Gimel

¹⁷ Be good to your servant,
    that I may live and obey your word.
¹⁸ Open my eyes to see
    the wonderful truths in your instructions.
¹⁹ I am only a foreigner in the land.
    Don’t hide your commands from me!
²⁰ I am always overwhelmed
    with a desire for your regulations.
²¹ You rebuke the arrogant;
    those who wander from your commands are cursed.
²² Don’t let them scorn and insult me,
    for I have obeyed your laws.
²³ Even princes sit and speak against me,
    but I will meditate on your decrees.
²⁴ Your laws please me;
    they give me wise advice.

Psalm 119:17-24

Dear God, it’s time for the Gimel section of Psalm 119. I want to meditate on your word today, and the way I plan to do that is to spend some time in what this psalmist wrote to you in worship thousands of years ago. Thank you that I am tied to him and to your catholic church in this way.

• ¹⁷ Be good to your servant, that I may live and obey your word. – I’m not sure what it means for me to tell you that I want you to be good to me. I mean, of course I want that, but is it presumptuous for me to ask? I want you to use each day to grow me closer to you. The challenges in the day. The good parts of the day. Maybe “good” in this context doesn’t mean spoil me and give me all that I selfishly want. Maybe the meaning can be found in the second part of the verse. Maybe good is giving me what you know I need so that I can become the man you have for me to be. A man who will live and obey your word.
• ¹⁸ Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions. – I was just listening to a discussion that is complicate to describe here, but it basically talked about how we have to have common truths among us as society in order to function as society. When be deny any moral absolutes and embrace complete individualism with no common ground then things will deteriorate. For me, I want to see the wonderful truths in your instructions, live them, and then share them with others so we can find common ground and function together to be your people.
• ¹⁹ I am only a foreigner in the land. Don’t hide your commands from me! – I’m on vacation right now in a place I’ve never been to before. Now, it’s still in the U.S., so I have some basic understanding of how things work, but everything feels new and a little uncomfortable. When I wake up in the morning, I’m not sure where I am. When I’m not sure what to do during the day I have to rely heavily on the Internet to guide me to opportunities. But even in those moments I’m exploring and not in my comfort zone. I think this overall world is a bit like that. I am a foreigner–especially to what it would look like to have your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Help me to know you more through the direction and commands you give me.
• ²⁰ I am always overwhelmed with a desire for your regulations. – Well, I’m not sure I can say that is true. I am sometimes overwhelmed with a desire for your regulations, but I think that is not the majority of my desires. I mean, yes, I want to follow you, but I am rarely “overwhelmed” by the desire for your regulations. Maybe a little more each day? I hope so.
• ²¹ You rebuke the arrogant; those who wander from your commands are cursed. – A friend told me years ago that “[I] don’t like bullies.” Sometimes the arrogant can be bullies. But it’s not only bullies. There are just some who think they can do this on their own. They are determined to find their certainty in themselves. I so appreciate some of the men I have met through Christian Men’s Life Skills, both instructors and participants, who are humble and submitted to you, flaws and all.
• ²² Don’t let them scorn and insult me, for I have obeyed your laws. – The people who scorn and insult me tend to be people who actually profess to follow you intently. They think I don’t follow your laws enough because I don’t believe in forcing your laws on others. I believe in loving them and then using persuasion to do it. I frustrate them, and they frustrate me. We are probably both wrong to a certain extent. Guide me, Holy Spirit, in this area.
• ²³ Even princes sit and speak against me, but I will meditate on your decrees. – For the psalmist, I wonder what this meant. For example, let’s say this is during David’s time. Were some of the king’s sons speaking against the psalmist? Regardless, the psalmist found his peace through meditating on you and your decrees. Amen.
• ²⁴ Your laws please me; they give me wise advice. – There is so much wisdom in your decrees. So much why. You didn’t just give us laws. There was a why behind your laws. I like to challenge church friends on the LGBTQ issue. They talk about why it’s bad to lie. Why it’s bad to murder, steal, etc. So when I ask them why someone shouldn’t be in a monogamous same-sex relationship, they can only point to the law and not the wisdom behind the law. This is just one example. Help us to share your laws with your wisdom so that we can show your compassion and love for us through your laws.

I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen