May 17, 2020 -- Psalm 119:167 -- Hearts softened for the glory of God

My soul keeps your testimonies;

I love them exceedingly.

Psalm 119:167 English Standard Version

When I was a teenager there was a very popular Christian Contemporary Artist named Keith Green. He was one of the first really popular Christian singers that young people listened to at the time. I bring this to your attention in the context of this day’s text. When I first read it, I was objecting “No, my soul doesn’t keep the LORD’s testimonies”. And then I remember a Keith Green song Oh Lord, You’re Beautiful. I listened to it again and this particular version had this preamble, which perfectly captured my mixed feelings about the first phrase of the text.

Green said:

This week on Monday, about midnight, I wrote a letter to the Lord, I didn’t know where to mail it, so I put it in my bible and I asked him: “Lord you gotta do something about my heart, it is starting to harden up, it has been a long time since I met you and it is starting to harden up, it is kind of natural, I want to have baby skin Lord, I want to have skin like a baby on my heart, it is starting to get hard and wrinkled and calloused, not because of anything I’m doing , because of a lot of things I am not doing…

What a graphic description of the way in which our hearts can change. If we are not intentional about our commitment to Jesus Christ and regularly speaking with Him, singing to Him, and listening to His Word. When the heart starts to get wrinkled and hardened and cynical, we look at a text like the one before us today and wonder “how can that be”? We look for loopholes and avenues out.

The fact is, we hold up a text like the one we read today and confess we are far from this standard. The goal of our heart, mind and soul is to the love the LORD our God with all our being. When we recognize the calloused condition of our heart ask the Spirit of God—Who showed us the state of our heart—to help us scrape the dry, leathery parts off so that we can offer to the Triune, Blessed God our softened hearts. Once softened we find once again that our souls love Him exceedingly.

Rouse yourself in these Covid-19 crisis times. Pray. Read the Word. Listen to inspiration teachings and worship songs. Confess you sins and your hardened heart and ask for the Lord to bring you to the place where you can shout out with the Psalmist: “My soul keeps your testimonies; I love them exceedingly”! The love for the testimonies of the LORD point to a heart that is even more inclined to love the LORD Himself—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Spirit of the Living God, move through our hearts. Wean our hearts from sin. Spirit of Truth remove the callouses and dried out parts so that our hearts resonate once again with a pure and deep love for the LORD God Almighty. Bless the preachers and evangelists, missionaries and bible teachers who bring Your word to us today so that our souls may delight in the LORD of Glory. Amen.

If you have the time, listen to this Keith Green song, the one I referred to in this devotion today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqEa1Uo9UZc