Make Goodness Great Again
Insights on Psalm 119, with help from William Wilberforce, Christine Caine, and a wineskin
I’ve been transcribing Psalm 119 as part my morning routine. (On Wednesdays, for the last few years, I’ve scratched out the psalms in my own handwriting in the early morning light, with coffee. I’m in the midst of the big one).
Here are a few takeaways from my third session, as I transcribed verses 65 - 96. I hope the reflections bless you in the midst of your busy life.
Making goodness great (again).
The life and biography of William Wilberforce has impacted me greatly. His story captured in Michael Apted’s beautiful film Amazing Grace and parsed apart in the Eric Metaxas biography of the same name are two bodies of work worth spending time with.
Wilbeforce is famously known for giving his life and vitality to abolish the transatlantic slave trade, the first great object of his life. The second great object of his life he set out to achieve was to make goodness fashionable again.1
Before you start to suspect that this whole article is a Trojan horse to discuss trafficking, let me get to it. Wilberforce came to mind because of a word that David hits us over the head with in this passage.
Goodness.
The word good continues to appear, and God is the ultimate example of it—his ways, his words, his law, his plan. And his goodness is a stark contrast to the nature of men. The Hebrew word here is טוֹב (pronounced towb). And it is rich in meaning.
It’s the same word used in Genesis to define what God creates. “And it was good”— suggesting perfection, harmony, beauty, sweetness, wealth.2
“You are good and do good,” (68) the psalmist says, and the sentiment rings loudly throughout.
David longs to receive God’s good judgment (66).
He declares that God is good and does good (68).
It was also good for David to be humbled (71).
This meditation is central in this section as David remembers his own pride and unfaithfulness and the guile and contempt that he’s been treated with by others.
Good friends, changeable hearts
Those who love God and want God’s laws are natural allies and he declares as much: “Let those who fear you turn to me” (79). “Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice, because I have hoped in your word” (74).
Don’t you just love that? This idea has jumped off the pages at me throughout Psalm 119 as I’ve transcribed.
Fellowship and affinity don’t come through politics, ethnicity or tribe, social status, or the number of social media followers you have in your kingdom of dirt. It comes through shared love and affiliation with God. It’s not an exclusive club. Anyone can belong. Just drop your own little crown at the door, and step on in!
Wait, did you say a Poetry Contest with CASH PRIZES? Yes, yes I did.
And another thing to love is how God allows the heart to change. It’s not through cunning or shaming (which seems more and more like the MO in our times). It isn’t punishment or retribution from God that changes his heart. David’s heart was changed through humility, and ultimately God’s mercy and kindness.
David says he is humbled and went astray (67). The astonishing standard of God’s goodness (and what that goodness is and means) redirects his heart and behaviour back to God.
How easy it is to get off track
There’s a reason he went astray (off the path, off the way)… and the psalmist attributes it to the fact that he didn’t keep God’s word:
Before I was humbled I went astray
but now I keep your word.
~ verse 67
I remember a powerful sermon by Christine Caine. In it, she talks about how if a pilot is off course by one degree, you may not notice it at first when you take off from, say, Los Angeles.
But if the course isn’t corrected, that slight deviation will land you in a totally different destination—500 miles off target. So instead of landing in New York, where you thought you were going, you’d end up in Detroit. Go Tigers!
To riff off the sports allusion, if you take your the eye off the ball, you miss the mark. Keeping your eye always on God’s word is essential to goodness, peace of mind, security. And to staying on the safe and good path.
And it’s not like David is being a Pollyanna, here, dealing with unserious problems. He faces blatant:
arrogance, subversion, guile (79).
persecution—the arrogant dug pitfalls for him, flouting God’s law (84, 85).
persecution without cause; they almost “made an end of me on earth” (87).
wickedness—people laying in wait to destroy him (95).
God’s law and way helped David navigate landmines and IEDs meant to create carnage by his enemy. Dangerous traps and tactics meant to take him out.
Oh, and there’s yearning too
There’s a yearning, a longing —“my soul languishes for your salvation” (81)— for salvation and God’s word. A hunger and a thirst for it. It’s worth pausing to note and take this in.
This is the stuff of passion and desire, something truly alive and real. This psalm touches the deepest things of life.
Is your devotional life this spicy?
Throwaway thought
There’s an interesting metaphor in this passage. It sort of slapped me across the face at the end of this section, one that I had to look into: “I have become like a wineskin in the smoke, yet I have not forgotten your statutes (83).
Wineskins would often be mingled with smoke to add flavour to the wine. However, if they were left too long, the leather skins would crack, start to dry, and ruin both the wineskin and the wine inside.
Think about that.
May your wine be made sweet and rich by the challenges and experiences of life, but may it not be tainted or ruined!
If you want to catch up on my previous reflections from Psalm 119, check out these posts:
Here’s an interesting article that outlines this and highlights how the abolition of slavery and goodness in culture are linked.
The word is really wonderful. Here’s what Strong’s concordance has to say about it