Grounded on the Word (Pt 1)

Psalms 119:17-20, 97 (ESV)

Deal bountifully with your servant,

that I may live and keep your word.

Open my eyes, that I may behold

wondrous things out of your law.

I am a sojourner on the earth;

hide not your commandments from me!

My soul is consumed with longing

for your rules at all times.

Oh how I love your law!

It is my meditation all the day.

Psalm 1 starts out, “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night” (Ps 1:1-2). The same word for delight is used when Samuel asks, "Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD?” (1 Sam. 15:22). We delight in His law and He delights in our obedience from the heart.

There are at least three different words used in Psalm 119 to indicate that we, as believers, should delight in, take pleasure in, or enjoy God’s Word. Delighting in, pleasuring in, and enjoying God are demonstrated by delighting in His Word. It is one thing to enjoy a worship experience, or to revel in the outward expressions of God’s glory which we see in nature, but if that pleasuring, that reveling, that enjoying is truly in God then we will find ourselves drawn to His word as well as to his worship. If this is not true in our lives, if we do not find ourselves drawn to the scriptures of our God, then perhaps it is the experience we love rather than the God of the experience. Can we say with the Psalmist, “Thy law is my delight” (Ps 119:174b), “Great are the works of the LORD; they are studied by all who delight in them” (Ps 111:2)?

Do you have an ever-increasing love for God and His word? As believers in Jesus Christ, one of the guiding principles of our lives and ministries should be a love for God’s Word. His Word should guide us in areas of morality, practice, theology, and stewardship. Our lives need to be grounded, but not grounded on just anything. They need to be grounded on the Word of God.

A life and a ministry guided by public opinion is like a leaf blowing in the wind. A life and a ministry grounded on the Word of God is like a Light House standing through the fiercest storms guiding ships through dangerous waters. We need to be grounded on the Word, but that necessitates that we actually know the Word. “How blessed is the man who . . . . his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night” (Ps 1:1-2). May we learn to love the Word of God as did the Psalmist.