GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
PSALM 119:78-80
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78 May the proud be put to shame
for they have wronged me with lies.
But I will meditate on your precepts.
“The proud one will stumble and fall,” Jeremiah says, “and no one will help him up” (Jeremiah 50:32). This doesn’t always happen in our lifetime, and that the wicked are seldom punished or brought to repentance so that we can see their repentance or new faith. So the Psalm’s prayer (along with Jeremiah’s prayer) is a warning to the wicked about the coming of hell and damnation.
Their attack on the believer in this verse is “they have wronged me with lies.” “Wronged” here is to subvert, to bend or twist the life or words of the believer with lies that destroy his reputation, his good name, and perhaps ruin his life or career. This is a cross we bear. The prayer, “May they be put to shame,” is appropriate (this kind of prayer is called imprecatory, a desire for God to carry out his wrath), but the believer leaves this act to God. We do not become a self-appointed posse to inflict punishment wherever we think it would be appropriate.
We also remember that the crosses we bear are in our lives to help us to bear witness to our faith in Christ, to remind us that we are his children, and are there for our good. Even when we seem to be out of choices, and when everything we do seems to fail, we look to Christ for forgiveness, and to the Holy Spirit for encouragement, and we know that God always has our eternal good in mind.
79 May those who fear you turn to me,
those who know your testimonies.
“Those who fear you” are the millions of Christians in the world, many or most of which have a simple, honest, Sunday-school faith, but who are disturbed by the differences between the denominations, confused by the splinterings within churches, and who stand aghast when they learn about religions that continue to reject Christ even when they have a veneer that looks very nearly Chrisitian. “Come to me,” Jesus said, “all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28-29). He calls the church to listen to him, and today this is done through the preaching of the gospel. Despite advances in technology, streaming services, audio and video available in an instant anywhere there is a wireless connection, in-person worship remains the best way to hear the gospel.
This verse also shows the value of continued learning in our churches, following Sunday school, following an elementary school learning, confirmation, or even a Lutheran high school education. Adult spiritual growth is essential, so that the whole church “will know your testimonies.” That is to say, so that everyone will know the whole Bible, not only Genesis and the Gospels and the letters of Peter and Paul, but the discourses in Job, the reformation under Ezra, the shipwreck, stoning, and other difficulties faced by Paul in Acts, the messages of the Minor Prophets, and the simple illustrations of Church fellowship in the shorter letters of John.
Our people must be reminded to look to their pastors and teachers when they have questions about doctrine and also questions about our practices, and that the internet– so valuable for so many things– is not a quick path to Biblical answers that are sound or correct.
80 May my heart be blameless toward your statutes,
so that I may not be put to shame.
This verse ends the yod-stanza, and it reminds us to examine our lives according to the Word of God, and especially in the mirror of the Ten Commandments. But the way we look on the outside doesn’t mean that we really stand up to the standard God sets for us: “Be holy, because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45). There are those who hear God’s words “but do not put them into practice” (Ezekiel 33:32). Such a person is like an actor or a singer who pretends but who is not really the one who does, or says, or feels, or believes. Not that a singer cannot believe all the words he sings with all his heart– for this is what we hope we all do in worship!– but Ezekiel means that it’s possible to sing or to repeat lines written down but not believe them at all.
No one can keep God’s law perfectly. How, then, can anyone be blameless toward God’s statutes, his timeless and enduring laws? He demands of us, “You must be blameless before the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 18:13). Christ has made us “without stain or wrinkle, or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:27). His life stands in place of our sinful lives; his sacrificial death paid in blood for the guilt of our sins (Romans 3:25). This doctrine, to the world, is absurd. The world– and, indeed, our own sinful human reason– would think that the Almighty God, who created everything and everyone and commanded man to keep all his law and obey him, would naturally (!) accept a good life lived well by his dear people, and that he would condemn those who disobey. Yet we all disobey! This is where the world throws up its hands and says, what a ridiculous religion! But Christ came, not because it was reasonable, but because he loved us. Why does he love us? Not on account of something, anything, good in us, but “Who has known the mind of the Lord?” (1 Corinthians 2:16; Isaiah 40:13). He loves us because love is one of his holy attributes. God is love (1 John 4:8). And praise God that this is the way it is! He has turned our hearts from unbelief to belief, and he has turned our status from condemned to saved. His mercy endures forever.
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 119:78-80 They have wronged me