Got Wisdom?

Friday, October 6, 2023

The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul.  The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.  The commandments of the LORD are right, bringing joy to the heart.  The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living.  Reverence for the Lord is pure, lasting forever.  The laws of the Lord are true; each one is fair.  They are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold.   They are sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb.  They are a warning to your servant, a great reward for those who obey them.  How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart?  Cleanse me from these hidden faults.  Keep your servant from deliberate sins!  Don’t let them control me.  Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin.  May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.  Psalm 19:7-14

King David taught his son Solomon what wisdom looked like.  Soaking-up all the truth of Scripture, David summarized wisdom by the qualities God’s Word will become in a believer’s heart:

     ·       God’s Word is impeccably-perfect…reviving the soul

     ·       God’s Decrees are trustworthy…making the simple person wise

     ·       God’s Commandments are right…making joy flourish in the heart

     ·       God’s Commands are clear…light on life’s path

     ·       Reverence towards God is pure…an eternal blessing of clear conscience

     ·       God’s laws are true…making fairness an everyday experience

Knowing God’s ways bring life, wisdom, joy, insight, and permanence; His way and blessing are available to all who will worship the true, living God.

David concluded his prayer recorded in Psalm 19 with a question and answer. 

The question:  How can I understand my own heart…all the sins hidden there?

The answer:  Humble confession that I can’t know the depth of my own heart’s sins merely by my own wisdom.  I must place my heart in God’s hands…ask Him to forgive and cleanse me, so my proclivity towards sinning won’t control me.

David closed the prayer with one final request:  Lord, whatever I’ve laid before You, O Lord…may it be pleasing to you…do what you will with me…you are the bedrock of all my days and eternity.

If you’ve ever wondered where to start with praying to God, go back to Psalm 19 and grasp the depth of how anyone should (and can) approach Almighty God.  This is the model for placing your life in His care, and your heart’s love at the foot of Calvary’s cross.  The result of studying God’s love letter to humanity is revival for the soul, wisdom for making decisions, joy in the heart, light on your journey as you step-out each day with a clean conscience, and a burning desire to spread justice and fairness to every creature on earth. 

Did he leave anything out?

For You Today 

David’s son, Solomon, took his dad’s evaluation of God’s Word to heart, and both history and God’s Word call Solomon the wisest man ever.  That’s not a bad place to start your day.  It will make finishing your day an adventure that won’t disappoint.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library.

Title Image(s) courtesy of Pixabay.com                   

Images without citation are in public domain.  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

His Word Over the World

 

Thursday, March 4, 2021

The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul. 
The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.  
The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. 
The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living.
Reverence for the Lord is pure, lasting forever.
The laws of the Lord are true; each one is fair.  They are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold.  They are sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb.  They are a warning to your servant, a great reward for those who obey them.
How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart?  Cleanse me from these hidden faults.  Keep your servant from deliberate sins!  Don’t let them control me.  Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin.
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.  Psalm 19:7-14

Like layers of blessing, the instructions, decrees, commandments, commands, and law of the Lord, bring reviving of the soul, wisdom, joy, and insight in daily living that is lasting, sweet, and a great reward for accepting them in word and deed, in heart and hand. 

God’s Word is the key to a life of blessing.  By contrast, disregarding God’s Word is a foolproof method for destroying a life.  Solomon, son of King David, author of this Psalm, spent a lifetime checking out this formula.  He tried virtually everything that promised happiness, fulfillment, and joy, apart from what God had decreed in His Word, and found every bit of it “vanity” or emptiness.

Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.  Ecclesiastes 1:8

Oddly, and sadly, despite a mountain of experience to the contrary, the world’s culture manages to convince itself that mankind knows better than God.  The result is chasing the wind and reaping the whirlwind.  In typical human arrogance we imagine there is some new way that will be better than obeying God’s ways.

It would be impossible in the space of this five-minute devotional to recount even a sampling of our incredible miscalculations in trying to make God and His Word obsolete, obscure, and unprofitable, but here are two front-burner examples:

Sexuality

God’s Word, decrees, laws, and just plain common, mathematical, logical, way is heterosexuality, within the relationship of marital fidelity.  When a Biblical approach to life[1], family, and sexuality are upheld, life is more on the joyful side than painful.  Read that:  less drama, more fulfillment.   

In contrast, the world’s way is anything goes, with sexual promiscuity and libido   (sexual desire) as the only judge of what is good or healthy.  To cut to the chase in the “results” department…the end of such is pretty much just plain heartbreak.

Politics

Of late, but not new, humans experiment with how to socially engineer community to create the next great world order.  In America that experiment occurs every 2 to 4 years; we call it democratic elections.  We choose who will govern us.  Truth be told we vacillate, wildly-so, between extremes.  In 2016 we elected Donald Trump; in 2020 it was Joe Biden.  Extremes between the left and right, both with enough personal baggage and agenda to keep the pundits happy and employed until the next go-round.

Cutting to the blunt and sane decree, command of God, our political flags ought to be run up this pole:

No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you:  to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.  Micah 6:8

For You Today

This culture’s ways, or God’s ways…you just can’t have both.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com    Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

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[1] A “Biblical approach” is not the media and atheistic caricatured version; it is marriage and family life which mutually undergirds the principles of love, with accountability to God.