Threads from Henry's Web

Tag: God’s Word

  • Psalm 119:74 – Wait

    Psalm 119:74 – Wait

    Those who fear you see me and rejoice,
    Because I wait for your word.

    Again, there are a number of ways to translate, especially the verb tenses. In a poetic form, that is challenging. I see this as a continuous state rather than a prediction. Those who see the psalmist rejoice, precisely because he is awaiting God’s word.

    We could discuss the value of recognizing God’s work in the lives of others. That is one of the things that helps create community. We recognize God’s grace in action and it’s time to rejoice.

    But the word that caught most of my attention today is the word “wait.” It can be translated “hope” as well as “wait.” We don’t like the word “wait” and even “hope” can be a problem when we remember that if we’re hoping, we don’t have it yet! And we’re back to “wait,” which we don’t like.

    But waiting is critical. Timing can be important and if you don’t learn to wait, you are likely to miss many things. You can miss something as easily by rushing and being too early as by being too late.

    And what is the psalmist waiting for? God’s word.

    With waiting there is listening, listening for God’s word. This can come to you in so many different ways. I recall once that I had been trying to make a decision. The situation was one were right and wrong seemed ambiguous. I was talking with a friend asking for prayer and advice, and as we were praying and talking about it, suddenly something became very clear.

    Did I hear a voice? No.

    Were there words written on tablets of stone? No.

    Did I have a vision? No.

    I believe God can speak in all of those ways. God has spoken in all those ways. But the “word of God” that I received after waiting that time was simply the sudden understanding of what was the right thing to do. In a flash I knew that one of the courses of action I was considering could not be carried out ethically, so there was really only one choice.

    Can you wait for that knowledge of what God’s word says about any situation?

    Here are some helpful books I publish on this topic

    When People Speak for God
    God Still Speaks
    The Power of Obedience
  • Psalm 119:42 – Whose Word Counts Most?

    Psalm 119:42 – Whose Word Counts Most?

    Now I can return my taunter a word,
    For I trust in your word.

    The lesson here is both simple and profound. Some of my background thoughts on it are in my post on Psalm 119:38.

    In Hebrew poetry, making a thought parallel by using synonyms is common, as for example in Psalm 119:30, “I have chosen faithfulness as my path. / I’m in place with your judgments. God’s faithfulness and judgments are placed in parallel in the verse. These words are not full synonyms, but they have overlapping semantic ranges, and combine to point us to some of God’s acts, and two aspects of them. Words may also be antonyms, providing a contrast or a more complete picture (what it is, what is opposed to it, or what it is and what it is not).

    This verse stands out because the same Hebrew word for “word” is used in both halves. To paraphrase: “I have a word in response to taunts, because my word comes from your word.”

    Let me point out a New Testament parallel to this thought. In the temptations of Jesus (Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13) we find Jesus needing a word to respond to a taunter, in this case the taunter. Where does the response come from? From God’s word.

    Don’t limit this to quoting scripture. Filling your mind with scripture is good. But filling your mind with truth in all ways at all times is even better. Let your normal life parallel scripture. One thing I noted when studying other ancient near eastern literature as compared to the Bible was the fact that the Bible is perfectly willing to be critical of those in power. There’s no whitewash of God’s friends. They’re presented as they are.

    I was struck by this while listening to 2 Kings 15 in Audible the line in verse 5, “David did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and did not turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.” This is stated in the middle of a passage comparing the disobedience of King Abijam. That’s being honest about those in power, even when it would be more convenient to omit some things.

    How can you honestly reflect God’s word to others?

    (Featured image from Adobe Stock by Munali. Licensed. Not public domain.)

  • Psalm 119:24

    Psalm 119:24

    Your testimonies are also my delight,
    My counselors [the men of my counsel].

    I like to say that we tend to go to the Bible for information, while God is there for conversation. I don’t mean that there is no information there. We tend to think in binary terms: Either the Bible is a source of data, or it tells stories. So many sorts of both information and conversation fall through the cracks when we think of it this way.

    I recall one gentleman at a church I attended who told us we should think of the Bible as something like the Boy Scouts Manual. I told him I thought that anyone who considered those two books to be similar must not have actually read either.

    There are certainly rules and procedures in the Bible. But the stories that surround those are even more important. For example, as Christians we don’t carry out the rituals of the tabernacle and temple service as outlined in Torah. But those rituals still have things to teach us, as do the stories in which they are embedded.

    As I was thinking about writing this meditation, I was reading some notes about a library and how one can be drawn into stories and worlds that are new, distant or even imaginary, and how those experiences found in the pages of books can enrich our lives.

