Intro:One of the keys to abiding in Jesus is reading his word and prayer.
This weekend we learn from David the value of God's word in our lives.
Read it prayerfully. Be open to hearing the Lord speak to you.
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.
Do:
Living in Jesus is being near him. Being near him includes loving what he loves. There is nothing more clear about Jesus but that he loved God, he loved others and he loved the Scriptures.
To abide in Jesus will require a love for his word. Choose something from the Scripture above and talk with God about it.
DevoLink: Devotions to help you Link with God.
