Housework Strikes Again…

Morning!

Raises his cup of coffee

It is Tuesday March, 25th of 2025!  It’s supposed to be a partly cloudy day with a balmy high of 60.  We are still in our Psalm 119 challenge.  We’re going through the Psalm piece by piece and seeing what we can find.

Do we feel down?

One of the underlying pretexts of our Psalm is that David is upset—to put it lightly.  Maybe we don’t just feel down—we feel oppressed in some way. And don’t read too much into my choice of words here. I’m not talking about Marxist theory oppression—I mean the everyday difficulties of life that weigh us down.  Maybe there’s someone at work giving us a hard time.  Maybe we’ve got some government-related stress—like unpaid tickets or forms we forgot to file.  Whatever it is, it can leave us feeling like our soul is cleaving to the dust.  If we’re not in that place right now, can we remember a time when we were?  Because that is where we begin today.

Psalm 119: 25-32

“My soul clings to the dust; revive me according to Your Word.  I have declared my ways, and You answered me; teach me Your statutes.  Make me understand the way of Your precepts; so shall I meditate on Your wonderful Works.  My soul melts from heaviness; strengthen me according to Your Word.  Remove from me the way of lying, and grant me Your law graciously.  I have chosen the way of truth; Your judgments I have laid before me.  I cling to Your testimonies; O LORD, do not put me to shame!  I will run the course of Your commandments, for You shall enlarge my heart.”

There are times in our lives when God’s Promises from His Word seem very close to us.  Do we remember the last time we had that feeling?  Then there are times where it seems God’s Promises are far away.  Have we considered these times in prayer to remember them?

We begin today with David in one of those moments where God feels far away. So far, in fact, that the psalmist is floored—literally.  He writes, “My soul clings to the dust.”  He’s face down in sorrow, in struggle, in that place where all strength feels gone. And from that low point, David cries out for revival—“Revive me according to Your Word.”  David starts by being honest. He admits his misery. He acknowledges his need for God to move, to work in his life.  Then comes a shift—David confesses his ways to the Lord. He lays it all out. And in that place of humility, he asks God to teach him His ways.

Does this sound familiar?

How do we think The Holy Spirit does this?

Because what we’re reading is a prayer—David is praying.  He’s asking for wisdom from God. And as we learn in James, God gives wisdom generously to those who ask. But we must be willing to do the work. We’re not called to be hearers of the Word only, but doers also.  David isn’t just asking for wisdom for its own sake. He asks to learn God’s ways. He asks for understanding. He asks for wisdom—with a purpose.  David desires these things so that he can meditate on the wonderful works of the Lord—works that he expects to see.

So.

Do we want to see wondrous things from the Law?

Do we want to understand God’s Ways?

Are we asking so that we can meditate and remember the mighty Works of God or are we asking for other reasons?

But He gives more Grace.

Isaiah 26: 3

“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.”

This verse in Isaiah is one I hold very close.  In times of difficulty—when anxiety or fear starts to creep in—I immediately think of it. It reminds me where my focus belongs: on God.  When my attention is fixed on Him, when I choose to live in the shadow of the LORD—meditating on His Word, praying without ceasing—peace is what His Word promises.  But that peace doesn’t come from effort alone.  It comes from trusting in the Lord.

The more we put our trust in God, the more ways we find we can put our trust in God.  The more ways we find to put our trust in God the more God is revealed in our lives.

David’s soul clung to the dirt and his reaction was to confess to the LORD his ways and to trust in the promises of the Word.

Do we seek perfect peace?  Isaiah teaches we are to keep our minds stayed on Jesus and trust in Him for that.

But He Gives more Grace.

John 14: 22-31

“Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, ‘Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?’  Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.  He who does not love Me does not keep My Words; and the Word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.  These things I have spoken to you while being present with you.  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.  Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.  You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’  If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.  And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe.  I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.  But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do.  Arise, let us go from here.”

So maybe we have bit the dust like David.  Maybe we are at the point of asking God to teach us His Ways and how to walk in them.  Jesus explains to us how The Holy Spirit teaches in this passage in John 14.  If anyone loves Jesus, they will keep His Word.

