I clung on to the edge of the above
ground pool like my life depended on it.
My heart was pounding in my chest because I wasn’t so sure I would
survive. Jay, who was seeking revenge
for me dunking him weeks earlier, was a black belt in jiu jitsu and was far
stronger than me. I thought he just
might keep me under too long not realizing that I couldn’t hold my breath as long
as most. No matter how he tried to grasp
me I managed to wiggle away. And my
grasp on the edge was like a welded vice; there was no way he’d get both hands
off and he didn’t!
It’s in our human nature to hang on to
things especially when we deem it important enough to us. We tend to cling on to them, some of them
good for us and some not so good. Yet
still, we cling. It was the act of
clinging that spoke to me from the Psalms this morning.
…My soul clings to
the dust; give me life according to Your Word. Ps. 119:25
Cling is an interesting word. It speaks of cleaving, adhering, being
joined, sticking fast, pursuing hard and following close. Barnes says ‘it has the sense of adhering
firmly to anything, so that it cannot easily be separated from it.’ So here David is speaking being stuck like
glue to something as if his affections were involved.
The dust signifies a few things. Sometimes when the Jews mourned they would
throw dust (or ashes) on their heads in order to abase themselves (Lm. 2:10).
Perhaps David was mourning, but I don’t think so because no one would
cling to mourning. Dust can mean actual
earth. That is probably not the answer
either since David had more to do than hang on to dirt. It could also refer to humankind’s mortality
for in that sense, all our bodies cling to death- not of our own volition.
It is more likely David is speaking of
the earth in context of earthly things; considered as base, unworthy, and
worldly. If there is one thing I know as
a 30 year Christian is that we DO tend to cling to the world like it is our
lifeline. We stick to the attitudes as
if they are best, the behaviours as if they are normal or good for us, the
thinking as if it is the only source of intelligence, and the fleshly ways of
greed, covetousness, and impurity or anything that fulfills our pleasures. It doesn’t seem to matter if it is good for
us or not, we hang on tight anyway.
But we were meant for a higher purpose,
not to live as the world (Rm. 12:2), but with the Spirit of God dwelling with
us (Jm. 4:5), we are to live / walk in the Spirit (Gl. 5:16).
But the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control; against such
things there is no law. But those belonging to Christ have crucified the flesh
with its passions and lusts. If we live
in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become glory-seeking,
provoking one another, envying one another. Gl. 5:22-26
David realized his penchant for sticking
to the world, but he also knew the way to fix that was for God to make him
alive through the Word. Only He is able to transform our hearts and lives (Rm.
12:2), and the Word of God (both the Bible and Jesus) can make us alive
again. Truth is, for me, it wasn’t until
I let go of the world that I experienced the real freedom that comes in Christ
(Jh. 8:32,36). I don’t want to go back to holding on to that
edge of the world for fear of my life, but I want to run into the future with
Jesus holding my hand on this journey. That's where all the fun is!
And the Lord is that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is liberty. But we all, with our face having been unveiled, having beheld the
glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are being changed into the same image from
glory to glory, even as by the Lord Spirit. 2Cr. 3:17,18
It
is the Spirit that makes alive,
the
flesh profits nothing.
The
words that I speak to you are spirit and are life.
Jh.
6:63