Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Oh, how I love your instructions! I think about them all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are my constant guide. Yes, I have more insight than my teachers, for I am always thinking of your laws. I am even wiser than my elders, for I have kept your commandments. I have refused to walk on any evil path, so that I may remain obedient to your word. I haven’t turned away from your regulations, for you have taught me well. How sweet your words taste to me; they are sweeter than honey. Your commandments give me understanding; no wonder I hate every false way of life. Psalm 119:97-104
The Edsel
was born in 1957 and rolled-out as a mid-size/price family car for the public
the following year. While initial sales
were respectable, the 1958 so-called Eisenhower recession
turned this high-performance gas guzzler into the most storied flop of all time
in the auto industry. Named after Henry
Ford’s only son, who had died 15 years prior, Edsel became the next generation’s
nickname for anything that was bound to fail.
When Richard Nixon defeated George McGovern for president in 1972 by 26%
of the vote, someone suggested his middle name was probably Edsel!
The author
of Psalm 119 is unknown to us. David
authored about half of the Psalms, and it may have been from his early years before
the dust-up over Bathsheba. It makes little
difference whether it was David, Moses, Daniel or Heman who put pen on the parchment;
God (the ultimate author of all Scripture gave us an incredibly important reminder
here of human nature’s ability to be arrogant and spiritual at the same time…all
it takes is a little naïveté.
The
Psalmist claims wisdom and understanding greater than his teachers, purity of
life that is above reproach, and a life that is governed by a heart completely
devoted to obeying God’s ways. King
David seemed to have been that for much of his life, but there were times when
the duplicity of David’s actions and words would’ve made Adolph Hitler or Joseph
Stalin blush. David could be a spiritual
hero; he could also sink quickly to zero!
And such
are we all.
The
problem with this Psalm is not in the author; the problem is ours, imagining that
God’s ways (sometimes called his rules, regulations, or commandments) can be
kept perfectly; frankly, we cannot! If
there was a possibility that humans, any humans could live a life perfectly
following devotion to God there would have been no reason for Jesus to take our
place on the cross. But human nature is
tainted by sin, and there is no human that lives free from sin. We are the human version of Edsel, bound to
fail to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength![2]
But God
does not leave us in the pit of despair, even though we might choose that far country
in which to wallow. As Paul asked in his
letter to the Roman believers about his tendency to choose sin…doing the wrong
he did so intently want to avoid, and not doing the good to which his soul aspired
and longed-for, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?[3] The answer echoed back that it was Jesus
Christ who delivers us from sin.
For You Today
For human sinners Jesus’ death on the cross took away the penalty
of our sin and made it possible to blunt its power over
those who trust in His gift of atonement. And, there is coming a day when even
the presence of sin will be removed.
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[1]
Title Image: Pixabay.com Unless otherwise noted, Scripture used from
The
New Living Translation©
