Psalm 119: Samekh

The psalmist digs deep into ruthlessly eliminating evil from our lives in this stanza.  In verse 115, he casts away all evil doers from his life so that he might observe God’s Word. Who do we surround ourselves with?

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with,” a concept famously attributed to motivational speaker Jim Rohn, suggests that your habits, attitudes, and success reflect those in your immediate circle. This means the behaviors of your closest friends and colleagues tend to influence your own life outcomes. 

As we continue to learn how to abide in God’s Word and Presence, it might be time to make a friend audit.  Who are the 5 people you spend the most time with and how are they influencing your life?  The reality is: they are influencing you, even if you think you are the “leader” or “influencer” yourself.  We can extend this beyond people and consider the TV shows and movies we watch, the movies we gravitate towards, the books we read, etc.  But let’s start with the people closest to us.  What kind of example do they set for others?  How do they treat their family and friends?  Are they a positive influence?  Are they someone who you would look up to and want to emulate?  Does your relationship with them bring you closer to God?  After the majority of your interactions with them, do you feel positive and encouraged or broken down and disappointed?  Now, some of you might be thinking, “some of these people are in my family and I don’t have a choice but to be around them.”  Sure you do!  You just think you don’t.  You have complete control over who is close to you and influences you.  This is exactly why the psalmist says, “go away because I want to follow God and you are getting in my way of that.”

Secondly, we must evaluate: how am I influencing others? How do people feel after an interaction with you?  Do you give life and hope or do you cause pain and disappointment?  This is where we can be tempted to use the all-too-quoted phrase, “I’m only human.”  We already covered that in the last stanza, so resist the temptation with the power of God’s Spirit to use that excuse.  A good reason, however, might be the people you hang around.  They influence you and you influence them or others.  That’s why it is important to evaluate your closest relationships.  You have a choice to address it either directly by having a conversation or indirectly by distancing yourself.  If someone has recently distanced themselves from you, it could also be an opportunity to do a personal inventory to discover if you have been a bad influence as well!  Maybe it will take asking the person if you have done something to offend them.  Relationships are tricky, so I am not saying this is an easy thing to do, especially if the person that is an ungodly influence is a parent or a spouse!  Thankfully, my wife is perfect and I don’t have that issue (hi honey, I know you are reading this!).

There is a third part to this conundrum.  What about people you are trying to influence positively that themselves are not a positive, godly influence?  Well, I’m glad you asked!  The bible talks about this.  The Apostle Paul, writing to the Galatians mentions this in chapter 6:

Brothers, even if a person is caught in some trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a person in a spirit of humility, looking out for yourself, lest you also be tempted. 2 Carry the burdens of one another, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something although he is nothing, he is deceiving himself. 4 But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have a reason for boasting in himself alone, and not in someone else. 5 For each one will carry his own burden.

The simplest example of this is a recovered alcoholic going into a bar to help someone else with their addiction.  First, he must make sure God has called him to do so.  If not, we may be walking into a trap of the enemy to get us to fall without God’s protection!  Second, if we do fall to temptation, it is not anyone’s fault but our own.  Third, we must recognize that salvation, healing, and recovery comes from God, not us.  If you are trying to help someone and it causes you to stumble, you may have to break ties and create distance!  It’s hard to accept, but important to recognize.  Consider water rescue training.  If you go out to save someone who is drowning and because of their frantic struggling begin to drown you, the training is to break away until they calm down and are at a point where they can be safely rescued.  Yes, even if they drown and pass out.  You can revive them at that point!  Even so, according to what Paul is writing, it is everyone’s own responsibility for our actions, and the drowning person drowns because they did not do what was necessary to be rescued.  We have to be willing to change, be saved, and be helped before we can fully receive what we need.  It is nobody else’s responsibility to help us, only our own.  So be careful when getting close to someone whom you want to encourage and help, there is a possibility of them bringing you down with them!

Lastly, let us consider what the psalmist says in the last line of this stanza in verse 130:

My flesh trembles for fear of you, and I am afraid of your judgments.

Does this remind you of another passage in the bible?  It is echoed and expounded upon by Paul in Philippians 2:

12 Therefore my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For the one at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure, is God. 14 Do all things without grumbling and disputing, 15 in order that you may become blameless and innocent, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine as stars in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, for a source of pride to me in the day of Christ, that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

If we compare Paul’s writing to the Philippians with Psalm 119:113-120, we find stark similarities!  It’s as though the Apostle Paul was quite versed in this Psalm!  While the psalmist pleads for God’s help, Paul encourages us that with the Spirit inside of us, the Helper has come and is doing the work.  Yet, as I mentioned earlier, we have to participate.  We have to continue to work out our salvation for fear and trembling of what will happen to us if we do not.  In other words, we have to live saved.

Does your life reflect God’s salvation?  Are there things in your life that are preventing you from doing so?  What needs to change?  Have you positioned yourself for God to continue rescuing you?  Salvation isn’t a one time event, it is an ongoing process.  It isn’t just about “fire insurance” in the afterlife, it is about God’s Kingdom, here on earth as it is in heaven, here and now, in and through you.  It’s a constant battle against the flesh, which is strongly influenced by our input from those closest to us and what we ingest mentally and emotionally.  

I encourage you to join me in doing an assessment of the things that influence you right now.  If you are struggling to do so, consider the influence you have over others. As God reveals to you the areas of your life where you are not honoring God, evaluate where that behavior comes from.  There will be healing needed there, but make sure that there isn’t a current inflow of influence into your life that negates the healing you receive!