expand your vision and understanding, but don’t let their views replace learning from the text yourself.
    8. Have time for action. When you read about helping those less fortunate or about testifying to your faith in Jesus, you need to also pause to take action.

    I love this Psalm. I’m enjoying every verse. But this set of meditations is just one approach.

    What will you learn from scripture today?

  • Psalm 119:147 – Before Dawn

    Psalm 119:147 – Before Dawn

    I got up before dawn and cried out.
    I put my hope in your words.

    I’ve said in some of these posts that there were many ways I could go, but, of course, I choose one. With today’s text, though there are doubtless a number of ways I could go, I really kept thinking of one thing: What’s with the early morning thing?

    Many people talk about their morning devotions, and emphasize prayer before you get up, and the importance of meeting God as you begin your day. This is supposed to make your day better. One of the side effects of this emphasis on morning devotions is that many who are not morning people simply decide devotions are not for them.

    Let me start with the procedure that I have used in producing these meditations. It starts in the evening, generally shortly after I go to bed. I read and begin thinking about the text I’ll write on the next evening. Then I look back at it through the day, especially if, as has happened multiple times, I actually forget which verse I’m meditating on while I’m working. In the evening I write my post on the text and schedule it to be published the next day at 7 am, at which point I will be meditating on the next one.

    Any number of times, this procedure has failed me. I’ve been so tired some evenings that I went to sleep without looking at the text first. A couple of times, I’ve forgotten until after work, and started meditating around dinner time. Once I completely failed in following my procedure, and sat down to write about the text and read it at the same time. Oddly enough, I still found a meditation, even though it was “speed meditation”!

    While I like a morning prayer time, that time is infrequently the most important time of prayer for me in the day. For me there will be various times during work. Lunch time is one of the better times for reading scripture. Prayer is more likely to come multiple times during the work day at my desk. I’m pretty sure a strong majority of my prayer time over the last 30 years has occurred at my desk at work.

    I believe the psalmist when he said he got up before dawn and cried out. I believe that was a good thing for him. But everyone approaches their day differently. The pattern we impose on our meditations can be itself a work, and a dead tradition.

    I would suggest spending some time in prayer and meditation at any time that strikes you as valuable. Then watch what happens. I have found that if I don’t take breaks during the day and do something to keep my spirit in shape, the day will go badly. I have found it doesn’t matter if I pray right at the moment I get up. Now sometimes I do, because I feel called to pray about something specific.

    No matter when you call out to God, you can apply the second half of this verse and hope in the divine words, whether on the pages of scripture or spoken to you in your heart.

    What time will you spend with God today?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:146 – Save Me

    Psalm 119:146 – Save Me

    I have called out to you! Save me!
    that I may keep your testimonies.

    We can miss the point of God saving us in two very different ways. First, we can see God’s salvation as a simple ticket out of our current situation. This applies whether we are being saved from a potentially deadly accident or ultimately from our sins. Second, we can see God’s salvation as setting us on our feet so that we can move forward and get it right ourselves.

    Neither of these gets the message. God’s call opens to us the possibility of being holy. There is no possibility outside of that. Further, God’s call puts God in the driver’s seat, making us into the people we were designed to be.

    We read about this in Romans 8:29-30:

    For those whom he foreknew, he also determined to be the same in form as the image of his son, so that he could be the firstborn of many brethren. And those he determined, he also called, and those he called, he also make righteous, and those he made righteous, he also glorified.

    As a note to those who may see my translation “determined,” rather than predestined as a more Wesleyan translation here, I think the verse itself makes it clear that we’re talking about God’s action, and by grammar, “determined” comes before “called.” Dealing with this theological detail is not within the cope of this post.

    What is within the scope is that the initial call invites entrance into a process, all of which is accomplished by God, all the way to final glory. In other words when we cry out “Save me!” we’re inviting God to take us on a complete journey. That call is the one opening to actually observe God’s law. That too comes as God’s gift.

    It’s also outside the scope of this post to discuss why we actually come to cry out in the first place. Suffice it to say I believe that even that is God’s gift, right along with our very life.

    Crying out to God is a serious thing. You’re entering a one way street, heading out on a ride to eternity.

    Are you ready for the ride?

