December 4: Keeping the Word
♫ Music:
Day 7 - Saturday, December 4
Title: KEEPING THE WORD
Scripture: Luke 11:27-28
And it happened, as Jesus spoke these things, that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!” But He said, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
Poetry:
[Untitled]
by Lal Ded [translated by Jane Hirshfield]
I was passionate,
filled with longing,
I searched
far and wide.
But the day
that the Truthful One
found me,
I was at home.
WAYS OF PLEASANTNESS AND PATHS OF PEACE
Two miles from the summit of Mt. Whitney is a nook in the jagged rocks. Hikers can leave their packs here while they make the final ascent. After days of backpacking up and down mountain passes on the John Muir Trail, I gratefully unloaded everything, refusing to carry even a water bottle with me on this final stretch. At the top I experienced a time of peace sitting alone on the boulders while a sparrow pecked crumbs from my hand. Surrounded by a vast silence, I felt that I was outside the world with all its activity wiped away. Then came the glorious run down from the summit. The early morning sun sent its rays through the windows in the skyward pointing crags, and I flew down the trail free and unburdened, my breath even and my feet sure on the stones.
The psalmist says, “I will run the course of Your commandments, for You shall enlarge my heart” (Ps. 119:32). Sometimes, however, we forget that wisdom promises that “her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace” (Prov. 3:17). Instead, the word commandments carries a connotation of restriction, cold obligation, and onerous duty. Falling prey to this distorted and soul-benumbing perspective saps our lives of joy. Even worse, allowing ourselves to stew in this perspective may lead us to seek what feels like freedom only to find ourselves in bondage. Christ shatters this deception. When he names the most blessed ones, he points to those who hear God’s word and keep it. Amazingly, he even says that we are as blessed as the young mother who humbly accepted God’s word and gave birth to her Savior and ours. Following Christ’s commandments puts us in the same place as Mary, one of rejoicing in God’s mercy and the great things that he has done for us.
Earlier this semester, I had one of the outdoor classes with students that have become so common in this Covid-era. The shadows lengthened on the grass around us as we discussed John’s epistles. It is not an accident that the disciple whom Jesus loved constantly reminds us that love necessitates obedience. God’s commands are manifestations of his love, in following them we find our good. Disobedience is not only a violation of love against Christ, but also a violation of love against ourselves. This Christmas as we celebrate the birth of Love Incarnate, the coming of one who loved us more than his own life, let us also reorient ourselves to recognize that he desires our obedience because he loves us. This is the blessed life, the way in which we can lay down our heavy burdens and find pleasantness and peace.
Prayer:
Father, as we remember the birth of your son, may we also remember his devotion to you and his reiteration that he came to do your will, in his birth, in his life, in his death, and in his resurrection. We come before you today desiring to imitate Christ. Please enlarge our hearts so that like him we may be eager to hear your word and delight in keeping it.
Amen.
Devotion Author:
Dr. Laurie Wilson
Assistant Professor
Torrey Honors College
Biola University
For more information about the artwork, music, poetry, and devotional writer selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Artwork:
Joshua
Chris Koelle
Digital Illustration
2016
Artist Chris Koelle created this illustration based on the New Testament book of James, particularly James 1:21. The illustration contains these words: “In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the word. Be a doer of the word and not hearers only. Love one other as you love yourself.“ May this be our daily prayer.
About the Artist:
Chris Koelle is an American illustrator, printmaker, and designer. Koelle has created artwork and illustrations for dozens of books, graphic novels, and award-winning documentaries, including the Oscar-nominated Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, as well as numerous album cover designs. His illustrated books include John Piper’s JOB, The History of Redemption, and Bike Snob. His latest illustrated tour de force, The Book of Revelation graphic novel, was recently published by Zondervan. He lives in Greenville, South Carolina, with his wife, Annie, and their two children.
www.chriskoelle.com
About the Music:
“Blessed is the Man (Psalm 1:1–3)” from the album Psalm 01
Lyrics:
Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law[b] of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
About the Lyricist:
King David was the youngest son of Jesse of Bethlehem. When Saul was rejected as the king, God chose David as his successor. A gifted man, David played the lyre to soothe Saul, gaining his favor and eventually becoming his armor-bearer, during which time he fought and killed the giant Goliath. He became Israel’s greatest king, and made Jerusalem the nation’s capital city. Although he was a godly man, David fell into sin with Bathsheba. God used David not because he was mighty or perfect, but because he found favor in God’s sight. David wrote about half of the Psalms. The historical occasions mentioned in the psalm titles help the reader see how faith applies to real-life situations.
https://www.esv.org/resources/esv-global-study-bible/profiles-1-2-samuel-david/
https://www.esv.org/resources/esv-global-study-bible/introduction-to-the-psalms/
About the Performer/Composer:
Joel Limpic is the pastor of liturgy and arts at Park Church in Denver, Colorado. His albums include Psalm 1, Pilgrimage, and the EP Remembrance. He was born in California, but raised in Brazil and received a B.A. in Business from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He loves reading, coffee, thoughtful food and drink, Crossfit, and exploring cities.
https://parkchurch.org/joel-limpic/
About the Poet:
Lal Ded (b. 1355) was a fourteenth-century Kashmiri saint and mystic poet who is also known as Lalla or Lalleshwari. Married at the age of twelve into a family that was reported to have regularly mistreated her, she renounced her material life and marriage to become a disciple of a spiritual leader named Siddha Srikanth. As part of her religious training, she travelled alone on foot and survived on alms before becoming a teacher and spiritual leader herself. Her vakhs or mystic poems are drawn from influences and languages from the Indian sub-continent and Sanskritic, Islamic, Sufi, and Sikh traditions. Her poetry has been translated widely, including English translations by Jane Hirshfield in Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women (1994), Coleman Barks in Naked Song: Lalla (1992), and KCIE Sir George Grierson in Lalla-Vakyani or The Wise Sayings of Lal-Ded, A Mystic Poetess of Ancient Kashmir (1920).
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/lal-ded
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalleshwar
About the Devotion Author:
Laurie Wilson
Assistant Professor
Torrey Honors College
Biola University
Laurie Wilson, an Assistant Professor in the Torrey Honors College at Biola University, received her master’s degree in Greek and Latin and her doctoral degree in classics from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where she was an H. B. Earhart Foundation Fellow and a Postgraduate Fellow in the James Wilson Programme for Constitutional Studies. This background reflects her passion for classical studies and interdisciplinary research, which has focused on Augustine, Cicero, and writings from the American founders.