On Sunday we gave the children in church a chocolate advent calendar to help them wait for Christmas, one day (and one chocolate!) at a time. Advent is that period of waiting before Christmas when it’s good to tune our hearts to sing God’s praise and focus our attention on the reason for the season. In order to do this, we’ll be looking at Psalm 119, taking a stanza each day to guide us on our journey to the manger.
Psalm 119 is the longest psalm in the Bible, a psalm praising the law of the Lord. It’s an acrostic poem, each stanza beginning with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It focuses on the goodness of God’s law and the blessings that obedience to this law brings. Today we’re looking at Ps 119:1-8.
‘Blessed’ is the opening word of this long psalm. We’re blessed when our ways are blameless and we walk according to God’s law (Ps 119:1). We’re blessed when we keep God’s statutes and seek Him with all our hearts (Ps 119:2). Discipleship is a journey, likened to walking steadily on the road revealed by God.
The period of Advent is a journey too, a long walk through the waiting till the arrival of Jesus changes our darkness to light. Dietrich Bonhoeffer comments that ‘God knows the whole way, while we know only the next step and the ultimate goal.’ Those of us living ‘A.D.’ live between that first arrival as a helpless baby in Bethlehem and Christ’s triumphant arrival at the end of time. We still have to walk the steps in between, a journey which involves walking in God’s ways (Ps 119:3) and living by God’s precepts which are to be fully obeyed (Ps 119:4).
Motives and deeds both count on this journey (Ps 119:2). Steadfastness of purpose and step are required (Ps 119:5-6). It’s a long haul, a marathon, a journey that will last a lifetime. As we journey towards Christmas in these Advent musings, let’s use Psalm 119 to guide us to our goal. ‘I’m going to do what You tell me to do’ (Ps 119:8, The Message) is the dictum by which we live. Jn 2:5 reiterates the simple road to blessing; we’re simply called to do whatever Jesus tells us. Jesus said ‘If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love.’ (John 15:10) The only way to journey to God is to walk with Him; the only way to walk is the way of obedient love.