Eyes Wide Open

 

Deal bountifully with your servant, that I may live and keep your word. Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. I am a sojourner on the earth; hide not your commandments from me! (Psalm 119:17-19 ESV).

 

After rising from the dead, Jesus met several times with his followers. On the road to Emmaus, while he walked along with two of them, they didn’t know who he was while he taught everything about himself from the Scriptures. Only later, when he broke bread with them, were their eyes opened to see him as the Messiah, God’s Anointed One, the Savior (Luke 24:13-35).

 

Then later that same day, in Jerusalem, Jesus met with a large group of his disciples. And after he opened their eyes to see that he had risen in the flesh, Jesus explained that all of the Scriptures — “the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms”— were fulfilled in him. For us to see and understand Jesus in the Scriptures, we too need our eyes opened. Although the psalmist couldn’t see Jesus or know what we know about Jesus today, the psalmist certainly understood the need for eyes to be opened to understand God’s Word.

 

Without our eyes opened, God’s Word can seem like a legalistic code to measure how others—and we—fail to live righteously. With our eyes opened, we see in God’s Word the living God who graciously reveals himself to us. We learn how to live the way God intends for us. We ultimately find the “wonderful things” of God’s grace and mercy—above all, in God’s gift of Jesus—and we live in gratitude for all he has done for us.

 

There are two ways that God “opens” our eyes. One is called general revelation. These are the things we can see and know about God from creation. The second is called specific revelation. This is what we can know from Scripture, especially the passages that describe Jesus. The gospels are the main source of that information, though Jesus can be seen throughout the Old and New Testaments. I’m always amazed that we seem to be so confused about what Jesus would or wouldn’t do based on this revelation of His character, will, and purpose. Perhaps this is a good time for all of us to reexamine our lives in the face of what we know about Jesus. Let’s make the psalmist’s prayer ours today… Lord open my eyes … let me walk with my eyes wide open!