Today the section title of Psalm 119 is ז Zayin – Weapon.
49 Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope.
50 This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.
51 The insolent utterly deride me, but I do not turn away from your law.
52 When I think of your rules from of old, I take comfort, O Lord.
53 Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked, who forsake your law
54 Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my sojourning.
55 I remember your name in the night, O Lord, and keep your law.
56 This blessing has fallen to me, that I have kept your precepts. ESV
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It’s two days before Christmas and “ז Zayin – Weapon” definitely is NOT where my heart wants to be. I want Bethlehem, a Holy baby and love, not weapons. Mankind has provided plenty of weapons for both defense and offense and plenty of desire to use them. Despite my reaction to it’s title, this section brims with testimony of God actively arming His people with a different kind of “weapons” to protect and defend their minds as well as their eyes and hearts long before the birth of Christ. My challenge is to a) read and write the verse backwards as I have been doing and b) to look for evidence in them of God’s determined revelation of Himself that we celebrate this Advent, 2020.
For my own clarification about laws and weapons:
A law is the system of rules enforced by the authority with the intention of regulating human behavior for the common good.
A statute is a legal document that declares a specific law, expressed in writing.
A precept is a rule dictating a way you should act or behave.
49 You have made me hope as you remind me of your Word.
God has reminded me through the birth of Christ of His own hope for His own creation through His own determination to place Himself in the midst of our world as a way to protect and defend our lives.
50 Your promise comforts my affliction and gives me life.
Jesus is God’s promise of comfort revealed in human form as a newborn that Luke 2 reminds us “increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” to redeem the sins of my afflictions with His love.
52 O Lord, I take comfort when I think of your rules from of old.
I don’t always feel comforted by rules but I do recognize they are a hedge of restraint around me until I come “to my senses.” Jesus was the “Door” opened to new freedom to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
53 The wicked who forsake your law cause hot indignation to seize me.
The first Law of God to regulate human behavior is to love Him. Hot indignation rarely affects the wicked but it’s certainly the fire that can destroy the ability to love.
54 In this house where I sojourn your statues are my songs.
Our sojourn is the brief span of life we’re given by God for the express purpose learning the words and the music of God’s love song for us, Jesus the Christ.
55 I keep your law O Lord, and remember your name in the night.
I remember that little town of Bethlehem. I remember the circumstances of life where your answer to regulating human behavior for the common good was revealed in Law of Love, Jesus, born in the likeness of man.
56 I have kept your precepts and this blessing has fallen on me.
I have pledged to let your Law of Love dictate my actions and behavior. The blessing that has fallen on me this Advent, 2020 is that “God With Us,” is the Law of Love you’ve given to protect and defend my life here and now and forever.
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