Cause me to understand the way of your precepts, that I may meditate on your wonderful deeds. – Psalm 119:27

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 24, 2019): Psalm 119:1-48

Albert Einstein argued that “any fool can know. The point is to understand.” Knowledge is often easy. But understanding how all of the pieces fit into the puzzle is much harder. As Christians, it seems to be easy to go to church on Sunday and parrot the words of Jesus ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’ (Matthew 25:40) and then walk out the door and forget the words as we deal with the immigrants and strangers living in our neighborhoods. We repeat the instructions from the “Sermon on the Mount” to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44) and then react with anger at those who are angry with us. Or maybe we listen to a retelling of the story of the Good Samaritan on Sunday reminding us that everyone is our neighbor and then react as if those who hold different political ideas than we do are the enemy and deserving of our disdain. We forget that Paul says that “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28) and then treat the different races or even the women leaders who work with us as if they are “less-than.”

The problem is that we have knowledge, but not understanding. We know the stories of the Bible and the teachings that the Scripture presents, but we seem to struggle with how to apply the lessons when we are not in church, or even to those who are unlike us when we are in church. As a result, there is a swath of hurting and damaged people who have been left in the wake of Christianity. All because we know, but we don’t understand.

The prayer of the Psalmist is that we would be able to understand the teachings of God so that we can meditate on the wonderful way that God is working in our midst. But without understanding our reality is that God is at work among us, but our knowledge keeps getting in the way of the wonderful things that God is attempting to do in our world.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 119:49-96