Tuesday 30 July 2013

Your statutes are always righteous; give me understanding that I may live. – Psalm 119:144

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 30, 2013): Psalm 119:97-144

I have heard the story of a man who went out and purchased a brand new car. He drove the care for a long time – and it worked wonderfully. But one day it simply stopped working. No amount of gas in the gas tank could fix the problem, and so he had it towed to the local garage. There they examined the car and discovered some disturbing trends. First, the oil in the car had never been changed. The heat of the engine had literally fused the oil filter – the one that the car had originally come with – to the engine. It took hours of persistent work just to remove the oil filter – and the remnants of the oil filter – from the car. But there was a second problem. At some point the oil filter had also become damaged. A small crack had developed in the side of the filter and the oil from the car engine had leaked out. While not changing the oil and oil filter and properly maintaining the car was a real problem, the reason why the car no longer worked was that it had simply run out of oil. The oil had never been checked, and the all of the oil had vanished from the engine and the engine had seized.

The man decided to get the car fixed – which involved the expensive task of putting a new engine in the car – and he resolved to do the things that he had not understood were necessary before – regular maintenance and making sure that there was oil in the engine. But he was usually in a hurry when he stopped for gas, so he decided that since he had run out of oil before, rather than the time consuming task of checking the oil every time he stopped for gas, he would simply add oil every time he stopped. This went on for a short period, and oil built up in the engine along with pressure and it was not long before he had blown out every seal in the engine. With the seals gone, the oil leaked out and the engine seized one more time. While the man thought that he knew what it was that he had to do – he had never really understood the way a car worked – and so the things that he did only ended up causing him trouble.

The Psalmist knows that the statutes of God are good. He also recognizes that there is life in God’s commands. But he also knows that he probably does not have a complete understanding of the spiritual realm. He knows that his spirit has an effect on his body, but he wants to make sure that understands how. And so his prayer to his God is for understanding.

It is too easy to just follow the rituals. It is one of the questions that I am often asked is to describe the things that someone has to do so that they can follow God. What are the tasks that I have to complete? But ritualistic behavior seldom leads us to God. Keeping the rituals without understanding is like putting oil in your car because it needs gas. The Psalmist knows rituals cannot cut it in our desire to serve God – and that without understanding there is really no way we can ever be called the disciples of the living God.    


Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 119:145-176

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