255 - "The Unfolding of the Word---Meaning and Mercy in Suffering" Psalm 119

                                                                      

I am like a wineskin in the smoke, I have not forgotten your Word. Psalm 119:83

Wine-bottles of the East are skins.                                                                                                               The custom was to hang the skin of wine in the smoke of a fire to mellow the wine and bring it to perfection.  

I learned in school you always have to ask: So what's the point?  

The psalmist finds consolation in this metaphor that my afflictions have "meaning" and "mercy."              They have been sent by the Creator to act on me like the smoke does on the wine.  

The Tuck commentary says: Under all these afflictions, may we refuse to part with our faith.  Yet, we falter.  Yet, we don't forget the Word either.  

R. Tuck says: "What seems to be in mind is a long waiting-time, which was also a time of suffering and strain."  Waiting for God.  Watching for God as this world passes away.  

And Tuck says the major question is this:  "What was he doing during this hard waiting-time?" ...     Holding fast to his integrity;                                                                                                                  keeping obedience and trust;                                                                                                                persistently ordering his life according to the Divine statutes.  

Send your Word, O God! And may we throw ourselves on the Divine rhetoric.

The Unfolding of the Word gives Light. 

The entrance illuminates our understanding. 

Doesn't depend on how bright we are or are not. 

It gives understanding even to the simple. 

The word "pentach" signifies an opening. 

Someone said that metaphorically, it really means a "gate." 

And when the Light dispels the darkness, and lights up our minds, 

we enter the porch.

What happens when we enter in the house? 

May we be so taken with the Word of God to delight, meditate, study, and marvel at it over and over and over. 

Huram-abi knew how to work with iron, stone, gold, silver, bronze, wood.  He could do it all---engravings.  But all I can think of this day is that I want some iron in my soul.  I'm far too flappable, malleable, slippery, flacid.  The Holy Spirit knows how to put that iron in my soul.  And so, we pray. 
Psalm 119: 175 
Invigorate my soul , O God, 
so I can praise You well, 
use Your Decrees to put iron in my soul. 

PHOTO:  Because the beginning is understanding for all of us. Light coming through an opening in the sky. A gate of wisdom for us this day.