Scripture Focus: Psalm 119.103-104
103 How sweet are your words to my taste,
    sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 I gain understanding from your precepts;
    therefore I hate every wrong path.

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Reflection: Finding Delight
By David Z. Blackwell

As a father of young children, I frequently hear my kids exuberantly shouting superlatives. “This is the best day ever!” “That was amazing!” “That was the coolest!” Psalm 119 shares a similar childlike delight, only in the word of the Lord rather than childhood adventures.

The psalmist praises the law of the Lord not with mere platitudes but with jubilant gratitude. The psalmist exalts the law because it brought wisdom greater than his enemies, teachers, and elders (vv. 98–100). For the writer, the law is the means of relationship and source of connection to the Lord (v. 102). “I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me.” God’s words are not secondhand instructions but come directly from the Lord. Scripture illuminates the path, gives life to the afflicted, and is an eternal heritage and refuge (vv. 105, 107, 111, 114–120). Don’t you wish to delight in God’s word like this?

The author meditates on God’s words because, in them, he finds safety and blessing. The psalmist is also saved from adversity to continue to meditate on the words of the Lord (Psalm 119.114,117). Meditating on God’s word is not only the means but also the end. He does not meditate just to get something. He continues to meditate because of how much he has received. Meditating on God’s word is relational. 

The New Testament also emphasizes the importance of God’s word and says that it is fulfilled in Jesus. In John 1, Jesus is the embodied word of God, and in Matthew 5.17–20, Jesus says he came to fulfill the law and the prophets and praises those who keep and teach these commands.

For the Psalmist and for us, meditating on God’s word is everything. God’s words are comfort, joy, motivation, hope, peace, and the way of life. Yet, I don’t always feel this way. The Psalm suggests the psalmist doesn’t either. Do you? This passage provides an opportunity to look inward and examine our relationship with God’s word.

Let us remember that spending time reading, praying, and meditating on God’s word is the remedy for our apathy and ask him to grant us that same joy. What brings you this childlike joy? What adversity and struggles do you need saving from? How has God protected and delivered you? And how can these needs and victories lead you to meditate further on his word?


Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
To you I lift up my eyes, to you  enthroned in the heavens. — Psalm123.1

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.


​Today’s Readings

Isaiah 53 (Listen 2:39)
Psalms 119.97-120 (Listen 15:24)

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