Psalm 119:80 Dads and Shame

Hidden Treasures of the 119th Song. Oh, I love the eighth verse in each of these sections, and today we get to do the eighth verse in the yud section. So here's literally it's the miracle verse for the hands of God.

And boy, this one would be a miracle, there's no doubt. I'm sure when you hear it. The psalmist says in English, let my heart be sound in thy statutes that I be not ashamed. And so that word sound is not unlike the first verse where it's perfect. And so you'd have a perfectly whole heart.

And again, this is where King David was headed. So much of his life was to get that whole heart and for it to be sound in thy statutes that I be not ashamed. And, you know, one of the things I've really learned about, and probably in the last 15 years, it's just been a constant lesson plan, is on shame, right? And how often I find myself ashamed. And what I have discovered through, I guess, a lot of Bible study and a lot of wonderful teachers, especially John Eldridge's Miss messages with wild at heart, is shame is very much connected to the orphan spirit. In other words, because of our view of God not being our father, we end up in this situation of feeling ashamed about a lot of things. And when it's really shame is a really good thing from the standpoint of it shows us where we have work to do. So if you're feeling shame, or in something, like the perfect example is, you know, you feel behind in your yard work, or you feel behind in your housework, or you feel behind in your work at work. And there's a shame that's associated with that, or you walk into, if you're a man, and you walk into a chainsaw store, and, you know, you feel like you don't know anything about what you're talking about, you know, there's a sense of shame, because you're looking for a father that somebody to father you through these many different things. And, you know, if you've ever fished, maybe, and you didn't know how to get the fish off the hook, and you felt like your dad should be there to show you how this stuff's done, or how to tie a knot, or, or, you know, there's just so many different places in life where we feel shame, especially in relationships. And we need a father. And so as we begin to see God as our Father and walk in that relationship, is very much has to do with this verse, that we would be sound because that statute is the hook them at the, the, the idea of these high holy commandments, which require sonship.

I mean, they just really, really do. So if our hearts could be sound, if they could be perfect in sonship, we would walk around not like Adam, covering up every place with our fig leaves, and posing, but we, you know, we could walk out of shame. And so here's this opportunity that the, that the, the hands of God can pray that God will work on our hearts, right, and make them sound that we would be not ashamed, when it came to, you know, how he wants things done as we being his children. And the beautiful thing if you think about it, you know, the old story, it's a beautiful story about the young boy who was standing on the shore looking at this cruise ship that was miles and miles away, waiting for it to come. This man said, Why are you studying? So why are you, you know, so intent on looking at that craft cruise ship? And, and the little boy said, Well, I want to wave, you know, when it comes close to shore, you know that I want to wave so the captain will see me. And the man says, you don't think that that captain is just standing on the, you know, bridge that ship, looking out to see if he could, you know, wave at some kids standing on the shore. And he goes, Oh, yeah, well, he's my dad. That's the picture.

That's the picture. And so often, when we find ourselves feeling shame. It's a great like, check engine light on your dashboard flashing saying, you need to, you need to check under the hood, you need to see what God is trying to show you that you, you know, he wants to father you through this, and here's ways that he can do that. So I thought I would share a story.

This crazy story. But if you're the Christian car guy, you maybe understand this, that one of the places that when I first started doing the show, because the National Public Radio Show, the car talk was so tremendously popular back when those guys were alive. Um, everybody expected the Christian car guy showed to be like a Christian version of click and clack. So a lot of people back in those days, would call in and ask me questions on how to fix their car. And of course, I would have mechanics on to help me and I, you know, I've worked in the service department when I was younger. I know a lot about cars, but I'm clearly not I'm not a mechanic. And so there was a lot of shame always for me when people would begin to ask questions, and I'm like, I have no idea. Even, you know, the greatest mechanics have areas where they don't have expertise, I can tell you, it's just like a surgeon that works on feet is not necessarily great on hands. And so, you know, or on hearts, you know, whatever the case may be.

But my point is that, you know, here I am, I'm supposed to be this and I would feel the shame can connected to this. Well, you know, when we were going through a hard time, we really didn't have a lawnmower for our lawn, and I didn't have the money. And so we actually had to borrow some money to get this old riding lawnmower. And when I checked it out, it seemed fine. And everything was was good because we had a great big yard in this house.

This was, you know, maybe 1012 years ago, it was right after I started going to boot camps and finding out about this message about walking with God as father. Unfortunately, the man who sold me the tractor didn't mention that almost every single time that you mow with this track with this particular engine, you need to check the oil. So like the third time I mowed with my brand new used lawnmower, the engine seized, I mean, literally. And so I was with this lawnmower with a seized engine.

Right. And I didn't have the money, you know, I'd spent all the in fact, I borrowed the $500 to get the lawnmower and so I was just in a pickle. My wife was not happy.

Like what have you done? You know, we got to get our lawnmowed. And so I found a used new engine or whatever, on eBay, that was a you know, 12 horsepower that would fit this particular lawnmower and it was only like $110. And so believe it or not, I still can't believe I did this, but I had the courage.

I was like, I'm going to walk with you God on this. And so I before I bought the engine, I YouTubed, right, just so I could get some fathering on how to replace an engine in this kind of lawnmower. And fortunately, you know, God provided me with the perfect video to show me exactly how to do it.

And so I like had a father. And so I ordered this engine. And I put, you know, I got the engine in, I put it in the lawnmower, it, it was a chore, I'm going to tell you, it was it probably took me two days, you know, of working on it in order to get that engine in that lawnmower, which probably should have taken an hour, but nonetheless, I got it done. And can I just tell you, the amount of shame that went away as God fathered me through fixing that lawnmower. And when I was riding around in my lawn, mowing my lawn, knowing that I had replaced the engine, there was no, there's no explaining the sense of, of like, man, God, you are so good. Like you, you, you walked me right through this, you fathered me. And you know, what an opportunity we have every time, right, we begin to feel that shame in whatever area that is, is God, okay, how can you father me in this? How can you walk me through this?

Is there somebody, do I need to be humble enough to go ask somebody, you know, can you help me do this? You know, I have a friend, he talks on and on about, you know, when he needed the brakes done on his car, and he asked a friend to come over and help him. And you know, what a wonderful thing to be fathered by somebody else, because God has been providing fathers all over the place, whether that was a coach when you were young, or so many different things, even if you didn't have a father, you know, God is continually providing fathers, it's a wonderful, wonderful message. And I know in my heart of hearts, that the psalmist, you know, struggled with his father, Jesse, because Jesse thought, you know, that he wasn't, that David wasn't everything he was supposed to be. So, you know, David had his own sense of shame in so many different ways. But here, he's working on it. And he's working on it with the father, again, with the last of the yud section, which is another let it be, you know, so it's putting it on God, that God's going to make our heart sound, it's going to make it perfect in thy statutes that we be not ashamed.