Psalms 119:163 - Lie verses Law

Hidden Treasures of the 119th Psalm.

So, we get to dig around in some great counsel today for the letter Shin. Again, as we've talked about throughout the Psalm, that in Isaiah 11 we get this idea of the seven anointings that Christ, God, and since every single letter, every single word is Christ, that these letters all have those anointings. And so, very interestingly, the psalmist somehow through the Holy Spirit gave us this kind of order to where we can recognize it clearly. The third verse, and so one first verse would be wisdom, and then the second verse understanding. So, today we're in the third verse of the letter Shin, and that would be counsel. And again, in Hebrew that idea of counsel is getting put on the right path. And so, you can clearly see the counsel of this verse when it comes to the letter Shin as I read it in English. It says, I hate and abhorre lying, but thy law do I love. And so, very interesting that the word lying in Hebrew is sheker, or this is the very first word in this verse.

And so, this idea of sheker is a shin, followed by a kuff, interestingly. So, it's almost a sense of this falsehood is to some extent oxidizing our relationship with God, because that kuff is the word holy. And so, when you put the shin in front of it, you get this idea that obviously you're getting pushed further from God as you're oxidizing our relationship as we lie. And so, interestingly, the psalmist gives us another comparison here in that he hates and abhors, and abhor is this idea of even being sick to our stomach or an abomination, something even more horrible than just hating lying. But thy law do I love is the comparison. So, we get this idea of here's the bad, which is lying, and here's the good, which is God's word.

And it seems really simple, the interesting thing. And the thing I thought about is I've thought about this verse more and more is that, unfortunately, the person that I lie to the most is me, right? I mean, I tell lies. There's no doubt, and I hate and abhor that I do that. But clearly, my biggest problem is the lies that I tell myself, and I'm telling myself those lies continually. Like, you're never gonna be anything. You're such a disappointment. I don't have enough money.

I don't have enough time to get this done. All these different little things that get flipped into my mind, whether through Satan or through my flesh, or however that works, the world flips it into your mind. All these worrying things that Jesus pointed out are lies. They simply are not the truth, and they are eroding my relationship with God. And so, the beautiful thing is, as I think about these, you know, we call them, or John Eldridge calls them in his ministry, agreement. So, when we agree with a lie, wherever we got it, from Satan, or from our flesh, or from the world, when we agree with it, like, you know, God is not on my side, or anything that I agree with, like, this is up to me, or, you know, I'll never amount to anything. All those are agreements, and those are very, very, very dangerous in our spiritual life, because the only way to cleanse those, unfortunately, is to—no, I shouldn't say unfortunately.

I should say very fortunately, the way to cleanse those is the other part of this counsel. In other words, here's the bad stuff over here, to hate and abhor lying, but thy law do I love, you see. So, as we get into the word, as we study the word, as we actually memorize this particular verse, in my opinion, I love this verse. I love that I have this verse memorized, and I actually pray it every day, because I'm trying to get the picture that I need to really think through these lies that I'm telling myself, or telling anybody else, because what we base on the law, what we base on the truth, is what is going to, you know, move the kingdom forward, so to speak. And so, here with this letter shin, we have this clear opportunity to oxidize our relationship with God, and chew on our relationship in a bad way. And so, it's clear that, you know, the solution here is Jesus.

Right? He is the law, and the law is Jesus. And the easiest access to the truth is to pick it up, start to read it, or if you have it in your heart, even better. And in all these ways, as we get more used to the truth, as we take more of the truth in, the more the lies jump out at us, and we can say, oh, that's a lie. I can go back over here to the truth. Because again, the idea of counsel is to not go the bad way, but go the good way.

And so, by directing ourselves to true paths, right, we get a chance to actually advance. And so, you know, what a wonderful exercise to me today to think through the lies that I have told myself just today. Right? Like, man, I don't know if I'm going to have enough money to get through the tax season. You know, like, oh my gosh, I got to pay my taxes before the end of the week. I'm going to, you know, all these things that are worrying me. Wait a minute, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want, right? He makes me lay down in green pastures, and He leads me besides still waters. He restores my soul. It's wonderful to have that kind of truth to call on at any given moment. Thanks for listening.