We’re just about half way through this Psalm. Are you beginning to get the point – there is nothing more important than God’s word? David, with all his riches, power, prestige and prominence, only wanted one thing, to know God and His word.
“73 With your hands you made me and helped me become what I am. Now help me learn and understand your commands. 74 Your followers will see me and be happy, because I trust in your word. 75 Lord, I know that your decisions are fair, and you were right to punish me. 76 Now comfort me with your faithful love, as you promised. 77 Comfort me and let me live. I enjoy your teachings. 78 Bring shame on those proud people who lied about me. All I want to do is study your instructions. 79 Let your followers come back to me so that they may learn your rules. 80 Let me obey your laws perfectly so that I will not be ashamed.” Psalm 119: 73-80
David recognized that it was God who had formed him during his development before birth and just as vital as God’s design was in making his body, David also knew it was vitally important to have learn and understand God’s word.
Stop here…think about this! Pick one detail on your body and examine the detail and intricacies of it. I’m looking down at my wrist as I input this message. The angles that it can achieve are amazing; the swivel; the way it works with the hand and the arm to aid in all that the fingers do. WOW! And the God who designed each cell, each bone, each muscle is the same one who is wanting and waiting eagerly to teach me His word.
Verse 73 points out the two-fold process of wisdom, learning and understanding. David doesn’t just want to learn God’s word but he also wants to understand it. Take for instance a very simple Psalm, Psalm 23. “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside still waters.” Let’s stop there. This is a Psalm we have probably heard hundreds of times – something that is quoted in movies, used in song, printed on t-shirts, memorized in Sunday School, etc. That’s the learning part but what about the understanding?
David was a shepherd; he knew what it was to care for his sheep. He knew how to keep them healthy and protected. By stating the Lord is my shepherd, David understood that meant the Lord was always watching out for him, concerned for his welfare, protecting him from predators’ attacks. He knew what it meant when sheep lay down; it meant they were full and didn’t need to continue grazing, it meant they felt at peace and had no sense of danger, it meant they had found rest. What about the still water? David knew that sheep don’t drink from fast running streams, he understood that and he knew that the Lord knew that about him as well. He knew that the Lord had made provision for him and the way he was made.
Now see, that goes beyond just learning…understanding comes from searching deeper and an intimate knowing. My son’s a firefighter and he understands fire – he knows what the different colors of smoke mean, he knows how ventilation affects the direction of the fire, he knows the best way to extinguish the flames and he knows how to stay safe while working in danger. He hasn’t just learned about fire, he understands it.
When we read over verses we need to be seeking understanding. That’s when the Word truly changes us. Ooops, all that and I’m just on one verse. In verses 74 & 79, David talks about the importance of fellowship with others who love God’s word. We are connected with other Christians in the body of Christ just the same as my wrist connects my hand with my arm. We need to reach out and encourage and help them grow when we can.
In verses 75-78 the correction that he experienced is fresh on his mind. You notice he says it’s fair and loving. Much the way we administer correction, discipline or punishment to our children when they disobey, God lovingly corrects us and brings us back to a place of obedience. Hebrews 12:10 says “Our fathers on earth disciplined us for a short time in the way they thought was best. But God disciplines us to help us so that we can be holy like him. 11 We don’t enjoy discipline when we get it. It is painful. But later, after we have learned our lesson from it, we will enjoy the peace that comes from doing what is right.”
Discipline is painful – it means that we have to acknowledge that we have been wrong and need to change our course of action. It means we have to admit that we don’t have all the answers. It means that we have to admit our need for someone greater and wiser. Jesus is our example of how the Father loving corrects. Each time he encountered the pride and arrogance of the Pharisees, he would correct them. They would try to trap him in conversation and debate and would try to put him in a corner publicly but each time he would use the word of God to correct and discipline them and it would convict them to the heart.
Jesus didn’t strike them with leprosy to teach them a lesson. He didn’t destroy their livelihood or their families, he spoke the Word. Some of them repented and others did not but his chastisement was always loving and Word based.
Verse 80 comes back full circle – back to obedience, obeying the Word perfectly and being free from shame. Living God’s word may bring ridicule from the world but it causes us to live shame free before the Father.