What Makes God, God? His Word: Psalm 119:105

 Psalm 119:105- "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."

At the heart of humanity lies the desire to know and to be known. Human beings have always striven to increase knowledge, grow awareness, and improve technology. Expanded knowledge comes through experience. Developing awareness manifests from within self. But improved technology represents the application of that knowledge and self-awareness. 

The Tower of Babel and the Human Condition

Consider the Tower of Babel as an example. The story of this audacious, man-made initiative is buried between the storyline and lineage of Noah and the infamous account of Abraham's faith journey. In Genesis 11:3 we read, "They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar." One commentator observed that this feat represented a vast amount of applied knowledge to the fields of architecture and construction. "It marks a great progress in the arts of civilization that these nomads had learned that clay when burnt becomes insoluble; and their buildings with “slime,” or native pitch, for cement would be virtually indestructible" (Elliot's Commentary for English Readers). 

The Genesis text turns to an apparent smaller sample of people from within the wider global community, who applied their emerging knowledge to new architectural technology, attempting to rival the unique character of God (Genesis 11:6). Their attempt at building a city with a tower that probed the outer limits of the heavens was apparently motivated by an internal drive to make a name for themselves (11:4). That is where awareness enters into this analysis of humanity's drive to know and be known. Though we are not told the underlining issue that prompted the original plan, we can assume that their desire to be known by their name precipitated the design for this monument to immortality. 

Was their original motivation as pure as wanting to preserve a legacy for their descendants? General opinion questions that idea. Albert Barnes described the real issue at the heart of this architectural feat. "This is the language of pride in man, who wishes to know nothing above himself, and to rise beyond the reach of an over-ruling Providence." Sure enough, this Genesis text could lead a reader of this story to just such a conclusion. 

Then again, the wider context of the Bible and our human condition also corroborate this interpretation (i.e. Proverbs 8:13; 16:18; Jeremiah 48:29, etc.). Even though humanity has always endeavored to know and be known, like floundering in a pitch-dark room we blindly navigate our world with limited knowledge, inadequate self-awareness, and a deluded use of technology. 

If you question that premise, there are at least three current examples that illustrate this last claim. Though we have progressed immensely in medical technology, our inadequate baseline of knowledge prompts even more research to expand our limited understanding. It's as if we continually learn how much we don't know. Additionally, the explosive sales of self-help books highlight our preoccupation with fixing ourselves. Just two years ago over $18.6 million dollars was spent on self-improvement books and apps presumably to guide us to that esoteric sense of self (Darko Jacimovic, 2020). Finally, if you question our misplaced use of technology, just look at our dysfunctional practices on the internet to satisfy our superficial cravings, ranging from revenge tweets on Twitter to widespread pornographic addictions. 

Our key verse assumes the plight of our human condition. We search because we're lost. We long to know because we don't. We desire to be known because we feel insignificant. We grope through life because we can't see past the present moment. Guilt from the past blurs our sight. Fear of an unknown future exposes our ignorance. 

Life Application

Psalm 119:105 offers an intervention for this dismal existence. We can know. We don't have to stay lost. We can see again. We can end the groping by finding purpose. Here is how.

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First, like an x-ray represents the technological application from the vast universe of physics, God's Word represents the applied technology of truth. Knowledge and self-awareness accurately obtained must be sifted through the filter of God's divine truth. Our lack of knowledge and misunderstanding of self surrenders us to a fumbling experience. We can mistake expanding knowledge as accurate and conscious self-awareness as authoritative. God's Word acts as the sieve that filters out misguided knowledge and faulty interpretations of awareness that lead off the beaten path. 

Here is the ironic twist to our human condition. Even though we were created to know and be known, this path on which we travel takes us deep within ourselves as we search for knowledge of God and the significance for which we long through our service of others. His Word keeps us in check from making our search for God about ourselves robbing us from the very significance for which we desire. 

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Next, recognize you are on a journey to learn Christ, meaning to experience God you serve and to understand self you seek the life that Christ lived. There is a path on which you are travelling. You can call that life. You can call it whatever you want to call it because it does not change the reality that the unexpected lies just around the concealed corner of inexperience and a pervasive lack of knowledge. There is always something on this path you must learn about God, others, and yourself. 

We lose our way when we reverse the divine order of things (God, others, self) giving pride a place. The underlining issue behind the tower that rivaled the borders of heaven was the implied sense of pride that directed humanity's population to self over God and others. Presumably, they began to believe the answer to their problems was found within their individual selves. They assumed that a completed tower might yield the individual and communal significance for which they longed and the knowledge for which they lacked. 

If you look again at Genesis 11:4, you will find that fear of the unknown is the close culprit of pride lurking in the shadows of ignorance. That is where they lost their way. Fear, pride, and ignorance represent the triangulating cord by which we hang ourselves. We still lose our way today at the intersection of these three complicit instigators. There is always something you don't know, another step to take, and depths to probe about God, others, and self. 

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Finally, live fully where God has you in the present moment. Take one step at a time along this path. Look again at our key verse. "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path" (Psalm 119:105). The lamp that directs your path is the Word of God. Discover the relevance of God's Word in each moment in which you stand and in the state in which you find yourself. Our tendency is to react out of fear, pride, or ignorance by stepping beyond the moment where God is actively working in your life. That is where we lose our way. God's Word illuminates your path in the right now and in the right here in His present work. 

You are created to know and be known. Don't let the human condition define the boundaries of your knowledge. I pray that your knowledge of God defines your condition and your service of others reveals who you are in Him.

Pray this prayer as a response to God:

"Lord God, I naturally long to know and be known. May my knowing only be found in You. And may I know one day even as I am fully known by You. May your Word grow my knowledge of You and who I am in You so that I may be joined along this path by the scores of lives I have served in Your name." 

Scriptures for further study

What is the role/characteristic of God's Word from this sample of scriptures? 

Psalm 119:11

Psalm 119:49

Psalm 119:72

Psalm 119:89

Psalm 119:105

Psalm 119:133

Psalm 119:168 

For access to this article on self-help statistics, visit https://dealsonhealth.net/self-improvement-industry-statistics/