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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