February 5, 2020 -- Psalm 119:106 -- It's my oath and I'm sticking to it
/I have sworn an oath and confirmed it,
to keep your righteous rules.
Psalm 119:106 English Standard Version
When do we swear oaths? Well, if you happen to go to court to give testimony, you might be asked to raise your right hand and swear an oath to tell the truth. Children in the playground might say “I am telling you the truth, cross my heart and hope to die”. This is especially apt if the little squirt on the playground has a notorious reputation for telling lies. Then his word is not his bond. He will need, perhaps, phrase two of the gruesome oath: I am so telling the truth~cross my heart—hope to die, stick a needle in my eye! Ye-ouch. That was serious business in my playground days.
As adults we are likely to play fast and lose with our telling lies or truth. Let me cite the standard examples: “Honey, does this dress make me look fat?” How about this one, “Isn’t my little Johnny the cutest kid in the world?” Then there is the always popular, “What would you like to do?” and the long-suffering spouse murmurs, “whatever you’d like to do, dear”. We tell all kinds of lies, big and little, whoopers and whoppers.
There is something different about our allegiance to the Living God—we swear an oath and we confirm it over and over again. For example, when we are taking the Lord’s Supper, we confirm our previously taken oath to be faithful to the Lamb of God Who has taken away our sin. When we witness a marriage, we in the audience, confirm we will support this couple as times and circumstances require. In so doing, we confirm our oaths to the LORD Who made us male and female that we will honour Him with our bodies. We will be sexually pure for Him. When Christians go to funeral services we speak out our undoubted Christian faith—often using the words of the Apostles’ Creed—verifying the Christian’s confident belief that the grave does not have the final victory. The Ascended LORD, Jesus Christ is our King Who has conquered the grave and death.
We promise we will keep the righteous judgments of God. The key verb here is that we will keep, or guard our feet, heart, and minds in the way of His judgments. Scripture always makes the distinction between the people of God who are faithful to Him and those who reject Him. Those who are faithful to Him are called the chosen ones, the holy ones, those who are snatched from the kingdom of darkness and brought into the Kingdom of Light in order that we may proclaim the glory of Him Who brought us into the light and life of Jesus Christ. It is God’s judgment that some are drawn into the orbit of His paternal love.
It is also God’s good pleasure that those who remain in rebellion against Him should suffer unending wrath in this world and finally suffer throughout eternity in the torments of hell. The psalmist is saying, “LORD, Your judgments are just and true and I bind myself to You in faithfulness”. The psalmist desires to be counted among the godly. The writer of this psalm knows the horrors that await the wicked. He urgently and earnestly prays for those under God’s condemnation, even as he seeks to stay within the boundary lines of God’s grace.
Holy and true are You, LORD of all the earth. Great and mighty are Your decrees. Forgive us our sins. Direct our feet in the paths of righteousness for the sake of Your dear Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. By Your Spirit living in us, let us see the sinfulness we cling to and all-too-often ignore so that our lives may be more and more conformed to that of Jesus, our Savior and our King. Amen.
