Psalm 119 - Tsadde
As we've seen, the writer has been a student of the Word for a while. As we've also seen, he's really fallen in love with it. It's precious to him, and he truly can't live without it - without relating to it every day. In the stanza before us today, he reflects on the meaning and importance it has come to have for him
As he considers it, of course, he can't help thinking about its Author, the covenant God of Israel. In fact, as he studies, day after day in that Word, he comes to realize, more and more, just how wonderful that Author truly is. He says, "Righteous are You, O Lord, and upright are Your judgements. Your testimonies, which You have commanded, are righteous and very faithful!" He's discovered what every true student of the Word has discovered - that every commandment of God is right – and that obeying them equips him for life in this world. It is God's world, after all, and to live successfully on Earth requires a certain kind of living - a kind patterned exactly after God's laws. The result is that, as the student lives day after day in this world, he finds that living according to God's perfect laws is right and good.
And more than that, he realizes more all the time that the Author Himself also does right. In other words, God never deals with His creatures in any way contrary to His Word. He Himself is totally faithful!
So the student is becoming pretty enthusiastic about this Word that fits him for God's world. He's become a fanatic about it! It's only right for him to say, "My zeal has consumed me, because my enemies have forgotten Your words!" However foolish it may seem to others, he's determined to sound only one note in the symphony of life, and that note absolutely must be in harmony with God's testimonies about what life should be like. Why? He tells us that it's because "Your Word is very pure; therefore Your servant loves it!" He's found that God and His Word are a perfect fit! He's determined never to deviate from it.
Even after all his learning, though, this student doesn't consider himself an important man. He says, "I am small and despised." But, though he may be nothing in the world's eyes, he says, "yet I do not forget Your precepts." And he has good reason. He says, "Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your law is truth." It may seem foolish to others, but, realizing the changeableness of man's ideas on the one hand and the everlasting nature of God's Word on the other, he's decided it's far better to stay with God's way.
And he's going to stay with it even in times of distress, even when, in fact, the world puts the pressure on him to stray from it. He says, "Trouble and anguish have overtaken me, yet Your commandments are my delight!" There's only one thing a fanatic like that desires and prays for. In view of the everlasting righteousness of God's Word He says, "Give me understanding, and I shall live!"
Once again, how important is the Word of God in your life? Have you become a fanatic about it? The world has many suggestions to give you - do you find God's Word so precious that you'll go its way or no way at all? How much time do you spend studying it, and meditating in it, and praying over it? Oh pray that The Word of God and the God of the Word may become your ALL!
What a challenge to all who read this Alan.
How much time do we spend in God's Word? How much time meditating on what it contains?
Thanks for the reminder tonight!