Reflections: Psalm 119

While reading Psalm 119 today (always in my devotional reading on the 31st of the month), I celebrated many rich truths. This Psalm is so long as to be read less often by many. You will recall the Psalm is 22 sections each with 8 verses (176 total) with each section and its verses starting with the subsequent letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Were it in English, for instance, all the verses in the first section would start with “A” then all in the second section with “B”. Quite of feat of writing when you consider the form alone, much less the depth of content.

Great Biblical scholar Matthew Henry’s dad recommended to his son reading and meditating on one verse from this Psalm every day. What a great lifetime pursuit. How much might one gain from such a discipline? The reader would read and reflect on each verse in this wonderful Psalm twice per year and in doing so would gain deeper appreciation for the beauty, power and purpose of God’s revelation of Himself…and so, a deeper intimacy with God.

Today, I was taken with Psalm 119: 89-90, “Forever, oh Lord, your word is settled in heaven…” I thought about times when I have tried to take pictures of the moon. My pictures always disappoint because the images are so shaky, movement happens while the picture is exposing. When I try to take its picture, the moon always shakes.

Wrong! I am the one who shakes. The moon and stars remain constant. So is the Word of God in our lives. No matter how shaken we may be in our daily experience, His Word is evidence of the unchanging, constant faithfulness of God who has made us the object of His grace, love, and redeeming hope. He is the unmoving One who invites us to represent Him among the nations; to shine His light into the darkness (Philippians 3:15, Romans 2:19, 2 Peter 1:19).

A final reality hit me today. The faithfulness of our God spans the generations. As long as the earth remains, God's revelation exists as the North Star guiding us in relationship to Him. Remember, the righteous live by faith. That faith is placed in a consistent and eternally reliable object. He is. And we are His. We can rest in the confidence that His purpose will be done. His mission and our witness to Him in it, is fundamentally accomplished. It is a sure as the sun, moon and stars. Forever, oh Lord…settled!