Reminders of Dust
Reflections • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 26:42
0 ratings
· 137 viewsThe season of Lent is a time for reflection. The Word of God provides a mirror for us to see our own spiritual reflection. What do you see when you look in the spiritual mirror?
Files
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Every summer for about ten years I would take a group of high school students backpacking in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. For five days we hike up and down a mountain peak. And for those five days we carried everything we needed on our backs. In the backwoods of the national forests in Colorado where I would hike, there are no lodges or resorts. There are no shelters. There is no running water. No showers. No bathrooms. Our backpacks contained tents, sleeping bags, a few changes of clothes, mess kits for cooking, dried food packets, and water purifiers to filter the mountain streams.
The basic human necessities of food, shelter, and clothing were there, and for those five days in the mountains, nothing else mattered. There are many striking changes students experience on a trip like this. Some of the changes that maybe I expected to be the most challenging turned out to be not-such-a-big-deal. They did just fine for five days without a smartphone. Despite some initial complaints, they were mostly okay without any real bathrooms. They didn’t seem to mind the extra time it took to filter drinkable water. And they got used to the idea that they went five days in a row without a shower—after all, each person in the group was just as dirty as everyone else.
But there is one change that happens during that five-day hiking trip which always seems to have caught many of those students off-guard—mostly because they just hadn’t thought about it much before. They all went five days in a row without once looking at their own appearance in a mirror. None of them thought about this or anticipated this ahead of time. None of them thought to bring a little travel mirror (and why would you anyway?!?) Somewhere about day three it began dawning on them that it had now been several days since they had last looked at their own reflection.
That only becomes a jarring thought because it suddenly brings to mind something that every single one of us does multiple times every single day without ever giving it a second thought. How many times in one day to you see your own face in a mirror? Our modern bathrooms all have mirrors. Public restrooms all have mirrors. For most of us, we could actually accurately answer that question. I don’t know how many times a day I see my own reflection in a mirror because I am not counting—I’m not keeping track of it. I just take it for granted that all throughout the day I kind of have an idea of what I look like because countless times a day I thoughtlessly check a mirror. We all do it. We all spend time looking at our own reflection.
Here’s the other thing I often noted about the many years I took students backpacking in the mountains. They all had several days of distraction-free thoughtful reflection. Not mirror reflection of looking at their own image in a glass. But the kind of reflection that is thoughtful consideration of where they had come to be at this particular moment of life. Thoughtful reflection on examining the kind of person they had become—and are yet becoming. A different kind of reflection, but reflection none-the-less.
This is the first Sunday of Lent. We are now on a forty-day journey to the cross of Jesus and the open grave. It is a time for reflection. Not looking in a glass mirror kind of reflection. The other kind of reflection—the kind that draws us into consideration of who it is we have become in this life—and are yet becoming. This kind of reflection takes a different kind of mirror to help us see the image of our own soul. And wouldn’t you know it, God has given us the very mirror we need to do this. It is his Word. The Bible—the revealed Word of God—is the mirror that provides us with a glimpse back into our own souls to see and consider who we really are.
This is our focus in these forty days of Lent. This is why we are spending time every day working our way through the words of Psalm 119—a Psalm that acts as a mirror to see the reflection of our own souls. This is why I am calling this sermon series Reflections.
Every Sunday I am going to pick a section of reading out of Psalm 119 for a little further reflection. It will always be a selection of verses coming up in the week ahead. So, if you are following along with our reading schedule for Psalm 119, you are going to see these words again on Wednesday and Thursday this week.
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.
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.
32 I run in the path of your commands,
for you have broadened my understanding.
In your order of worship today there is an outline that has this passage arranged for you. I put it that way in order to help you see the structure and pull out the main actions taking place in these eight lines of poetry. Here is what we are going to do with the rest of this message today. We are going to look into the mirror of these words of poetry and examine our own reflection before God. It’s good stuff. Let’s get into it.
Verses 25-27
Verses 25-27
I’ve marked out for you three pivotal verses in this section show us a reflection of significance. Verse 25 begins with a reminder of the dust from which we are made. I am laid low in the dust. The Hebrew vocabulary is more precise. A literal translation of this line would be something like this: my soul clings to dirt. I am not just laid down in the dirt, I am not just covered in dust. It’s not just that I need a quick shower; pass me a handi-wipe and I’m good. The dirt clings to my soul. I cannot get it off. I cannot make it clean.
I can look around me all day long and with some kind of success I can at least find examples of other people who are worse than me. I can see evil taking shape through other people’s action in ways that make the dust clinging to my own soul seem not-so-bad. I can always find examples of other dusty and dirty lives. I can always play the card that makes somebody else seem worse than me.
Problem is, other people are not the mirror I get to use when examining the reflection of my own soul. Look at the next line. Preserve my life according to your word. It is only according to God’s word that I am allowed to examine myself. Only by the perfect will of God can I clearly see the state of my won soul. You see, I have a problem with my own standards. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I struggle with consistency. Just ask my kids. My older children will quickly point out that the rules somehow became way more relaxed for the youngest. When we set our own standards of measurement and conduct, we are often dealing with a moving target. But God’s word is faithful to remain consistent for all eternity.
