Commanding Victory || Psalm 119:93 || Weekend Wind-Down #13

Welcome to the thirteenth week of “Weekend Wind-Down.” This series is where we take the verse of the day, look at the face value interpretation, check the background and context of the verse, do a deeper dive on the focus scripture, and figure out what we can walk away with. 

Today’s verse is Psalm 119:93, which says this: 

93 – I will never forget your commandments, for by them you give me life. 

Face Value

We need to remember the commands of God because they help us live. 

Background

Psalms provide poetry to express praise, worship, and confession to God.

Our psalm for today comes from the fourth book of Psalms. These psalms often discussed the relationship of God’s overruling kingdom to the other nations. Because we are Christians, we can keep the events and troubles of the earth in their proper perspective. 

Take-Home Point

What are the commandments that God gave you that you live by? It centers around Jesus’s top two commands: Love God and love others.

These can be life-giving commands. I don’t necessarily think in terms of these terms giving me physical health, although it would guide my actions and can lead to doing helpful things that would benefit my physical life. Think of it this way: some grandparents feel like life couldn’t be better when they see their grandkids. The mental and emotional benefits that God gives will benefit our life. How? I want to use the ten commandments to explain myself. 

I’ve learned that the first four commands connect to the “Love God” rule, and the last six connect to the “Love Others” rule. Let’s go over the ten commandments found in Exodus 20: 

The first four commandments are: 

• You must not have any other god but me. (20:3)
• You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. (20:4-5a)
• You must not misuse the name of the Lord your God. (20:6a)
• Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. (20:7a)

The last six commandments are:

• Honor your father and mother (20:12a)
• You must not murder. (20:13)
• You must not commit adultery (20:14)
• You must not steal (20:15)
• You must not testify falsely against your neighbor (20:16) 
• You must not covet your neighbor’s house (20:17a)

Loving God Gives Me Life

When we focus on the Almighty God through worship and praise, we can begin building a relationship that will last for eternity. Keeping our focus on the Almighty God allows us to be intentional with God alone rather than not giving them our full attention and splitting our attention on multiple sources. 

What is an idol? According to biblehub.com, it’s a carved image made out of wood, stone, or metal with the likeness of a man or animal. The top example of this is the Golden Calf. Why does God tell us not to make idols? Because it splits our focus from our relationship with God. If we focus on God and an idol, we’re no longer being entirely intentional in giving our relationship with God. God calls himself “a jealous god who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods.” (20:5a.) Does this make him a lousy god because God gets jealous? I don’t believe so. It’s no different if your spouse spends much time with others compared to you. You will most likely feel jealous because you’re not getting the attention you deserve. God feels this way too. It’s part of why you see many analogies that we, the church, are the bride to Jesus, the groom. That’s the level of relationship we should have with God. 

What does it mean to take God’s name in vain? I’ve heard in a podcast from the BibleProject that it doesn’t mean what we’ve grown up thinking it means. I was taught not to say “Oh my God!” or anything like that phrase because of this commandment, but I’ve also heard that it means not doing things in God’s name that doesn’t align with his mission. Which is true? Let’s start by defining what “vain” means. It’s an emptiness or nothingness. It can mean using it for no good purpose. With this definition, I take it to use God’s name to do something more for you rather than for God. It’s using God’s name to do something to boost your ego. It reminds me of the story taught in Matthew (I believe) about how to pray and why we should pray so others can hear it, but to pray so that God can hear it. The focus is where vanity comes in, and this is a prime example of doing something that takes God’s name in vain. 

What does it mean to keep the Sabbath holy? What is the Sabbath? The Sabbath is known as the day of rest. The reason is that after God worked for six days, he took the seventh day to rest. We’re also encouraged to rest after periods of work. Sabbath could be the weekend, Sunday, or the hours after you get home from your job. The idea of the Sabbath is to reflect on your work and recognize the holiness of it. 

Loving Others Gives Me Life

What does it mean to honor your parents? Not everyone has a healthy relationship or any relationship with their parents, and that can make this discussion heavy or hard to talk about. You may have parent-like figures that have filled those roles for you. Maybe you have aspirations about being the parent that you didn’t have. God can be your parent. God is your heavenly Father, and some belief structures view God as feminine, in the realm of a motherly figure. Whichever structure is most accurate for your life, we can think about honoring God. Honor means to be heavy, weighty, or burdensome. If we honor someone, we have a weighty importance placed on them. We hold them to a high accord in our life. This standard is where God should be, our parents, guardians, or whomever we have in our parent role. 

The next four feel like common sense: don’t murder, cheat on your significant other, steal, and lie. Murdering someone means taking the life of one of God’s creations, which he found very severe and punishing in the Old Testament. Committing adultery is wrong. God holds relationships to a very high standard, especially the standard of a romantic relationship, because he shows us how that works with the many analogies between Jesus and the church. Stealing is wrong. God calls us to be grateful for what we have. Attempting to gain something you do not have the means to get yourself develops unhealthy mindsets, leading to unhealthy words and actions. Lying is wrong. The truth is hard to share sometimes due to the fear of judgment, how they will react, and the tough conversations that come with sharing the truth. Yet, the truth sets us free. Scripture proves that. 

The last commandment reminds us not to covet. What does that mean? Don’t be jealous of what others have. As I mentioned earlier, God calls us to be grateful for what we have. If we’re worried about what others have and yearn to live the life they have, we aren’t focusing on our blessings, which means we’re not focusing on what God has done and is doing for us. We can ask for those things; if God has those things on our path in life, we can go for those things. If they’re not a part of our path, then we need to accept that, move on towards the path that God has, and have faith that God’s plan is good. 

Thank you for joining me for this Weekend Wind-Down as we explored how to live with God’s commands through Jesus’s favorite commands in Matthew and the Ten Commandments. Stay tuned for the next reflection. Let me close out with prayer. 

Holy and loving God, thank you for the guidance and wisdom You’ve given us through the Bible and our faith communities. Please help us to live them out effectively, authentically, and genuinely. It’s in your name; we pray. Amen.