Jump Start # 3419

Psalms 119:97 “O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.”

The other day we were in Nashville, Tennessee at the old Ryman Theater to catch a show. It was Ringo’s Allstar band. We had great seats and the show was incredible. Ringo is one of only two remaining Beatles. The Ryman Theater is an old church building built in the late 1890s. Gospel preacher, N.B. Hardeman held a series of lectures at the Ryman, starting in 1922 with an audience numbering in the thousands. Little has changed to the seating of the Ryman. The original pews are wood and old. There are no pads on the seats. They sit hard. They are not the most comfortable seats. Yet, the other night, for more than two hours, the people sat and enjoyed Ringo and his friends.

I was thinking later on, had we had two hours of preaching instead of two hours of Ringo, many would have complained. There would have been a cry to pad the pews and to make the seating more comfortable. And, why is it that two hours of a movie, a ballgame or a concert, even in hard seats isn’t so bad, but a thirty minute sermon, while sitting in an air conditioned room, with soft seats pushes our limits. Maybe it’s not the nature of the pew, but the nature of us.

When I first started preaching I was told, “The mind can only endure what the seat can.” But put that seat in the hot sun at a ballgame, and we’re ok. Put that seat in an old wood pew at the Ryman and put Ringo on stage and we’re ok. Maybe the mind shouldn’t be governed by the seat, but rather, the other way around. Maybe if our minds enjoyed the moment more, the seat wouldn’t bother us.

In our verse today, the Psalmist is praising God’s word. “O how I love Your law.” We read that and think of Philippians, or the Psalms, or especially the Gospels. Those mighty miracles. That compassionate Savior. But that’s not the law that the writer had in mind. The law of Psalms 119 would have included Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy—those dreaded books that we struggle to finish reading. That was his law. And that is what he loved.

Some thoughts for us

First, the Psalmist loved the law because it came from God. The Bible is God talking to us. It is His heart revealed. It is His love displayed for us. The God of the universe reaches out to us. How amazing. How wonderful that is.

Second, he loved it because God was revealing a way to walk with Him and know Him. God cared. God wanted His people to be righteous and holy. His law was a way to get there. Rather than leaving His people in the dark, God came. God revealed. God spoke. That law could be understood and it could be followed.

Third, he loved it because this is the greatest thing he could ever put his hands on and ever read. More important than textbooks from school. More important than ways to invest and save money. God’s word touched the heart, the character and the soul of man. Nothing will do more for us than God’s word.

So, in our short attention spanned culture, what can be done to help us get the most out of worship? We can only make the pews so comfortable. What can we do to make the seat endure more?

First, focus upon not yourself, the atmosphere, or the setting, but upon the Lord. I have been in church buildings that reeked of mold. I’ve been in places that you could write your name in the dust. I’ve been in fancy places and new places. The settings isn’t it. It’s the Lord that we thnk about. Remember, in Nehemiah, as the word of the Lord was being read, the people stood. They stood most of the day.

Second, open your heart to the goodness of the Lord. Prayers answered. Blessings sent. Forgiveness offered. God has been so good to us. How can a little inconvenience get in the way when one has his mind upon the Lord.

Third, worship is much more than watching someone entertain you. Worship involves you. You participate. It involves your heart, your mind and your soul. And, the more you pour into worship, the more exhausting it is, but the more connected and wonderful it is. One doesn’t mind hard pews. One doesn’t notice mold. One doesn’t worry about dim lighting. It’s the Lord and that’s what pulls one in.

Ringo was good, but the Lord is the BEST.

Roger