MUSINGS

“I HAVE THOUGHT ON MY WAYS” (Psalm 119: 59) It is important to take stock of our ways. Perhaps some “grievous way” (Psalm 139: 24) is creeping in. Perhaps there are habits or tastes which are hindering spiritual prosperity, interfering with communion. Perhaps reading and prayer are being squeezed out by other things. So let us think on our ways and have grace from the Lord to adjust them where necessary. Then, like the psalmist, we shall not only be able to say, “I have thought on my ways”, but also, “and turned my feet unto thy testimonies”. Later in this psalm (Psalm 119: 168) he can say, “All my ways are before thee”—a safe and happy state!

“THY HANDS HAVE MADE ME AND FASHIONED ME” (Psalm 119: 73) It is a most affecting thought to the believer that we have each been the subject of divine care and formation. This relates to our bodies and also to spiritual formation. We have been made for divine pleasure. But the thought of

fashioning seems to go further, involving beauty and adornment. Experience with God in the christian’s life, teaching, and ministry are all intended to bring about the fashioning of the work of God, so that we come out, not in conformity to the world, not in the characteristics of the flesh, but increasingly in the features of the life of Christ. So in Luke 7: 44 the Lord says,

“Seest thou this woman?”. Everyone there knew what she had been, but now the Lord was calling attention, with holy delight, to what she now was, the product of His own skilful fashioning.

FCM