“OK, I’m convinced,” you say. “God’s word is important. But I still don’t know how to get much from it.” Don’t worry. We’re going to look at what an extreme delighter in God’s word did that helped him love it so much.
Besides using the words love and delight a lot, the writer of Psalm 119 also used the word meditate. Before you start wearing a turban and sitting with your legs crossed, let me give you a definition of meditation:
“To dwell on anything in thought; to contemplate; to study…”
Basically, it means to think about something – but it’s not a lazy thinking. You’re thinking about it over and over, seeing what it means, trying to understand how it should affect your life. So, don’t just read God’s word and forget about it. Take a little time. Think about it.
If you’re going to meditate on God’s word, you have to do something else the Psalm 119 writer did – remember. It’s pretty obvious. You can’t think about something if you can’t remember it. Are you tucking important parts of God’s word away in your heart? If not, you’re not going to be able to pull it out when you need it.
The final thing he did was ask. This writer didn’t trust himself to learn and understand God’s word correctly — he needed help. In verses 19 and 20, he cried out,
“Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law…hide not your commandments from me!”
This sounds like a desperate cry for wisdom and understanding – and that’s how we should approach God’s word, too. We can’t understand it on our own. Instead, we need to ask God to teach us.
Ready to get in God’s word? Come back later for practical tips on how to get the meditating and delighting started.
