Be Faithful and Obedient || Psalm 103:17-18 || Manna for the Mind #61

Welcome to Day 61 of the “Manna for the Mind” devotional series! This series is about taking scripture passages (typically 1-3 verses) and building our understanding of their teachings through their context and connecting scripture. I believe that doing this helps us understand how to be the type of human that God created us to be.

Today’s devotional will be short and sweet. It comes from Psalm 103:17-18.

Psalm 103:17-18

17          But the love of the Lord remains with those who fear him. His salvation extends to the children’s children

18          of those who are faithful to his covenant, and of those who obey his commandments!

It’s always helpful to remind ourselves that ‘fear, ‘in this context, is not a negative thing. It’s not about domination but about respect. It’s about recognizing and acknowledging the power of what God can do and the love and compassion he has for us to not abuse that power towards us. It’s not taking God for granted, in essence. His love for us remains with those who are intentionally committed to having a relationship with him. His saving grace lasts for the next generations beyond our own. It’s extended to those who are faithful to his covenant. What covenant is that? To love God of all of who we are (heart, soul, mind, and strength) and to love our neighbor as Jesus loved us. We must be faithful to his covenant, but what does that mean?

Faithful is the Hebrew verb shamar (shaw-mar’), which means to keep, watch, or preserve. It’s holding on to those commands and keeping them in your heart. It isn’t easy to consistently do this in our world today. I’ve seen more and more Christians, including myself, struggle to love and trust God fully and to love our neighbors properly. It’s why we’re taught to watch this covenant. Not just to study it but to watch how we live it. It’s constantly checking and reflecting to see if we are loving God with all of who we are. It’s seeing if our interaction was an example of how to live and love as Christ did. We must preserve it. When the world teaches us something that feels counter-intuitive to God’s moral covenant, we must stick with it. God’s law and Jesus’ teaching are counter-cultural and feel upside-down more times than not, but that was the point. To show love and compassion that no one has ever seen before. Living into that shows us how faithful we are to preserving this covenant and how we can continue building the Kingdom of God.

We are taught to obey his commands, too. To obey his commands is the Hebrew verb zakaar (zaw-kar’), meaning to remember. We need to remember the teachings of God. How can we do that? Which ones do we need to remember? All good questions. There are 613 Old Testament laws and commands that Jesus came to fulfill. Then there’s God’s moral law that teaches us to love God with all of who we are and to love our neighbor as Jesus came to love us. What do we take away? I’d recommend two things: looking at everything through God’s moral law and studying Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, a significant sermon delivered by Jesus in Matthew 5-7 that outlines the principles of the Kingdom of God and how to live a righteous life. These two things have helped me comprehend and understand a lot of the laws taught in the Bible. Jesus uses some of the Ten Commandments to teach us how to love, so there’s a blend of old and new covenant to fully grasp what to do. I’ll leave you with this list. Take some time to go over this list and read for yourself Matthew 5-7 to see how you can best apply these teachings to your life:

• Don’t be angry with someone. Instead, reconcile the issue with that person.
• Treat everyone with respect.
• Commit to your relationships of all types.
• Keep your promises made to God and others.
• Don’t seek revenge.
• Love those who don’t agree or align with you.
• Give out of compassion, not out of clout.
• Pray to God, not to those around you.
• Forgive those who have done you wrong.
• Share your resources with the world.
• Trust that God will provide everything you need.
• Don’t judge others.
• Pray to God consistently.
• Treat others the way you’d want to be treated.
• Follow God’s path.
• Be aware of people who teach the Bible improperly.
• Listen to God’s teaching.