Psalm 119.14. Your
promise is well tried, and your servant loves it. – St. Anonymous
(*I do read Psalm 119 more often, but in my reading plan,
I read it for sure every Leap Day; once every 4 years.)
Psalm 119 is a mouthful, and when I first began to read
it, it sounded like the same thing over and over and over again: Lord, I love your law; Lord I need your statutes,
etc. But I have learned to read the Psalm more slowly and carefully, and when I
do, I see something new. Today was no different.
Today, I discovered a principle I think I’m to strive
for: Your promise is well tried, and your
servant loves it. What is well-tried? It is well used. Well-tried is like
the grip on a mountain bike; one’s hand is never far from it while riding.
Well-tried is the result of dependability and trustworthiness. Well-tried is
customary. Well-tried is proven. We all go back to the proven over and over and over again.
Our problem with God, perhaps, is we tend to think of our
relationship with Him as sort of a once and done. It’s like the old couple
sitting in their porch chairs on a summer evening and she says, Honey, you
never tell me you love me. He replies, Darlin’, when we got married all those years
ago, I told you I loved you, and if that ever changes, you’ll be the first one
to know. We often treat God like that. But in reality, we’re far too needy to
leave God alone for too long: Lord, help
me, feed me, give me, give me, give me…
The Psalmist said, Your
promise is well tried, and your servant loves it. He used God’s promises a
lot. He knew it was trustworthy to take God at His word. He tried it over and
over and over again and he knew there was no other way. God is reliable, not to
mention faithful, loving, and true.
If God is omniscient (all-knowing) then is there anything He doesn’t already know? I mean
really, if God knows what I need before it’s ever entered my consciousness,
then why do I treat Him like He is forgetful, or suffering from some deitic form
of Alzheimer’s? Oh, you want proof? Just listen to our prayers… and how often
we beg God for something rather than thank Him profusely for providing… and
then patiently waiting for Him to provide what we need, and the maturity to trust Him as faithfully as He treats us.
Our prayer-life will tell us a lot about what we think of
God.
I do need God.
I do need Him to come through for me in ways that are exceedingly abundantly beyond what I can ask or imagine (Ephesians
3). But I needn’t beg; God’s hearing isn’t diminished in the least. I must
learn more and more to thank Him for what He’s
already doing on my behalf, and to anticipate His involvement in my living
in greater and greater ways – He’s good at that beyond my wildest dreams.
Father, may it be recorded
of me that, Your promises are well tried in my life, and Your servant wouldn’t have
it any other way. Teach me Your ways, and may I rejoice in the learning – amen.
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