“Wherewithal (how) shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed therein according to your word. 10. With my whole heart have I sought you: O let me not wander from your commandments. 11. Your word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you."
Living a clean life does not seem to be the goal of many people today, but it is certainly still possible to live that kind of life. Living a clean life makes sense spiritually, of course, but it also makes sense physically. Many ailments today stem from people living unwholesome lives. I don’t have to go into detail here, you know what I mean. These three verses from Psalm 119 tell us how we can live a clean life.. First, we can heed the word of God. To the psalmist the word of God was the Ten Commandments and other laws that were given to Moses on Mt. Sinai and written down for the enlightenment of the people of God. To us the word of God is both the Old and New Testaments, and also Jesus, who fulfilled the Old Testament and made possible the New Testament. John refers to Jesus as “the word,” and Hebrews 1:1-2 declare Jesus to be the ultimate word of God. In order for us to live clean lives, we need to heed what is in the Bible, for therein is moral law, and we need to heed our relationship with Jesus, for therein is our moral compass. Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit to guide us in the study of the Bible and in the way we live our lives. Second, we can obey the word of God. The psalmist declared that he sought the Lord with his whole heart. I think that a lot of our spiritual problems arise because of a half-hearted seeking of God in daily life. How do we seek God? One of the main ways we seek Him is by the reading and studying of God’s word. It is impossible to stay close to God and ignore His word. Furthermore, the psalmist pleaded: “O let me not wander from your commandments.” We are not saved by keeping commandments, but we are saved in order to be able to keep commandments. We can’t take straying from the word of God lightly. Third, we can internalize the word of God. The bottom line was that the psalmist did not just read and study God’s word; he digested it and made it an integral part of his life. This means that we need to read and study the word of God until it becomes part of us. We can memorize scripture, but I prefer to read it until it is stuck in my mind and heart. I do not call this memorizing; I call it internalizing. He hid God’s word in his heart so that he “might not sin against God.” In the scene of Jesus’ temptation in Matthew 4, Jesus defeated Satan by quoting scripture to him. Jesus wasn’t just quoting words he memorized, but words that were part of His life. Read these three verses again and ask God to help you to use them to live a clean life. Bro. Joe
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
All
Archives
September 2021
|