    I long to help people find in the Bible a library of places distant and even just imagined, with that hope that imagined worlds may be more real than the ones that boring people assure us are “reality.” I would like to see us find that “reality” is more flexible and adjustable than even we can imagine if we just join the conversation that God has for us instead of just looking for answers for our rather ignorant and limited questions.

    I’d like to see people (including myself!) more and more find in scripture the real questions, the important questions, the ones that engage our minds more fully.

    The psalmist delights in the testimonies, but instead of calling them a rule book from which he learns a list of commands, he calls them counselors. To him they are alive and active (Hebrews 4:12). They are powerful.

    And this is not limited to the words contained in the book we call the Bible or scripture. God’s mind is displayed in the entire universe, and we can discover not final answers, but questions beyond any imagining.

    We might consider that our problem with God’s law isn’t, or isn’t just, an inability to do everything we are told to do absolutely correctly. It might be more that we can’t even grasp what it is.

    I think we’re invited on an infinite journey of learning and discovery. It’s not God who puts the limits on it. It’s our lack of imagination, especially of the ability to imagine a landscape completely outside of our current scope.

    Do you hear God calling you to glory?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:20 – Languishing

    Psalm 119:20 – Languishing

    I [my soul] languish for longing
    for your judgments.

    What do you really want? What is your deepest desire? What is missing that makes you weary?

    As I write this, I’m very tired. I’ve been busy with many things and am only writing because I committed myself to write as a spiritual discipline. This is the 20th of 176 days. That’s early to be tired.

    And then I think, This is the verse. I’m languishing. But am I languishing for God’s Word?

    I’m reminded of Isaiah 55:

    Come for water, all who are thirsty;
    though you have no money,
    come, buy grain and eat;
    come, buy wine and milk,
    not for money, not for a price.
    Why spend your money for what is not food,
    your earnings on what fails to satisfy?
    Listen to me, and you will fare well,
    you will enjoy the fat of the land.
    Come to me and listen to my words,
    hear me and you will have life.

    Isaiah 55:1-3a (REB)

    We pursue so many things in this life, and more often than not we find dissatisfaction. We work and are weary, and live lives of hidden despair.

    Perhaps it’s time to think about what will really satisfy.

    Will you? Will I?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:16 – Ways to Forget

    Psalm 119:16 – Ways to Forget

    In your statutes I delight.
    I will not forget your word.

    If this were not poetry, I might be tempted to talk about the rather optimistic promise of not forgetting God’s word. But then I remember how many times I have said, “I’m not going to forget that” in reference to some planned task or another. Most of the time I forget, but if I never make a conscious effort to remember, forgetting becomes 100%.

    So I got to thinking about different ways to forget God’s word.

    Having memorized large portions of it (not voluntarily) when I was younger, I could say that forgetting God’s word was like forgetting the words I had memorized. That would be literally forgetting, and I have certainly done plenty of that.

    But let’s consider some other ways of forgetting:

    • We can forget the creator when we look at creation.
    • We can forget to consult God’s word when it is applicable to our decision making
    • We can forget that God’s word comes in many ways, and that God’s truth is always applicable, however delivered!
    • We can forget God’s promises
    • We can forget what God has done in our lives in the past
    • We can forget the history of God’s actions in our families.

    How do you forget? Is it time to revive a memory?

  • Psalm 119:11 – The Word in My Heart

    Psalm 119:11 – The Word in My Heart

    In my heart have I hidden your Word,
    That I might not sin against you.

    I was introduced to Psalm 119 in elementary school. I had read a fair amount of Bible before that time, but hadn’t read it through. I went to a small Christian school where Bible memorization was a key component.

    We memorized various verses, chapters, and larger sections, such as the Sermon on the Mount, or a lengthy chapter such as Luke 2. And we memorized Psalm 119, all 176 verses of it.

    People have asked me what I thought about that part of my education. Was all that memorization worth it? Didn’t I resent it? I would add that we didn’t just learn the words, and we were not allowed to stumble through our recitation. Our recitation had to be perfect. We had to be able to write the passage perfectly including punctuation.

    I was so steeped in the language of the King James Version that during my first year in college I acquired the nickname “Therefore.”

    Now there are many ways of approaching Bible study. I’m reminded of the story of Dwight L. Moody, approached by a woman who disapproved of his method of evangelism. He asked her how she did it, to which she replied that she didn’t. His response? “I like my method of doing it better than your method of not doing it.”

    I feel the same way about criticism of someone’s way of doing Bible study. If you’re doing it, encourage others, suggest helpful approaches, but don’t be a critic. Would I run a school in the same way? No. But I don’t regret a moment of my Bible memorization there. I’m delighted to be able to find so many passages quickly because I hid them in my heart when I was young. Even though it wasn’t by my choice!

    What’s your way of hiding God’s Word in your heart?