Worthless Things
Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.
Psalm 119:37
Sometimes my eyes see worthless things that I am not ready for. I innocently open a magazine at a doctor’s office and see a scantily clad woman or man in an advertisement. I watch a movie with a scene I am totally unprepared for, or I’m driving along and see a billboard that should never have been placed in public. These seem to be unavoidable situations in our world.
But, what about the avoidable? I keep going to places in the public arena expecting decency and seeing borderline pornographic pictures and reading filthy language. Why do I go back?
Where is this place? Facebook. Who are the offenders? College students who seem to have – at least temporarily – forgotten everything their parents taught them while they were at home. And they pay for this!?
I read in the newspaper that middle class boys who go to secular colleges today are more likely to be in trouble with the law and have problems with alcohol than their peers who go to work straight from high school. It is also true that most students now take more than four years to complete college. Do they just have too much time on their hands?
When our son was starting college at the University of Pittsburgh in 2002 we went to an orientation session for the students. They talked about how to complete college in four years. Their number one recommendation to accomplish this was to go to class. I was dumbfounded that they had to give that as advice. Wasn’t it obvious? The second one was to take a full course load – at least 15 credits a semester.
It seems to me that college students today, especially professing Christians, need to go to the Psalms. Turn their eyes from worthless things — pornography, alcohol, endless video games — and take on life in God’s ways. Endeavor to complete school well, doing all as unto the Lord (Ephesians 6:6-7). We need young people who will use their gifts, acts of service, and talents for the common good (1 Corinthians 12:4-7), not for their own pleasure at the expense of everything else.
Sometimes I am embarrassed for these young people. They are living for today not realizing the age of technology we live in. Out of curiosity I googled the name of one of them and his Facebook pictures were the first thing that came up. That would be an interesting find for a potential employer!
Sometimes I am embarrassed for their parents. They certainly did not raise their children to act like this. I cringe at the thought of their finding this coming from the mouths of their babes.
So, as a Christian to a supposed Christian, is it more loving to let them go and just love them as they are? Or do we warn them? Do we tactfully let them know that they are not honoring God or their parents and allow the Holy Spirit, if He is at work in them, to do the rest? Do we talk to the parents?
The second question is, do I “unfriend” them so that I keep my eyes from worthless things or do I hang in there hoping they will see the Light and stop with the pictures and the language?
“I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me,” Psalm 101:3 In our culture this verse sounds arrogant – but should this not be the attitude of every Christian?
Hello, Beth
I came across your site while Googling “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things”. What ‘worthless things’ do you reckon the Psalmist had in mind? I am sure you are right to think about facebook (and young men’s endless video games) but what would the direct application have been to the Psalmist and those s/he was writing for?
Hi Alan, Good question. If we believe that Psalm 119 was written by David, as I do, then your question made me think immediately of Deuteronomy 17. God gave instructions that He was going to choose a King to set over the people when they entered the Land he was taking them to. He gave a warning to the King that he was not to acquire horses, many wives, nor excessive silver or gold. (Deuteronomy 17:14-20). I would think that these – the same temptations that distract us from the work of the Lord – are the things that would be worthless in the Psalmist’s sight. Even Job said he had made a “covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze upon a virgin?”.
Though horses, wives, virgins, gold and silver are not useless all together, they are, if over-indulged in, distracting to a person from serving the Lord.
In his commentary Matthew Henry says David is praying that he would be kept from anything that would hinder him from performing his duties. I liked his observation: “The honours, pleasures, and profits of the world are the vanities, the aspect and prospect of which draw multitudes away from the paths of religion and godliness. The eye, when fastened on these, infects the heart with the love of them, and so it is alienated from God and divine things; and therefore, as we ought to make a covenant with our eyes, and lay a charge upon them, that they shall not wander after, much less fix upon, that which is dangerous (Job_31:1), so we ought to pray that God by his providence would keep vanity out of our sight and that by his grace he would keep us from being enamoured with the sight of it.”
Hope this answers your question. May God Bless your desire to see the depth of the meaning of the scriptures.
Beth