December 8, 2021 - Advent Week 2

 

 Psalm 119

27 Cause me to understand the way of your precepts,
    that I may meditate on your wonderful deeds.

40 How I long for your precepts!
    In your righteousness preserve my life.

45 I will walk about in freedom,
    for I have sought out your precepts.

            I looked up ‘precept’ and found many definitions, primarily stating ‘a commandment or direction given as a rule of action or conduct.’ Since March 2020, we have been receiving any number of directions on how to conduct ourselves, but until recently one would hardly see them as a path to freedom, …. Except that it appears that with the re-introduced restrictions, the fourth wave is waning.  We have, with caution, suspended the pre-registration (with the exception of Christmas Eve).

            The psalmist is asking to not just know but understand the rules and directions, more than just words, but the intent. And once they understand and meditate, their faith will be revived, the life preserved. There is freedom in obedience, which seems contradictory, until one realizes that we live by rules.  From seatbelts to speed limits, from noise bylaws to building codes, rules give directions. In our spiritual life, God precepts teach us how to live, how to love.

            I clearly remember the anxiety I felt a few months ago, when it appeared that the restrictions were relaxing. It seemed too soon.  As annoying as the orders were, they seemed to be reducing the numbers of infections.

            December 8th is also the birthdate of Jean Sibelius.  While he never wrote the words, his soaring melody of Finlandia is a common tune to the hymn ‘Be Still My Soul’.

 

 May these words sustain us through all of this.

Be still, my soul! for God will undertake
to guide the future surely as the past.
Your hope, your confidence, let nothing shake;
all now mysterious shall be clear at last.
Be still, my soul! the waves and winds still know
the voice that calmed their fury long ago.

Come Lord Jesus, Come.

 

- Sylvia Besplug

 


 

 

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