Read Psalm 119:1-16
“How can a young man keep his way pure?
By living according to your word.
I seek you with all my heart;
do not let me stray from your commands.
I have hidden your word in my heart
That I might not sin against you”
Psalm 119:9-11 NIV
It’s amazing how a nation’s standard of morals and ethics have changed in slightly over a decade.
In the name of freedom of speech, some writers incorporate cuss words and highly graphic descriptions of sex and its many perversions in their daily place in the tabloids and their little niche in the magazine industry. Not to mention the endless variations of songs spanning a lot of genres that only voice out violence, death, depression and hopelessness. Not to mention the rate of how the name of Jesus and God is disrespected and profaned.
In the name of art, it is okay to produce magazines of scantily clad women (yes, there are magazines portraying men in the same state of undress), nude infact, and go so far as even taking pictures of men and women having sexual intercourse. What has happened to the sanctity of the marriage bed? To the beauty of a God blessed union of man and woman? What has happened to the respect given to God’s greatest and most beloved creation: man?
So many young people are now caught in the push and pull of this post-modernist society and its culture of values, values so different from God. Values totally on the opposite side of what God has presented. Even Christian teens and young professionals are getting sucked in to this mad whirlwind of compromise and sin. With this rise in a post-modern set of values and core ethics we also have a rise in teenage pregnancies (getting younger on the average each year), we have women (and men) actually wanting to be commodified (and by commodified I mean treated as an object to appreciated and depreciated as the economy or market dictates). We have men and women giving into the pressures of pre-marital sex, drugs, alcohol and even domestic violence. Families are torn apart. Relationships are shattered.
Experts point towards the increase in revenue and development in our country, but is there not a rise in all these problems as well?
David has presented us with the way how to deal with this. Being a king, he was all for country and nation development and revenue increase, but he never allowed a compromise in the values and laws set down by God to take place.
He cites that in order for us to not stray from God’s laws, we must live according to God’s Word. He goes on to emphasize that we should 1) seek God with all our heart. To seek means to actively search. It means there must be an effort on our part. How often do we read God’s word? And; 2) hide God’s word in our heart. To hide would mean that we keep it safe from being snatched away. In effect, after we read God’s word, do we keep it safe and apply it in our daily life or do we “lose” it at the first sign of a favorable compromise? David knew that it would be a struggle on his part that why he asked God to not let him stray from God’s commands that he might not sin against God.
This is truer for us today. Our struggle isn’t merely against flesh and blood but against rulers and principalities of a fallen world. Perhaps we are already struggling with a sin mentioned above. Maybe you feel that it is hopeless and that God would not forgive you. Psalm 119:37 tells us that if we “Turn [our] eyes away from worthless things; renew [our] life according to [His] word.” We need to repent and turn our ways from sin, and God will be more than willing to forgive us. We just need to let go of it and let God take control. The question is: are you willing?
