October 26 - The words of my mouth

I am madly trying to memorize Greek for a mid-term this week.  I'm fairly certain that this might kill me.  Ok, that's probably overstated, but good heavens, this is a lot of stress for an old lady! :)  And, to top it off, I have to do a close-reading (interpretation with no outside helps) of John 9 for my Intro to New Testament course and a Segment Survey of Matthew 13.  So, my little head might explode by midweek. 

Sometimes I get so caught up in the work that I have to remember why I'm doing this.  My Matthew course professor always reminds us to begin with prayer.  Every assignment list he hands us asks us to remember that.  So, I'll ask you to pray for me this week.  I really am stressing over the Greek.  Pray that I can move the memorization into context.  I know the words, but I'm not putting it all together to make a translation happen smoothly yet.  Pray for my brain to be agile and fresh as I'm working through this.

Psalm 19 is my focus for today - Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight for you are my rock and my redeemer!!!

October 4, 2008 - Psalm 19:1-14

Do you have things in your memory that have no context? I hate it when people quote lines from movies. I recognize the line, but for the life of me, I can't think of what movie it has come from.

My father always opened his sermon with the words, "Let the words of my mouth..." at which point the congregation would respond with, "and the meditations of my heart..." followed by the joint recitation of "be acceptable in your heart, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer."

These words were simply a part of my existence each week. It never occurred to me that I might find them in scripture. Ok, I probably thought my father was incredibly creative. Imagine my surprise, when reading the Bible, I discovered the source of that call and response. This Psalm has been special to me ever since.

The entire Psalm is glorious. What an affirmation of the awareness of God in the world. All creation sees His glory. People don't need to wait to be told of the Creator, the heavens declare, the skies proclaim, their voice goes out into all the world. God doesn't need a language to tell of His glory, all creation sings of it. (Read what Paul says about this in Romans 1:18-20.)

The second witness (after creation) to God's power and perfection is the Law. Psalm 19:7-11 lifts up 6 different concepts of the Law: Law/perfect, statutes/trustworthy, precepts/right, commands/radiant, fear of the Lord/pure, ordinances/sure. This highlights more of the beauty of Hebrew poetry in its use of repetition. The Psalmist doesn't want us to have any doubt as to the qualities of God's word, so his use of repetition reinforces over and over what he is saying.

In this Psalm, we find 3 very different ways that God proclaims His presence to the world: in the silent witness of Creation, in the Word of God found through the Law, and finally in the life that is lived by a man walking with God. So unassuming, so natural, yet so very profound.

There's more to these Psalms than you ever realized, isn't there!

Today, focus on how your life is part of the testimony that tells the world about our Creator.

May the words of our mouths,
and the meditations of our hearts
be acceptable in thy sight,
O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer!