Remember Your word to Your servant through which You have given me hope.
This is my comfort in my affliction, that Your promise has preserved me.
Though the arrogant have cruelly mocked me, I have not swerved from Your teaching.
I remember Your rules of old, O LORD, and find comfort in them.
I am seized with rage because of the wicked who forsake Your teaching.
Your laws are a source of strength to me wherever I may dwell.
I remember Your name at night, O LORD, and obey Your teaching.
This has been my lot, for I have observed Your precepts.
I would admit that I really struggled with this passage and that the "light bulb" did not come on for quite a while. This morning, however, the Holy Spirit showed me a few things I hope will be a blessing to you. Three lines of this stanza begin with the Hebrew word "Zachar". It is a verb meaning "remember" and this is illustrated in the name of the Hebrew prophet Zechariah which means "Yahweh remembers." There are few things as powerful in our lives as remembering what God has done for us and also remembering what He has spoken in His word. Both of these thoughts are echoed in the above verses. God's Character + God's Word = Security and Assurance. These things are powerful weapons to defeat whatever lies the enemy is sending our direction. They are powerful weapons to use against our flesh when it rises up and tries to carry us off into whatever fleshly excess it is craving at the moment.
I really struggled last night in terms of gratifying my own flesh. I have been trying to push some things out of my life that have not benefited either myself or my family and neither really my spiritual growth and walk with God. My flesh really cried out yesterday evening. I spent a lot of time while I was working (I was at the shop until about 9:30 PM trying to finish a car) crying out to God for succor and relief. I began to thank Him for what He has revealed to us in His Word and while I can't tell you the desires went completely away, I can report I was able to resist and stand firm as God has promised we may if we stand in Him and not in our own power (see Ephesians 6, 1 Corinthians 10, and most of the Psalms). The Apostle Paul aptly states, "For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh bu have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).
It is very interesting also that three other lines of this stanza begin with the word "This". This is interesting in this manner. The Psalmist says, "[You] Remember" and then, "I remember, I remember." He follows up this thought by saying that the act of his remembering what God's Word has said and God's remembering of him has given him comfort (vs 50), become songs for him (vs 54 -- "source of strength" can also be "become songs for me" and is translated that way in many versions), and again he states God's Word has become a source of strength for him (vs 56). We may summarize: God's Word + Remembering = a powerful weapon indeed!
Hebrews 4:12 states, "For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of the soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." (ESV) If the aforementioned things are True (and they are), why do we go about defeated so much of the time? Why not take up the weapon we have been given and take some of the victory God has already given us through His Word and the validation of His Word through the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ! Thanks be to God our Father and His Son the Lord Jesus Christ!
Jewish Publication Society, Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1985), Ps 119:48–56.
The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), 2 Co 10:3–5.
Here is a song to accompany this post.
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