Today we come to Psalm 119:169-176 – the end of this lengthy Psalm – which concludes with an emotional prayer. The Psalmist prays that all his affective and physical faculties – his “cry, supplication, lips, tongue, and his life” – will all be instruments of praise to God. The Psalmist writes, “for all your commands are righteous” (verse 172). We notice that all of God’s Word – specifically His decrees, His commands, His precepts, and His law (both singular and plural, cf., verses 174-175) – the sum total is righteous, praise-worthy, delightful, and sustaining (verses 172-175). This is part of what Jesus meant when He said to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (cf., Mark 12:30). Further, we observe that the writer seeks God’s “understanding, deliverance, instruction, His hand, salvation, and His laws” so that he can continue to praise God. “Let me live that I may praise you” (verse 175). Praising God is one of our main purposes for living. The Psalmist ends the prayer on a note of humility – “I have strayed like a lost sheep” (verse 176) – but he has “not forgotten” God’s “commands.” I am so thankful that, even when we stray away from Him, we have a Shepherd Who tenderly receives and welcomes us back.
In Ezekiel 10-12, we see Ezekiel’s visions and the subsequent reflections of God’s glory. The prophet “saw the likeness of a throne of sapphire, and a Man clothed in linen … Who filled His hands with burning coals to scatter them over the city” (cf., 10:1-2). In all likelihood, this Man is the preincarnate Christ Who appears with the cloud of God’s glory that filled the temple, and it was “full of the radiance of the glory of the LORD” (verse 4). We wonder how a man or a cherub could hold hot, burning coals in his hand, but we need to understand that extremes of heat, cold, or anything else mean nothing to God. What might burn us would have no effect on the Lord whatsoever. In this vision, we see a very sad event: “Then the glory of the LORD departed from over the threshold of the temple” (verse 18). In chapter 11, God further gives Ezekiel a picture of Israel’s evil political and religious leaders, and through Ezekiel, God tells them that He will “drive them out of the city” (verse 9). After promising that a remnant would eventually return (verse 17), the “glory of the LORD departed from the city and stopped above the mountain east of it” (verse 23). In chapter 12, God gives Ezekiel the dramatic responsibility to stage the coming departure of His people by symbolically packing his belongings, digging through the wall, and enacting the part of a refugee going into exile.
In Hebrews 7:11-28, we see why it was necessary that Jesus, Who serves as our great High Priest, be ordained into the priesthood in the order of Melchizedek. Aaronic priests first had to offer sacrifices for their own sins before they could advocate for the lives of others. This legal order could only appoint priests in their weaknesses (I.e., their sins), which could never be applied to Christ. But by the Father’s eternal plan and oath, “which came after the law,” something better was established - a “perfect priesthood forever.” Jesus Christ – Who meets all our needs – is our perfect Priest.
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