By Today I was reading my bible , doing one of those reading plans through youversion (https://www.youversion.com) and I stumbled upon this passage of scripture in the lengthy Psalm 119 passage. This scripture always catches my eye for the silly reason that the Hebrew letter used is my name, so on top of the passage it says Beth, almost like God needed it to say my name to remind me to stop and look more carefully. If you read the rest of the chapter each section is a different letter of the Hebrew Alphabet. I put the scripture below it is Psalms 119:9-16.
9How can a young man cleanse his way?By taking heed according to Your word.10With my whole heart I have sought You;Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!11Your word I have hidden in my heart,That I might not sin against You.12Blessed are You, O Lord!Teach me Your statutes.13With my lips I have declaredAll the judgments of Your mouth.14I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies,As much as in all riches.15I will meditate on Your precepts,And contemplate Your ways.16I will delight myself in Your statutes;I will not forget Your word.
The meaning I get here is that if you want to keep your ways holy, pure or on the right track what you need to do is focus on God. The Psalmist writes with my whole heart I have sought you, I think how many times have I said this and really meant well, with part of my heart I sought you or well I sought you but I didn’t like what you said. The next part speaks so much truth for us, after seeking God with his whole heart, he prays that God will not let him wander from the commandments. So not only did he seek God with everything but he also prayed that God would keep him in line. Take a minute here, its one thing to seek after God on Sunday morning during worship when the music is just right BUT it is a whole other thing to say God keep me in line after this. How many times have we been that person that during worship is focused on seeking God but then we go out to lunch and someone annoys us and we revert to who we were before we went to church.
Ok, you are probably thinking so what? What can we do to change anything. I see you called us out but what can we do besides feel bad about it. The next verse is where I find the answer. He says I have hidden your word in my heart that I might now sin against you. What does this mean, hiding his word in our heart. This means I have memorized the word, I have pondered it, it is a part of who I am. For example, one verse that has been consistently in my mind is found in Philippians 4:8, Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things.
I have found that if I use this verse as the filter most thoughts don’t get past point 3 if they are not of God. I then make a decision to think about something else, something along these lines.
Just some thoughts today… Any thoughts?
