Reflecting the Image

Scripture:

Psalm 119:97–99

97 Oh, how I love your law!
  It is my meditation all day long.

98 Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,
  for it is always with me.

99 I have more understanding than all my teachers,
  for your decrees are my meditation. (NRSVUE)

Observation:

The psalmist is thinking about the law of God and how it impacts his daily life. He doesn’t simply read it and move on. He thinks about it and meditates on it all day long.

As he considers the law, he realizes that it is making him wise. There is wisdom in the instruction of God, and it gives him greater wisdom than his enemies. Because he meditates on God’s law throughout the day, it is always with him. In some sense, it is becoming a part of him.

Keeping God’s instruction in his heart and mind is of utmost importance. The result is that he even has greater understanding than his teachers. Why? “For your decrees are my meditation.”

This isn’t simply about knowing the rules. The psalmist loves the law because it comes from God. In meditating on God’s instruction, he is also learning the character of the Giver.

Application:

I was a Bible Quizzer when I was a kid. I really enjoyed studying the Word of God and getting to know the Scriptures. Yes, there was a little competition involved, but that was pretty fun too! The fellowship with other young people was very enjoyable.

At the time, I don’t think we understood the lifelong impact that this bit of competition would have on us. We were hiding God’s Word in our hearts. Years later, in difficult moments, those Scriptures would come back to me. Words I had learned as a teenager had become a part of me.

The psalmist understood that God’s law was foundational to his life. As he studied the Scriptures and kept them before him, they began to shape his decisions, his actions, and even his reactions. That’s why he meditated on God’s law day after day.

The psalmist shows us what can happen when God’s Word is allowed to occupy our hearts and minds.

But this isn’t about legalism. Sadly, we’re very good at becoming legalistic. In my own Wesleyan-Holiness tradition, we went through a time when we could become more concerned about following a set of rules than about the God whose holy character those rules were intended to reflect. We became critical of one another over the ways in which we dressed, spoke, or the activities in which we participated.

The psalmist offers us something different. He doesn’t say, “Oh, how I tolerate your law!”

He loves it.

The law is a gift because through it he is learning the heart and character of the Giver.

Meditating on the Giver changes everything.

And the Giver gave the ultimate gift — His Son.

Through Christ we are invited into the new covenant, where God’s instruction isn’t simply something written outside of us, but something God desires to write upon our hearts. And through the promise of the Father — the Holy Spirit — we are invited to become partakers of the divine nature. We don’t simply learn God’s ways as information; by grace, we are being transformed into people whose lives increasingly reflect the character of God.

Maybe that’s what I was beginning to experience all those years ago in Bible Quizzing. Scripture was being placed within me. I thought I was learning verses for a competition, but those words were becoming part of the way I would know God and recognize His voice throughout my life.

Now, through the Spirit, we can live in the stream of the wisdom and life of God every single day as we remain connected to Him. The Word that we meditate upon becomes the Word that forms us.

What an incredible gift.

Not simply a law to follow, but a life being formed.

Thanks be to God.

Prayer:

Lord, I’m grateful for those who gave of their time and invested in me as a teenager. Thank You for the adults who made sure that we could have a Bible Quizzing program that touched my life. Today, I ask that Your Word would continually fill my heart and mind. Through Your Spirit, form me by that Word until my life increasingly reflects Your character. May I live like the psalmist — led and formed by You. Amen.