text:_ Psalm 119:97-104 Reflections

Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statues. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts. I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word. I have not departed from your laws, for you yourself have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path.

According to this Psalm, God's word makes us wise, gives us insight and understanding, and keeps us from evil. But we've got to meditate on it, obey it and love it. It's not enough to simply know it. Plenty of people know it without obeying or loving it (many pharisees in Jesus days, many seminary professors in ours). As John Calvin said: all true knowledge comes from obedience. If you're not obeying it you don't really know it.

But what struck me about this passage was something else. The word makes me wiser than my enemies, my teachers, my elders. I have found that to be very true. I'm not that smart. I'm not that wise. I'm not that relationally gifted. I'm not super discerning. But I do read the Bible regularly. I'm fairly familiar with its contents. And in many situations I know exactly what to do and say because of it.

Often we feel guilty when they don't read the Bible. Forget about the guilt. Guilt is a poor motivator and not a biblical one.

Reflecting on this passage I look back at times when I'm less regular with Bible reading and find that I'm actually much dumber, much more foolish and much more prone to sin. I can almost feel myself gettting dumber, no matter how many thick academic books I'm reading. Without the Bible, I get lost.

Do you want to be wise? Do you want understanding? Do you want to avoid sin? Read the Bible.

The other thing that struck me from this passage was this: are you hungry? The Psalmist hungers for God's Word. When he misses it he doesn't feel guilty, he feels hungry. Folks when we don't we God's word we shouldn't feel guilty we should feel hungry.

Some of us haven't read God's word in a long time or even perhaps ever. And we don't hunger for it. What's the deal with that? Well, have you ever fasted? Have you ever gone without food for a long time? What you'll discover is that after a time of serious hunger you actually just lose your appetite and simply get tired. You have no energy, not vitality, because you have no fuel.

It's the same with God's word. Some of us haven't' had a meal of God's word in so long we don't even remember what it's like. We've become accustomed to spiritual starvation. But as soon as we get a few morsels down, the appetite will come roaring back.

So feed on God's Word. It does a body good.