This morning a verse gave me assurance on living amidst this fallen world
Psalm 119:165 Great peace have those who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.
God’s law
1) Psalm 119 is a long long psalm about the value of God’s Word, God’s law.
2) It is also about loving God by obeying Him. To love God is to obey Him just like we show our love for our parents by obeying them.
3) Peace is more than just freedom from war or violence. It is more than just quiet and tranquility. In Hebrew, Shalom is used by Jews to greet one another and to bid them farewell, and it means much more than “peace, hello or goodbye”….
Hebrew words go beyond their spoken pronunciation. Each Hebrew word conveys feeling, intent and emotion. Shalom is more then just simply peace; it is a complete peace. It is a feeling of contentment, completeness, wholeness, well being and harmony. According to Strong’s Concordance 7965 Shalom means completeness, wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety soundness, tranquility, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony, the absence of agitation or discord. Shalom comes from the root verb shalom meaning to be complete, perfect and full. In modern Hebrew the obviously related word Shelem means to pay for, and Shulam means to be fully paid.
The only way to TRUE shalom is the Word of YHWH. Many search for fulfillment, happiness and contentment in material possessions, money, sex, entertainment, etc. But those things do nothing to fill “that little hole in our soul” that only GOD can fill!
4) The promise in this verse is not only peace but ‘great’ peace. Peace beyond human understanding – peace that normally would not be attainable.
Standing firm
5) Today, terrorists attack, wars and unrest all around the world, the stock markets are up and down, planes are crashing too, diseases cropping up, morality is declining too. How are we, the children of God standing?
6) Nothing (all the bad things: evil and sad things in this world) can make the one who loves God’s law stumble.
7) To stumble is to hit your foot on something when you are walking or running so that you fall or almost fall. The key here is your foot hitting something, and also about ‘almost’ falling.
What makes me fall? What hits me or makes me afraid or worry?
Even the a small pebble can cause us to ‘almost’ fall – we go through our valleys of doubts, fears, anxieties, griefs – these can trip us or let us slip. But those who love God’s law, those who read the Bible, meditate on them and obey God, there is ‘nothing’ that can make them stumble – because there is ‘great’ shalom – wholeness, completeness, perfect and full harmony inside – this is the peace that man cannot comprehend but is possible. Peace that makes us stand firm even when the whole world seems to be crushing all around us.
