A Look at Psalm 119:37
Are you focused on worthless things?
Psalm 119:37 “Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to Your Word.”
Worthless things are vain, or empty things – things that exalt self over God and have no eternal value. Worthless things are dead things. They have no life in them, therefore, they bring no life. The only life we have is from God. That is why David ends his thoughts by saying once again, “Preserve my life.” Life me! To pray,
“preserve my life according to Your Word,” would be like praying, “Life me as I focus on Jesus, Your Word.”
The key to this is in turning our eyes from self to God. David further emphasizes some of his thinking from verse 36 where he prayed, “Turn my heart from gain to God.” In that verse he was dealing with the heart. In this verse he is dealing with the eyes.
The eyes are what actually fill the heart. Our heart is who we are, and we are what our eyes have allowed into our heart. Jesus tells us this, about the eye, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness” Matthew 6:22-23.
The good eye, or the single eye is an eye that only sees Jesus, or only sees what Jesus sees. It does not focus on self or vanity. It is an eye that is not turned inward; it sees beyond itself to others and their needs. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light, or Jesus. If your body is full of light, there is no room for darkness. That’s what Jesus meant in saying that the only way for the body to be full of darkness is through eyes that are bad.
The bad eye focuses on self. It looks upon everything in an attempt to see how self can benefit. Focusing on ourselves opens the gate for all evil. Whenever our needs and desires become more important to us than the desires and needs of others, we fill ourselves with darkness.
Now, let me encourage you to take some time to meditate on this verse, and as you do: pray David’s prayer, “Turn my eyes away from worthless things, turn them toward You.”
Continued
