Promises, Psalm 119:49-56

Psalm 119:49-56 (NKJV): Remember the word to Your servant, Upon which You have caused me to hope. ⁵⁰ This is my comfort in my affliction, For Your word has given me life.
⁵¹ The proud have me in great derision, Yet I do not turn aside from Your law. ⁵² I remembered Your judgments of old, O Lord, And have comforted myself. ⁵³ Indignation has taken hold of me Because of the wicked, who forsake Your law. ⁵⁴ Your statutes have been my songs In the house of my pilgrimage. ⁵⁵ I remember Your name in the night, O Lord,
And I keep Your law. ⁵⁶ This has become mine, Because I kept Your precepts.

Did you know it’s ok to remind God of His Promises? Do you know why? It’s because it helps us to remember what He Promised. It helps us to acknowledge that He has everything under control.

We see the Psalmist start off this portion of Psalm 119, with reminding God of His Promises. Right after, he started making promises of things he will keep to Honor God. It would seem that in this instance, with him reminding God of His Promises, it was a way for the Psalmist to acknowledge that we have promises we need to keep as well. Yes, God has everything under control but we have some work to do too.

Talking about promises, this passage should be a reminder of how seriously God takes promises/commitments etc. We are not to give our word on something unless we are serious about keeping it.

Numbers 30:2-9 (NKJV): If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. ³ “Or if a woman makes a vow to the Lord, and binds herself by some agreement while in her father’s house in her youth, ⁴ and her father hears her vow and the agreement by which she has bound herself, and her father holds his peace, then all her vows shall stand, and every agreement with which she has bound herself shall stand. ⁵ But if her father overrules her on the day that he hears, then none of her vows nor her agreements by which she has bound herself shall stand; and the Lord will release her, because her father overruled her. ⁶ “If indeed she takes a husband, while bound by her vows or by a rash utterance from her lips by which she bound herself, ⁷ and her husband hears it, and makes no response to her on the day that he hears, then her vows shall stand, and her agreements by which she bound herself shall stand. ⁸ But if her husband overrules her on the day that he hears it, he shall make void her vow which she took and what she uttered with her lips, by which she bound herself, and the Lord will release her. ⁹ “Also any vow of a widow or a divorced woman, by which she has bound herself, shall stand against her.

Ecclesiastes 5:2-7 (NKJV): Do not be rash with your mouth, And let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven, and you on earth; Therefore let your words be few. ³ For a dream comes through much activity, And a fool’s voice is known by his many words. ⁴ When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it; For He has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed— ⁵ Better not to vow than to vow and not pay. ⁶ Do not let your mouth cause your flesh to sin, nor say before the messenger of God that it was an error. Why should God be angry at your excuse and destroy the work of your hands? ⁷ For in the multitude of dreams and many words there is also vanity. But fear God.

Matthew 5:33-37 (NKJV): “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’ ³⁴ But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; ³⁵ nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. ³⁶ Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. ³⁷ But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.

There are other passages dealing with promises and that we are to keep them. Do you know why it is important to God that we keep our promises, especially to Him? Because He keeps His Promises. Because He does not want us to speak flippantly about doing things. Because it is about character. God is concerned about our character more than we may realize.

So today, let our take away be this, “Don’t make promises you will not or can not keep. Know that if you do, you will have to answer to Him.”

We will continue to be looking at Psalm 119 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.