This is good news and bad news. The good news is that the standard of God’s word is secure. I know beyond doubt that the rules will never change and leave me hanging out to dry. I know that the standard of God’s word will never turn. I know that if my life is preserved according to God’s word, then it is unshakably preserved for all eternity and nothing can ever take that away. That is the good news. That is great news.
The bad news is that—by the unshakable standard of God’s word—I can’t measure up. The eternal and faithful righteous decree of God revealed in his word exposes the dust that clings to my own soul. I can’t do anything about that. I cannot scrub my own soul clean of the dirt which just won’t come off no matter what I try.
And so the poet continues in verses 26 and 27. His only hope is for God to intervene on his behalf. He clearly sees the reflection of his own soul according to the standard of God’s word, and he knows it doesn’t look good. And so he appeals for God to intervene. Look at verse 27, “Cause me to understand your precepts.” It is a confession that his own efforts fall short. My own attempts to follow the will of God on my own leave me right back in the dust where I started. But, if God causes me to see and know his will, if God himself by his Spirit moves his perfect will through my heart, that alone is the only way I have a chance.
Verse 27 continues, “that I may meditate on your wonderful deeds.” This is a statement of result. This is the outcome. Once God himself through his supernatural Spirit awakens my soul to know and understand his perfect ways, then the declares that his desired result is that his heart will center upon the ways of God. It is as though the poet is raising a petition of prayer before God acknowledging that the only way he will ever find his own soul brought into alignment with the will of God is if God himself takes over and causes it to happen.
Verses 28-30
Verses 28-30
Let’s move on. In verse 28 the Psalmist again repeats the reflection he sees concerning his own soul. He says his soul is weary. The literal Hebrew means dropped or collapsed. Sometimes I see that when watching long-distance endurance events that take place in the Olympics. Cross-country skiers or marathon runners give that final burst of energy at the very end using up every last bit of strength within them to get across the finish line. And often you see it that there are athletes who simply collapse after crossing the finish. All they can do is lay there for a bit and catch their breath.
This is the picture that the poet sees of his own soul in the reflection of God’s word. This standard of God is just overwhelming. I do not have the strength to do this on my own. In fact, the only thing I can do is admit that only the strength of God can assist me. And so once again, we appeal to God according to his perfect and unchanging word. First we appealed for God to preserve our lives according to his word. Now we come back again and admit that the only way in which we can even move forward at all is in the strength of God.
There are two specific requests that the poet brings before God in connection with this request for God’s strength. In particular, it answers the question, strength for what? What kind of strength are you looking for from God in order to overcome the weariness of your soul? Here it is in verses 29 and 30.
First, may God give strength to keep me from deceitful ways. The literal Hebrew translation would be turn me from the path of lies. This is the reflection that the Psalmist sees when he looks into the mirror of God’s perfect word. He sees that his own soul within his own strength only wanders down a path of lies. And he admits that only strength from God can help.
And second, may God give strength to cause me to choose the path of truth. The perfect word of God displays for us a way of faithfulness and righteousness. And once we clearly see this way of faithfulness and righteousness, we desire to live in this way. We want to choose this path. We want to walk in this way. But only in the strength of God can we can ever do so.
Before we move on to the last section, back up for a moment and look at what this Psalm is expressing in these first two sections of verses 25-27, and verses 28-30. The first section is an appeal for God to preserve our lives according to his word. Let me substitute our theological word into this using the terminology of our church’s doctrinal teachings. This is an appeal for justification from God. It is an acknowledgement that any salvation at all is salvation that comes as a gift of love and mercy from God alone, because I can do nothing to bring about my own justification.
The second section of verses 28-30 are an appeal for God to strengthen our lives according to his word. There is a theological word from our doctrinal teachings that fits here too. This is an appeal for sanctification from God. It is an acknowledgment that only by the strength of God do we have strength to live in his ways.
Verses 31-32
Verses 31-32
Move on. Let’s wrap it up as we see how the poet concludes this section of Psalm 119. He says “I hold fast to your statutes, Lord.” It is the same Hebrew word that is used all the way back in verse 25. Literally it would translate this way, I cling to your testimony. It’s full circle. In verse 25 he begins by seeing a reflection of his own soul in the mirror of God’s word. And his beginning conclusion is that the reflection he sees is an image of his own soul clinging to the dust of his own helplessness. But now, as God has revealed himself and made himself known through his perfect word, now he sees through God and because of God his soul no longer clings to the dust, but instead unshakable clings to the will of God.
Previously we saw how the strength of God moves us from a hopeless path of lies and into a secure path of truth. Now the poet declares, not only do we see that path of truth, not only do we walk upon that path of truth, in fact we RUN upon the path of God’s perfect word. It is the same Hebrew word repeated in verses 29 and 30 and now here again in verse 32. God’s word lays before us a path. And God himself opens our eyes to that path. And God himself sets our feet upon that path. And God himself gives us strength to run upon that path.
And his final thought to conclude is this, “you have broadened my understanding.” That is how it is translated here in the 2011 edition of the NIV that I have printed in the outline. If you compare to the older 1984 edition of the NIV it says “you have set my heart free.” The literal translation of the Hebrew is something in between. Literally, I would translate the Hebrew as this, “you have stretched my heart wide.” The Hebrew word for heart can also mean will. The idea that the Psalmist is conveying here is this: God, you have molded and shaped my will.
Or, if I can I say it another way, I am not my own but belong body and soul to my faithful savior Jesus.