That got me wondering.  What did Jesus mean, to keep?  The greek word used is…

Tereo: (greek)

- To guard from loss or injury, keeping the eye upon

- To note, to detain

- To hold fast, keep, serve, watch

In English…

Keep: (verb)

- To retain in one’s possession or power; to refrain from granting, giving, or allowing, to have in control

- To take notice of by appropriate conduct: fulfill; to be faithful to; to act fittingly in relation to; to conform to in habits or conduct; to stay in accord with

- Preserve, maintain; to watch over and defend, to take care of: tend; to continue to maintain; to cause to remain in a given place, situation, or condition; to have or maintain an established position or relationship

There are a few more possible meanings, but I think this will do.

So.

I don’t know about you, but I find it fascinating that the word “keep” in our text has a more militaristic feel than I originally realized.  At first, I understood “keep” to simply mean reading and doing the Word. And while that’s not wrong, it’s a bit of a mediocre definition, if you ask me.  When I looked deeper—especially at the Greek—the word carries a much stronger sense. It means to guard the Word.  Not just to follow it, but to protect it.  To guard it from loss.  To keep a vigilant eye on it, as one might guard a fortress or treasure.

Jesus tells us that the one who guards His words—the one who holds tightly to them so they are not lost—is the one who truly loves Him.  There is a zeal for the Word implied here. A watchfulness. A passion to protect and preserve it.  And it is this person, Jesus says, whom the Father will love.  It is this person with whom the Holy Spirit will come and make His home.

Does this not look a lot like our passage in Psalm 119?

Make me understand the Way of Your precepts; so shall I meditate on Your wonderful Works.

Now there is a line that I want to take a moment to look at.

Psalm 119: 29-30

“Remove from me the way of lying, and grant me Your law graciously.  I have chosen the way of truth; Your judgments I have laid before me.”

None of us want to admit lying lips.  I bet a whole bunch of us want to spend time on discussing exactly what a lie is.  I’m reasonably certain that’s unnecessary.

Lie: (verb)

- To make an untrue statement with intent to deceive

- To create a false or misleading impression

How did we do on our last resume?

David asks God to remove from him the way of lying.

So.

Have we asked God to remove from us the way of lying?

Proverbs 12: 17-22

“He who speaks truth declares righteousness, but a false witness, deceit.  There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword, but the tongue of the wise promotes health.  The truthful lip shall be established forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment.  Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil, but counselors of peace have joy.  No grave trouble will overtake the righteous, but the wicked shall be filled with evil.  Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD, but those who deal truthfully are His delight.”

Now, we’ve been talking about some pretty epic things this morning. So it might be helpful to bring it all down to earth for a moment.  I’ve found that when I include the Holy Spirit in the small things—when I invite Jesus and the Father into my daily tasks through prayer—my own lying lips get revealed pretty quickly.  Did I clean that toilet until it was truly clean?

Or did I just say, “Eh, good enough”?  Did I do as much as I could have—healthily, of course—with Jesus?  Or did I tell myself there was a lion waiting to slay me, just so I could excuse giving up?

These are small things. But they add up to big things.  And really—it’s not about the toilet.  It’s about the lie we tell about the toilet.  Will anyone else ever know or care that I cut a corner doing housework?  Maybe not.  But the Holy Spirit knows. And the Holy Spirit cares.  And when we lie to the Holy Spirit… bad things happen.  No, I might not be struck down like some were in church history. But from personal experience, I can tell you: lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.  That’s why I encourage all of us to examine ourselves carefully.  Because it is possible to believe a lie.  And if we’ve come to believe it—then we may genuinely think we’re speaking truth… but we’re not.

For example.  So of us might have been atheists before we believed.  How many times did we declare God did not exist thinking we were speaking the truth?

The Holy Spirit will teach us.  He brings to our remembrance that which Jesus has said.  Have we stopped to consider this?

Romans 12: 1-2

“I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which ice your reasonable service.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by then renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect Will of God.”

The transformation comes from the renewing of our minds, but we must present our minds a living sacrifice, holy, given to God.

I think that’s a good start for the morning.