"I will keep your law continually, forever and ever,and I shall walk in a wide place, for I have sought your precepts.I will also speak of your testimonies before kings and shall not be put to shame,for I find my delight in your commandments, WHICH I LOVE.I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, WHICH I LOVE,and I will meditate on your statutes."Psalm 119:44-48 ESV
At the end of a year so many turn their thoughts toward establishing renewed habits of holiness, a resolve to pursue the reading of the word of God with fresh vigour and newfound zeal. We have already been presented with a number of suggestions for the logistics of such a pursuit in the form of daily reading plans and devotional materials. In my experience, establishing a structure for devoting oneself to the daily pursuit of God in His word is a good and essential step in the right direction, but it will only carry one so far. Plans fail, life interrupts and distracts, and we quickly despair of our daily pursuit when we either find ourselves behind in our plan or reading long sections of scripture from which it is difficult to discern any immediate benefit. How do we keep our resolve and continue to pursue God in His word when we seem to have so many more apparently relevant things we could be doing?
David gives us the key to this dilemma in this precious Psalm. He repeats it over and over again throughout Psalm 119 and we would do well to listen. David loved God's law. The scripture was precious to him. He found his delight in God's precepts and promises. The statutes of God stirred his affections and stimulated his devotion. Meditating on God's word was not just an empty ritual that he felt obligated to perform daily, but a rich and relevant rendezvous with the living God. He was a grateful recipient of God's redemptive rules, and he LOVED hearing them and reading them and considering them and writing about them and pondering them and applying them! We can be sure that he did not do it perfectly - he WAS a sinner after all - but the depths of affection that he expresses in this Psalm is real and relevant to our own pursuit of God.
If we do not LOVE the word of God we will find plenty of excuses not to READ the word of God. As the year 2011 comes to a close, and you begin to consider ways to pursue God in 2012, take a good long look at Psalm 119 and let it wash over you. Consider your own affections and see whether they are as specific and sincere as David's. And ask God to GIVE you a love for His word that is deep and wide and passionate. And read the word of God BECAUSE you love it, and because you love it's author and the One who is revealed there. Read it because you want to know EVERYTHING you can about the God who has made such an effort to reveal Himself to you.
May the year 2012 be a year of renewed passion for the pursuit of God in His word!
