119:1, ". . .in the way, who walk. . .
119:3, ". . .they walk in his ways."
119:5, "O tha my ways. . ."
Ways and walking
Those that know me well, know this story, but those of you that don't let me share where my love for Psalm 119 comes from. when I was a teenager, the son of a preacher, we had to go through most of what preachers kids did with services and duties of a pastor. When dad went to the hospital,we all went and sat in the car. Weddings and funerals of people we did not know, we had to go and endure. One family in the church had a grand son that was lost and got into drugs, burnt out in his mind and was at Weston, a mental hospital here in WV. Dad went out to visit him a few times while there. He would tell the story of how that young man saw, "Two great big black things at the foot of his bed and in the doorway." His only comfort was that he would recite Psalm 119, all 176 verses. The Lord used that to teach me what was possible with a mind. Other factors played in to my memorization during my teenage years. But one of the greatest efforts I put forth was to memorize all of Psalm 119 and not just to memorize it but to keep it. It started off to do it for the accomplishment itself, but, oh, I cannot express to you what joy it has brought to me spiritually. Martin Luther called it, "The best of verses and of the Psalms"; other old saints have fell in love with it and it has been the instruction for many. I have begun several times to pattern Spurgeon in his commentary of the Psalms and I have worked on this one. so that is the background of my love for Psalm 119 and it continues to feed me, as it did this morrning as I was reciting it. I want to pass this on to you through this devotion. . .
Within the first five verses the two words, 'ways' and 'walk' are used to build. Any Christian knows the value of walking with the Lord. but these two words tie together, your ways determine what kind of walk you have with Him. Now, any Christian, wants as close a walk with the Lord as they possibly can. If they don't desire to walk with Him then they are not of Him, plain and simple. But many a Christian has begun to walk with Him only to lose the lustre of it because of their ways in life. They are not pleasing ways, they are not holy ways and 'can two walk together unless they be agreed?'
I would ask you today, how is your walk with the Lord? Could we not all rejoice for everyone to say, "I don't know that I have been any closer than where I am right now." Oh, wouldn't that be a wonderful testimony of the church. But if left to truth, we kind of know that most in the church today do not walk with Him and their ways are corrupt. The flesh is ruling and reigning. The Spirit is quenched, resisted and grieved.
How do we change this? I believe that throught the Holy Spirit God breaths Divine life into His own. My wretchedness is mine own fault; but my righteousness can only come from Him Who is righteous. No good thing dwells within me, except the Presence of God. Now this Presence of God, His Holy Spirit, draws me unto Him, feeds me and teaches me. So that He makes me look at my ways before Him. My thoughts, my words, my actions, my desires and so on. When I behold my ways I will know how my walk with Him is. If I find sin in daily ways then I know that I am not walking close to Him. The verse here reads that if we are walking in His ways then sin is not happening. Oh, that we may pray and find many brothers and sisters in Christ that are walking so close to the Lord that sin cannot get a foothold.
I see within many of the church today with open, vile sin. Unfaithfulness to the church services, prayer, witnessing is a breeding ground for iniquity. Familes and individuals come one Sunday, miss two and back and forth, and in and out of the church, until some sickness or problem then they come consistenly. Can people not see that their walk is hazardous because their ways are filled with transgressions? How many people started to read their Bibles through this year and after two months now have given up and fallen far behind because their ways had time for TV, movies, eating out, friends and so on but they did not make time for the Lord. And now they walk contrary to Him, Who loves them. Is there any thing worse to say to God, "I don't have time for you." when it is God who gave them the time. How vile and ungrateful we are. May we choose today to cleanse ourselves and confess specifically our sins. To tell our Lord to cleanse us by His precious blood for our ways are sinful and offensive to Him. Then we will see our walk with Him is perfect and wonderful. Look to Him and make sure you are walkin with Him closely because your ways are pleasing in His sight.
