On Saturday, I had a bit of a watershed experience . . . I threw away some magazines. Ok . . . so that doesn’t sound like too big a deal . . . but what you gotta understand is that I had been storing these magazines for years . . . not just a couple of years . . . probably ten years or more. Why you ask? Good question . . . it’s not like I had ever looked at them in that ten year period . . . it’s just that I stored them. They were good magazines . . . they deserved to be kept . . . even if they were never used. After all, isn’t that what boxes and closets (and garages) are for? . . . to keep stuff in? Ok, maybe not. But as I read a stanza of Psalm 119 this morning I was reminded that there is something that should be stored . . . something that really is a treasure worth being collected and kept . . . that there is a “holy hoarding” worth pursuing.
“I have stored up Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” (Psalm 119:11 ESV)
Psalm 119 has got to be one of my favorite psalms. 176 verses . . . parsed into 22 stanzas of 8 verses each . . . each stanza beginning sequentially with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet . . . each stanza primarily occupied with one grand theme . . . the Word of God. My reading plan has one stanza a day for 22 days . . . for the better part of a month I will enter into the psalmist love for the revealed mind of the Lord through His commandments, statutes, precepts, testimonies . . . through His word. And this morning, I’m told to hoard that revelation . . . to store up His word in my heart.
While the ESV translates it “store up”, the NIV and NKJV says “I have hidden Your word” and, the NASB says the psalmist “treasured” the word in his heart. All are accurate translations . . . all emphasize some aspect of what the original word conveys. It is the idea of hiding something of value . . . of esteeming something of such worth as to carefully keep and protect it in a secret place. It is the idea of keeping something, of storing up and storing away, of collecting and accumulating . . . I don’t think it’s going to far to call it “holy hoarding.”
The treasure? The word of God. The God-breathed revelation of heaven itself for earthbound men. The ways of eternity conveyed to those bound in time. The truth concerning the kingdom of God preserved through the ages for those with “ears to hear.” The storehouse? My heart . . . the inner sanctum of who and what I am . . . the seat of my intellect and of my emotion . . . that which acts as my GPS in navigating life. The process? Treasure the word of God . . . excavate it . . . collect it . . . store it up . . . catalog it . . . hide it deep within and protect it . . . hoard it!
and, the purpose? That I might not transgress against the One whom I love and desire to serve . . . that I might live a life worthy of my calling (Eph. 4:1) . . . that I might be holy even as He is holy (1Peter 1:15-16). Unlike those magazines of mine which were tossed away this weekend, this holy hoarding is not for the purposes of filling shelf space in my heart . . . or packing an inner closet with facts and data simply to gather dust. But I am to hoard that I might have access to and then apply, through the Spirit’s enabling, the mind transforming, Christ conforming word of God as I navigate this pilgrim path He has set me on. I am to retrieve it . . . recall it . . . use it . . . apply it . . . put it into practice.
“How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to Your word.” (Psalm 119:9 ESV)
I want to be a collector? I want to have a secret stash of treasure? I want to fill up closets and garages? Oh, let me do it with the word of God, filling the storeroom of my heart. Let me hoard His word . . . let me hoard for holiness . . . let me hoard for Him who is worthy . . . amen?
My Morning Meal 
Hi Pete,
I don’t watch very many movies and I have forgotten most of the ones I did see. But one movie I saw and remembered, at least parts of was “The Godfather” (1972). It was about the Coreleone family and about the aging patriarch (Marlon Brando) of an organized crime dynasty transferring control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son (Al Pacino). I can recall the scene where Malon Brando (before he dies) tells Al Pacino who he can trust and who he can’t and how he should deal with some of the members of the other mafia families. I can’t read 2 Kings 2 where David offers advice to his son (Solomon), the new king, without thinking of that scene in the movie.
First of all David tells Solomon to ” … observe what the LORD your God requires: Walk in his ways, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and requirements, as written in the Law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go,” (2 Kings 2:3) Doing what the Lord wants is always good advice.
Then David reminds Solomon about Joab and offers this advice in v.6 “Deal with him according to your wisdom, but do not let his gray head go down to the grave in peace.” and
In v.9 David offers this advice about Shimei “But now, do not consider him innocent. You are a man of wisdom; you will know what to do to him. Bring his gray head down to the grave in blood.”
Today’s portion also has David’s 4th son dying an untimely death in 2 Kings 2:25 “So King Solomon gave orders to Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he struck down Adonijah and he died.” Remember the judgment David unwittingly pronounced on himself after his sin with Bathsheba? 2 Samuel 12:6 “He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.” It all came to pass!
Thanks for listening and for sharing breakfast,
Bob