Ridding Ourselves of Worthless Things
I am in the Psalms this month and this morning I read Psalm 119, the longest of the Psalms. Verse 37 reads this way in the NIV: Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word. “Worthless things” jumped out at me.” I believe typically we would think of these, as Eugene Peterson translated them in The Message, as toys and trinkets.” Earthly, material things such as fancy cars or jewelry. Or perhaps stupid or silly television shows or movies, of which there are an abundance. Honestly, it might bring to mind a lot of things to each of us.
For me, I thought of wasted thinking. Thinking about things which happened in the past that are unchangeable. For much of my life this has been one of my biggest struggles, just revisiting past events. They don’t even have to be bad things that happened; they can be good and I can get stuck reminiscing. This was particularly true when I left seminary and moved to Kansas to lead my first campus ministry. For many months, I longed to be back in my home state and focused on the people there and the good times with them. As I reflect on those days, these were “worthless things” in that the Lord had called me to Kansas and I was spending much of my mental energy back in Indiana.
I also spent much time thinking about my past sin. It shamed me, even though I had confessed and was convinced the Lord had forgiven me. I spent much time in regret. It was worthless because I had been forgiven and the Lord wanted me to focus on the present (Isaiah 43:18) I was stuck in the past.
These worthless things can be grudges or bitterness we have toward others, or discontentment with our lives. There are many things on which we can occupy are minds that gain us little or nothing in the grand scheme of our lives. They are worthless in adding anything of real value to them.
The Psalmist’s prayer is one that we all should pray often. We are very poor at doing this on our own. Thus, we spend inordinate amounts of time contemplating these things when the Lord has much better uses for our time and energy. He also wants us to live in freedom rather than bondage. It is often the case that worthless things on which we focus become our masters.
As we are in this season of Advent, let us remember that Jesus came to set us free from enslavement to worthless things. He came that we might have life and experience it to its fullest (John 10:10).
© Jim Musser 2022 All Scripture references are from the New International Version, 2011.
