Threads from Henry's Web

Tag: heart

  • Psalm 119:129 – My Soul Keeps Them

    Psalm 119:129 – My Soul Keeps Them

    Your testimonies are wonderful,
    so my soul keeps them.

    The Revised English Bible uses “gladly keep” for “my soul keeps.” The image here is of keeping from inside, from what you are and desire. Non-formal English translations avoid the literal rendering of “my soul” in doing various things, but the idea there is “from the heart” or “from inside.” In this case the NLT uses “No wonder I obey them,” which doesn’t seem to me to quite get the intent of “my soul.”

    It’s interesting, however, that in the magnificat (Luke 1:46), the NLT does use “soul,” with “Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.” I think the idea of my soul praising the Lord comes more easily from tongue and pen to a modern writer or translator than the idea of having an inward love of the law.

    There’s another side to this. We tend to feel that it’s somehow more pious and holy to do something just because God said to do it. Similarly, we often praise children for obeying their parents without questioning. A child who hears a command, thinks about it, and then does it because they think it’s a good idea, doesn’t seem all that obedient.

    But ultimately God’s law should work out logically. That doesn’t mean we understand everything about it. It does mean that we should think about the ways in which God’s laws are wonderful. A good exercise is to take a law you accept by faith, for example, a command from your Bible, and work to present it as a good and rational thing to someone who doesn’t share your faith.

    You’re getting somewhere if you can do this without rationalization or special pleading. Ultimately, however, if we believe God’s word created the universe and ordains all those laws which provide order, we should be able to present them as a good thing. They are not just wonderful because we think they are God’s laws. They stand testimony to God by being recognizable as wonderful.

    Try looking at things you do today. Can whatever makes you do these be regarded as wonderful? Or are they a burden?

  • Psalm 119:128 – All

    Psalm 119:128 – All

    Therefore I completely keep all your precepts.
    I hate every false way.

    I think I say something about how many ways one could go in meditating on each of these verses, and I certainly could. Today I’m thinking about this line especially from a Christian perspective.

    I recall a young man coming to my door with his wife and his KJV Bible in hand, intending to convert me. It did not bother him that I was already a Christian. It was his duty to straighten out my theology in a hurry. Among the various things he told me was that the Sermon on the Mount did not apply to Christians in the “church age.” It was for the Jews and for a special transitional stage between the old covenant and the new covenant.

    Our discussion roamed through the New Testament. Passages from Hebrew Scriptures were not of importance to him. I think we spent more than an hour not communicating with one another.

    As he got up to leave he said he was worried about my salvation. “I have given you nothing but Scripture but you haven’t given me any scripture at all.” He paused. “Well, except for Matthew, and Hebrews, and James, and they don’t count.”

    Now when I read the Sermon on the Mount as recorded in Matthew, I find sentiments that fit with this passage. Not only is Jesus saying to keep all the law all the time, but he’s asking us to keep the law in our hearts. If one is angry at someone that person is guilty of murder.

    I can see why someone would want to dismiss the whole thing as applying to someone else. Big sigh of relief! It sounds pretty holy, but I don’t have to do any of it.

    We often talk and act as though the big problem with Israel was that they had too many laws or that they were too intent on keeping them. That misses the point that God gave Israel all those laws. God said they should keep all those laws. Leviticus (19:2 and other places) says to “be holy for I (the LORD) am holy.” Matthew 5 doesn’t back off from this, saying that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven, and then in 5:48 “Be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect.”

    Old Testament or new, there is nowhere in scripture where God’s plan is not a plan to create a holy people. The thing we need to catch on to, and bluntly, that I think the psalmist has 100% is this: God’s call is for completely keeping all the commandments, while at the same time, he recognizes in many other verses that it is only through God’s power that this is accomplished.

    I’m again going to refer to the last verse, sort of a spoiler! “I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek your servant….” Note that it does not say, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Your laws are too tough, give me an excuse.” He does not say, “I have gone astray, please fix the map so it records that I am on course.

    There is a glorious purpose to which God calls us all, and to which only God can bring us. We can’t attain this, but God can. And God promises to do precisely that.

    Keep your eye on the goal. All * Completely.