This is the time of year when as we travel, we see people wearing bright orange vests, standing on or near the roads that we travel on. In their hands are poles, also stripped in bright orange, some of which are on tripods surrounded by cones of orange, and special devices they look through. What are they doing? Are they looking for something that has been lost?
No, they are surveying property for a project of some kind - highway reconstruction or construction, a new housing development, or a new business. They are looking for boundaries. They are attempting to determine where one property line ends and another begins.
In the past 10 years other kinds of boundaries have been written about. Boundaries between people. Two such books are Boundaries by Cloud and Townsend and Margin by Swenson. All three men are Christian counselors and physicians who basically say that part of spiritual health and maturity is learning how to be responsible for your own life by having healthy and responsible boundaries in your life that make healthy and responsible relationships possible.
A third book speaks of boundaries in a slightly different way. The best selling book, The Prayer of Jabez, written by Bruce Wilkinson, is based on I Chronicles 4:10, that is the record of Jabez’s prayer in which he asks God to "enlarge his territory." As Wilkinson writes, "the word territory can also be translated coast or borders." Might we also say "boundaries?"
Now, the boundaries or the borders for which Jabez prays to God to enlarge deal with a larger influence for God through his life. Wilkinson calls it "living large for God."
It is this third idea of boundaries that I wish to have us keep in mind this day as we come to our text in Psalm 119 and this question: How do you experience God’s ways in life? How do we identify and stay within the boundaries of life that God has put in place?
Last week it was suggested that Ezra wrote Psalm 119 and if he did, we need to also remember that the Jewish refugees in Jerusalem to whom he went after the God-imposed exile of 70 years was completed were people who needed to rediscover and reapply the boundaries of their faith. Ezra, I would remind us, went to restore the practice of worship and obedience to God to the refugees. However, as we read the story of Ezra’s mission in the Old Testament book by his name, we are also reminded that many leaders had exceeded the boundaries set by God in the law because of intermarriage and public confession and repentance was required.
Today we are going to look a segment of Psalm 119 that describes the boundaries of God’s way, verses 33-35.
I am going to read it a second time this morning to keep it fresh in our thinking:
Teach me, O Lord to follow every one of your principles. Give me understanding and I will obey your law; I will put it into practice with all my heart. Make me walk along the path of your commands, for that is where my happiness is found. "
We learn to live within the boundaries of God’s way when we:
Follow every one of God’s principles.
Understand and obey God’s law by putting it wholeheartedly into practice.
Walk along the path of God’s commands.
The boundaries of God’s way are to help us live like Jabez prayed and the first way we learn to live this way is by following every one of God’s principles. As I prepared this sermon, I spent some time looking up the nouns and verbs of this segment to have a clearer understanding of it. The first word I studied was follow that appears in verse 33.
An interesting definition of follow is "to engage in as a way of life." And if we use this definition of follow then what the Psalmist is saying in these verses is, "I want to engage in your way of life, God. I want to do what I need to do to live life your way."
To follow someone or something implies loyalty to that someone or something. For example, what would you say two explosives experts are loyal to when their motto is, “If you see us running, you had better catch up?” What are they loyal to? LIVING!!!
As we examine verse 33 we notice that the way of engagement (the way of loyalty?) for the Psalmist is through following not just a few, but every one of God’s principles. Now, what are principles? What does it mean to follow principles?
Someone has written that when a man says he approves of something in principle, it means that he hasn’t the slightest intention of putting it into practice. Is this what principles means in this verse?
NO! Keeping in mind the first part of verse 33, teach me, O Lord, the Psalmist is describing more of what we would call ethics or "the code of conduct or behavior governing an individual or a group."
The Israelite code of conduct was the Law given to Moses by God for the Israelites to follow. And God gave it for two specific reasons: 1. To help the Israelites live for Him among people who believed in many gods. 2. It was the first step in God’s plan of salvation for all humanity. It is this code of conduct that the writer willingly desires to follow.
When you look at the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 what is the first commandment? "Do not worship any other gods besides me." The first part of the Israelite code of conduct is therefore one of loyalty and obedience to only one God. The references to God in our Bibles is always singular not plural. There are not many gods there is only one God.
But the Psalmist indicates that he desires to follow, to be loyal to, all ten, not just some, of the Commandments. In fact he desires to follow, to be loyal to all, not a portion, but to all of the Law given to Moses by God! It is all of these principles; this entire code of conduct, the Psalmist seeks to follow. He is passionate about the whole guidance and help of God not just a portion of it. He wants God to teach him everyone one of them.
If we hold to the belief of some that Ezra wrote this Psalm, we can understand this very precise desire as we again review the circumstances that Ezra found himself in. The people to whom he was going lacked the more complete understanding of what God required of them. They needed to be taught what God had given their ancestors hundreds of years earlier. They needed to understand that God expected some things from them if they were to be His people. And the only way that Ezra, with the direction and help of God, could do this, is if he were taught by God to follow every one of the principles that God had given to Ezra and his people. But there is more to living within God’s boundaries than merely following these principles, these codes of conduct.
As we move to verse 34, I recall a speed-reading class that I took in high school. I enjoyed it very much because I thought it was great to learn a new way of reading that took less time. But just because I could read faster, did not mean I could read better.
A key part of the class required me to understand what I was reading. That required quizzes after reading a certain item or portion of something to see if, in my quest for speed, I understood what I read.
I am also reminded of the value of understanding illustrated in the story of the vagrant who stopped at a church shortly before Christmas and told the pastor that he was tired of floating around and wanted to settle down and join the church.
