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'Christ in You...'
by Dale Krebbs
"Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, and I will keep it to the end [steadfastly]. Give me understanding, that I may keep Your law; yes, I will observe it with my whole heart. Make me go in the path of Your commandments, for in them do I delight. Incline my heart to Your testimonies and not to covetousness (robbery, sensuality, unworthy riches).
Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity (idols and idolatry); and restore me to vigorous life and health in Your ways. Establish Your word and confirm Your promise to Your servant, which is for those who reverently fear and devotedly worship You. Turn away my reproach which I fear and dread, for Your ordinances are good. Behold, I long for Your precepts; in Your righteousness give me renewed life." - Psalm 119:33-40 (AMP)
In this lengthy Psalm, the writer pleaded for God's enablement.
Psalm 119 is, among other things, is a long prayer and petition for God's enablement to live a perfect life of obedience. One can almost see him and hear the longing in his voice. Taken as whole, he was pleading and longing for the ability to love and obey God perfectly. He begged for perfection, which if we read between the lines, there is a tone of desperation in his desire to be perfect. This reveals that he realized his weakness to become perfect on his own.
He longed for strength against his weaknesses, and for good health. He pleaded for the strength to resist temptations, Apparently he feared some kind of reproach, perhaps a particular weakness. And last, he asked for renewed life in order to serve, obey, and for a renewed life of vigor.
The palmist was humbled almost beyond words. If you read the entire Psalm, he asks for God to fill in the spiritual blanks in his life so he can life a righteous life of submission, worship, and obedience. He was humbled to see clearly his own weaknesses. And above all, he thoroughly confessed them, and promised to be faithful and obedient henceforth in his life. Like the Psalmist in Psalm 119, every true Christian strives to do right in the sight of God and man. Although impossible to be perfectly right before God in the flesh, we are to acknowledge our unrighteousness before God in repentance, and then we are considered righteous in His sight.
However, our confession and repentance does not set us right before Him. It is not our heartfelt sorrow and repentance before God that makes us right again. Our repentance is never perfect because we can never be perfect in ourselves - even after repentance. Our own imperfection prevents perfect repentance. This is simply because we, of ourselves, can never present the righteousness before God that He requires. It will always be imperfect. But God requires PERFECT righteousness. The writer of Psalm 119 knew this. And he committed himself to do, speak, and think the righteous of God. This can only be found as we are in His perfect Son.
If we present ourselves in and through Him, the Father will accept us as being righteous, because of our being in His perfect Son. Our imperfect repentance and righteousness is accounted as perfect because of our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Our rightness and our eternal life has already been paid for by the blood of the cross, and has already be accomplished. But when we stumble and fall into some sinful way, in thought, word, or action, the Holy Spirit working with our conscience will gently convict us, and urge us toward awareness of our sin and gentle persuade us to confess our sin to God,
We have already been forgiven of all our transgressions. That was done by Jesus on the cross. But by our confession and willingness to turn from our sins and our own way, we are forgiven for Jesus's sake, and we grow in holiness, becoming more and more formed in Jesus's spiritual image.
Psalm 119 pictures for us the heart that desires to please God in every imaginable way. He longed for the holiness of God to be formed in him until all that he did conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. It was his great longing and great quest to become perfect in the sight of God. Do we have this great longing to be created in His image? Do we feel that same desperation when we realize that we have fallen short in loving, serving, and yielding to God? Do we long desperately to live as He would have us live, and do what He would have us do?
Do you long for the righteousness and holiness of Christ to be formed in you?
Become a Psalm 119 Christian.
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