This blog post continues from last week with my answer to the question, “What do I do with Psalm 119?”
A few points of review from last week’s blog post:
Psalm 119 was the daily devotional prayer of Jesus Christ; and I recognized that ONLY Jesus could, and ever would be able to, pray some of those verses. So, there are definitely parts of Psalm 119 that I can only watch my Lord pray to His Father; they are not for me to appropriate. They are for me to better understand the heart and mind of my Lord.
But the Holy Spirit has also been prompting me with Romans 6:4 where it says, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (ESV) So, sooner or later (in this life or in the one to come) I will be walking as He walks, where He walks, and how He walks.
The real question is, “How do I appropriate that, and how much of that is appropriate for now?” Specifically, how much of the passion and commitment that Christ displays in the verses of Psalm 119 are for me to be passionate about now and committed to perform in this life?
So, here are some thoughts on the answer to this (these) question(s).
First and foremost, this is someone else’s prayer. It is not my prayer. I am not qualified to pray it. If I did pray it as it was meant to be prayed by Christ, I would be lying (or delusional) or something worse. Only Jesus Christ was qualified to make the claims and the promises that are embodied in Psalm 119.
That said, I do OFTEN find myself being driven to fervent prayer as I study and meditate on this Psalm. What are some typical prayers of mine as I look deeper into the Hebrew of Psalm 119? Here are some examples:
- Wow! You are a great Redeemer and King, Lord Jesus, because you have accomplished all this for me and my brothers and sisters! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
- Lord, thank you for showing me your heart! Thank you for showing me your mind! I had no idea that you were as completely absorbed by the statutes of God as you were (and no doubt, still are)!!!
- Holy Spirit, thank you for letting me watch the passionate, intimate conversations between Jesus and His Father. The specific characteristics and dynamics of the relationships in the God Head is truly mind-blowing!
- Lord, I am so OVERWHELMED by the passion and commitment you had (have) for the testimonies and statutes of God in the Scriptures!
- Lord, please keep showing me your heart and your mind, and please keep showing me new and marvelous insights into how YHWH operates in this world!
There are many other prayers that I often find myself compelled to pray, but you get the idea from the above examples.
Secondly, I have learned it is VERY important that not allow myself to adopt an attitude of, “I need to obey more of the statutes of God so I will be a more faithful Christian; as though my obedience somehow better qualifies me for the full blessing of God in my life, or as though my obedience brings me more favor in God’s sight, or as though I become a better Christian by being more obedient to the statutes of God that Jesus so passionately embraces.” If I do fall into the temptation (and it IS a temptation for evil) of thinking that by better obeying the Law of God I will be more blessed by God, or I will have more of His favor, or I will be a better Christian, then the result becomes that for me Psalm 199 loses all its exhilarating passion and becomes wooden, dull and deadly to my spiritual health. It is true that Jesus has GREAT passion for the statutes of God, and it is true that the more I praise Him and appreciate Him for His obedience, the more the Holy Spirit draws me into copying Him, but it is NEVER true that as these happen, that it somehow improves my standing with God—nor does it qualify me for greater blessings from God. To even start feeling like it does is where the curse of the Law takes firm hold of my soul and begins to squeeze all the life and joy out of me. This is such an important thought, that I will continue this by illustrating from the Hebrew for verse 16 next week (Verse 16 uses a very surprising word that does not get well translated into English versions because it would be WAY TOO controversial if they wrote what it really says about the passion Jesus had for the statutes of YHWH. Stay tuned for Part 3 next week.