God brings joy. As the author moves toward the end of this psalm, he leans more and more into the nature of God and his Word. In this passage, he refreshes his own memory about the joy God’s Word brings him. You can see it for yourself in Psalm 119:161-164:
So far, the psalmist has shared that God’s word displays God’s mercy for us to see, and that God’s truth is found to be clear as well. As he meditates on those two characteristics, he seems to almost pause here to share the joy that those qualities of God bring to him.
And yet, at the same time, this is the third characteristic that we can see in this stretch of stanzas as we near the end of this psalm. God is the source of our delight, and that is a constant, whether we face easy times of difficult ones. The psalmist is facing persecution from those who do not love God, from those who hate the truth. But he still finds a reason to rejoice.
God’s Word Brings Joy
These few verses here bring a sense of refreshing to our hearts. The psalmist has covered some weighty and difficult things through the verses of this psalm so far. This brief section reminds us of the joy that God brings to us. And it seems as if he finds a new way to express this joy in every verse of this passage.
In verse 161, he states that his heart trembles at God’s Word. In my own experience, my heart trembles in two different ways: in the face of great fear, and in the face of great anticipation. Either could be the case here, and more likely both. He is standing against unjust persecution, and yet he trembles before God’s Word.
There is no life so deeply and tragically sinful that it’s beyond the reach of God’s amazing rescuing grace.
Recently, God has been helping me reignite my Kingdom imagination. My perspective has become clouded over the years, and I see mostly what I want to see, and not what God sees. He has been helping me clear that perspective so that I can see more how he sees.
Regaining a Kingdom imagination… I know that sounds a bit vague. It’s a little undefined and cloudy. But I think that’s a perfect description of how my vision has been for the last few years.
Not my physical vision. That’s cloudy enough that I need glasses, and bifocals at that, to see clearly what I’m doing most of the time. No, I’m talking about my spiritual vision. I’m talking about that perspective that can only come from God, to see the world around me, not only with a worldview that is biblical, but to actually see things as God sees them… At least as much as I can.
A few weeks ago, I was challenged with this idea while I was at Wilderness, a Christ In Youth retreat. In that moment, when this concept was introduced to me, I was challenged specifically to reimagine what God could do in the lives of my family. And I have been catching a glimpse of that new vision ever since.
God has shown me that he has a bigger plan for my family than I do, and also a bigger plan for my own life than I do. That has kind of caught me off guard.
I mean, I intellectually know that to be true, but somehow, I have allowed myself to forget that fact. I have forgotten that God is the one that wants to direct my paths, and not me. That has been a tough and bitter pill for me to swallow, because my pride wants to be in control. And because my pride doesn’t even want to admit that God needed to nudge that reminder into my head. My pride tends to get in the way a lot these days.
God is merciful. That is the truth that psalmist shared in the first half of this stanza. In the second half, we find the next truth that he has learned about God. You can see this passage for yourself in Psalm 119:157-160:
In the first half of this stanza, the psalmist discussed the characteristic of mercy that he has found in God. God is merciful, and that is all the more evident to us as we become more and more obedient to him.
But this isn’t the only characteristic that the psalmist has learned about God; in fact, there are at least three more truths that he has learned that he reveals in this stanza and in the next.
The second thing that he has learned about God is found in this passage. He states it quite clearly in verse 160, but it has been seen already in Psalm 119, and more than once.
God’s Word is True
This is a reality that the psalmist has already shared. We have seen it in verse 142, and again in verse 151. It seems as if the further this psalm progresses, the more this concept appears. The reason for this is simple: the truth of God’s Word is a vital lesson that we must learn. The psalmist has come to understand it, and so must we.
The most important daily habit we can possess is to remind ourselves of the gospel.
The Story Of With by Allen Arnold (Allen Arnold, 2016)
Bear Trap Ranch is a place that holds a significant spot in my heart. God has done some pretty incredible things in my life at that place in the mountains, and it is one of my favorite locations on this planet because of that.
Bear Trap is run by a ministry called Band of Brothers, who seeks to encourage men to be who God has created them to be. So the gift shop at Bear Trap carries a few books that help meet that goal. It’s small, and they only carry a few titles. But one of them caught my eye.
Before I could purchase it, a friend of mine bought it and gave it to me as a gift. And he couldn’t have given me anything better.
The Story Of With, by Allen Arnold, is a fictional allegory of a young lady who is seeking out the meaning of her life. As she struggles to discover her identity — not what she does, but who she is — she is taken on a journey where things are very black and white, allowing her to see the reality of our world. Combining allegory with application, this intense story helps you to see yourself more as God sees you, and more as God loves you.
It’s a quick and easy read, but it bears a closer scrutiny than just simply reading through it. Even though it is fictional, it contains several insights and nuggets of truth that may just knock the breath out of your lungs.
As I strive to “be” and not just “do,” this idea of “with” takes that whole learning process to a new and deeper level. It is impacting my soul in ways that I couldn’t have imagined as I looked it over in the gift shop at Bear Trap Ranch.
Thanks, Ron, for the gift that has impacted me deeper than you’ll ever know.
If you would like to read The Story Of With, you can get it on Amazon.
Things change. They just do. And sometimes that change can be hard to understand, and even harder to view with the proper perspective, a Kingdom perspective. But that’s something that we have to strive for continuously.
In early October, I spent a week outside of Colorado Springs at Bear Trap Ranch. This is an annual event that I utilize for my spiritual life as sort of a “spiritually fiscal review” of my life for the past year, and for the year to come. This is a cornerstone event for me, impacting my spiritual growth in ways that I cannot even fathom sometimes.
God uses that literal mountaintop experience to help form a spiritual mountaintop experience that helps me navigate through my life and ministry in the months to come.
It’s not the only thing that I intentionally plan through out the year. I also incorporate single day retreats, called Personal Retreat Days, to review my life and ministry, spend time in prayer, and seek God’s continued direction. I strive to do this at least every six to eight weeks through the year. And it helps, being built upon the foundation of the week in Colorado, to maintain a Kingdom perspective.
That was the theme for Wilderness this year. We looked deeply into the Sermon on the Mount, seeing how God is calling us to be Kingdom oriented people. He didn’t call me to “do” ministry. He called me to “be” a Kingdom person, in my life, in my family, in my ministry, and in every other aspect of my life.
Conceptually, that’s pretty easy. I can conceive what that looks like in an academic fashion pretty easily. But when the rubber meets the road, when life throws some things my way that don’t fit into my routines, that don’t align with my regular, day to day, life flow… Then what? How do I keep a Kingdom perspective in the middle of things like that?
