This Day's Delight
When Corrie Ten Boom was a little girl, she was riding the train with her father. Such a little time about other business apparently created the space to ask questions that pressed on her young mind, and she did. She asked her father what sex sin was. Her wise father turned to her and asked that she carry their large suitcase. When she admitted that she could not, her father drew a parallel between that futile effort and the answer to her questions. He suggested that just as the suitcase was too heavy for her right now and that it would be best for her to let her father carry it, so it was with the answer to some of life's questions. Better to leave them in her father's hands until the right time.
I think about that when I come upon verses like Psalm 119:78, in which the psalmist opens by inveighing, "Bring disgrace upon the arrogant people who lied about me." Although this celebration of the righteous judgment of God runs counter to our culture, I don't struggle to lift that theological suitcase. Celebration of the reality that the Lord will settle things right by judging those who trust in their misused power rather than in Him runs to prominently throughout God's Word for me to claim to believe it and yet to be squeamish at such Truth. People lied about Christ, and, barring confession, they will be judged for it, and for every idle word. With plenty they could criticize justly as not like Christ we claim to follow, people nevertheless lie about us as Christ's own. The plea for the further unveiling of Christ's righteousness which Psalm 119:78 joins is a comforting company of continuity, now that I and my fellow Christians through the ages are covered in the righteousness of Christ.
Instead, I come to the fatherly reassurance like that which little Corrie Ten Boom received in the second half of the verse. What do I do meanwhile? How do I occupy myself when I don't see God bringing disgrace on the disgraceful who lie about Him, or who lie just as readily about me? Do I, like Madame Defarge in A Tale of Two Cities, spend my time until the Revolution knitting the names of my enemies, occupying both my thoughts and my hands centrally with their downfall? The psalmist, real about enemies and the hurt of a fallen world, says no. He continues in prayer, "Meanwhile, I will concentrate on your commandments." While he doesn't know exactly how God's justice will play out, while he can't lift that suitcase of the sovereignty of God, he occupies himself with what he has been given to wrestle with and delight in simultaneously, God's Word. In fact, he gives us the longest chapter in that Word, sopping or sparkling with gratitude and fascination with what God has revealed about Himself within those pages.
Real as our hurts are, God ordained as our longing for justice is, and resounding as will be our echo through the ages that Christ is worthy to judge, meanwhile we train our thoughts and our voices for that day by studying and drawing near to Him in this one. Psalm 119:78 is preceded by the declaration that God's instructions are the psalmist's DELIGHT, so we have too much good to focus on to be entirely fixated on what isn't 100% right yet. Trudging on just one verse, we see a psalmist brave enough and sure enough in the justice of God, however it unfolds, to ask for authentic fellowship with humans who might hurt him again. His plea in Psalm 119:79 is ours. In place of defensiveness, surety in the sovereign justice of God can allow us to express our itch to get back in the game of community. "Let me be united with all who fear you, with those who know your laws." The vision, as the New Testament will put it, that Christ is faithful to finish the work He has begun in our brothers and sisters in Him allows us to occupy ourselves with age-appropriate, faith vulnerable interactions this day.
I think about that when I come upon verses like Psalm 119:78, in which the psalmist opens by inveighing, "Bring disgrace upon the arrogant people who lied about me." Although this celebration of the righteous judgment of God runs counter to our culture, I don't struggle to lift that theological suitcase. Celebration of the reality that the Lord will settle things right by judging those who trust in their misused power rather than in Him runs to prominently throughout God's Word for me to claim to believe it and yet to be squeamish at such Truth. People lied about Christ, and, barring confession, they will be judged for it, and for every idle word. With plenty they could criticize justly as not like Christ we claim to follow, people nevertheless lie about us as Christ's own. The plea for the further unveiling of Christ's righteousness which Psalm 119:78 joins is a comforting company of continuity, now that I and my fellow Christians through the ages are covered in the righteousness of Christ.
Instead, I come to the fatherly reassurance like that which little Corrie Ten Boom received in the second half of the verse. What do I do meanwhile? How do I occupy myself when I don't see God bringing disgrace on the disgraceful who lie about Him, or who lie just as readily about me? Do I, like Madame Defarge in A Tale of Two Cities, spend my time until the Revolution knitting the names of my enemies, occupying both my thoughts and my hands centrally with their downfall? The psalmist, real about enemies and the hurt of a fallen world, says no. He continues in prayer, "Meanwhile, I will concentrate on your commandments." While he doesn't know exactly how God's justice will play out, while he can't lift that suitcase of the sovereignty of God, he occupies himself with what he has been given to wrestle with and delight in simultaneously, God's Word. In fact, he gives us the longest chapter in that Word, sopping or sparkling with gratitude and fascination with what God has revealed about Himself within those pages.
Real as our hurts are, God ordained as our longing for justice is, and resounding as will be our echo through the ages that Christ is worthy to judge, meanwhile we train our thoughts and our voices for that day by studying and drawing near to Him in this one. Psalm 119:78 is preceded by the declaration that God's instructions are the psalmist's DELIGHT, so we have too much good to focus on to be entirely fixated on what isn't 100% right yet. Trudging on just one verse, we see a psalmist brave enough and sure enough in the justice of God, however it unfolds, to ask for authentic fellowship with humans who might hurt him again. His plea in Psalm 119:79 is ours. In place of defensiveness, surety in the sovereign justice of God can allow us to express our itch to get back in the game of community. "Let me be united with all who fear you, with those who know your laws." The vision, as the New Testament will put it, that Christ is faithful to finish the work He has begun in our brothers and sisters in Him allows us to occupy ourselves with age-appropriate, faith vulnerable interactions this day.
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