  • Psalm 119:144 – Testimonies

    Psalm 119:144 – Testimonies

    Your testimonies are righteous forever.
    Give me understanding that I may live.

    This verse illustrates a point I’ve made a few times during this series. The psalmist does not draw clear distinctions between the various terms he uses for God’s law. There’s the overarching “Torah” or “instruction,” but it’s very difficult to differentiate functions for the different aspects of this instruction in the text. This is why I believer the psalmist is using a variety of terms both for literary value (imagine this whole psalm with one word for “law”!) but also to emphasize the broad nature of God’s law.

    This runs from historical narrative, personal experience, and instructions for specific circumstances, all the way to general ethical principles, all wound together. It’s important to understand this. Logically, we distinguish law, as such, from other things in scripture, but this Psalm is not attempting to make careful literary or logical distinctions. He’s praising God for the whole.

    In the law as conceived here we learn that God creates, judges, calls, rescues, guides, blesses, and curses. God interacts with people in many and varied ways. Much of this interaction, in fact, I would argue, the vast majority of the interaction comes in what we would call the natural order of the universe.

    We sometimes look for God in action, and when we fail to find spectacular things happening, we think God is no longer active. I recall in a class I was teaching someone asking me why God is no longer so active as in the Bible. My first reaction is to look around the room and note that we are still here. The laws of nature are still functioning. That’s God in action.

    Someone did something wonderful for me and for my family this week. It was a complete surprise. There was no apparent violation of the laws of nature, but I still believe it was a miracle, and I say this without intending to take anything away from the person who did it.

    So when we get to this verse and we see the prayer, “Give me understanding that I may live,” we see God in action, always and everywhere. “Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it.” God is, by nature, involved with everything.

    Some people wonder why we should be totally dependent on God’s grace for salvation. Let’s go back further. We’re totally dependent on God’s grace for existence. I like to call this creating grace, the realization that our very existence is a gift. So any other dependence on God is simply derivative of that initial complete dependence. You can’t pay God, because you’d be paying God out of the Divine bank account.

    There’s one other special aspect of this prayer. It’s a prayer that will be fulfilled. For Christians, I would point to James 1:5: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all generously and willingly, and it will be given.” The understanding or the wisdom is a gift that will be given.

    What might change for you today if you relied on God to answer this prayer?

  • Psalm 119:143 – Trouble!

    Psalm 119:143 – Trouble!

    Trouble and anguish have found me,
    Still I delight in your commands.

    I’m going to let a Psalm take over commentary for today.

    1 In you, LORD, I take refuge.
        Never let me be disappointed.
    2 Deliver me in your righteousness, and rescue me.
        Turn your ear to me, and save me.
    3 Be to me a rock of refuge to which I may always go.
        Give the command to save me,
        for you are my rock and my fortress.
    4 Rescue me, my God, from the hand of the wicked,
        from the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.
    5 For you are my hope, Lord GOD,
        my confidence from my youth.
    6 I have relied on you from the womb.
        You are he who took me out of my mother’s womb.
        I will always praise you.
    7 I am a marvel to many,
        but you are my strong refuge.
    8 My mouth shall be filled with your praise,
        with your honor all day long.
    9 Don’t reject me in my old age.
        Don’t forsake me when my strength fails.
    10 For my enemies talk about me.
        Those who watch for my soul conspire together,
    11   saying, “God has forsaken him.
        Pursue and take him, for no one will rescue him.”
    12 God, don’t be far from me.
        My God, hurry to help me.
    13 Let my accusers be disappointed and consumed.
        Let those who want to harm me be covered with disgrace and scorn.
    14 But I will always hope,
        and will add to all of your praise    .
    15 My mouth will tell about your righteousness,
        and of your salvation all day,
        though I don’t know its full measure.
    16 I will come with the mighty acts of the Lord GOD
        I will make mention of your righteousness, even of yours alone.
    17 God, you have taught me from my youth.
        Until now, I have declared your wondrous works.
    18 Yes, even when I am old and gray-haired, God, don’t forsake me,
        until I have declared your strength to the next generation,
        your might to everyone who is to come.
    19 God, your righteousness also reaches to the heavens.
        You have done great things.
        God, who is like you?
    20 You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles,
        you will let me live.
        You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.
    21 Increase my honor
        and comfort me again.
    22 I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, my God.
        I sing praises to you with the lyre, Holy One of Israel.
    23 My lips shall shout for joy!
        My soul, which you have redeemed, sings praises to you!
    24 My tongue will also talk about your righteousness all day long,
        for they are disappointed, and they are confounded,
        who want to harm me.

