Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 2-140 Sunday 14 Jul 2002

Reading – Psalm 119:1-40 OBEDIENCE AND TRANSFORMATION

(From ‘Encounter with God’ Bible Reading Notes)

‘Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.'(v 18) Lord, help me to obey as well.

This beautifully crafted psalm celebrates the Law. The writer uses a number of words (from verses eight to eleven, depending on the analysis), weaving them together in an acrostic to celebrate the practical impact of the Law in the lives of God’s people.

There is a careful attention to structure. In each section of eight lines, each line, or verse in the English translations, starts with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet until the whole alphabet has been covered. Careful, thoughtful human creativity and the inspiration of God are not incompatible. Hard work and dependence on God seem to be the way in which the Bible writers work. Inspiration can come in the hard graft of preparation and study just as much as in the more immediate prophetic word given in a moment.

Several strands run throughout the psalm. Today we concentrate on the theme of obedience and transformation. The Law – and for us the whole of Scripture – is not given as a basis for intellectual games. It is given so that we might be pure (v 9), that we might not sin (v 11), that we might obey (vs 8,34) and that we might walk in God’s ways (v 3). Thus we are preserved from shame (vs 6,31,39) and we find blessing (vs 1,2).

Paradoxically we can follow God’s laws because we are free (v 32). Freedom brings with it the responsibility to respond. The Law only has these powerful effects in the lives of God’s people if we take it in (vs 11,23). It may be worth asking ourselves today whether we believe in the power of God’s Word to make us pure and whether we do enough to make it our own.

Review today the amount of time you spend reading, meditating and learning God’s Word. How far are you concerned to live by it and allow it to transform your life?

– John Grayston

Copyright Scripture Union, 2002

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