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The Grand Canyon is spectacular and huge: 277 miles lengthy, as much as 18 miles vast, and over a mile deep. Protecting about 1,900 sq. miles, the Canyon is roughly the dimensions of the state of Delaware. Whereas tens of millions go to this nationwide park every year, the overwhelming majority see the Canyon solely from the rim and by no means enterprise onto the paths to discover its wonders.
Consider Psalm 119, the longest chapter within the Bible, as “the Grand Psalm.” At 176 verses, this single psalm is longer than Ephesians and 28 different books of the Bible! It consists of many acquainted strains, resembling, “Your phrase is a lamp to my toes and a lightweight to my path” (verse 105). However finding out the entire psalm is a bit like setting off on a hike to the underside of the Grand Canyon.
After a couple of hours on the path within the blistering desert solar, weary hikers may conclude that they’ve seen sufficient of the limestone, sandstone, and shale rock formations and head for the air-conditioned present store. You may need related ideas about Psalm 119, because the verses appear to run collectively as they communicate many times concerning the Scriptures as God’s regulation, testimonies, precepts, statutes, commandments, guidelines, phrase, and promise.
To get our bearings, word that Psalm 119 is an intricate acrostic poem with 22 stanzas akin to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet: aleph, beth, and so forth. Simply because the mighty Colorado River runs by means of the Grand Canyon with its sheer rock partitions, so the poetic type of the Grand Psalm offers the partitions by means of which a river of ardour and reward flows. The impressed poet was so captivated by the loveliness of God’s phrase, so assured in its truthfulness, that he penned the Bible’s longest, most intricate poem celebrating the Ebook God gave us for our good.
Let’s discover three themes or “trails” in and thru this Grand Psalm — devotion, dependence, and delight — to resume and deepen our love for the Ebook of God.
Devotion
The primary path by means of the Grand Psalm is devotion. Devotion is like checking the map, selecting your route, and setting off with keen expectation. We should orient our minds, hearts, and lives to God and his phrase. The psalm opens with a double blessing that captures this emphasis on heartfelt devotion:
Blessed are these whose manner is innocent,
who stroll within the regulation of the Lord!
Blessed are those that hold his testimonies,
who search him with their entire coronary heart,
who additionally do no mistaken,
however stroll in his methods! (verses 1–3)
“Blessed” means really completely happy and favored by God (as in Psalm 1:1). Our society defines the great life by accumulation of possessions, by private achievements and autonomy. However the good life is definitely present in in search of the true God, holding his methods, and being completely happy in him.
After which, after solely three verses of talking about God, the worshiper speaks straight to God. We usually consider Psalm 119 as a lofty poem about God’s phrase. However it is usually essentially the most sustained “I-to-you” prayer within the Bible. The Grand Psalm displays private, passionate, and sincere communion with the residing God — in different phrases, devotion to the residing God.
“Devotion pleads, ‘Educate me!’ Dependence cries, ‘Assist me!’ Delight says, “Thrill me!’”
Again and again, this psalm ponders valuable truths about God’s character and methods. “You might be good and do good” (verse 68). In verses 4–8, the poet rehearses actuality (“You advised me to fastidiously hold your phrase”), makes a request (“I need to maintain it”), then expresses his resolve (“I intend to maintain it!”). These and different verses of the Grand Psalm summon us to a lifetime of deep devotion, a life marked by confidence in God’s phrase and wholehearted dedication to God’s methods.
This primary path by means of the Grand Psalm orients us to what’s true, proper, and good and motivates us to belief God and search him. The phrase is a lamp to our toes and a lightweight to our path (verse 105), so the worshiper prays, “Educate me, O Lord” (verse 33). We’d like gentle from God’s phrase as a result of we regularly face darkness — which ends up in our second theme.
Dependence
Returning to the climbing analogy, dependence is when you’re hours into your hike and also you’re weary and hurting and questioning if you happen to’re going the appropriate manner. This second path by means of the Grand Psalm entails trusting God by means of trials. We transfer from the prayer of devotion, “Educate me,” to the determined plea, “Assist me!”
The psalmist identifies himself as “a sojourner on the earth” (verse 19), and he often expresses his neediness, confusion, and bother. This believer is severely bothered. He weeps, lies awake at evening, cries for assist, and longs for salvation. Consider King David on the run from his father-in-law Saul or his son Absalom. Consider David’s larger Son, Jesus, a person of sorrows, acquainted with grief. He was mocked, betrayed, deserted, accused, tortured, and killed.
The psalmist hits all-time low in verses 81–87. This embattled believer looks like “wineskin within the smoke” — spent, burned out, shriveled up, solid apart. Consider Job sitting within the ashes, scraping his sores, or Jeremiah on the backside of a muddy cistern. The poet cries out, “How lengthy? Assist!” He can’t see a manner out. He’s virtually carried out — but he clings to God’s promise. That’s how gentle pushes by means of the darkness, turning desperation into assured pleasure: “Endlessly, O Lord, your phrase is firmly fastened within the heavens” (verse 89).
Even after this hopeful flip to confidence, the path of dependence in affliction winds by means of the Grand Psalm till its stunning conclusion: “I’ve gone astray like a misplaced sheep; search your servant, for I don’t forget your commandments” (verse 176). Elsewhere, the believer insists that he doesn’t stray from God’s precepts (verse 110). But right here, as he addresses the holy God, he’s aware of his personal sin. “Susceptible to wander, Lord, I really feel it!” That is the prayer of 1 who’s poor in spirit and who has tasted the grace of God. The psalmist seeks God along with his entire coronary heart (verses 2, 10), however he additionally wants the divine Shepherd to search him.
Delight
Our final path by means of the Grand Psalm is delight. Ten occasions, the poet expresses his gladness in God’s phrase, as in verse 14: “In the best way of your testimonies I delight as a lot as in all riches.” The emphasis on delight remembers the completely happy man of Psalm 1, whose “delight is within the regulation of the Lord” (Psalm 1:2). Our psalmist sings due to the supreme worth of God’s phrase, which is extra valuable than gold or silver (verses 72, 127). Certainly, the Scriptures are a savory feast for the soul: “How candy are your phrases to my style, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (verse 103).
Keep in mind that these euphoric expressions spring from the pen of the identical poet who has endured days of misery, sleepless nights, and numerous afflictions. He thought his life was over. He felt used up and worn out. God met him within the darkness, sustained him within the valley, and introduced him to a spot of abundance. So, he rests and revels in God’s trustworthy phrase. He treasures his God in and thru trials, expressing the biblical actuality that believers are sometimes “sorrowful, but all the time rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10).
Devotion says, “Educate me!” Dependence cries, “Assist me!” Delight says, “Thrill me!” This third path by means of Psalm 119 reveals the intention of our devotion to God and dependence on his guarantees. Why does a hiker set off with keen expectation and hold going even when he’s drained, sizzling, and hurting throughout? As a result of he is aware of that the path results in a spectacular waterfall the place he can gaze upon glory and plunge into refreshing swimming pools. As Augustine famously prayed, “You may have made us for Your self, and our hearts are stressed till they relaxation in You” (Confessions, 1.1.1).
The Grand Psalm holds out for us a contemporary imaginative and prescient of the God who has graciously given us his glorious phrase, the God who sustains and satisfies his weary saints. So take and browse the Ebook of God with devotion, dependence, and delight.
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