    Psalm 71, World English Bible, slightly modified by me.
  • Psalm 119:142 – Eternal

    Psalm 119:142 – Eternal

    Your righteousness is right forever,
    and your instruction is reliable.

    I commonly use the phrase “God’s eternal law” in discussing the absolute, eternal, immutable law of God. This is what defines who God is and the purpose of the universe, and is not subject to our perspective. That is to say, objective law. God’s law which is forever, in the words of this verse.

    Our problem is that we cannot really comprehend eternal things, nor can we truly comprehend things objectively. There is always an element of our own experience in what we do. It is a statement of faith when we claim that God’s law is, in fact eternal.

    Each individual law contained in scripture, or expressed in any other way is a derivative of God’s eternal law. A particular expression of God’s law is never the same as God’s eternal law, though it derives its authority from that eternal law. Just as I understand God as without beginning or end, and as trinity, things which are not empirically observable, so I understand God’s law as eternal, again something which cannot be objectively demonstrated.

    Growing up, I regularly heard the ten commandments described as God’s eternal law. This was to be distinguished from various other laws, largely ceremonial, in Torah, which are temporary. (Note that this is growing up in a Christian, Seventh-day Adventist home. This is not the understanding of Judaism.)

    The problem here is that Torah itself does not make this particular distinction. All of the laws given by God are binding. They may be binding at different times, on different people, and under different circumstances, but they remain divine law.

    I maintain that all expressions of law that we can receive an understand relate to particular times and circumstances. Some are much more eternal and broadly applicable than others. All derive from God’s eternal law. None are, themselves, eternal in form and expression.

    I’m going to embed two videos here that come from my series on Paul from some years ago. The first begins a discussion of reading about law in scripture.

    The second follows up with more detail.

    Now there are a few sessions between these two, so if you are very determined, you can view the playlist.

    But now we jump to the second half of the verse. “Eternal” is daunting and impossible to reach. Sometimes we have a tendency to dismiss the things we cannot fully understand. But with this statement we get the other side. We can rely on God’s instruction. We may not be able to fully comprehend the source, but we can rely on what we have.

    In real life we learn to accept what works. We get on airplanes and travel without having a full conception of how that aircraft works. We don’t often think about it, but that aircraft is also not perfectly made. It would be hard to even conceive of what perfect means. Every part is tested, not to some absolute perfection, but rather to certain tolerances. We live with this sort of thing every day.

    One way to discover that you can rely on certain things as a way to live is simply to try them. Taste and see that God is good. Try it. Don’t get shaken by what you can’t understand. You can understand enough.

    Take the challenge to adventure with an incomprehensibly great God!

  • Psalm 119:141 – Despised

    Psalm 119:141 – Despised

    Though I am small and despised,
    I do not forget your precepts.

    There are two times when it is difficult to stay on the right track: When things are going well and people are praising you, and when things are going badly, and people look down on you. Either of these can make you turn away from the right path.

    Well, then there’s the third option, which is that things are going moderately well. Well enough for you to be comfortable, but not so well that people are coming and praising you. Then there’s a major temptation to apathy, to contentment with things being not so bad.

    In real life, we may be confronted with any of these situations. We can find that ridicule prevents us from doing what is right or speaking of what is right. Or when things are going well, we find pride taking over, and we start to think too well of ourselves, and often speaking too highly of ourselves to others.

    Then there is the way that is simple, but very hard. That is to think of ourselves as we ought to. Paul speaks about this in Romans 12:3 —

    I tell all among you through the grace that has been given to me that you shouldn’t think of yourselves as better than you are, but you should think of yourselves properly {or wisely}, each according to the wisdom God has measured out to them.

    This verse doesn’t tell you that you should always think of yourself poorly. You don’t have to say that you are small and despised as did the psalmist. It’s likely you’ll feel that way sometimes, but that’s not some type of “holy” goal. Nor should you consider yourself more important than others. Rather, you’re supposed to think of yourself as you really are, as God sees you.

