Ramblings from Retirement: The most important time is now.

 Ramblings from Retirement: The most important time is now.
By Lee Hemen (Retired Pastor)
November 2, 2020

I went out to lunch the other day because I had been working at church trying to get our live video feed working properly. (It is still a work in progress.) I stopped by and got something and in the fast food place was a young man sitting there reading his Bible. Curious, I asked him which book he was reading from and he related it was Genesis. We had a short discussion about the Scriptures and I got my order and ate. This got me to thinking though about the words of Psalm 119:11 where the Psalmist tells God: “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. (Psalms 119:11 NIV)” These are good thoughts and I remembered how I was encouraged to do just that as a young Christian.

In thinking about this however I realized that few looked at the words before this verse or those afterwards as well. So let’s take a quick look at what the Psalmist writes: “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, O LORD; teach me your decrees. With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word. (Psalms 119:9-16 NIV)”

This Psalm is the longest in the Bible with 176 verses! It is divided into sections and this one is known as “Beth”. The Bible Knowledge Commentary states that “This psalm is written in an acrostic (alphabetical) arrangement. In each paragraph (strophe) of eight verses each line begins with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet. (The 22 strophes correspond to the 22 letters of the alphabet.) So Psalm 119:1-8 each begin with the first Hebrew letter, Psalm 119:9-16 each begin with the second letter, and so on.”

What I want us to focus on however is that the writer asks the question: “How can a young man keep his way pure?” In this day and age there isn’t much of an encouragement for young men to keep themselves “pure” and in fact quite the opposite. Yet the writer answers that he has done so “By living according to your word.” He looked at the world around him and made a conscious effort to not live according to the world but rather by the precepts he found in God’s wisdom. In fact he wrote that “I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” With his entire being he followed the Lord as best as he could. He realized that the only way he could do so would be to follow God by not “straying” into the wisdom of the world. He “hid” God’s wisdom (word) in his life (heart) knowing that this was the best way for him to not sin. He praised God for teaching him personally all of His “decrees”. The writer of course was referring to God’s laws and understood that it took personal effort to do so: “With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.” He would openly speak about what he had learned from God, he would happily follow them like they were riches, and he would meditate and consider them on an ongoing basis. He would not neglect them.

This is where many of us fall short in our faith: We neglect to daily hide God’s wisdom in our lives and then live by the wisdom we have learned. We expect others to relate to us what they have learned and somehow try and confiscate it as our own; which it is not.

Today, right now, this moment in time is precious and you can never ever get it back again. Certainly family is important, your job is important, and your education or leisure time is important but far more important is your time with the Lord and what you are gaining in wisdom. Put down your cell phone. Turn off your TV. Stop listening to the news of the world and begin anew to hear the wisdom of God through His word. He desires to speak with you about your life and give you the wisdom you need to live a blessed one. Be like the young man I met and take time to read God’s word and hear His voice as He speaks the wisdom of the ages for your life to you today.
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This article is copyrighted © 2020 by Lee Hemen and is the sole property of Lee Hemen, and may not be used unless you quote the entire article and have my permission.

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