April 30, 2024

Passage Read: Psalm 119
Meditation Verses: 119:97-104

Thought

The writer of Psalm 119 has discovered the secret to a righteous life: total delight and love for the law of God. Over and over he declares how love for God's law consumes him, therefore he walks in God's precepts. Doing so makes him wiser than all his enemies and his teachers and even the aged. He keeps his feet from evil so that he can direct them in God's ways, because the commands of the Lord are so precious to him; God Himself has taught him! It is love for God's law that drives him to hate every false way, and instead to walk in God's ways alone.

Application

This is why righteousness is so far from so many of us: We do not have the same love for the Word of God and the Law of God. We've been taught to be afraid of God's law and commands, for fear of losing our salvation. But it is true salvation that should generate such a total delight in God's wisdom and ways. God's law teaches us about God Himself, about who He is and how He operates! How can we fear it? It is wisdom and light to our path; it teaches us what it looks like to walk in God's ways! But neither is it a minutely detailed rulebook that removes all need for a brain or a transformed heart. Just keep these 600 commands and you'll be fine. It is prescriptive and descriptive of who God is, but it is not exhaustive. It gives a huge window of insight into the character and nature of God; those who walk in His ways, in delight of His ways, gain so much more insight and understanding into who God is than those who think the law is just a bunch of rules to live by. Seeking the spirit of the law does not do away with the letter of the law, but leads through it to meet and know the Spirit who gave the law. Delighting in the commands and statutes and precepts of the Lord and His Word is the only way to truly encounter and know God, and it has the wonderful benefit of keeping me from doing evil. So I need to do so still more.