    This invites a change of vision, a change of perspective. And the psalmist tells us where we need to be. We need to be looking at what is right. He speaks of God’s precepts, as he has elsewhere spoken of God’s word, God’s testimonies, God’s statues, God’s judgments, and God’s commands.

    That’s all the long version of saying, “What’s right.”

    That is often our problem. We aren’t concerned with what’s right, but rather with what other people think of us. That is never a good place to be. Sometimes the person whose opinion matters to you is himself out of sync with what is right, and may be despising you for the things you won’t do in order to get ahead.

    How are you going to look at yourself today?

  • Psalm 119:140

    Psalm 119:140

    You’re word is thoroughly tested.
    Your servant loves it.

    Several translations use “promise” rather than “word” here. There is some reason to do that, but in this case I like “word” as having a broader meaning that includes “promise.”

    In what way is God’s word thoroughly tested? We talk about being sure of God’s word, of it being true, of God being faithful, but what drives us to believe that?

    This is a case where experience is very important. Many people play down experience as less reliable than scripture, and in one important way it is. The reason your experience is less reliable than scripture is that it has not had the same testing that God’s word given in scripture has.

    Scripture is a recounting of the experience of lots of people with God. Even when scripture records a specific statement with “the Lord says this,” that is an experience of God. If you don’t think hearing from God is an experience, then I hope you’ll have a chance to experience it. If you don’t remember such an experience, read that of some of the prophets, such as Ezekiel 1 or Isaiah 6.

    So if you have an experience of hearing from God, what’s the difference? The difference is testing. God’s word in scripture has been testing over the centuries over and over again and we have found it secure. We’re not questioning this any more. It has become the experience against which you can test your everyday experience for validity.

    I personally believe that God can still speak today. How will you know if that happens? There are many things I could mention, but the key one is this: Read that tested word in scripture and become so familiar with with it that you know God’s voice beyond doubt.

    Try listening for God’s voice today. Remember to check out the tested word as well!

    (Featured image generated by Adobe Firefly using a prompt created by Gemini AI. Yes, I’m experimenting.)

  • Psalm 119:139 – Zeal

    Psalm 119:139 – Zeal

    I am overcome by my zeal,
    because my enemies have forgotten your word.

    What exactly makes you angry about another person?

    Few of us can claim that we have not been provoked to anger by something about another person. The question is whether or not the cause of our anger is valid. But, you say, we’re talking about zeal. True, but more precisely we’re talking about an emotion regarding other people that is overwhelming.

    So let’s use “zeal,” as I did in the translation. What gets you feeling zealous? What gets you to take action about something?

    And that’s where we can join the Psalmist. For him, what gets him going is that there are people out there who have forgotten God’s word. I wonder what he did about it.

    Often we speak against anger (or sometimes any emotion) as though the emotion itself is bad. I don’t think this is right. I’ll note that when Jesus spoke against anger, it was against anger at your brother that could lead you to doing harm.

    I can get very angry, but my most common approach to interaction is reconciliation. I want to get people talking to one another, or having a dialogue with me, with the hope that we’ll work out some good solution to our problems. I may want to convince them of the (obviously excellent!!!) approaches that I absolutely know are right. Even so, I generally want a solution reached through dialog. One of the things that bothers me most is that so many times people just won’t talk. Either they’ve talked too long already, or the other person is too far off the map for them to engage with.

    And I admit that there are times when these people are right. I have the experience of wasting time talking with people and trying to create meetings and discussions to bring reconciliation when the parties simply weren’t sincerely interested in a peaceful or friendly solution.

    I don’t entirely like the word “balance,” but there is a balance needed here. Or perhaps an integration. Strong emotions exist for a reason. We need to get angry in order to bring ourselves to action. When there is injustice, when people are being hurt, when people’s lives are destroyed, we need to be angry. And if we consider the law as I discussed it a few days ago, as summed up by loving one another, then when we see people hurting others, our zeal should overcome us, because they have forgotten God’s word.

    On the other hand, we find it much easier to get angry at the other people because they annoy us and not because they have forgotten God’s law. Then we like to pretend tat we’re angry about their failure to serve God properly, while it’s really just that they rub us the wrong way.

    What should you be angry about today?