Jeremy L. Berg

¹⁷ Be good to your servant while I live,
    that I may obey your word.
¹⁸ Open my eyes that I may see
    wonderful things in your law.
¹⁹ I am a stranger on earth;
    do not hide your commands from me.
²⁰ My soul is consumed with longing
    for your laws at all times.

He desires to have any blinders taken off in order help us “see the wonderful things in your law” (v. 18) and has a soul that is utterly “consumed with longing for your laws at all times” (v. 20). Wow! If only that could be said for the average Christian today!

But now listen to the cheery background music on our climb turn suddenly darker and more foreboding as we realize we’re not alone on this mountain. Not everyone shares our quest’s goal or our reverence for the “right paths” God has blazed for us on this rough and rocky terrain we call Life.

There are those who look up at us in our pursuit of God’s Law and scoff at the entire enterprise with a kind of arrogance and contempt. These adversaries even hold places of power and influence and are trying to bring shame to David’s name. So he cries out:
²¹ You rebuke the arrogant, who are accursed,
    those who stray from your commands.
²² Remove from me their scorn and contempt,
    for I keep your statutes.
²³ Though rulers sit together and slander me,
    your servant will meditate on your decrees.

When you try to rise above the immoral masses and live by some holy standard, there will always be those who think you’re being self-righteous and claiming some “moral high ground” over them. Yet, this is the lot of the faithful, for we do claim to follow the One True God and believe we are indeed living above the fray to the extent that we live more godly lives.

We are living in times of unequalled moral confusion. All ethical standards and moral categories are being tossed out the window, and so the public discourse is a choir of cacophonous voices all talking past one another, looking upon everyone else with suspicion and mistrust, and assuming the worst caricature of the opposing view.

How ought we respond to such slanders? Should we lash out with defensive rebuttals? Should we try to set the record straight on Fox News? Not according to David. “Though [they] slander me, your servant will meditate on your decrees” (v. 23). Sometimes you just have to keep living to please God and let the chips fall.

Christians trying to keep their feet upon the moral paths worn deep into the bedrock of western civilization through centuries of traffic, are today finding themselves, much like David 3,000 years ago, the object of “scorn”, “contempt”, and “slander.”

Just one day after Billy Graham’s death, while most continue to pay tribute to one of the most upstanding moral men of our time, who in an age of daily scandals, lived 99 years of unmatched integrity, I came across one article casting scorn and contempt on Graham. An NBCnews.com article entitled, “Billy Graham Leaves a Painful Legacy for LGBTQ People” writes,

“Over the course of Graham’s 99 years of life, he reached millions of Christians around the world and had an outsized impact on the national political landscape. For many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people, however, Graham was a crusader against them, one whose efforts shaped the religious right into an anti-LGBTQ political force.”

In today’s public discourse, merely to hold a traditional view of sex and marriage — i.e., to “hold fast to Your statutes” (v. 31) — is to be labeled unloving, bigoted or even accused of “hate speech.” Such are the times in which we find ourselves trying to keep our feet from slipping on God’s Mountain.

I could also bring in as evidence the fact that its now considered offensive to use the terms “male” and “female” to refer to people with the biological organs that have associated with such terms since the dawn of time.

Where can we turn in times of mind spinning confusion? Are there any fixed moral reference points left in an age of “create-your-own” morality? People of faith find the counselor we most need as we pause to catch our breath on our climb.

²⁴ Your statutes are my delight;
    they are my counselors.

²⁵ I am laid low in the dust;
    preserve my life according to your word.
²⁶ I gave an account of my ways and you answered me;
    teach me your decrees.
²⁷ Cause me to understand the way of your precepts,
    that I may meditate on your wonderful deeds.
²⁸ My soul is weary with sorrow;
    strengthen me according to your word.

Yes, life throws dirt in our face at times, and taking a stand against the rushing currents of the cultural waters can result in feeling “laid low in the dust” (v. 25). I scan the daily headlines and monitor the cultural trends, and often come away with a soul “weary with sorrow” (v. 28).

But as followers of Jesus, we do not “give account of our ways” in the courtroom of popular opinion. Our daily decisions and lifestyles are not motivated by the scoffers in places of cultural influence, or a biased media, or the latest research from a university study. We will all give an account of our ways to God, and God alone.

So, we pray for courage, tie a rope around us and our fellow climbers, and keep climbing the Mount of God with “our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of this Way of life” (Heb. 12). We pray together:
²⁹ Keep me from deceitful ways;
    be gracious to me and teach me your law.
³⁰ I have chosen the way of faithfulness;
    I have set my heart on your laws.

³¹ I hold fast to your statutes, Lord;
    do not let me be put to shame.

This mountain of a poem is littered with active verbs that demand muscle and muster, intentionality and intensity. “Keep me”, “teach me”, “set my heart”, “hold fast” and “run in the path of your commands.”

If we want to reach the peak of human existence to see our complex world from God’s point of view, and taste the “high life” in the blessings of God, then we’ll likely need to endure some scoffers who try to “put us to shame” (v. 31).

But let us not be dismayed by the loud and influential voices today attacking free speech while waving the banner of tolerance, accusing traditional values as “narrow-minded” while they boycott conservative speakers on college campuses. (And the person writing is not a conservative Republican, by the way.)

But let’s not grow weary and discouraged! Our water break is over, so back on our feet! These are exciting and momentous times to be alive and charged with the responsibility of following a radically different Way of life modeled by Jesus. Let’s not walk, but RUN up this mountain together as we follow the path of God!

³² I run in the path of your commands,
    for you have broadened my understanding.

The narrow way of ancient wisdom and the Kingdom life Jesus teaches leads not to rigid moralism or self-righteous snobbiness. Rather, Jesus said the “narrow way leads to life,” to ultimate freedom and a truly spacious existence in the wide-open field of God’s favor and blessings. “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace” (Prov. 3:11).

Let us open our hearts and minds to the wisdom of the ages and “run in the path of his commands” (v. 32a)! We’ll find that He has not restricted our outlook, but “broadened [our] understanding” (v. 32b)! Many people are weary of the world wisdom-less liberalism has ushered in, but equally as weary with the politically compromised and unloving forms of outspoken evangelical Christianity on offer.

I’m part of a movement of Christian churches and leaders determined to show the world a kind of Christianity shaped by the radical love and grace and wisdom and morality of Jesus Christ himself! This Psalm 119 mountain trek leads us not ultimately to some arrogant moral high ground from which to thumb our nose at the sinners down below. The Psalm is a celebration of the perfect revelation of God’s Law, and if we’ll follow it all the way up, we’ll find ourselves standing at the pinnacle of all human existence, at the place where “grace and truth” shine brightly from the radiant glow of the face of Jesus Christ who is the perfect fulfillment and goal of the Torah/Law.

Finally, let us remember the other Mountain we’re invited to climb this Lenten season. Jesus invites his followers to “deny self”, “take up our cross” and “follow him” up Mount Calvary as he “shows us a more excellent way” (1 Cor. 12:31) — the way of self-sacrificial love. He warns us that living according to His Kingdom Way will also bring its own scorn as we break ranks with the other kingdoms clinging for our allegiance.

^“If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38).

May we bear it well, keep choosing “the way of faithfulness” (v. 30), and continue pursuing the “upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14)!