{"id":68,"date":"2014-05-16T13:49:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-16T13:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sunergoi.com\/?p=68"},"modified":"2014-05-16T13:49:00","modified_gmt":"2014-05-16T13:49:00","slug":"yearning-for-gods-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sunergoi.com\/?p=68","title":{"rendered":"Yearning for God’s Word"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note: This article first ran in the Fall, 2009 issue of Ministry & Leadership<\/a>, and is reprinted with permission.<\/span><\/i>

<\/span>“Actions speak louder than words.”<\/span>

<\/span>This common saying is a comment on the human capacity and tendency for deception. Why do actions speak louder than words? Because people lie.<\/span>

<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/span><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Andre Beauneveu, David<\/i><\/span>
from the Psalter of Jean de Berry<\/i>, 14 cent.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

People can and often do say things that they know are not true just to get what they want. Think about it: How often have you said something just so you can get a person off your back? How often have you carefully crafted your response to a person so as to avoid further conflict or further conversation? How often have you found yourself in a situation in which you will say just about anything to escape?<\/span>
Words can be used as weapons for personal convenience.<\/span>

<\/span>But actions are different. Actions require commitment, effort, foresight, preparation and sacrifice. You have to think about the other person, anticipate their needs and take action. Our loves, our friendships \u2014 all our meaningful human relationships \u2014 need to be nurtured by actions as well as words. That is why in human communication, actions so often speak louder than words. That\u2019s how human words work.<\/span>

<\/span>But that\u2019s not how God\u2019s words work. We can\u2019t treat them like human words. We can\u2019t discount God\u2019s words as simply weapons of convenience, nor can we write them off as empty rhetoric. We certainly can\u2019t take them with \u201ca grain of salt,\u201d because they are fundamentally different from ours.<\/span>

<\/span><\/a>
<\/span>
<\/span>Psalm 119: A Song of the Word<\/span><\/b>

<\/span>That is why I love Psalm 119 \u2014 it is an extended reflection on God\u2019s words. The Psalmist portrays just how we are to experience, think about, yearn for and ultimately meditate on God\u2019s Word. Verses 33-40 seem to encapsulate the message of the Psalter\u2019s longest psalm.<\/span>

<\/span>Seven words are repeated in this passage, all seemingly referring to the same thing \u2014 God\u2019s Word. They are \u201claw\u201d (or torah, v. 34), \u201crules\u201d (v. 39), \u201ctestimonies\u201d (v. 36), \u201ccommandments\u201d (v. 35), \u201cstatutes\u201d (v. 33), \u201cprecepts\u201d (v. 40), and \u201cpromise\u201d (v. 38). All these words are used interchangeably through Psalm 119, cumulatively referring to God\u2019s inspired Scriptures. In short, the Psalmist is talking about his Bible, and his attitude toward it can be described as nothing short of infatuation. God\u2019s Word exhilarates him; it inspires him to song and outright worship.<\/span>

<\/span>Why does God\u2019s Word evoke such excitement?<\/span>

<\/span>First, God\u2019s Word is true. God is true and therefore His words are true. The author of Hebrews 6:18 is unequivocal when he writes, \u201cIt is impossible for God to lie.\u201d God does not say what we want to hear in order to get us off His back. That\u2019s because in God and His Word, there is only truth.<\/span>

<\/span>This truth gives God\u2019s Word an authority that no other author can claim. Notice that the Psalmist assumes the truth and authority of God\u2019s Word in v. 33. He doesn\u2019t say, \u201cTeach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I will mull them over looking for useful tidbits.\u201d No, he says, \u201cteach me your statutes and I will keep them until the end.\u201d In Psalm 119, there is no discussion on the merits of God\u2019s commands. It is assumed. The question is not \u201cShould I keep your statutes?\u201d It is \u201cHow can I get the ability to keep them?\u201d This obedient stance is the foundation of the whole psalm. God\u2019s Word is not lacking; it is the Psalmist who is lacking. He needs God to make a proper response to God\u2019s Word possible.<\/span>

<\/span>Second, God\u2019s Word is active. It doesn\u2019t speak louder than His actions, because it is action. It makes, moves, forms and molds. It is powerful enough to change every situation into which it is spoken. When God creates the heavens and the earth, He does it through words. He says, \u201cLet there be light,\u201d and look . . . light!<\/span>

<\/span>The power of God\u2019s Word is not a tame power, either. It is not sympathetic magic that can be manipulated by its user, but it is God\u2019s power, bestowed as He wills according to His sovereign purpose. For this reason, when God\u2019s Word is on display, its result is healthy fear (v. 38).<\/span>

<\/span>Third, God\u2019s Word is near to us. It is present and accessible. In Psalm 119 there is a startling intimacy and immediacy that the author assumes with God. Listen to how he talks to God: \u201cTeach me . . . Give me understanding . . . Incline my heart . . . Turn my eyes.\u201d This is all close, personal language.<\/span>

<\/span>In the ancient context, this sort of assumed intimacy with a god is rare. To the pagan mind, a god\u2019s will was accessible through omens mediated and interpreted by oracles in a process that was external to the worshiper and a bit haphazard.<\/span>

<\/span>The Psalmist, however, talks to God directly, confidently expecting that He will respond. The whole psalm records this personal encounter as one that anticipates, cries out for an even more personal encounter with God\u2019s Word than what he already has. In other words, God\u2019s Word evokes in him a desire for a more intimate relationship with it.<\/span>

<\/span>God\u2019s Word is not about an empty set of rules. It never was. It\u2019s not about paralyzing passivity, either.<\/span>

<\/span>God\u2019s Word in Our Midst<\/span><\/b>

<\/span>The Psalmist desires to delve into the Word of God and find abundant life in it, because the Psalmist intuits what is made explicit in the New Testament. The Gospel writer John is succinct and poetic: \u201cIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God\u201d (John 1:1). But John is talking about Jesus Christ \u2014 the part of the equation that the Psalmist knows he needs.<\/span>

<\/span>Jesus is the personified Word of God in our midst. He is the teacher, the mediator who makes God\u2019s Word accessible to us. Without Jesus, we are critically and chronically alienated from the Word of the Lord, and only through him can God\u2019s Word bring us life. Because of Jesus, we can sing Psalm 119 for ourselves in confidence, knowing full well that the Spirit of our teacher is with us. He has walked in the way of God\u2019s commands, has taken our punishment upon Himself, and in so doing has accomplished for us what we and the Psalmist could not accomplish for ourselves.<\/span>

<\/span>Therefore we should sing Psalm 119 for ourselves in freedom, knowing that God\u2019s Word no longer condemns us. Like the Psalmist, we know we fall short of God\u2019s demands, but for those in Jesus Christ, the resultant condemnation is completely spent. It was suffered by Christ, who wore our guilt so we could engage God\u2019s Word without the bonds of rebellion.<\/span>

<\/span>God\u2019s Word merits our own active and yearning affections, and for our part, we have everything to gain from it.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Note: This article first ran in the Fall, 2009 issue of Ministry & Leadership, and is reprinted with permission.“Actions speak louder than words.”This \n [...]<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sunergoi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Beauneveu_14C_David.png?fit=585%2C763&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ESBE-16","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sunergoi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sunergoi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sunergoi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sunergoi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sunergoi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sunergoi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sunergoi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sunergoi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sunergoi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sunergoi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}