GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
PSALM 119:101-102
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101 I have kept my feet from every evil path
in order to keep your word.
102 I have not turned aside from your judgments,
for you yourself have taught me.
These two verses, the fifth and sixth of this 8-verse stanza, are the core of the stanza. The verses before show how God’s word makes the believer’s life and understanding better than that of one’s enemies, unbelieving teachers, and even elders. The believer simply loves the word of God and meditates on it all day (verse 97). Now we see the practical application of knowing God’s word. Of course the word leads to eternal life in the resurrection, but it is also priceless for here, as well as hereafter. The Word of God keeps the Christian from “every evil path.”
Notice how a Christian can cooperate with God in this desire, because it follows salvation (where we do not cooperate, but are passive). In the daily life of sanctification, we can say, “I have kept my feet from an evil path,” although we can’t do this perfectly, nor can we do it constantly, because we sin every day and we sin often. But we are renewed by drowning the Old Adam, the sinful flesh, as we remember our baptism and continually put our faith in Christ. Peter asks: “What kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives” (2 Peter 3:11).
When we go through difficult times and fall into temptations and sin, we are called back again through the gospel of forgiveness. And so even though we are led to pray with David, “I am wiser than my enemies, than my teachers, than my elders” and even “I have have kept my feet from every evil path,” we know in our hearts that we fail in all these things. Sin infects the flesh and disturbs the spirit. But even now, having stumbled and fallen, look again at verse 102, which is the tent-pole that holds up this whole stanza: “For you yourself have taught me.” That additional “yourself” (‘atah, אַתָּה) is the hand of faith grasping the outstretched and saving hand of God. “My soul finds rest in God alone,” we pray, and this is the foundation of the whole Christian life.
Sin can and does cling to us as long as we live. It is never purged from us in this lifetime. This is sin “that so easily entangles us” (Hebrews 12:1). This is our sinful flesh (John 3:6; Romans 8:3). The converted, reborn Christian does not always yield to the desires of the flesh as unbelievers do, but he has the flesh in him. Yet we are taught by God– remember the tent-pole of our verse, holding up all of the wonderful things David says we have and are better at than our human teachers. God teaches us that we are clean and holy in his sight on account of Jesus’ life and death, and that in our baptism we are made believers and we are made his children. This new self is constantly being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator (Colossians 3:10).
Sanctification is established (1) in the driving away of the darkness of sin in the mind and the errors of the intellect as well as the illumination of the mind through the Spirit and his Word, (2) in correcting, amending the will, harmonizing the will with God’s will, harmonizing our will with his righteousness and holiness. (3) Also, in restraining the sinful passions (which are inclined always toward sin and perverse things ), disorderly emotions, and to incline rather toward purity and chastity of our feelings, (4) in learning to use one’s body and life to training in works of righteousness, and (5) in discipline over ruling sins.
Paul summarizes all this for us: “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” For he himself has taught us.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Psalm 119:101-102 You yourself have taught me