Heart Change, Psalm 119:9-16

Psalm 119:9-16 (NKJV): How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. ¹⁰ With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! ¹¹ Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.
¹² Blessed are You, O Lord! Teach me Your statutes. ¹³ With my lips I have declared All the judgments of Your mouth. ¹⁴ I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, As much as in all riches. ¹⁵ I will meditate on Your precepts, And contemplate Your ways. ¹⁶ I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.

In continuation of looking at Psalm 119, this next section the Psalmist is looking at what he needs to do to correct the path he is following. Notice that he recognizes that for him to Honor God, he needs to stay on track with God’s commandments. Before you say anything, I know that to follow the Commandments 100% is hard. However, if we look at this closer, we see that there is a desire for change.

Before we can allow The Word to change us, we need to recognize the need for change. We see here the Psalmist realizes that he has fallen off track with God. He recognizes that God has to change his life. He recognizes that God has given direction for us to follow. However, we live in a world that is broken and to live by God’s laws really means perfection.

So, if we are not able to live 100% by the law, are we done for? Absolutely not. Jesus gives us the opportunity to return to God, through His Sacrificial Death for us. It was through His Death that we have the chance to ask and seek forgiveness. Remember, the only Way to The Father is through The Son (John 14:6-7).

Ok, so now we have to answer this question, if the Only Way to Heaven is through Jesus, then why worry about The Law/Commandments? We need to remember that The Commandments were given to us for obedience and a way of life. That means that we need to obey them, to learn more about what God wants and plans to do in our lives. One of the greatest things we overlook with The Commandments is that if we simply obey them, they give us a way of life that is so much better for us.

Think about it for a minute, Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.  Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:17-20 NKJV)

He also summed up all the Commandments in 2 Commandments, or what is referred to as the 2 Great Commandments. The first 4 were summed up when He said, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment” (Mark 12:30 NKJV) And the remainder were summed up when He said, “And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:31 NKJV) Don’t these sound like life principles for us to live by?

So, our take away from this portion of Psalm 119 today should be, when we adopt obeying His Commandments in our lives, our lives should be transformed. When we live a life following Jesus, it should be that our desire becomes to obey the commandments. Obedience is all God asked from us after loving Him anyway. That means what we should be doing is hiding His Word in our hearts so that it becomes a life transformation.

We will continue to be looking at this Psalm in sections. Although,  we need Jesus to bring us back into A Relationship with God The Father, this Psalm lays a foundation of how we should be walking in our Faith walks.