“How blessed are those whose way is
blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord.
How blessed are those who observe His testimonies, who seek Him with all their
heart. They also do no unrighteousness; they walk in His ways. You have
ordained Your precepts, that we should keep them diligently. Oh that my ways
may be established to keep Your statutes! Then I shall not be ashamed when I
look upon all Your commandments. I shall give thanks to You with uprightness of
heart, when I learn Your righteous judgments.” (rf. Ps. 119:1-7 NASB)
We live in a world today far
different than the one I, and those of my age group, grew up in decades ago.
Though the ‘60s and early ‘70s were an era of great turmoil and struggle for
our nation, there was still an underlying bedrock of values, a foundation of
right and wrong, a clear sense of good and evil. Due to failures in every arena
of our culture and society, especially in the educational and religious realms,
we have fallen to a belief system wherein a large sector of our populace
affirms a relativistic view of truth and ideals. Because they hold to no standard
of judgment or true justice, they accurately reflect the assessment of the
writer of the book of Judges, “In those
days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes”
(rf. Jdgs.
17:6).
Yet, this is not the ideal
nor standard that God holds for His people, nor for any people, for that
matter. The Lord has placed His Word in our realm to be the foundation upon
which we are to live our lives, a basis which, if followed, will glorify Him
and will prove to be a blessing of great proportions to us. This is exactly
what King David is desiring to share with his readers in this longest song of
the Psalms.
The Law of God was given to
establish the way of God’s righteousness. We know that, in our efforts, we will
fail to keep His Law. This is why Jesus came to fulfill God’s Law (rf. Mt.
5:17-18) and, therefore, by believing and trusting in Him, it is
then fulfilled for us and His righteousness is applied to us (rf. Rom.
3:22). Thus, only if we have a personal relationship with Jesus
Christ can we effectively “observe His
testimonies”, “seek Him with all
(our) heart(s)”, “keep (His) statutes diligently”, and even “learn
(His) righteous judgments”.
You see, contrary to the
world’s assessment and beliefs, God has provided us a concrete set of values by
which He expects us to operate. It starts with a personal relationship with Him
through faith in His Son, Jesus. Once we pass through that door of surrendered
trust, we will find a new world of blessing, as acknowledged by David, fulfilled
to us as we live out our lives in obedience to Him and to His revealed Word.
Not only will we find ourselves “established”
when we willingly submit ourselves to this course of action, but the blessings
we will experience will give us great reason to be thankful as well. May the
Lord grant to every one of His people the light of His love to be able to see
these truths and to follow accordingly.
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