Abiding in Jesus, Living in Him (10)

 

 

When we prune, among other things we look for dead and diseased wood. This is not the only wood we prune; we also prune to allow light and air into the tree, we prune for form, and we prune so that branches don’t interfere with each other and thus negatively affect the health of the tree.

 

Dead and diseased wood speaks to us of sin, of that which will make us sick, of disease, of what is death. We need our Father’s pruning when there is sin in our lives, we cannot deal with sin ourselves – all that we can to is to ask God for forgiveness and submit to His pruning, and even this is by His grace in Jesus Christ.

 

As with much else in the Gospel, the Scriptures speak to us of sin in a forensic sense and in an organic sense, just as salvation has its organic and forensic elements – failure to understand these distinctions leads to confusion. For example, justification presents salvation primarily in its forensic sense, while the new birth, having the Nature of God in us through Christ, speaks to us of salvation primarily in its organic sense. Then we have sanctification – that beautifully melds the organic and forensic into one, they cannot be separated (2 Cor. 5:11 – 21; Rom. 5:12 – 8:39).

 

In our current reflection on pruning, we’re going to ponder sin organically and this takes us back to Psalms 19 and 139…we are finally going to look at these passages.

 

“Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults. Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; let them not rule over me; then I will be blameless, and I shall be acquitted of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Yahweh, my rock and my Redeemer.” (Psalm 19:12 – 14).

 

Now for those readers with eagle eyes, yes, the idea of being “acquitted” speaks to us forensically, of justification – we can’t really separate the forensic and organic, so let’s acknowledge that. Isn’t experiencing the Bible a grand experience!

 

Psalm 19:14 is a familiar verse to many people, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Yahweh, my rock and my Redeemer.” However, how did the psalmist get to this prayer? What led him to pray these words? What was working in his heart? What led the psalmist to pray verses 12 – 14?

 

If we have never pondered verses 12 – 14 in context, then we have never Biblically pondered these verses.

 

Is this not a prayer for pruning?

 

What do you see in Psalm 19? What is its theme? Its story? If you were speaking to children, how would you describe this psalm to them? If you were going to produce a play based on this psalm, how would you stage it? What do you “see”?

 

What do you see in verses 1 – 6? How might you describe what you see?

 

What do you see in verses 7 – 11?

 

What is the psalmist possibly experiencing in each of these two passages? What is he possibly experiencing in the passage as a whole?

 

What are you experiencing? What is Psalm 19 teaching us? What is the psalm’s central thrust?

 

How might the first two movements of this psalm (1 – 6 and 7 – 11) lead to the final movement of verses 12 – 14?

 

Please take some time to ponder this psalm and these questions and we’ll return to them in our next reflection, the Lord willing.

 

Shalom.