Shine On Us

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Scripture: Psalm 119:135-136 (ESV)

135        Make your face shine upon your servant,

and teach me your statutes.

            136        My eyes shed streams of tears,

because people do not keep your law.

 

Meditation:

            Today we pick out two verses from Scripture’s longest chapter Psalm 119 for meditation and devotional reading. This psalm may, to modern Bible readers, appear to be too long. It has 176 verses. Imagine a modern congregation singing their way through a song that long. (Although certain modern praise choruses seem that long!) Our modern sensibilities have trained us to listen to something for a maximum of ten minutes. If we even last that long. What was the ancient Israelite’s secret to last at praising the Lord for that long?

            Their secret I fear may point us toward a failing in the modern people’s attention span. It also may be a lack of love in our hearts for God. When was the last time that we approached God earnestly seeking to learn and understand the statutes of God? When did we last weep for sorrow because of human disobedience to God’s laws? Chances are good that is has been quite a while if ever. Our culture, even our Christian sub-culture, has grown indifferent to the things of God.

            We need to learn to be still in the presence of God. We need to learn what the psalmist means when he asks for the Lord to shine upon him. Our desire must become to study the Word diligently. We need to seek God’s face until we are bathed in the light of God’s glory. Let us seek to have the eyes of our hearts opened to see the majesty and power of God shining upon this world. Teach us to love the Lord’s ways as much as the psalmist loved them.

            We must seek to help our culture understand the wonder and majesty of our God. We need to learn to weep for all the ways this society goes astray after idols and lies of the devil. Our hearts should be made tender toward the things of God. So that we may have compassion for this hurting and divided world. We need to ask for God’s help to live as His children, that all the world might see and seek to know God too.

Prayer:

            Oh God, we glorify your name today. Our hearts long to know you better. We desire to praise you at all times. This world ignores you; may we pay close attention to your word and seek to always live by its teaching. Let us learn to love and praise you with our whole being. Help us, Lord, to worship you in the splendor of your majesty. That all the world may know you are the God who is above all other gods. Let the light of your presence shine on us today. Amen.

 

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