Psm 40:6
Phil
1:20-21;
3:7ff
New Year’s Resolution:
We have once again entered into a new year.
The vapor, of which our lives consist, grows
thinner, and dissipates.
Yet we
always, by faith, look onward and upward with great expectation.
We do not know what this coming year will
hold. But as we so often say, and believe, “we know who holds the future.”
We look at a troubled world, and know that
the Lord is bringing about the culmination of the ages.
And that one day promised joys will be
restored, and “…in my flesh I shall see God”.
But, what joys, celebrations, hardships and heartaches, will
we face this coming year?
In what ways,
this year, will the Lord challenge us to “count it all joy when we fall into
various trials…knowing that trial of your faith produce endurance”
An endurance that will be needed.
All of these things accompany us each year on this
trek.
But unlike those who do not know
the savior, our movements are bringing us somewhere…they are not dead ends…lost
dreams…but earnest expectations and hope.
As I studied through Psalm 40 over the last couple of weeks
in preparation for a message on the “Song of Christ” out of Hebrews 10….I could
not help but be drawn over and over to the phrase “my ears you have dug”.
Now I know that some see this as a
reference to the law of the bondservant, some translations actually translate
this as “my ear you have pierced”.
But
I think that translation actually interprets that word, rather than translating
it.
For the words do mean….”to dig” and
it is never used, at least to my knowledge, in the scriptures as “to bore, or
to pierce”.
In fact most times it is
used in regards to digging a pit, or well.
It has the idea of tunneling into the earth.
There are other times in the book of Isaiah where the same
phrase appears to be used, and the meaning appears to be the same.
Isaiah 50:5 where it says “The Lord GOD has
opened mine ear and I was not rebellious neither turned away back.”
Yet the word again is different, but carries
the same idea.
Why so much wrangling over a phrase?
In the final analysis, whether we see it as
the piercing of the ear, or the digging of the canal of the ear, the
application remains the same.
It is the
opening up of oneself to the will of another.
The clearing out of anything that obstructs your ability to hear and
obey….or the placing of the ear to the doorpost, demonstrate to us the
willingness of the individual to be open to His will.
And notice, it is the Lord who does it!!
“My ear YOU have dug”
Only by the work of the Holy Spirit, and
hearts open to His work, can one begin to hear and understand the will of God
for the life.
It is the presenting of
ourselves to God that He might clear out anything that obstructs “…that you
might know, what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
And to know the love of Christ which passes
knowledge.”
Then, of course, the Holy Spirit takes that phrase, and by
inspiration brings it over into the new testament in its interpretative
form.
With the perfect example of this openness
to doing the will of the Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ.
And the Phrase turns from, “My ear you have opened” to “A body
you have prepared for me”
The body of
the great son of David, prepared for the incarnate son of God, and “unto us a
child is born, unto us a SON is given”
This is a challenging portion of the word all by
itself.
A challenge to the believer in
the Lord.
For Psalm 40 speaks of the
man David….and the Lord opening his ear, that he might do the will of God.
This is where the relationship was drawn in our texts to
Philippians 1.
For the same idea stated
in a different form is presented to us here.
Philippians 1 verse 20.
“…according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall
be ashamed but that now also Christ would be magnified in my body, whether by
life of by death.
For to me to live is
Christ and to die is gain.”
The Apostle Paul as a prisoner, facing possible death….had
as his earnest expectation and hope that Christ would be magnified in his body….(it
appears to me to echo, in principle, the words of Heb 10:5,
“A body you have prepared…”)
As Paul faces life, where the Lord had seen fit to place
him, he did not loose sight of who he served.
His earnest ambition.
The thing
for which he stretched out his neck to see. (the word earnest expectation comes
from a compound word, made up of three words meaning, “away, the head, to
watch”. )
It speaks of a head
outstretched watching or waiting in great suspense.
It is like one in the midst of a crowd, standing on tip toes
seeking to see something or someone elsewhere in the crowd.
Stretching themselves and their neck,
extending it…so to see as well as possible.
The one thing that Paul stretched his neck to see, what he
desired above all else, in his situation, was that Christ be magnified.
Oh that that would be
our earnest expectation and hope….that the deep desire of our
hearts, expressed in our actions, would be that Christ be magnified.
The word magnified here comes from a root
meaning literally “to loosen” , or “to set free”.
It is the root of one of the words translated, redemption, or to
redeem.
To loosen, or set free, by
paying a price.
He desired that Christ
be loosened in Him.
That in no way
would He find an obstruction, anything blocking, His desire in the life of
Paul…an ear “dug” as it were.
Open to
Him, open to His instruction and will.
A “body prepared” for the masters use.
If my life will procure that, or my death, it does not matter to me…as
long as your will is fulfilled in me.
Do you want to talk about so called, “new year’s
resolutions”?
Well here is one for
you!! I resolve to open my life up to the master’s use.
To allow Him to dig my ear that I might
hear, and obey.
That I might allow the
Lord to have free course in my body, for whatever my bring Him glory.
That Christ be magnified, set free in
me.
Be perfectly at home in me, for His
good pleasure.
This resolution carried
out in the life will bring to you, regardless of your circumstances, a Happy New
Year.
KHH