Psalm 119 Devotional
22 Days: Knowing is Loving
Day 13 (Mem – verses 97-104)
O’ how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever mine. I have more insight than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, because I have observed Your precepts. I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep your word. I have not turned aside from Your ordinances, for You Yourself have taught me. How sweet are Your words to my taste! Ye, sweeter than honey to my mouth! From Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.
What are the things that we love and think about every day? There are many good things that we have in God’s creation, but the hard part can be that it is easy to make them god things. The part of God’s law that is so different is that His words make us wiser. They grow us, they lead to greater insight, and they ultimately guide us through the trials. Having more insight than our teachers is an interesting concept that the psalmist points out here. What is teaching us? What is developing our viewpoint? Often that is the battle between having a worldview or a biblical worldview. Once again, the psalmist comes back to the discipline of meditation on God’s word. But meditating on God’s word, that could take me forever, I do not have time, might be the thought running through your mind right now. Each day of this devotion is eight verses. Meditate on these eight verses each day and let that be the start of something new.
We read the psalmist stating that he understands more than somebody who is his elder. This is not an insult to somebody, but rather a statement of truth when we attach the second half of the sentence. We will gain more wisdom from the study/meditation of God’s word than from anywhere else (Joshua 1:8). The psalmist takes that focus on God’s word a step further in regard to the path we follow in life. None of us desire to sin, but we do sin. Good things become God things, that is idolatry, and that is sin. Shifting our focus back onto God’s precepts can keep us away from the sin path. Do we realize what we have in our possession as we hold onto God’s word? The perfect teaching of Almighty God who has chosen to reveal Himself to You and me. That is love!
God the Father is teaching us, Jesus the Son showed us, and the Holy Spirit fills us – with God’s love that is! Is that not a love that we need and crave? Is that a love that we can bring our attention and meditation to rather than seeking anything else? Brothers and sisters that sweet taste of God’s word is for us and will fill and fulfill us like no other thing in this world. Our love of God can overcome all the areas in our lives that take us down that false road.
O’ Lord God, you love me. That overwhelms me as I truly consider who You are, Your magnificent creation, and Your rule over all things. Lord my question is, “Who am I to deserve this?” Lord, You saved me and I thank you. Lord, you love me, and I thank you. Lord, you are present in every moment that I need You. Father, you sent Your Son to die for me, and prepare the way for Your Holy Spirit to be alive in me. Lord, I seek Your will, I desire to love Your word in a greater way, and to follow the path that You desire for me. Thank you, my Lord and my God.