Psalm 119:9-16 (NRSV)
How can young people keep their way
pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
With my whole heart I seek you;
do not let me stray from your commandments.
I treasure your word in my heart,
so that I may not sin against you.
Blessed are you, O Lord;
teach me your statutes.
With my lips I declare
all the ordinances of your mouth.
I delight in the way of your
decrees
as much as in all riches.
I will meditate on your precepts,
and fix my eyes on your ways.
I will delight in your statutes;
I will not forget your word.
We live in a time when it is difficult to live a life of
purity.
Our world seems to glorify
immorality.
Our world seems to applaud and often
even reward bad behavior.
To see this all you need do is look at the movies and TV
shows that dominate our airwaves --- Heck, all you really need to do is watch
the news.
(I could use examples of many
current politicians on both side of the aisle (Local and national) but if I did
no one would listen after this --- they would either hi-five me or scream
bloody murder.)
We live in a time that it seems to be increasingly difficult
to strive to live a life that is God centered.
I have no desire to bash the evils of our society this
morning,
We have a hard time agreeing what
constitutes societal ills and how to solve them
My intention this morning is to help us learn how we might begin
to live a life that is centered in the way of God
Psalm 119 is the longest Psalm in our Bible
But it is also rather unique because it was constructed in a
very deliberate way --- a way that we often don't recognize in our translations.
There are 176 verses in Psalm 119 and it is divided into 22
sections of 8 verses each.
And what is fascinating each
section begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and each verse
in the section begins with that letter.
So since we are looking at the second section --- each word
(in the Hebrew) begins with the Hebrew letter Bet.
We
unfortunately lose this interesting acrostic Psalm in our English translations
I encouraged you to read the entire Psalm --- because every
verse (with the exception of verses 1-3 and 115 are directly addressed to God.
So as you
read this Psalm, you find yourself drawn into something profound
In many ways this Psalm becomes a love song --- drawing us
into a deep intimacy with God.
The whole point of this Psalm is to draw closer to God
through following the way of Torah --- the teachings of God's law.
This section begins with verse 9
How can young
people keep their way pure?
I love that question.
My hunch is that the author is writing about himself and asking this
important question.
How exactly is a young person to
navigate the multiple distractions and the overwhelming siren songs of our
world so that they can live with integrity?
As a person who is no longer young --- I am usually happy to
fill in the blanks and tell the young person what they must do.
Not that I think that I should have to do those things ---
mind you . . .
But I have
the answers to what they should do . . .
But our passage this morning gives us the real answer
How can young
people keep their way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
By guarding it according to your word.
I think Peterson in the Message really makes
it obvious:
How can a young
person live a clean life?
By carefully reading the map of your Word.
By carefully reading the map of your Word.
When you read the scholars as they dissect this passage they
have two primary ways of looking at the author.
First, he is asking this question in a rather pious self
righteous way --- looking at all the sinners around him.
But what if we have here --- not the testimony of a
sanctimonious young man but rather the cry of someone who is trying to right
themselves after some terrible mess that they have created in their life.
Is it possible that our author knows full well that the only
way to real happiness is following the way of God ---
but his life has come off the rails
and now is longing to return to the way of faithfulness to God?
I read this section of Psalm 119 and the story of the
Prodigal Son in Luke's Gospel comes immediately to mind.
Can you imagine our author saying:
How do I cope
with my sense of shame?
How do I stop
punishing myself?
How do I let
go of the memories that are a nightmare to me?
How do I
forgive myself?
Patrick Woodhouse writes:
"This whole eight-verse
section can be re-imagined as words of repentance from the prodigal son to his
father, whose words of welcome he has 'hidden in his heart,' and in whose 'way'
he takes 'greater delight' that in all the 'riches' he squandered in that far
country.
Such interpretation makes sense in
the context of an ancient Jewish world where the religious path was universally
valued.
But what of our world?"
While the author asks about young people --- I think the
question for today is:
How do any of
us navigate this world of ours and live with integrity?
I saw a commercial the other day for a new TV show --- maybe
it can help us to live the way of God.
The show is called Living
Biblically and is based on A. J. Jacobs' 2007 best selling book, The Year of Living Biblically.
The premise of the show is:
After the death of his best friend,
film reviewer and dad-to-be Chip Curry tries to turn his life around. When he
accidentally purchases a copy of the Bible, he decides to live by it "to
the letter" much to the confusion of his non-believing wife Leslie and the
bemusement of his priest, Father Gene.
I have to admit to you that I read
the book a few years ago and my recollection is that it isn't going to help us
much.
It will probably make a better TV
sitcom than offer us real tools for living God's way.
In 2012 Rachel Held Evans wrote A Year of Biblical Womanhood, the description of the book says:
Strong-willed and independent,
Rachel Held Evans couldn't sew a button on a blouse before she embarked on a
radical life experiment--a year of biblical womanhood. Intrigued by the
traditionalist resurgence that led many of her friends to abandon their careers
to assume traditional gender roles in the home, Evans decides to try it for
herself, vowing to take all of the Bible's instructions for women as literally
as possible for a year.
It didn't work too well for her either . . .
Maybe we need to look in a different direction
I invite you
to look with me what the Psalmist suggests.
He starts in v 10
With my whole heart I seek you;
The Psalmist suggests that if we want to live in the way of
God that the first step is to seek God.
We must have a desire to get to know God
v. 11
I treasure
your word in my heart,
This morning we are giving Bibles to our 2nd and 3rd grade
children.
We want our young people to treasure God's word --- but do
we model reading our Bible to them?
Do they see you "treasuring" it
If we want to follow God's Way, the only way to do it is by
getting to know God
v. 15
I will meditate on your precepts,
and fix my eyes on
your ways.
Matt has been leading a study on prayer and meditation.
Are we
willing to take the time necessary to meditate on God and God's way?
And finally the author says:
v. 16
I will delight in your statutes;
I will not forget
your word.
Are we willing to become obedient to what God is trying to
teach us?
And I don't personally think that means that we need to make
a list of the 613 laws of the Hebrew Bible and try not to break them
Most of those laws are outdated and frankly irrelevant today
But are we willing to listen and learn what it means to be a
follower of Jesus on his Way?
I came across a wonderful story about a young woman who
really wanted to go to college.
But as she reviewed the application, her heart sank when she
came across this question.
The question asked: "Are you a leader?"
Being both Being both honest and conscientious, she wrote,
''No,'' completed the rest of the application and to be honest expected the
worst.
To her surprise, she received this letter from the college:
''Dear Applicant: A study of the
application forms reveals that this year our college will have 1,452 new
leaders. We are accepting you because we feel it is imperative that they have
at least one follower.''
As Christians are we willing to be followers --- followers
of Jesus on his Way to God.
On Jesus’ Way to life that is full?
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