A reflection on Psalm 119 :97-98, 101-105
´Create in me a clean heart O Lord and renew a right spirit within me' is a sentiment most of us, if we are honest, may have shared with the psalmist at some point in our Christian journey. And the way towards that re-creation, or making anew, is also to be found in the wisdom of the Psalms.
Oh, how I love Thy law, it is my meditation all day long! Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies; for it is always with me.
This Psalm, with its 176 verses, the longest chapter in the Bible and often set to music, conveys the sense of devotion the author has to the Word of God. Across the various translations l read, whilst preparing this piece, the sense of enthrallment in verse 97 is there in all versions. “Oh, how I love Thy Law”. In the opening sentence my personal preference, and yours may be different, is the Authorized King James term of ‘Thy’ for ‘Your’ because, to me, it adds an extra layer of the sense of Awe for the Law of the Lord. The Law meaning instruction or life-giving words of God.
How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore, I hate every false way.
We now hear the contrast between the joy which the author feels about the health-giving properties of the Word, likening it to the known benefits of honey for our physical bodies, and the indignation felt about other ways that take us into the unhealthy zone of false paths. (Interesting to see the recent TV advert for staff at a store selling electrical goods, who are eating the instruction manuals, showing their determination not to be derailed by any tricky questions from customers). The temptations to stray into the false ways are ever with us, Jesus reminds us of the wide gate and the broad road and He encourages us to choose the small gate and narrow road that leads to life. (Matthew 7:13-14)
Thy Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
The lens of Scripture is what guides us and in these dark days, Jesus, the Word become flesh, who is the Light of the world, is surely what is needed as the constant lamp unto our feet and the light to guide us to choose the right pathway ahead. As the days shorten and we have more time indoors, perhaps as a way of boosting our spiritual immunity in the winter months, we may all like to read, in the comfort of our own armchairs, the whole of Psalm 119.
I have not departed from Your laws for You yourself have taught me.
Let’s pray,
We thank you God, that there is always more truth and more light to break forth from Thy Word. Therefore, we ask that as we meditate upon this Psalm 119, that we would be guided by the Holy Spirit, to know which are the pathways we are to follow. We pray that reading and meditating upon your Word may be for us something we delight in day and night and which, in the world we have to navigate, will make us wiser than our enemies. Amen.
Elisabeth Sweeney-Smith
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