Erkki Joensuu | The Voice of Zion October 2024 - The Sabbath Word 4 Article --
I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil. I hate and abhor lying: but thy law do I love. Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments. Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. Lord, I have hoped for thy salvation, and done thy commandments. My soul hath kept thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly. I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies: for all my ways are before thee. – Psalms 119:162–168
The heart of the person singing the psalm is happy and rejoicing. Just before this, the singer has lamented, confessed his sinfulness, and asked for God’s mercy. “Consider mine affliction, and deliver me: for I do not forget thy law. Plead my cause, and deliver me: quicken me according to thy word…quicken me, O Lord, according to thy lovingkindness” (Ps. 119:153,154,159).
The source for the singer’s joy is God’s living Word, the promise that God will send a Savior, His only Son for the atonement of his sins. God will send the One who will bruise the head of the serpent and win over the power of the devil (Gen. 3:15). The psalm singer believes in the promise and forgiveness of his afflictions. He had found his Savior Jesus, in the Word of God.
He compares his experience to the great kill of a hunter. The hunter had been shown the prey animal, he had been able to catch it, and he was able to partake in eating. This was a life-and-death matter for him. One’s death had become life for him. Now he had food to survive; he did not have to die. “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:24).
Psalms were an integral part of ancient Israel’s worship service. Worshipers sang together with the help of musical instruments, tunes and musical leaders. Even during the Old Testament times, sorrow over sins, confession of sins, the proclamation of God’s mercy and absolution, and repentance – the change of heart and mind – were no strange concepts for believers. Already then, they believed in the salvation of mercy according to the priesthood of Melchizedek (Gen. 14:18; Ps. 110), and not according to the law.
Today also, during the New Testament time, these essential elements are part of God’s children’s worship service. The reading of Communion rites includes the confession of our sinfulness and proclamation of absolution, and sermons acknowledge our sinfulness and include the absolution of sins as well. The same is true when Christians take care of offences which have broken the love between them, or whenever Christians forgive each other sins that have attached during the journey in the name and blood of Jesus. Forgiving one another is according to the example of Jesus: “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you” (John 13: 14,15).
The subject of the Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost is forgiveness, Christ’s exhortation to “Forgive one another.” Mutual Christian love opens from forgiveness. Christian life is based on the forgiveness received because of Christ’s death on the cross. His suffering, death, and resurrection as a winner of evil compel us to face our neighbors with kindness, gentleness and forgiveness. Such an attitude makes it possible for God’s manifold gifts to be effective in all their richness.
Our psalm text shows how God’s forgiving love impacted the people’s singing. God’s Word found a place in their hearts and the Holy Spirit opened their eyes to see that God’s Law was not condemning and upsetting them anymore, but it become their truth and a pillar. In their hearts they loved the will of God, and they hated and abhorred lying and falsehoods the enemy of the souls had planted in their flesh. They saw God’s power as greater than evil powers. They were no longer able to contain their happiness, but their hearts exalted in praise to God for His goodness and for the peace they experience all through the day.