Erling Thu

Category: Biblical teaching

  • When discouraged and heavy thoughts creep into our soul.

    Psalm 119,50 It is my comfort in my sufferings that your word gives me life.

    Once again, we see how truthful David is when he talks about life. It's one of the things I like most when I read the Psalms. David and the other psalmists are so brutally real and honest in what they say. They do not hide their disappointments and difficulties. They depict bitter and bad feelings. They put words to dark and heavy thoughts. But they take us along to the jubilant high points in life when they celebrate God's salvation.

    In this verse, David is in trouble and is having a hard time. From the context we understand that this misfortune is something his enemies have inflicted on him. His opponents have made life miserable for him. Problems pile up and he sees no visible solution. Everything is dark around him and he feels alone. He is in great distress. It is in such moments that discouragement and heavy thoughts creep into our souls. Then we need God's comfort, as David did.

    David found comfort in God's word. The Word created faith and life. The Word gave him hope and refreshed him. I have experienced the same many times. When the pain has been great and the heavy thoughts have been painful to fight with, I have time and again found comfort and new courage in the Word. I do not live by bread alone, but every word from the mouth of God gives me life. God's Word is a source of life. In the middle of the darkness and the bad news, I find comfort in the fact that what he has promised has enabled me to live through the bad and come out on the other side, – alive in God's power and grace.

    Prayer:

    Lord, in all my trials and difficulties I find great comfort in your promises, because they keep me alive!

  • We build our hope on what God has promised.

    The main theme of that section (Ps 119:49-56), which now takes up the Hebrew letter ZAYIN, is the comfort the psalmist finds in God's word when the culture he lives in mocks and persecutes those who believe in God's truths. He has full confidence that God will save him, because he rests in the Lord's law.

    Psalm 119.49 Remember your word to your servant. Through it you have given me hope.

    This section does not start unexpectedly with a prayer to the Lord. David has learned to pray. He knows that the Lord hears when he prays. In this stanza he reminds God of the promises he has received from the Lord: Remember the Word you have given your servant! Don't forget to do what you said! This is a very important lesson to learn.
    Firstly, we must learn to absorb the Word so that it becomes personal to us. Or put another way, we must learn to hear God's voice when we read and base our thoughts on the words of the Bible. It is possible to read the Bible without hearing God's voice, without the Word speaking to us. We must avoid that at all costs.
    I am completely convinced that the Bible is the word of God. Nevertheless, it can happen that I read my daily chapters without something coming alive for me, without something speaking to me. Then I have to stop. Then I must humbly ask the Lord for help to get hold of what he wants to tell me in what I have read. Then I read once more while praying that I notice something I can learn from what I read. As a rule, God hears that prayer and I see things I didn't notice the first time I read.
    Many good promises in God's word have become my personal words from God. But of course I get words from the Lord in other ways also. It is the same how God's word comes to us, when we have received a promise from God, we must constantly remind God of what he has promised.
    Note the next stanza: Through it you have given me hope! When God speaks to us, we gain hope. Through the Word we get something to hope for, something to look forward to. The promises of God create light in the dark. Words from God drive the dark and heavy thoughts away, because they create hope.
    The good thing is that God is a faithful God. He keeps what he promises and does what he says he will do. It doesn't matter how difficult life can be, God will never leave us or let us go. When we remind God of what he has said, it also helps us. It helps us hold fast to the promises and to the hope. It helps us to fix our eyes on the faithful God who keeps what he promises. We build our hope on what God has promised.
    Prayer:
    Lord, don't forget the promises you have given me, because they are my hope and courage!

  • On Death and Resurrection in Christ

     

    Yesterday I was crucified with Him; today I am glorified with Him.

    Yesterday I died with Him; today I am made alive with Him.

    Yesterday I was crucified with Him; today I am glorified with Him.

    Yesterday I died with Him; today I am made alive with Him.

    Yesterday I was buried with Him; today I am raised up with Him.

    Let us offer to Him Who suffered and rose again for us . . . ourselves, the possession most precious to God and most proper.

    Let us become like Christ, since Christ became like us.

    Let us become Divine for His sake, since for us He became Man.

    He assumed the worse that He might give us the better.

    He became poor that by His poverty we might become rich.

    He accepted the form of a servant that we might win back our freedom.

    He came down that we might be lifted up.

    He was tempted that through Him we might conquer.

    He was dishonored that He might glorify us.

    He died that He might save us.

    He ascended that He might draw to Himself us, who were thrown down through the fall of sin.

    Let us give all, offer all, to Him who gave Himself a Ransom and Reconciliation for us.

    We needed an incarnate God, a God put to death, that we might live.

    We were put to death together with Him that we might be cleansed.

    We rose again with Him because we were put to death with Him.

    We were glorified with Him because we rose again with Him.

    A few drops of Blood recreate the whole of creation!

    —St Gregory the Theologian, Easter Orations

  • I want to lay hold on the word!

    Psalm 119.48 I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes.

    It may be a little unclear as to David's intention to raise his hands towards God's commandments, but I think it's about raising his hands to grasp the word of God. He says he loves God and wants to reflect on God's precepts. That is why he wants to raise his hands to lay hold on the word of God and not let it go. He loves God and will meditate on the word to understand God's plan and will.

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  • Passion and delight in the Word of God

    Psalm 119.47 for I find my delight in your commandments, which I love. 

    I am so excited by the joy David finds in God's commandments. "I delight in your commandments." He finds joy and delight in God's law. In fact, it can be translated with: "I am entertaining me in your commands!" When many hear words like commandments, laws, rules, they respond negatively. Very many want to cast it in the sea and get rid of them, because they want to be free to follow their own sinful heart.

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  • I will not be ashamed of the word of God or His good arrangements!

    Psalm 119.46 I will also speak of your testimonies before kings and shall not be put to shame, 

    It is a bold David we meet in this words. But it is not wishful thinking he expresses. Before he was king, he was both bold and preached the word of God to King Ashish and Saul. After becoming king, he continued to speak to kings about God's testimony and law. He did not hide what he believed in and whom had his loyalty.

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  • I want to live in complete freedom!

    Psalm 119.45 and I shall walk in a wide place, for I have sought your precepts.

    When David has stated that he will always, at every moment, follow the law of God, he continues in this verse with a prayer to walk in an open landscape. I was born and raised in Jæren, at the south western coast of Norway, and I love open landscapes. At Jæren I can breathe freely. I am not created for trong fjords or valleys or deep forests. I have to have a view, preferably see water, to thrive. Tronge landscape depress me because I feel I'm trapped. For this reason, I have asked many times to get out into a wide and open place so that I can live and breathe freely.

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  • I will keep your law continually

    Psalm 119.44 I will keep your law continually, forever and ever, 

    In trusting that God answers and shows his faithful love, David comes with a bold promise. "I will always keep your law!" These are strong words, but it is a attitude that the Lord reewards. David will forever live in accordance with the law of the Lord.

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  • Courage to Say What God Says

    Psalm 119:43 And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for my hope is in your rules.

    Here, David begs God not to take the word of truth out of his mouth. The Word of Truth is about God's faithful love and saving grace. If the Lord had not saved him, it would have meant that this word had been ripped out from his mouth, because it would no longer be true. The good thing is that God saves in accordance with His good and true word which is the gospel of the Kingdom of God.

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  • I always want an answer to those who mock me!

    Psalm 119,42 Then I can answer the scoffers, for I trust in your word.

    This prayer is a close follow-up to what he asked for in the previous verse. There, David prayed that God's faithful love and his good salvation should come to him, as God had promised him. Now he tells God what he will do when he experiences God's mercy and works of grace.

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