Your Word Is Worth More Than Gold: A Life Lived Through Psalm 119:72-77

By Mark Adams

Running sloppily in a drunken rage through the deep woods of the Plumas National Forest while trying to shoot my best friend for spitting tree bark and beer at me, I had no concept of God. I had two goals. Make a meager living and dull my pain. Well, in that moment, I wanted to kill Bill. (I missed; he lived; don’t worry.) On occasion, between bouts of anger and depression, I did hope that a loving God might be real. I wondered if a better life could be possible. I did not believe it. But I would have paid any price, any amount of silver or gold I could muster to make it so.

_

“Life before Christ was broken.”

_

Today I serve as a superintendent of Free Methodist churches. I have a whole and happy family, and a life I would not trade for any amount of money. It was not always so. Life before Christ was broken.

Jesus burst into my life like an electric current flowing from an incomprehensible power source on a snowy Sunday morning in a small Sierra Nevada cow town. A friend dragged me to her church. I discovered a gift more precious to me than anything I had dreamed of to that point — the Bible. This life-giving guide to a better way changed my life.

The Living Word sets the written Word ablaze. I became aware in my now born-again spirit that my bottomless pit of ignorance, pain and loss might be filled, healed and restored through consuming Scripture as if it were the bread of life. I learned truly “The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold” (Psalm 119:72).

I learned on its pages that I could cry out to a father who actually loved me. My biological dad would throw me against furniture and walls — leaving many scars — and eventually abandon me, my mother, brother and sister. Through the Scripture, I discovered my true Father who “made and formed me” and could “give me understanding to learn” the way of the Creator (Psalm 119:72). Before long, with alcohol behind me, unhealthy relationships shifting, new friends who were people of faith around me, and mentors who kept asking what I had been learning from the Bible, my life was being restored. Diamonds could not purchase this gift.

Transformed and Afflicted

I lived in a small community and was a bit notorious, so many took note of the transformation. I was truly glad that those who fear the Lord rejoiced when they would see me, for the hope I had placed in God’s Word (Psalm 119:74). In other words, church folk were thrilled to see a small-town football star, scandalous but influential, serve as living proof that the Holy Spirit is alive and that the Word of God does transform even the most broken. Those outside of the church, however, were the people the Word of God prompted me to hang with the most. The Lord Jesus remained the friend of sinners and told stories of seeking lost things as His preferred purpose. Besides, they were my friends.

But my drinking buddies didn’t understand me. Porn pals were disappointed that I no longer provided the goods. My friends — who donned, as had I, “Proud to Go to Hell” T-shirts and matching attitudes — were confused. My own family was frightened that I had joined a cult. Indeed, I began to spend much more time at church than with my family. For brief moments here and there, then and for decades, I wondered if it was worth it. But always I came back to “I know, Lord, that your laws are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me” (Psalm 119:75). As you face the possible change of relationships as you grow healthy in Christ, you may face some affliction as well and, I pray, discover that it flows from a faithful God.

_

“The word puts things into perspective. This perspective is worth more than any temporary riches.”

_

To be fair, I haven’t viewed difficulties in life as affliction, per se. Fighting, struggle and a sense of loss were just normal while growing up homeless (a Ford Falcon as my bed) and then on the truly mean streets of Oakland, California. Before knowing the Word of God, I never really blamed God for troubles; I just assumed there was no God. Following conversion, I still do not blame God for “affliction” but rather have learned to see every painful experience as an opportunity to learn and mature, remembering this world truly is not my eternal home. The word puts things into perspective. This perspective is worth more than any temporary riches.

When your starting point is believing brokenness and pain are normal, experiencing the grace of God is kind of like having ever-present rainbows! Now, every good thing that happens, even if it is merely a nice sunrise or a pleasant kiss on the cheek from my wife, I feel like happy fireworks light up the night sky. I know every good thing is a gift from my heavenly Father. I trust that the Lord has been faithful still in the suffering and loss that I have experienced in life before and after Jesus gracefully grabbed my soul. This feeling and confidence cannot be purchased with cryptocurrency.

I have learned over time to view life through the lens of this Psalm’s prayer, “May your unfailing love be my comfort, according to your promise to your servant (Psalm 119:76). The inner sense of daily rainbows does not mean life has been easy. Life in the shadowlands we all inhabit is hard. Still, God’s unfailing love is a constant source of courage and comfort. Over the years, as a Christian, trusting Jesus wholeheartedly, I have yet lived in a truck; lost a premature daughter; experienced bleeding ulcers, broken bones and chronic pain; and struggled with addiction, unemployment, overemployment (working two or three jobs to barely make ends meet), arson, legal challenges and all of the ups and downs that make life so interesting. Yet praying for God’s unfailing love and comfort in the midst of difficulty or affliction places life within the divine presence no matter how dark the day may seem. The promise, after all, is not the comfort of ease and magical pleasure.

A Pathway to Grace

God’s promise is the comfort of a friend who remains closer than a brother. The promise provides a powerful sense of divine purpose that imbues my existentially insignificant life with eternal importance. Gazing in my mind’s eye upon the cross of Jesus, truly afflicted in the context of God’s faithfulness, I cannot see my trials as anything but a pathway to grace. This inner strength cannot be purchased with even the world bank’s unlimited line of credit.

_

“I live because Thy law is my delight.”

_

“Let your compassion come to me that I may live, for your law is my delight” (Psalm 119:77). Where would I be without the compassion of God and the delightful commands He has graciously poured into my life? Prison? Still on the street? Ever bitter? Perpetuating a chain of brokenness? Almost certainly. I recite this Psalm along with the singing, crying, dancing, praying King David in one way or the other every day. I live because Thy law is my delight.

Without doubt, the law of God is of greater value than any amount of silver or gold (Psalm 119:72). Please allow this grizzled survivor transformed by grace to invite you to see your life through the lens of the Psalms as well. May you place your trust in the Word of God. It is trustworthy. Many have been my woes, afflictions in the context of God’s faithfulness. Sure. But it has been in following the path laid out on the pages of Scripture that I discovered education as a value, reliable work as a way to provide for my family, and sacrifice for others making the world a better place while serendipitously forming networks that often blessed my family as well. I learned from the Bible a way of love and respect that fostered a lasting and happy marriage, with children by birth and adoption who never knew an abusive parent or a day of hunger. By grace, the love of Jesus has healed the chain of brokenness backwards, with the salvation of my parents later in life, even restoring my alcoholic father to faith and reconciliation with the family he abandoned. No silver or gold could have bought any of this.

Place your trust in the Word of God. Even as you experience hardship and affliction, you will discover an authentically satisfying life that you could never have purchased at any price. “The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.”+