Psalm 119:34 - "Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart."Welcome to day 34 of this 176 day journey through Psalm 119. I hope that God is teaching you new truths about Him as we work our way through this ancient chapter of Scripture together. I know that God is instilling within me a new appreciation for His holiness, His love, His mercy, His law, and His word. Over the past month we've seen David continually cry out to God for help in falling in love with His law. Keeping the law of God was tough for David, thousands of years ago, and it's tough for us today.
We live in a day where people are increasingly rejecting God in favor of living a life where they are their own god, answering to no moral authority but themselves. Some of the best selling books in America last year were books attacking Christianity. Christopher Hitchens', God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Richard Dawkins', The God Delusion, Karen Armstrong's, A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and Sam Harris', Letter to a Christian Nation all appeared on the New York Time's Bestseller List, some reaching number one, and all asserting that the real problem with our world is those who actually believe the tenants of their religion. They were particularly infuriated by those who believe that their religion is the exclusive means to finding God.
So, what's a Christian to do? We live in a day where our faith is consistently under attack. But, the faith has always been under attack. To be a Christian and try to separate spiritual warfare from the Christian life is to deny the fact that there is a very real war that takes place every moment of every day for the souls of men. Remember, history is God's story. It's not ours. We are bit players in His glorious purpose. As such, we have a responsibility to stand for Him. We are to know Him and make Him known. Our lives are for His glory. If we make life all about us, like so many in the world do, we miss out on what it is that God has created us to do.
So, let us, like David, cry out to God for understanding in this day in which we live. God loves that. He loves when we ask for wisdom. When he gave Solomon the unique opportunity to ask for whatever it is that he wanted, God was pleased when Solomon asked for wisdom (See 1 Kings 3). He was so pleased that He gave Solomon more wisdom than any man that lived on the face of the earth. 1 Kings 4:29-34 describes Solomon's wisdom, "God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore. Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the men of the East, and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt. He was wiser than any other man, including Ethan the Ezrahite—wiser than Heman, Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol. And his fame spread to all the surrounding nations. He spoke three thousand proverbs and his songs numbered a thousand and five. He described plant life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls. He also taught about animals and birds, reptiles and fish. Men of all nations came to listen to Solomon's wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom."
When God gives us understanding, His desire is that we would use it to follow Him. When we obey God, it makes a difference in the world and in our life. Solomon's wisdom was used by God to make a huge difference in the world around him. But, wisdom alone isn't enough to keep us following Christ. Solomon's life took a tragic turn when he, despite his knowledge, chose to disobey God. Before we are too tough on Solomon, remember that we too, every time we sin, reject the knowledge that the Holy Spirit reveals to us, in favor of following our own way. In a very real sense we put ourselves in the place that God belongs every time we sin. We try to put ourselves in control of our lives. For a moment, we become our own god. And, then, through the Holy Spirit's work in our life, we realize that we have made a most grievous error. We have broken the first commandment. We have broken that which God is most passionate about. We have loved ourselves more than we have loved God.
So, let us pray for God's understanding so that we might keep God's law and obey it with all my heart.
Dear God,
Forgive us for those times when we put ourselves ahead of You. Every time we do we break Your first commandment. We have all been guilty of not loving you with all of our heart. You desire our hearts more than anything, and we insist on pleasing ourselves more than we please you by chasing after our own desires. We don't want to be our own gods. We need You. Help us to understand You and Your desires and to follow you with all of our heart.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.
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