God’s Word for You
Psalm 119:105 A lamp, a light
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Sunday, October 20, 2024
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light for my path.
This verse, surely most well-known in the Great Psalm, is about the believer’s life of sanctification. When we are brought to faith, everything that follows in our lives can be described within the realm of sanctification. Even the desire to attend worship in order to once again hear about the forgiveness of sins (which falls under justification) is an act of the sanctified human will, which desires to walk (that is, to live) according to God’s will. For this, we need a guide. The law serves as a guide for us (the third use of the law), but the gospel also motivates our happy obedience to God’s will. And many of the Bible’s accounts, whether historical or in the parables of Jesus, illustrate sanctified living and teach us about how God wants us to conduct ourselves.
The parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37) teaches the answer to the question, “Who is my neighbor?” It is really describing the whole second table of the Ten Commandments, summarized by the words, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And then, immediately after, a factual incident took place that Luke records illustrating the first table of the Law: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.” It’s the little story of Mary and Martha listening to Jesus preach (Luke 10:38-42).
The historical accounts of David facing Goliath (1 Samuel 17:1-58), of Samson’s many exploits, and of Joshua’s battles teach us to use whatever gifts we have in the Lord’s service. But then so does Jesus’ observation of the widow who put in a few worthless coins in the offering box in the temple, saying: “Out of her poverty, she put in everything—all that she had to live on” (Mark 12:44).
Our sanctified living gets its power from faith. And this power varies according to the strength or weakness of that faith. Weak faith gives in to temptation more easily than strong faith (yet the terrified believer should also remember that “all sin and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). A weak faith will also be less productive of good works, and may give way to fear and doubt in times of trouble or danger (Mark 14:28-31). But sanctified living is never perfect, and will change from time to time or even from day to day in the life of the Christian. Paul himself writes: “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (Philippians 3:12). And in our Lutheran Confession we affirm: “Our best works, even after the grace of the gospel has been received, are still weak and not at all pure” (Apology). Yet we are able “in weakest bodies” to do “strongest works,” but only on account of faith.
To all of this we must add that the whole word of God brings to man the supernatural knowledge of God, which is also known as theology. We say supernatural knowledge because the Scriptures teach us things that cannot be deduced from nature apart from the word of God. The gospel in particular spells out the plan of salvation that runs so completely contrary to man’s logic, reason and intellect that it produces explosive and sometimes furious responses from men. “Festus interrupted Paul’s defense. ‘You are out of your mind, Paul!’ he shouted” (Acts 26:24). This was on account of Paul mentioning the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. And again, “The Sanhedrin were furious and gnashed their teeth at him” (Acts 7:54)—and this was after Stephen reminded them that they had plotted against and killed Jesus, without even getting to the resurrection yet. The word of God reveals what human reason did not invent (1 Corinthians 2:9-10) and could never have invented (1 Corinthians 2:14). The word “path” in our verse (natib, natibah) is also explained by Solomon: “In the way of righteousness there is life; along that path is immortality” (Proverbs 12:28). Righteousness is only found in the word of God, for without it, man remains completely in the dark about the will of God, salvation, and Christ. Therefore the word of God is a light, shining on the truth of God’s plan for each of us.
Faith is, in one sense, the agreement that the believer has with the knowledge he receives through Scripture. The mind reads the Scriptures and admits, “This is what the Bible says,” and the heart responds, “Yes, I believe it. This is most certainly true.” And so the word shows the believer the way of godly living: Your word is a lamp to my feet. And the word also shows examples of such living, and provides the motivation for everything we do: Your word is a light for my path.
Creation, the incarnation of the Savior, justification, sanctification, theology, godly wisdom, godly examples, godly advice, godly assurances, and more. Like Mary the mother of our Lord, we treasure up all these things, and we ponder them in our hearts (Luke 2:19).
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.