Making 'Psense' of Psalms--Psalm 119:57-112: Ruts and Bumps

Another picture of "tracks" or trodden ruts,
taken at an Idaho tree preserve

“See those lines in our lane?” my friend said, pointing to parallel ruts in the asphalt of a rural country road. “Those were worn down by the wheels of Amish buggies.” In this section of Psalm 119 comes a similar picture of “ruts” and “road” from the meanings of the original Hebrew.
I have considered my ways and have turned my steps to your statutes (v. 59)
The word “ways” comes from Hebrew for a “trodden road.”  A related Hebrew word is used earlier in the psalm, in this famous line:
How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word (v. 8)
“Way” means track or rut, like made by a cart or chariot’s wheels. When we choose God’s “tracks,” we’re headed the right way, even when “the way” seems like a detour. Hebrews 12:10 explains it better: “Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.”

Afflictions—ruts and bumps—seem to run through the second third of Psalm 119. Some highlight verses:

8. Heth (57-64): You are my portion, O LORD. I have promised to obey your words (v. 57). This verse seems to echo Psalm 16:5: “LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure.” Both share “portion” (heleq), which refers to lands inherited after the Israelite tribes conquered Canaan. All the tribes except the Levites got expanses of land, but because the Levites were priests to be scattered throughout all tribal areas for spiritual service, they had a special heleq: “The LORD, the God of Israel, is their inheritance” (Joshua 13:33). Their special gifts from God would be better than pastures and croplands. Perhaps the use of “portion” here is a reminder that God’s gifts aren’t always what the world sees as “success,” like wealth or influence. Rather, having Him is the greatest gift of all.

9. Teth (65-72): Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word…It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees. (vv. 67, 71).

For more than a decade, as a victim of a drinking driver, I have addressed convicted drunk drivers in a court-ordered “educational session,” urging them to choose life (theirs and others) over alcohol- or drug-impairment on the highways. Afterwards, a few sometimes tell me they’re convicted and ready to make changes. On a bigger scale of life, when troubles resulting from our poor choices come our way, we can kick at them, or be grateful God disciplines those He loves (Hebrews 12:5-13).

10. Yodh (73-80): May they who fear you rejoice when they see me, for I have put my hope in your word (v. 74). If you’re part of the human race, there are probably people in your life who drag you down. You weary of spending spend time with them because they’re not interested in God’s solutions for their issues or problems. Yet seeing them through Christ’s eyes means coming alongside and nudging them closer to God. “Carry each other’s burdens,” Paul wrote the Galatians (6:2), “and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”  How much better the opposite, when others can rejoice in spiritual progress.

11. Kaph (81-88): They almost wiped me from the earth, but I have not forsaken your precepts (v. 87). The psalmist is “down, but not out.” Jesus reminded us of that truth in some of His last teaching words to His disciples: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

12. Lamedh (89-96): If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction (v. 92). Sometimes, in talking with believing friends about difficult situations, we agree on this tried-but-true conclusion: “What would we do without the Lord?” Paul reminded us of the same principle: “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).

13. Mem (97-104): Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long (v. 97). Posting scripture around the house is one way to do this. Memorization is another. But more important that being able to repeat words is this: “Let the word of Christ dwell in your richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom” (Colossians 3:16). The second half of that verse describes a song service! Indeed, what encouragement singing scriptural truths can bring!

14. Nun (105-112): Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path (v. 105). When I was new in the faith, someone explained verse 105 to me this way: “God gives us just enough light for where we are now. We couldn’t bear to see the whole way.” Peter encouraged believers to pay attention to what had already been revealed in scripture, “as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (1 Peter 1:19).

God offers just enough light to navigate the bumps and ruts, and His hand to hold us steady!

Next: stanzas 15-22

Burden-bearers

When a large department store closed in our town, and everything went up for sale, my husband bought some used furniture dollies from its warehouse. He thought they’d help with a ministry he’s a part of: picking up and then distributing donated furniture to people in crisis and great need. As the freshly-painted dollies sat on our lawn to dry, I thought of the Bible’s references to “burden bearers,” such as Galatians 6:2: “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” This verse is often misapplied to compassion for hurting people in general. It’s actually about restoring, with gentleness and wisdom, someone who gets caught sinning, The verse infers sin so serious that those who help this person are to “watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.”

Yet coming alongside a sinning fellow believer, knocked down by negative choices,  involves the same spiritual enabling as reaching out to those buffeted by living in a fallen world. Just before that section, in Galatians 5:22-23, Paul listed the “fruits of the spirit” that are evidence of a growing life in Christ. In serving one another, we all need love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

 Perhaps a better spiritual “furniture dolly” analogy comes from Jesus’ healing of paralytics. In ancient Palestine, those unable to work because of disability would beg, depending on others’ muscle power to move them about. In Matthew 9 the Lord healed a paralytic whose friends simply him brought to Jesus.  In Mark 2, Jesus healed a paralytic whose friends were a bit more aggressive: they crawled to the top of the crowded house where Jesus was preaching, removed part of the roof, and lowered him down. The pronouns in both accounts tell us much: “When Jesus saw their faith” (Matthew 9:2 and Mark 2:3, emphasis added). To work with this with a bit of sanctified imagination, it could have begun like this:

Friend to paralyzed man: “Hey, Jesus, the great miracle worker and teacher is in town. You’ve got to go see Him. I think He could heal even you.”

Paralytic: “That would be my wildest dream come true. But how could I ever get there?”

Friend: “I’ve got some buddies coming.  The four of us will carry your mat.  We just have to do this.”

In contrast is the healing told in John 5. This man, an invalid for 38 years, had begged at the pool of Bethesda, where people believed healings could take place. Then Jesus came along and asked, “Do you want to get well?” You’d think the guy would blurt out “yes!” Instead, he pined this little song about how somebody else kept beating him into the pool for a “stirred-up-waters-cure.”

Jesus’ reply is a picture of His great love for us, even when we have zero to little faith. He simply said, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”  At once, the man was healed. I’m struck by its fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophetic sketch of a suffering Messiah: “Sure he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4). 

We cannot, in our own power, carry the weight of the world’s sins and sorrows.  That’s God’s job.  But when He calls us to be “burden-bearers”—whether that means wise counsel, a listening ear, prayerful support, or practical help —He is right behind us as we face the “load” of need. In moving that hurting person closer to Him, faith turns the wheels of that spiritual “dolly.”