Intro:Do you love God’s word? How does it show? We’ve spent this week considering the value of God’s word in our lives. Let’s dig right into it this morning with another portion of Psalm 119. Enjoy!
Read: Psalm 119:97-104
97How I love your law!
It is my meditation all day.
98Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies,
for your commandments are always with me.
99I have more understanding than all my teachers,
for your testimonies are my meditation.
100I understand more than the aged,
because I have kept your precepts.
101I have kept my feet from every evil way,
that I might observe your word.
102I have not turned aside from your ordinances,
for you have taught me.
103How sweet are your promises to my taste,
more than honey to my mouth!
104Through your precepts, I get understanding;
therefore I hate every false way.
Think:
David starts this psalm with something he loves (v.97) and he ends the psalm with something he hates (v.104). Can you identify both of these things?
What does it mean to love God’s word? If you did what would it look like? For this portion of Psalm 119, David identifies several things. To love His word means:
1. To meditate on it all day (v.97-99)*. To meditate means to “rechew”. It is a word used for the digestive process of a cow! A cow eats grass. The grass goes into stomach #1 … yes, stomach #1, cows apparently have more than 1 stomach. So, the grass goes into stomach #1 and then comes back up into the cows mouth. I imagine that tastes like a Green Tea Latte at Starbucks but I wouldn’t know for sure. Nasty anyway! The rechewing of the grass is the word for meditation. It is taking what is inside of us and chewing on it again and then putting it down deeper into ourselves!
2. To grow in wisdom (v.99-100)*.
3. To obey it (v. 100-102)*.
4. To desire it like sweet stuff (cake, candy, cookies, pie, honey, etc.) (v. 103)*.
5. To hate evil ways (v.104)*. Hate is not a popular word today. We are taught to be tolerant to such a point that even the word hate is taboo. Regardless of our cultural desires to make everybody milk toast and weak, hate is a word that shows up in the bible. Our PC worldview is so strong it is difficult for me to even find many examples where hate is used appropriately. We are never to hate people BUT we are to hate evil and the effects of evil in the world. You can hate the destruction caused by drug use. Broken lives, stealing, early death, fried brains, etc. Those are good things to hate but we are not to hate the person. David saw the effects of evil ways of living and he learned to hate it. We are taught to love what God loves and hate the sin and evil that is all around our lives.
*I expect that you are referring back to the passage when we make a list like that above. When you see a reference to a group of verses please look back at the Scripture to understand what is being said and to make sure it is accurate. Don’t take our word for it. Take His word for it!
Do:
The bible tells us we are to love God and hate sin. As it is, most of us like God and dislike sin. That makes us lose passion for Christ and brings us to a lukewarm middle place that is very dangerous. David teaches us today that God’s word can teach us to love God and hate sin. That is a good thing. Rechew on that today!
Choose one of the 5 "Think" points above and think through it. Did God speak to you on any of those as you read them? Consider how you are in relation to that point (for example, consider how much you desire the word of God - #4). Make sure you look at the verse tied to that point! Also consider what you can do about it.
DevoLink: Devotions to help you Link with God.
