Psalm 119 is all about loving God’s Word and the results of living according to its instructions. Verse 37 is a prayer to God about living God’s way. The Psalmist says, “Turn my eyes from worthless things,
and give me life through your word.”

I like television! Like many of you, I probably spend way too much time in front of it. My dad hated it. He grew up without one, of course, and we didn’t get one in the house until around 1955. All my friends already had one and were talking about sky king, lassie, howdie doodie, and many other pioneer tv shows. My mom got hooked and my dad refused to watch it for the most part. It became to him “The Boob Tube.” Much of the yelling I remember in the early 60’s was around the TV and it’s value.

When Kathy and I first became Christians, in what I believe is the true sense of the word, in 1978, we threw out our TV. The boys were lost without it because it had become the key babysitter in many ways. We learned how to do things together and we learned how to focus our attention on reading. Neither of us knew the Bible at all. So it became the chief source of interaction in our home.

Sometimes I long for those days again because now that I’m so much more spiritually mature and have two television sets and two computers, I find the struggle to focus on things of higher value still an ever present battle. I do find some redeeming value in some good, wholesome movies, but mostly I find what’s thrown at me is indeed “worthless things” as the Psalmist calls them. I like the way Eugene Peterson, in “The Message” translates Proverbs 14:15. I think he nails it. The wisest man in the world, Solomon, agrees with the song writer and says, “An intelligent person is always eager to take in more truth; fools feed on fast-food fads and fancies.” The New Living Translation says, “A wise person is hungry for knowledge, while the fool feeds on trash.”

Lord, turn my eyes from worthless things and give me life through your Word!

Chuck
“This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24)