Sat, 29 October, 2005: Today’s Bible readings.
97 Oh how I love your law!
It is my meditation all the day.
98 Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,
for it is ever with me.
99 I have more understanding than all my teachers,
for your testimonies are my meditation.
100 I understand more than the aged,
for I keep your precepts.
101 I hold back my feet from every evil way,
in order to keep your word.
102 I do not turn aside from your rules,
for you have taught me.
103 How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 Through your precepts I get understanding;
therefore I hate every false way.
Continuing in Psalm 119, today we come to the theme verse for this blog: Psalm 119:97 — Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation [Latin: meditatio mea] all the day. In this section, the Psalmist again points us to the benefits of immersing ourselves in God’s word.
What do we learn from this?
The Psalmist encourages us to love God’s word and to meditate upon it. He extols the wisdom we will gain from spending time in God’s word, and how we will exceed the teachers and the aged as we obey God’s word.
The point is that as we spend time in God’s word, God uses it to change our conduct. And as we apply God’s word by living differently, we see that we are growing in wisdom as well as in holiness. God will work powerfully through His word to conform us to the likeness of His Son and to prepare us for spending eternity with Him.
Where is Christ in this passage?
As we study and meditate upon the word of God, not only do we grow in our love of the word of God and in our obedience to that word, but we grow in love for the one revealed in that word: Jesus Christ. He is the one towards whom the scriptures point us. He is the sweetness the Psalmist finds in God’s word, because it is in Jesus Christ that we find forgiveness of our sins, and reconciliation with God.
