What the Word of God does…

Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts. I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word. I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. (Psalm 119:97–104)

These few verses are a bit like a book review. The psalmist describes what happens in his life when he reads Scripture, but not just reading it — for one thing, he thinks about what he has read.

The books we read do have an effect on us. If I spent all my spare time in the newspaper, my emotions would change. If my reading were romance novels, or mystery, or only war stories, my thoughts would not be the same as reading children’s books, and if I read only cookbooks, that could affect my waistline.

However, as the psalmist says, the Bible has an effect on more than thoughts and emotions. Right away, he makes clear that thinking about what he is reading is important. I know that is true. I have a touch of attention deficit. That tends to mess with keeping my mind on what needs attention and leading to ignoring it. Not that what I read is unimportant, just that distraction interferes with application.

No excuse. Meditation is vital. As the psalmist says, God’s Word imparts wisdom — if it is taken to heart, considered thoughtfully. It can make the reader wiser than any opposition, even give that reader understanding beyond mentors and teachers, even those older (although there are not many of those left in my list of friends). 

Yet I note that this wisdom comes from obeying what I read. It is not for information alone but for transformation. 

Add to meditation and application is avoiding anything contrary to what God says. When He tells me to be kind to my enemies, I will not gain wisdom or be transformed if I gossip about them or am unkind in other ways. Not only that, the more I read and do what God says, the more His ways make sense to me and the better I am at seeing what is not good and what to avoid.

Jesus, how amazing that You are called the Word of God. Not only is all of God's goodness and wisdom written for us in Your Book, it is present in a living Person. You are God's example for me to follow, and my enablement to actually do it. Your Book is no ordinary book for it speaks to me. It is Your voice written so I can hear it and do Your will. I am with the writer of those words who says “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” How wonderful that You use written words to tell me how to live and then enable me to do what You say!!

Remember what God says . . .

An OT story tells how the long-awaited son of Abraham, Isaac the child of promise, blessed his sons. The NT tells: “By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.” (Hebrews 11:20) One would think that God’s promise and their father’s example of faith in that promise and in God would be picked up by his son and these two grandsons, yet they did not trust God without some hard lessons.

I can relate to these men. Yesterday, I picked up the notebook I’m using to record prayer requests. I flipped to the front, thinking I’d check for those that had been answered. To my surprise, this book began with a session of conversations with God — my prayers and His answers, from seven years ago.

As I read them, I wept. I don’t remember writing any of them, never mind remembering what God said in reply. They total dozens of pages with E for my thoughts and G for the responses of the Holy Spirit. After a few pages of being overwhelmingly blessed, I had to stop reading and confess my forgetfulness and that I’d not thought enough about what God was saying to recall one bit of it. No wonder that He repeats truths to me; my mind is like a sieve and so contrary to the thinking of the psalmist:

I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. (Psalm 119:11)

I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” (Psalm 40:8)

My excuse is a scattered mind, an issue with attention-deficit, but that is not a valid excuse. MacArthur says that Isaac and Esau were reluctant rather than resolute in their response to God. He gives examples.

For instance, After a famine prompted Isaac to move his family to Gerar (a Philistine city on the border between Palestine and Egypt), he received a vision from the Lord that repeated the covenant promises made to his father, Abraham:

Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, (Genesis 26:3–4)

Instead of receiving this with bold confidence, when he arrived in Gerar . . .

When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because she was attractive in appearance. (Genesis 26:7)

With difficulty and prodding, the Lord finally brought Isaac into the Promised Land, where He once again repeated the covenant promises to this man: “I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham’s sake.” (Genesis 26:23–24)

Much later, Isaac wanted to bless Esau but discovered this older son had sold his birthright to Jacob. This and other poor choices divided his family. Isaac forfeited God’s blessings and joy by doing his own thing rather than trusting God’s promises. He finally did, but it meant a long time of family havoc.

Ignoring what God tells me is bad enough, but forgetting it is appalling. Even children learn the principles of read, study, memorize, meditate, obedience. To leave out any of these, especially hiding His word in my heart, means repeated trips to the classroom and the sense of wasting much time and effort to learn and relearn.

Yet God is faithful. Despite the reluctance of those OT saints, He kept His promises to them. Even despite my forgetfulness He has faithfully taught me and brought greater resolve to my heart that I might remember and follow through with what He says.

PRAY: Jesus, You alone know my heart and are faithful to give me all that I need to be what You want me to be. Enable me to think more about what You say to me and not be distracted by so many thoughts and ideas that may or may not be helpful in my walk with You. I’m relying on Your faithfulness as mine is not very strong.

PONDER: Keep reading that prayer journal and think about the words that the Lord said to me and that have so much significance, even now. My God is incredibly precious and extremely patient.