Psalm 119:42
(ESV) ‘. . . then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me, for I trust in your word.’
I remember when I was growing up on the farm with my brothers and sisters, six of us altogether, that there would sometimes be an occasion when some of us would get into an argument or dispute, and my mum would get involved, and then one of us would say something and mum would say to whoever it was, ‘you’ve always got an answer for everything’. It was a sarcastic comment, meant to shut you up and hopefully get a quick resolution to whatever the problem was.
In our psalm today, the psalmist had an answer, but it wasn’t in the sarcastic way as in our childhood disputes, this was an answer against the taunts of those who were taunting him or mocking him, possibly because of his trust in God and he says why he had an answer, ‘because I trust in your word.’ The psalmist had read God’s Word, he had meditated upon it and when the taunts came, he was able to answer according to the Word of God. Instead of retaliation, he probably would give the Word of God, or his testimony would be reflected according to the Word of God.
It is so easy when someone taunts us or speaks to us in an unpleasant way to retaliate in a negative way, but if we walk close with God and live according to his Word we should react in a soft way, answer in a godly way. I wonder how many times we may have overreacted when someone has spoken to us in a certain way, or we have reacted in a way that instead of quelling or stilling troubled waters we have caused a storm to brew, we should have been the better person, we should have been the one to answer in a manner that reflects the kind of person we should be as a child of God.
But there is another avenue I want to explore, and it is regarding the sharing of our faith, we are going to meet people who will want to challenge us, even taunt us for being who we are as Christians, and how will we answer them if we have not been getting ourselves steeped in the Word of God? It is only as we read and absorb the Word of God that we will be ready with an answer. What about when Satan comes to tempts us? Look at the example of Jesus in Luke 4, how did he answer when confronted with the devil, he answered with the Word of God.
Going back to my childhood days, my mum’s words were ‘you’ve always got an answer for everything’ when it comes to our faith, when it comes to our trust in God, when it comes to our love for God’s Word, may we walk in such a way, and read the Word in such a way that we will have an answer for anything and everything this world and the devil will seek to throw against us.
Quoting from another verse in this psalm, verse 11, ‘I have stored your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.’ Perhaps like me you may remember the KJV easier, ‘Thy word have I hid in mine heart, That I might not sin against thee.’