MONDAY 31st
Psalm 119:33-40 (ESV) – Section Five – Hebrew – HE
‘Teach me, O LORD, the way of your statutes; and I will keep it to the end. Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart.
Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it. Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain! Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.
Confirm to your servant your promise, that you may be feared. Turn away the reproach that I dread, for your rules are good. Behold, I long for your precepts; in your righteousness give me life!’
As I read these verses there were some words that caught my attention, and they are in what I will call doublets, teach and keep, understand and observe, lead and delight.
The author knew that the Word of God was not just any ordinary collection of words, they were living, powerful and effective. I am a big reader, I read every day, whatever I choose to read leaves some form of impression upon me, but there is no book that impacts our lives like the Bible can. While we read God’s Word, we want that God by his Holy Spirit will teach us and as a result we will keep what we have learned, that we will obey, and as we understand it, we will observe what it says, and as we are led by his Word, we will delight in the way that it will take us.
I am reminded of Abram in Genesis 12, who was with his family in Haran, and God came and spoke to him, we do not know how God spoke, except that in some way he revealed his will for Abram and the way that he should go, and the result would be blessing not just for Abram and his yet to be family, but also for the nations of the world. But it would only happen if he heeded and obeyed the call of God.
We cannot expect to have automatic blessing in our lives as Christians, yes, there are some things that we receive and have received as blessings which come as a part of the package so to speak of being the redeemed of the Lord, but God always has so much more for us to receive and to enjoy, but they are blessings that require us to seek out and to desire, and they are blessings that come with a requirement to obey, and we will discover them as we read his Word, and like the psalmist it requires us to not only be taught but also to keep his commandments, to understand and to observe them, and to be led by his Word and to delight in it. We cannot expect blessing if we are living in some way that is a contradiction to what the Word of God commands, we cannot expect to be filled with true satisfaction unless we hunger and thirst after righteousness, we cannot expect to be led by the Spirit if we are preferring to walk in the desires of the flesh, we cannot expect to be fruitful if we are filling our lives with the unfruitful works of darkness.
May today’s devotion be a challenge to us all, me included, towards our obedience to the commands of the Lord as found in his Word in our lives as believers.