In Psalm 119:97 the writer exclaims: “Oh how I love Your Law; it is my meditation all the day.” How do we know that he really loved the word of God? The second part of the verse explains it:

His love for the word expressed itself in continual meditation on scripture. This is how things work in every sphere: you constantly think about what you really love. If you want to know where your love and delight is, just examine what you think about when your mind is not otherwise engaged; what you think about first thing in the morning and last thing at night; what your mind just dwells on. Importantly, this kind of “meditation” is not merely a “discipline” that you “make” yourself do, but it is a reflection of the heart. For the man Psalm 119 describes, God’s word is not a “drudgery”, but rather a “delight.”

Can you say that this is true for you? From time to time, check yourself throughout the day, and see what it is that has captured your mind’s delight. If it is something besides God and His word, ask the Lord to help you turn from the “cheap substitutes” in your life which are “ruining the appetite” for the delight you are to have in scripture, and ask Him to give you a greater delight in His word.

(In tomorrow’s post, we are going to look at how the rest of this section in Psalm 119 describes some of the incredible blessings that come to the one who meditates on scripture!)