Selective Hearing

based on Psalm 119:57-64

Pentecost 9 – July 17, 2005

Eighth in the series Summer Psalms by Pastor Richard Mau

Immanuel Lutheran Church – Des Plaines, IL

Read Psalm 119:57-64

v. 61 and 64

Though the wicked bind me with ropes,

I will not forget your law.

The earth is filled with your love, O Lord;

Teach me your decrees.

Please turn to page 300 in the front part of Lutheran Worship. Let us read together the First Commandment and Luther’s explanation.

You shall have no other gods.

What does this mean?

We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.

Now go to the next page (301) and The Close of the Commandments.

What does God say about all these commandments? He says, “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” [Exodus 20:5-6]

What does this mean? God threatens to punish all who break these commandments. Therefore, we should fear his wrath and hot do anything against them. But he promises grace and every blessing to all who keep these commandments. Therefore, we should also love and trust in him and gladly do what he commands.

Did you ever follow assembly directions or a recipe and wonder, “Is this really the way to put this together?” Are you sorely tempted and many times follow your own intuition? Sometimes it works. Sometimes you have to undo and redo and go back to those basic instructions again.

Today’s Psalm points us very directly where good decisions are made; obeying God’s word, trusting in his promise, giving thanks to God for his righteous laws, and in his love that fills the earth. Like following those directions or not, we are anxious to do things our ways and all too often forget God’s patience and his guidance for making it in daily lives that are overwhelmed by those threatening weeds.

Isaiah is firm in reiterating the first commandment, have just one God and no other. How often we struggle between the one true God and the many alternative gods that spring up in our lives. Many of those gods start out as God’s blessings to us when we acknowledge his hand in delivering them. In our self-serving desires we become enslaved to the “things” that surround us in our lives. We bow down to sports, recreation, the weekend retreat, the technology, the home, the car, the video, the clothing. We do not need to have a well-formed statue overlooking a pool of pennies to worship another God. For most of us, that other God is none other than ourselves and the desires that consume us.

Then there are the days that the complications and implications of life and its decisions so overwhelm you that you wonder if you will make it through the assembly instructions. Paul reminds us that the Holy Spirit is the one on your side at these times. The Holy Spirit is offering groans that speak so much accurately your needs than your own prayers. What a strength and comfort to have one God who even steps forward and articulates exactly what your needs are.

There is the key to your life in faith and in this world. There is only one god. That one god is the Triune God, your creator, your savior, and your sanctifier – the one who makes you holy like him.

That is our Psalm today:

v. 57 You are my portion, O Lord. This portion is all that you have. It is your life, your possessions, your abilities, your thoughts and desires. God is all of this to you and for you and in you. You have none of this without God. If God removes himself from you, what do you have? What other person, thing, or power in this earth gives you life, breath, bread, and all other things? God is your portion.

v. 61 Though the wicked bind me with ropes. We are tugged left, right, up and down, this way and that by Satan’s temptations, our own sinful desires, and the glitters in the world around us. Our possessions, desires, hobbies, interests, passions, hungers and thirsts sound so good that we turn our ears to them for the ultimate in joys and satisfactions. That is when we find ourselves caught up, no, bound up in those ropes that are so hard to get out. But God has given you the way out as the Psalmist writes, “I will not forget your law.” God’s law is written in your hearts. [Romans 2:15] You have learned God’s law in the Ten Commandments. You have learned God’s law from Jesus’ command to love God first and your neighbor as yourself. [Luke 10:27]

It is interesting to us today to witness the disputes over displaying the Ten Commandments. When one follows the point of this argument, it is not the content of the Ten Commandments that is at issue. It is the source of the Ten Commandments. Man, in his sinful state, does not want to recognize and worship God as the one and only source of all things.

v. 58 I have sought your face with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise. In faith in your baptism, you have been made a new person. Your new will is to follow God’s commands. Your new will is to be faithful to the one true God who is forever and in all ways faithful to you. Your new faith is trusting God to be gracious to you according to his promise. His promise is that sure and certain hope you have in the resurrection and life eternal with him.

v. 64 The earth is filled with your love, O Lord; teach me your decrees. It is so easy to miss the point. We worship the gifts given us instead of worshiping the giver. God is the giver. God’s presence is always visible in nature and in the things he enables and gives man to do. God shows his love to us in these earthly gifts as a glimpse of the eternal joys and splendors we have to look forward to. He gives us his word, his commands to follow, because in them we experience the joys he wants us to have. Without following his word and commands, all is as empty as the gods we can and do make. Remember, those gods are limited to our simple abilities. There are no miracles in them. There is no command of nature in them. There is nothing that saves in them.

In today’s Psalm, our ears are turned to the one true God. We want to see his face. We desire the fulfillment of his promise. We long to live peaceful lives according to his statutes. Even in the middle of the night, we thank him for the peacefulness of knowing sins are forgiven and tomorrow is a new day in his love. As we see the perfection of his creation, we want him to teach us his decrees. As we sing from Psalm 119, we confess that his word is the lamp for our feet so we do not stumble, that his word is the light to our path, showing us the way both in this world and the way to salvation in Jesus alone. Amen.