O how I love Your teaching! It is my study all day long.
Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies; they always stand by me.
I have gained more insight than all my teachers, for Your decrees are my study.
I have gained more understanding than my elders, for I observe Your precepts.
I have avoided every evil way so that I may keep Your word.
I have not departed from Your rules, for You have instructed me.
How pleasing is Your word to my palate, sweeter than honey.
I ponder Your precepts; therefore I hate every false way.
The Hebrew text begins each line with a preposition that means "more than," "how much," or "from." It is impossible to overstate the superlative nature of the Word of God. Here the Psalmist turns a bit of a corner and talks about the effect of the Word of God on our lives with respect to our relationships with those around us. Do you have an enemy? Have you ever considered how the Scriptures might impact your relationship with him/her/it? How about our relationship with our teachers or our "elders" (it doesn't refer to the church office of NT times)? Again the Scriptures are able to impact our relationship with them as well and make us wise, understanding, and insightful beyond our years. This thought is mentioned again and again throughout the Bible, especially in the book of Proverbs.
When one thinks about the ocean what words come to mind? I would mention the following: vast, powerful, intransigent, completely out of my control, able to do with me what it will. The Word of God is the same and more! Think of all of the water motifs in the Scriptures (I would mention here that water is usually a metaphor for the Holy Spirit but also refers to the Scriptures themselves in their ability to make us clean, change us, etc). Paul writes of the process of Jesus purifying the Church through the "washing with water through the Word" (Ephesians 5:26). Jesus said that anyone who thirsts should come to Him and that everyone who comes to Him shall have rivers of living water in us springing up to eternal life (John 4 and also Isaiah 55). The combination of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God has the ability to change us, redirect us, wash us, and smooth us even as stones in a river yield to the never ending stream of water and become smooth and free of sharp edges.
The reading of the Word of God should never be done in a vacuum. By this, let us consider the example of a hologram. A hologram will never be seen unless it is illuminated by the laser that created it. In a similar manner, God's Word will not be clearly seen by our intellect as we are flesh and blood and it was written by human hands yes, but through the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Psalmist prayed, "Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things in your Law" (Psalm 119:18). When we read we should ask for the Holy Spirit to increase our understanding and for Him to illuminate His Word so that we finite beings may take in and begin to grasp the infinite. God will always answer this prayer as it is His will for us to take it in and by it be transformed. Intake is coupled with meditation, further prayer to be open and willing to obey, and the Holy Spirit will instruct our hearts and gradually change us through this repeated process. Even the hardest stone changes through the steady application of water and God's Word will have its effect in our lives if we apply ourselves to it and apply it to us.
Here is a song for today's thought!
Jewish Publication Society, Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1985), Ps 119:96–104.
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