Word of God – Moment to Moment (Bible blog)

And so we hit the halfway point of this psalm.

I love the psalmist’s words to open this section.

My soul faints with longing for your salvation, but I have put my hope in your word. (Psalm 119:81)

Sometimes we go through hardship in our lives. The psalmist surely did. People were plotting against him, persecuting him, and trying to destroy him (Psalm 119:85-87, 95).

He calls himself a wineskin in the smoke.

Apparently in those days, when people were traveling in the desert, if a fire was needed inside a tent, they would hang a wineskin (containers of wine made from goat skin) in the tent, and it would absorb the smoke.

As a result, the skin would become hardened and shriveled.

In other words, he was absorbing (that is, suffering from) all the evil that people were plotting against him. And so he cried out,

When will you comfort me?…

How long must your servant wait?

When will you punish my persecutors? (Psalm 119:82-84).

Yet despite this, he put his hope in God’s words and God’s promises to him. He refused to let them go, even in the worst of situations. Why?

Your word, O LORD, is eternal;
it stands firm in the heavens.

Your faithfulness continues through all generations;
you established the earth, and it endures. (Psalm 119:89-90)

In other words, he knew that God and his promises never change. That God will be faithful to his word, though people are not. And he had confidence that no matter what happened, God would come through.

How about you? Are you confident even in the darkest times that if you follow God’s word, that God will prove faithful?

When things start falling apart on us, it’s easy to just say, “Doing things God’s way isn’t working. I might as well start doing things my way.”

And because we fail to trust, our finances fail, our marriages fail, as well as every other aspect of our lives.

When things look dark, let us not put our trust in ourselves and our own wisdom. Rather, let us continue to put our hope in God.

God’s word has not changed in thousands of years. And it’s not about to change now. As Isaiah put it,

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever. (Isaiah 40:8)

I don’t want to hear it

“I don’t want to hear it!”

How often do we say these words when it comes to God’s word?

We’re going through some trouble in our lives, we read something in the Word that deals with the situation, and immediately reject it because we don’t like what it says.

I remember a friend of mine talking about how he once was having trouble with the words that were coming out of his mouth, and he knew it.

Because of this, he took pains to avoid reading Proverbs and James where he knew the Bible talks a lot about the tongue.

But then one day, in some obscure passage, God nailed him to the wall about the things he was saying.

To his credit, at that point, he repented.

But so often, we avoid or ignore the Word of God in our lives because we know it will sting, just as hydrogen peroxide will sting if you put it on an open wound.

The Israelites were like that. They told Micah,

“Do not prophesy…

Do not prophesy about these things; disgrace will not overtake us…

Is the Spirit of the Lord angry? Does he do such things?” (Micah 2:6–7)

In short, the answer to the question was “Yes, God does bring judgment on his people when they sin.”

And we will suffer the consequences for our sin, whether it’s a broken marriage, financial ruin, or whatever else it may be, if we don’t repent.

But there’s another side to all this as well. God said, “Do not my words do good to him whose ways are upright?” (Micah 2:7)

In other words, God doesn’t just speak to make our lives miserable. He doesn’t give us his commands to take our lives away. He speaks in order that we may have life.

That we may have a healthy marriage. That we may have enough to eat and drink and a place to stay. That we may have work that satisfies. That we may have a life that really works.

And though his words may sting us at times, they will also heal.

But if we leave the open wounds of our sins untreated by his Word, they will fester, get infected, and ultimately destroy us.

How about you? Are there words from God that you are trying to avoid in your life today? Are there words from God that you are closing your ears to?

Open your heart. Soften your heart. The words of God may wound, but they also heal. May healing begin in your life.