September 19, 2019 -- Psalm 119:20 -- A soul consumed with longing
/My soul is consumed with longing
for your rules at all times.
Psalm 119:20 English Standard Version
The opening line is one an addict can easily identify with: a soul consumed with longing. The longing of an addict fills his thoughts with getting the next high. The actions of an addict are geared towards sweet talking or manipulating or wheedling—whatever it is that will allow him to get his next hit. It is so easy for those not addicted to alcohol or drugs of some kind to turn up our noses and feel superior. But I ask you, pause a moment and evaluate your life against this text.
What consumes your soul? What is it you think about all the time? Maybe you are someone who records every program of a particular series so that you can “escape” and enjoy this show—ignoring duties and responsibilities in order to do so. There are “acceptable” additions that consume the soul, an example is gluttony. There are many who struggle secretly with pornography—consuming the thoughts and desires, affecting normal healthy relationships tainting them with the comparison of the on-line high. Anger is an addiction, red-hot rage blinding the vision and clouding clear thinking so that periodically, sometimes without warning, words spew out as fountains of fury.
By the profound mercy of God the Faithful the writer of this psalm knows the Living God as the One Who satisfies His soul. The longings of his heat, the impulses of his mind, the focus of his time all of these are directed on the rules of God the Just. He fills this out later in this psalm when he praises God the Mighty by saying: “To all perfection I see a limit, but Your commands are boundless” (Psalm 119:96, NIV; for some time that has been my absolute favourite verse of this lengthy Psalm). All our false loves and addictions will disappoint. Only God Who is infinite in power, boundless in knowledge and unequaled in love can sustain our interest and attention and love by leading us in His ways.
Jesus, when He walked this earth as a man, showed this so powerfully. No matter how great the protests, temptation, the rejection and betrayals, His soul was consumed with longing for the rules of His Father in heaven. He found the boundless strength and hope to continue in the work His Father had given Him—remaining faithful even to the point of enduring death on the cross. Hebrews tells us He endured this all for the sake of the joy set before Him—the joy of obedience to His Father, the joy of walking in His Father’s limitlessly perfect commands. And by His obedience He is for all who believe in Him the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world. Glory be to His Name.
God of Clarity and Truth by the powerful presence of Your Spirit expose all our false addictions for the death traps they are. When we, exhausted and spent, realize we have given our lives and our hearts to all sorts of things that can never satisfy, we ask, Spirit of Comfort, fill us with the glorious knowledge of Jesus Christ. In Him and by His power sealed to our hearts by Your presence Spirit of God, help us to deny ourselves, and live in wonder-filled obedience to Him. Let the vast delights of obedience to Him induce us to ever greater acts of obedience and love directed squarely to You, Father: our soul’s greatest longing and only true delight. Amen
