“Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart. 35. Direct me in the path of your commands for there I find delight. 36. Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. 37. Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word.”
There was a burning desire in the heart of the psalmist to draw closer to the Lord and to go away from the things of the world. This is a struggle that all people who want to live for the Lord have. We know that which is eternal is superior, and we do not want our eyes, hearts and minds to focus on mundane and earthly things. I say that it is a struggle because we live in a world of “things” and they can turn our minds and hearts away from the Lord. The psalmist gives us here a formula for focusing on eternity. The psalmist appealed to God for a new understanding of God’s law. (Remember that the law was the scripture that they had in the psalmist’s day.) In the same way, we should focus on God’s word. The problem in the lives of a lot of Christians and in their churches is that their Bibles are gathering dust on the shelf while they enjoy all of the “things” we have today. The psalmist did not know the power of “things” like we do today. Satan and the world will call us away from God’s word to focus on the world around us. The apostle John warned us about this in 1 John 2:15-16: “Love not the world, neither the things in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” This is not a new problem, and it is not a problem that will go away until God establishes His final kingdom. Like the psalmist, we have to live in the tension between the mundane and the eternal, and it is God’s word that helps us focus on that which is eternal. We also need an understanding of God’s word. With his new understanding of the law, the psalmist promised to focus on it with all of his heart. This is what the Lord wants of us as well. We need to pause occasionally and ask ourselves what, or who, is in control of our hearts. What has your whole heart? Does your heart belong to the latest fashions and fads offered by the world, or does your heart belong to the Lord. If we want to serve God with our whole hearts, we will need to stay in His word, just as the psalmist stayed in the word that he had from God in His day. If we want our hearts to be in the right place, we cannot abandon God’s word. The greatest commandment according to Jesus and Paul is to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind and strength.” If the Lord is not in control of our hearts, His word will not be important to us. In order to focus on eternity we need to focus on the Lord Jesus Christ and on His word to us in the Bible. The psalmist wrote: “Direct me in the paths of your commands, for there I find delight.” What we delight in will determine where our focus will be. Finally, the psalmist wrote: “turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word.” I think that the psalmist felt that he was beginning to get more concerned about “selfish gain” than he was about living for the Lord and doing the Lord’s will for his life. He wanted his eyes turned “away from worthless things.” In comparison to eternity all of the things of the earth are worthless. There is not one “thing” on this earth that is eternal. The world and all of its “things” are passing away. All of the prizes and baubles that we seek will pass from view into the ash bin of history. This is not to say that there are not things that we need in order to maintain life. It is not that “worthless things” cannot be used by us. The point is that the focus of our lives should not be on them, but on the Lord Jesus Christ, His word and His will for our lives. Pause today and ask yourself where your focus is! Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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