The pastor was pleased with this desire but first wanted to know how much of the Christian faith the man understood. So, with the Christmas season in mind he asked the vagrant, “Where was Jesus born?”
The man paused, “In Pittsburgh!” The pastor shook his head no. “In Philadelphia!” the man said enthusiastically.
Wishing not to further embarrass the man, the pastor simply said, “He was born in Bethlehem.” “Oh yeah!” replied the man, “I knew it was somewhere in Pennsylvania.”
The word understand is used as both a noun and a verse. But in verse 34, the Psalmist speaks of understanding as an action of obedience. One way we engage in this action of obedience is in learning.
When we learn we move from being exposed to information, to understanding the meaning of that information, and then to putting that information and it’s meaning into practice. Learning to follow God and live within His boundaries requires this same approach to learning.
The Psalmist moves beyond being taught the principles, the code of conduct, to understanding that code of conduct and then putting into wholehearted practice in the form of obeying it, of doing what the Law says to do.
Now what is the Law? Here is an excellent definition "the revelation of the divine will set forth in the Old Testament." The Law of which the Psalmist speaks is God revealing His will, His way of life, to the Israelites. And it is this law, this way of life, this code of conduct that the Psalmist wants to obey and "put into practice with all my heart."
For us today, the Bible is the written revelation of the divine will for us. It contains the Christian code of conduct. How well do we understand it?
What grabs me as I read this verse is the passion, the enthusiasm for God’s way. The Psalmist does not look at the Law as something to be feared but something that that gives life, that gives direction, gives hope to him and those around him.
Ezra’s journey to Jerusalem and the situation he had to deal with once he got there, illustrates this passion for God’s way quite well. Granted, it is a dark circumstance because the code of conduct has been broken and the very public mourning and agony over the spiritual condition of the people would seem to be a negative thing. But, it isn’t. It is the heart cry of a person who wants God to live in the lives of those he cares about. And verse 35 gives us a hint why that is.
Like a lot of other words, command is both a noun and a verb. In verse 35, the image is one of a person who is under someone’s orders like a recruit or an athlete in training. The commands given in these situations are directives that are for the purpose of developing certain skills and abilities as well as attitudes of respect and obedience.
Those here today who have served in the military understand what I am saying. Those of us who have participated in organized athletics understand this as well.
In fact the words commandment and commands are very closely related terms aren’t they? They can both mean “orders.” Which reminds me of the third grade Sunday School class whose teacher was teaching a lesson on the commandment “Honor Thy Father and Mother.” She asked, “Does anyone know a commandment for brothers and sisters?” One very perceptive student replied, “Thou shalt not kill!”
In our scripture passage for today, we have a person who says to God, "Help me to walk your way. Help me to walk the right direction, the right path that your directives, your way requires." And it is not a forced obedience it is a willing obedience.
God honors and blesses our willing obedience. He wants us to follow Him willingly and joyfully.
Why is the Psalmist this way? The last part of verse 35, the hint that I mentioned a moment ago is the reason: "for that is where my happiness is found." The Psalmist speaks of a relationship a faith in which there is joy and happiness not boredom or drudgery.
How does this compare with our societal view of happiness? Happiness is often defined as "no limits, no boundaries. I am happy when I can do what I want to do, when I want to do it." But what happens when the limits are exceeded?
The Psalmist says different. Happiness is found on the path of God’s commands. A narrower way. But, is it really?
CONCLUSION:
So how do we experience God’s ways in life? How do we live joyfully and contentedly within His boundaries? Three key words from this passage give us directions: follow, obey, and walk.
As I reflected on these three words I drew this diagram to help us understand the "movement" required for us to live within God’s boundaries. (Overhead 1)
We learn to live within the boundaries of God’s way when we:
Follow every one of God’s principles.
Understand and obey God’s law by putting it wholeheartedly into practice.
Walk joyfully along the path of God’s commands.
What are you, as God’s person, following these days? Do you understand the Bible, do you understand, as God’s person, what it means and are you willing to walk along the path of God’s directives for you life?
What about us as the people of God in this community at this point in history? What we are using to discern God’s voice and follow Him obediently? Do we understand His directives for us? And are we willing to walk in His paths? The paths of his commands, his directives for us?
In Jeremiah 18 we read of a trip to a potter’s house where Jeremiah observed a potter at work. That passage may have inspired Pollard and Stebbins to write the hymn “Have Thy Own Way, Lord!” nearly a century ago. It is hymn 400 in our brown hymnbook and I would like for us to turn to it, as it will be our closing hymn today.
As you locate the hymn, take a look at the scripture verse under the title. What is it? Psalm 119:34. The hymn came to mind as I prepared for this morning but until I turned to it in the hymnbook, I had no idea that part of our text for this morning was the verse for this great hymn.
We are like clay. We have the capacity to be just about anything. The question is who or what is shaping our lives? It is us or is it God? If we choose to live life within the boundaries of God then it means that God must shape us. And He will shape us and our lives as we follow Him, obey Him, and walk with Him
I believe that God has so much that He wants to give us. More than we can imagine! I believe that the riches of Christ that Paul speaks of are beyond our wildest dreams. And I also believe that some of them are for us now, in this life. What are some of those riches? How about peace, joy, patience, and contentment for starters?
But, they require us to surrender and live within the boundaries of God. Obey the Spirit this day and give up, give up, give up and live! Amen.
(Overhead 1 available please e-mail me at pastorjim46755@yahoo.com and ask for 072102svg
