Psalm 119:137-144: His word leads us towards true Righteousness

Psalm 119:137 “Righteous are you, O LORD, and right are your rules.”
Psalm 119:144 “Your testimonies are righteous forever; give me understanding that I may live.”

I enjoy hiking - the great big, beautiful outdoors untainted by construction projects is a lovely experience. I find myself going back to these trails to get away from civilization for a time. There is something special about following a map, a compass, a chart, and not really having any real time commitments during the trip. You can go as fast or as slow as you need. Its delightful! What does hiking, camping, and the great outdoors seem to have to do with this section of scripture though? Well, its all about the journey. Okay, that sounds a little cliché and overused, but it really is. This entire section is based around the idea of a journey, a hunt, a chase, and most importantly finding the right trail. When I am out hiking, there are a multitude of trails in the woods. Some are real, some are not. I can find myself following what I think is the right path only to find that it ends in a thicket or a river. Other trails are firm and solid, but go the wrong direction. I need to know which trail I want to follow to get to my destination, whether it is my campsite, my car, or some other goal. Thats why I have a map to follow. With the map hopefully I can find the right trail.

We have been given a wonderful map to life, and it has an inbuilt compass in it! The Bible shows us the trails to follow. It helps us to chose the right passage way. The Bible is our roadmap to righteousness. Despite our handicap of being born in total sin and our selfish, self centered lives, we are made pure by the blood of Christ, by His death and resurrection. He sanctified us and we have now found ourselves in the curious position of being righteous because He is righteous, not because we earned it or merited it, not because we are somehow worthy or perfect, but because He is. This is the testimony of God, this is our testimony now too. We need this map that God gives us so that we can follow Him more because He is worth it. There is nothing we could do to deserve what He has done for us and because we want to follow Him, obey Him, please Him, and love Him more we want to know His Word. The Bible is there for that reason. It is when we learn it, study it, and discuss it with God during our devotions that we begin to understand it. When we start to understand it then we start to internalize it and apply it to our lives, we start to act it out and we begin to realize that we are truly alive. No longer do we seem to stumble through the half shadows that was our life, but now we can see clearly, the path is before us and it's obstacles are clear. The bright light of Christ revives us and encourages us. This, then, is what the Word of God offers us.

How often do we neglect our study and meditation of Scripture? What about actually talking about it with the author? We have that ability! Why not take advantage of it? This week, lets make that our goal!

I sing a song of the saints of God,
patient and brave and true,
who toiled and fought and lived and died
for the Lord they loved and knew.
And one was a doctor, and one was a queen,
and one was a shepherdess on the green;
they were all of them saints of God, and I mean,
God helping, to be one too.