Psalms 119:155 Non Seekers Don't Find

Hidden Treasures of the 119th Psalm.

Back from boot camp, I'm excited to jump back into the 119th Psalm today. So we are on verse 155, which based on the anointings of these letters were in the Resh section, which has to do with head, like the head of a river, which has much to do with choice, which I'm sure you're going to see in this verse. And this again being the third verse would be the council anointing of, you know, based on the Isaiah 11 anointings of Christ, that this would be the third anointing, which is council. And I'm sure you're going to see the council in this verse.

It's beautifully written in English. Verse 155, salvation is far from the wicked, for they seek not thy statutes. And on the surface of that verse, you know, it actually has sort of a religious tone to it. Like these people are supposed to be seeking these high, hard commandments if you go by, you know, a lot of people's definition of what statutes are. But I think if you look deeper into the word statutes, it really has to do with your union with God. And if we're not seeking to be united with God, I mean, if we're not drawing close to him with like those statutes ask us to do love the Lord thy God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, you know, then clearly, salvation is going to be very far from you.

Because the further you get from that letter kuth that's at the end of the word statutes, the further you are from God. So it's a beautiful piece of counsel to tell you that if you, you know, love on God, guess what, you know, you won't be far from salvation. Again, the neat thing about the word salvation is it is, you know, this idea of Yeshua, or it is Jesus. So Jesus is far from, you know, it's the words are almost interchangeable. And so when you think about salvation, I always like to think about Jesus and certainly that is far from the wicked. And you know, so I don't think it's terribly hard to understand how to apply this verse. But I just like I said, I just came back from boot camp.

And, you know, we probably had maybe 30 campers originally, I don't know how many were still there at the end. But you couldn't help but notice there were certain people whose ears were up and they were learning and they were seeking and they were trying to see what what God had not unlike you who are listening to this podcast this morning. I think it's, you know, neat that I heard this story from my friend who raises corgis by the name of Danny at that time, he can always just see which is going to be the alpha dog in any, you know, group of punny puppies that they raise on these corgis because the alpha dog will always be the first one to raise his ears. In other words, he's trying to listen. He's trying to hear for God. Well, it really fits perfect into this verse as you think about it, that as people, you know, seek after God, you know, they're going to find him.

I mean, it's just it's just that simple. And it's really beyond, you know, wanting to cry that there were so many men, honestly, that came from the Winston Salem Rescue Mission that came from another church on scholarship. And those were the guys who unfortunately didn't attend sessions or they'd answer their cell phone and walk out of them. And there was a lot of things that were going on that clearly there were people there that weren't seeking God. Or, you know, when it came time for the covenant of silence, which we do at our boot camps, you know, where people go out and they listen for God.

And as they listen for God, you know, to hear amazing things and the fruit of that is always unbelievable. But there's always those who go back to their room and take a nap or go do whatever it is that they do, because it's a risky thing. It's a risky thing to seek after God. He may reject you, right?

You may not be able to find him if you're if you're listening for a word from him and you don't get an answer. It's a risky thing. But, you know, God's a risky God and it's a reflection of his heart, that he gave us free will.

You know, that's a pretty risky proposition. He risked putting his son to death to try to save you. In other words, he's done so much in the way of risking and we're made in his image, which means that we were made to risk.

And I was, you know, thinking about it this morning as I was thinking about this verse, that if you've ever seen the movie Bagger Vance, there's a scene where Juna, who's the golfer, you know, hits the ball over into the rough, kind of behind a tree. And, you know, his caddy, who was like the Holy Spirit character, says, you know, how long are you going to wait in the shadows, Juna? It's time for you to come out of the shadows. Well, in order to seek God, you got to come out of the shadows.

I mean, you can't hide. You've got to go after it. You got to listen and you've got to risk, you know, reaching out to see if you can hear either through his word, which by the way, you know, is what you're doing today, which I admire tremendously, that you're doing this here with me. But those who seek after God, either through listening to others or reading the Scriptures or praying, however you go about doing that, you got your ears up. And the reason is, is you learn about God, right? Then you can help others learn about God.

And so it's cool to know that, you know, the opposite of this is true. In other words, if salvation is far from those who don't seek, you know, the statues, you know, clearly salvation is close to those who do. And so clearly, you know, this is a piece of counsel because counsel has to do with getting on the right path and going in the right direction. And so you want to go in the right direction? Well, head towards God, head towards loving on Him, however that may look.

And I really think you can't go wrong. One of the things that I saw so beautifully at boot camp this week was a young man who at the last boot camp was one of those alpha dogs. In other words, he had his ears up the whole time he was seeking, seeking. He came back this time in almost the, I think it was the first night I was talking to him. He was talking about that he had not been baptized and God put it on my heart at the end of the camp to ask him if that would be something that he would like me to do because we'd become good friends and it'd be neat to be baptized by a brother. As I just think it'd be neat to be baptized by somebody that you really have a relationship with and his father was there and it was right there in the lake and he risked, right, going into that cold water in front of everybody. I wish everybody could have seen that father rung to the water to hug his son and I couldn't help but think of John the Baptist, that saying at the end of the Old Testament that says, you know, when Elijah comes, he'll return the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers lest the earth be smited with a curse. Well John the Baptist is obviously the picture of Elijah and that baptism, if you didn't see the return of the heart to the father and the father to the son, you know, I saw the father hugging his son as he came up out of the water and thought about our heavenly father that had even a bigger hug for him and the hug that we're going to have as we risk again, you know, looking and searching for God. It's absolutely powerful stuff. Thanks for listening.