“You have dealt well with Your servant,
O Lord, according to Your word.
Teach me good discernment and knowledge,
For I believe in Your commandments.
Before I was afflicted I went astray,
But now I keep Your word.
You are good and do good;
Teach me Your statutes.
The arrogant have forged a lie against me;
With all my heart I will observe Your precepts.
Their heart is covered with fat,
But I delight in Your law.
It is good for me that I was afflicted,
That I may learn Your statutes.
The law of Your mouth is better to me
Than thousands of gold and silver pieces.” (Psalm 119:65-72 NASB1995)
The Psalmist was being persecuted for his walk of faith. He
was experiencing reproach, contempt, ridicule, and false accusations from the
arrogant and from the wicked who forsook the commandments of the Lord. But he
was a companion of all those who feared the Lord, who walked in the ways of the
Lord and in his righteousness, and who kept the commandments of God. But
despite the persecution he was facing, he believed God dealt well with him.
But he had not led a perfect life. There was a point in time
when he wandered from the faith, and when he went astray, but that was in the
past. Now he was committed to serving the Lord with his life. Now he wanted to
obey the Lord and to walk in his ways, and so he prayed to the Lord that he
would have good discernment and knowledge, and that the Lord would teach him
his statutes (his commandments), that he might obey them fully.
But even though he was now walking in the ways of the Lord,
in obedience to the Lord and to his commandments, by the grace of God, in the
power of God, and not of his own flesh, and he was no longer going astray,
there were people, the arrogant, who had forged a lie against him, who were
trying to destroy him and to give him a bad reputation so that others would
reject him and would think ill of him, for reasons of their own we do not know.
Perhaps it was because his teachings were “stepping on toes,”
and were bringing conviction to people’s hearts and minds. For he was speaking
the truth that they did not want to hear nor to accept. For they did not want
to hear that we must die to sin and follow our Lord in walks of obedience to
his commands, as part of faith which saves, and that if we walk in sin, and not
in obedience to our Lord, that we will not inherit eternal life with God.
At least, that is where many are today, many of whom profess
faith in Jesus Christ. They are still wandering in their sins, still living in
sinful addiction, and so they want to hear the sugar-coated messages which tell
them that God will not judge them for their idolatries and adulteries, and that
heaven is still secured for them, even though they ignore the Lord’s commands
and they pursue the lustful desires of the flesh, and they don’t obey God.
And so they speak lies against the righteous who are
following after the Lord to walk in his ways, who take the teachings of the
Scriptures to heart, to obey them, and who are no longer walking in sin, making
sin their practice, but for whom holy living is their practice, although they
may not be perfect people in absolutely every respect, for they are still clay
in the hands of the Potter being molded into the likeness of Jesus Christ, our
Lord.
But no matter how we are treated, and by whom, we who are
followers of Jesus Christ, in truth, must be those who are walking in the ways
of the Lord, obeying our Lord’s New Covenant commands, following the Lord
wherever he leads us. Sin must no longer be what we practice, but now
righteousness and godly living should be our practice. For if sin is what we
obey, and not God, we will not inherit eternal life with God. God says!
[Matt 7:13-14,21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn
10:27-30; Ac 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co
6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph
2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb
12:1-2; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Jn 1:1-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10]
Seek the Lord
Based off Isaiah 55
Musical Instrumentation by Mark
Bradley
An Original Work / July 20, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
“Come to Me all you
who thirst; come to waters.
Listen to Me, and
eat what’s good today,
And your soul will
delight in richest of fare.
Give ear to Me, and
you will live.
I have made an
eternal covenant with you.
Wash in the blood of
the Lamb.”
Seek the Lord while
He may be found; call on Him.
Let the wicked
forsake his way, in truth.
Let him turn to the
Lord, and he will receive mercy.
Freely, God pardons
him.
“For My thoughts are
not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My
ways,”
declares the Lord,
our God.
“My word that goes
out of My mouth is truthful.
It will not return
to Me unfulfilled.
My word will
accomplish all that I desire,
And achieve the goal
I intend.
You will go in joy
and be led forth in peace.
The mountains will
burst into song… before you,
And all of the trees
clap their hands.”
The Arrogant Have Forged a Lie
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