THURSDAY 28th
Psalm 19
NIV (v14) – ‘May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.’
ESV (v14) – ‘Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.’
I mentioned this Psalm back on January 20th and in a way, it also links to yesterday’s devotion where we read that ‘the LORD’s word is flawless’.
In verses 7-11 the psalmist makes some statements about the Law of the LORD, and it is easier to just place these verses here, ‘The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure enlightening the eyes; the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.’
The words we have here describing the word of the LORD are perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, true, desirable, sweet, and the keeping of it brings reward. What more could we want from a book, and this book is none other than the precious word of God which we are able to have, to read, to cherish, to absorb, to meditate upon, to learn from, to be encouraged, to be equipped with, to be disciplined, to grow, mature and to be the people that God has called us to be. I wonder how much we treasure this precious book? I know we can have its content in so many ways, we can have it on our smartphones or I-pads, we can have it played out through MP3 file or CD, we can have so many different translations of it, it is so accessible, but how much is it read or listened to? How much do we truly value it especially if we really believe it is God’s word speaking to us, directing us, and enabling us to navigate through this world as his children? I have said it before that I am so appreciative of the fact that we can have it in so many different forms of media, but there is still nothing like holding it in a printed form and to turn the pages back and for, discovering and rediscovering its truth, receiving its promises and absorbing its message of hope.
It is a book which has continually been attacked, from both the secular world and the ecclesiastical world, I am in the process of reading a book* at the moment which is about ‘progressive Christianity’ and it is shocking to see how the truth of the word of God is being diluted to make what the Bible says to be more palatable for the evil days in which we are living, it is as if there is a stream within Christianity that is taking a pick and mix approach, or a take it or leave it approach, if it suits you to believe certain parts then fine, if it suits you more to not believe certain parts then that is also fine. But we need to remind ourselves that God’s word is a sure word, it is a certain word and its message is an unchanging message, the truth it portrayed back when its pages were penned still stands today, for truth can never evolve into something else, truth can never become an untruth, it is eternal. When society changes, when the culture in which we live changes, God’s word remains steadfast and true, in fact it stands not only for time but also for eternity. We hear so much of the need to be culturally relevant, God’s word is relevant to every culture, it does not need to be adapted to suit a culture, culture does not and should not define truth, it has already been settled in heaven.
I have digressed a little! I will end today’s devotion with a quick reference to the verse I highlighted as our text for today, ‘Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.’ I always link this verse to another in Psalm 119:18 ‘Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.’ May we treasure the word of God so much that we will never deviate from its truth and truthfulness, may we never diminish its meaning to suit our own personal opinion or agenda, may what we declare from the word of God and about the word of God always be acceptable in HIS sight, and may we continue to open it up to behold the wonder of all that it has to say to us.
* Another Gospel? Alisa Childers. Tyndale