Listen to this post NOW on Beyond Everything Radio!

When I read the One Hundred and Nineteenth Psalm, I can hardly stand it. As long as I can remember, going back to age twelve, the reading of this Psalm has produced a spiritual earthquake whose epicenter is the deepest, most pure, most real part of my self. Before I knew anything about spiritual experiences…before I had any theological grid upon which to hang these words…I have experienced such a complete sense of Ultimate Reality… a proximity and communion with the Divine through these words…that this recurring experience has eliminated any doubt of God’s existence…and has produced an insatiable hunger and thirst for God’s word. This fully present experience is like having the deepest yearning completely satisfied, or an existential pain vanish in cosmic clarity. That is my experience and it’s not from these words, it’s in and through and beyond them. My soul aligns with the author of this Psalm and everything in life fades into the backdrop.

With my whole heart I seek you…

In this world, I’m weird. It’s because I can say there is nothing in this life I desire more than this experience. The tears that emerge as I wince through these stanza’s reflect a beauty I keep discovering in every molecule of the universe. Words fail me. I feel as if I don’t live in this sacred place, then I don’t even live. It’s my prayer that I can serve as your concierge and point to you to this place with this series. Here are the next eight verses:

How can a young man keep his way pure?
    By guarding it according to your word.
¹⁰ With my whole heart I seek you;
    let me not wander from your commandments!
¹¹ I have stored up your word in my heart,
    that I might not sin against you.
¹² Blessed are you, O Lord;
    teach me your statutes!
¹³ With my lips I declare
    all the rules of your mouth.
¹⁴ In the way of your testimonies I delight
    as much as in all riches.
¹⁵ I will meditate on your precepts
    and fix my eyes on your ways.
¹⁶ I will delight in your statutes;
    I will not forget your word.

“How can a young person keep his or her way pure?”

Purity is all but lost in our deceived world. One scan of the new music on Vevo and any person with the slightest amount of decency will feel violated and disgusted. As music increasingly emerges from the poverty of the hood, holler, or the barrio, it correspondingly brings with it the poverty of soul, where pain is transmitted to the masses who identify with such pain, and where purity of heart has been marginalized and trampled generations ago. I cannot imagine these words have ever washed over a heart so injured and confused. I don’t suppose their is room to store the Word of this Psalm amidst all the trappings and idols that have taken hold in our culture’s inner being, and as a result, the modern soul has no will nor reason to guard their way in purity…it sees the rules as a cosmic killjoy.. and not the loving guardrail which prevent tragedy.

With my whole heart I seek you…

This Psalm is portal through which we see the perfect, eternal world. In the right configuration, we “see” reality as He is, His structure, His testimonies, precepts, ways, statutes and the Eternal Word, which has existed from the beginning: “Én àrxẽi, ẽn ó Lógos” …In beginning was the Word… (John 1:1) In the same way Leonardo Da Vinci is “in” and through and integral to The Mona Lisa, so the Word is not an object to seek, but the Ultimate Subject. Objectively we read these words, Subjectively this Word reads us. That’s where the true treasure is, it is not the book itself, but the book opens the channel by revealing the artistry of our heart (our inner self) in proximity to The Artist.

that I might not sin against you…

The deep Word is the Source from which sacred text blooms. It’s conveyed in and through and around and beyond the pages, and finds its way into our darkness and it is treasured. It provides a graced form of protection and light, it reveals new perspectives which invite alternative decisions, and allows for our sin to not overcome us. The more we learn and discover, the more we desire this…the more we need. The function of this spiritual seeing, allows us to see who we truly are hidden in God and its worth more than any pursuit in life. As we discover how our sin keeps us stuck in our superficiality and pretense, we become hungry for this Word to overwrite the malware scripts within us and free us from a life of perpetual offense to such goodness.

 I will meditate on your precepts…

This power and beauty is found in silence, stillness, and contemplation. As we begin seeing, the seeing begets perception, and perception begets vision, and vision illuminates the way we must go…the path we must follow. While this remains unknown to the darkened world, it becomes clear as day to the soul who delights in abiding in and with this moment.

May we never forget. May our life practice be to apprehend this authentic, life-giving manna every day of our life. 

The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd.

Thank you, Great Shepherd, for the gift of your Word, which is the gift of yourself and the gift of finding ourself within you.