My Possession

"Mine is the way of your precepts" (Psalm 119:56).

With the arrival of the New Year, during the Korean worship service at Victory Presbyterian Church, we are offering a hymn of praise to God, singing the second verse of the gospel song "My Appearance, My Possession." When we think of the word "my possession," it is easy to associate it with material things, but through today’s passage, we can see another aspect of the meaning of "my possession." That is, "my possession" refers to "keeping the Lord’s precepts."

The psalmist does not say that knowing the Lord’s precepts is his possession, but rather that keeping them is his possession. This indicates that the psalmist lived a life of obedience to the Lord's commandments, a life where the Word of God became incarnate in him. If we focus on the life of the psalmist based on verses 49-51, we can identify three key aspects:

First, the psalmist lived by not forgetting the word of promise that the Lord gave him.

Look at the first half of Psalm 119:49: "Remember the word to Your servant..." Why did the psalmist want to remember God’s word spoken to him? The reason is that God’s promises gave him hope (v. 49). When I meditated on this verse, I thought of Abraham in Romans 4:18. Even though it was "against all hope," Abraham was able to hope because he remembered God's promised word, "So shall your descendants be" (v. 18), and he was convinced that God would fulfill that word (v. 21). In other words, a life led by the promises (a promised word-driven life) is the key to living a life where the Word becomes incarnate, and that Word of the Lord becomes "my possession."

Second, the psalmist found comfort in the Lord’s word.

Look at the first half of Psalm 119:50: "This is my comfort in my affliction..." In times of trouble, when no one can comfort us, and we feel compelled to reject any comfort from others, we seek only the Lord’s comfort. In those moments of loneliness, when we cry and groan, the Lord comforts us with His promise. For me, the promise of the feeding of the five thousand in John 6:1-15 has been my greatest comfort. When I was down, discouraged, and no one could lift me up, and in a spiritual state where I couldn’t accept any comfort, the promise of the five loaves and two fish revived me (Psalm 119:50) and lifted me up, allowing me to live a resilient life to this day. The reason the psalmist found comfort in the promise of God was because he experienced revival through that word. When we live a life experiencing spiritual revival through God’s word, obedience to that word becomes our possession.

Lastly, thirdly, the psalmist lived a life that did not depart from the Lord's word.

Let us look at the second part of Psalm 119:51: “… I have not departed from Your law.” Even though the proud greatly mocked him, the psalmist did not depart from the law of the Lord. When I think of this principle, John 6:68 comes to mind. When many disciples found the Lord's teachings too difficult and left, no longer walking with Him (John 6:66), Jesus asked the twelve disciples, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” (John 6:67). Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). What an amazing confession this is! Many of us Christians find the Lord's words too difficult and hard to believe, so we leave the Lord and His church. Like Peter, we have not tasted the “words of eternal life,” so instead of listening to the gospel of Christ that gives eternal life, we are listening to the temporary, counterfeit "gospel" of Satan. Even our pastors and church members often proclaim “words of this life” rather than the words of eternal life, and listen to those words.

However, the psalmist, no matter what situation he was in or what others said, did not depart from the Lord’s promised word. He did not listen to other words. The reason for this is that the Lord’s promised word gave him hope when there was none, comforted him in distress, and revived him.

What lesson do these facts teach us? They teach us that our life, which is becoming the incarnation of God’s word, should be our “possession,” and that we must offer this life to the Lord, moving forward while worshiping God. It is not simply giving “my possession” to God by coming to worship on Sundays and offering our tithes. From Monday to Saturday, we must remember God’s promised word, receive comfort from it, and live a life that does not depart from it. Then, when we come before God to worship on Sundays, we should offer our lives—transformed by the word of God—through praise, prayer, offerings, and by giving our ears (listening to the word) to the Lord. In doing so, our “possession” will be pleasing to God, and He will receive it with joy.

Desiring to always offer “my possession” to the Lord and serve in ministry with this heart,

Pastor James Kim
(Seeking a life that is the incarnation of the word)