Proper 10 / Pentecost 8 / OT 15
Devotional
Water From the Well
Lectionary Devotional For Cycle A
Object:
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
-- Psalm 119:105
This section represents the fourteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet (Nun) in the acrostic reflection by the psalmist on the gift of God's law to the people of faith. It is important to remember that by the law the entire Torah or first five books of scripture is intended. The law is not just a set of rules, as we might refer to it in our Western tradition, but a whole way of life that God has revealed in the stories of the life of the early people of God. It certainly includes rules and commandments, but it is fleshed out in the life of a people. Because Christians see Christ as the fulfillment of the law, one can also see this psalm as a poetic reflection on the life of Christ. "[God's] word [or Christ] is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Because Jesus' life embodied the life of Israel in a single person, we can see in him how God is at work in this world. As Christians, "[We] have sworn an oath and confirmed it to observe [Christ's] righteous ordinances." Like the psalmist, when our life is afflicted, we too act in faith and cry out to God, "Give me life, O Lord, according to your word." We come to worship asking God to "accept my offerings of praise, O Lord, and teach me your ordinances." While we accept responsibility for our own behaviors, we "do not forget [the law of Christ]." We know that the way to avoid the evil distortions of our life is to "not stray from [Christ's] precepts." Because faith must shape the way we live our life, we can say with the psalmist, "I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end."
-- Psalm 119:105
This section represents the fourteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet (Nun) in the acrostic reflection by the psalmist on the gift of God's law to the people of faith. It is important to remember that by the law the entire Torah or first five books of scripture is intended. The law is not just a set of rules, as we might refer to it in our Western tradition, but a whole way of life that God has revealed in the stories of the life of the early people of God. It certainly includes rules and commandments, but it is fleshed out in the life of a people. Because Christians see Christ as the fulfillment of the law, one can also see this psalm as a poetic reflection on the life of Christ. "[God's] word [or Christ] is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Because Jesus' life embodied the life of Israel in a single person, we can see in him how God is at work in this world. As Christians, "[We] have sworn an oath and confirmed it to observe [Christ's] righteous ordinances." Like the psalmist, when our life is afflicted, we too act in faith and cry out to God, "Give me life, O Lord, according to your word." We come to worship asking God to "accept my offerings of praise, O Lord, and teach me your ordinances." While we accept responsibility for our own behaviors, we "do not forget [the law of Christ]." We know that the way to avoid the evil distortions of our life is to "not stray from [Christ's] precepts." Because faith must shape the way we live our life, we can say with the psalmist, "I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end."
