Loving God’s Law Series

LOVING GOD’S LAW

PSALM 119:97-104

INTRODUCTION

A. I recall a man in my youth who, to my knowledge, never attended any church, but loved to search the Scriptures. He was not looking for God’s law to obey or God’s promises to claim. He looked for passages that he could use to provoke an argument among the old men who gathered at the local store to pass the time.

B. He was the spiritual offspring of the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day who loved to study the Scriptures. The heads of such offspring may be filled with book, chapter, and verse, but their hearts are devoid of the word of God (John 5:38-39).

I. PROOF OF LOVE FOR GOD’S LAW

A. David said that he meditated on God’s law all day (v. 97). I don’t believe that David sat around all day with his elbow resting on his knee and his chin on his hand. As David went about the day’s activities, the law was never far from his thoughts.

B. We cannot meditate on that which we do not know. While memorizing the Word is a good habit, I’m not suggesting that those who are not good at memorizing cannot meditate on God’s word. There are key concepts, powerful phrases, comforting promises, and dire warnings that are often rooted in our hearts.

C. The key to meditation is not memorization, but focus (Col 3:1-3).

D. The word meditates in reference to God and his word is found thirteen times in the Psalms. Six of those are in chapter 119. Each may be summed up with a single word.

1. “I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways” (v.15). FOCUS

2. “Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes” (v.23). CONFIDENCE

3. “Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works” (27). INSIGHT

4. “I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes” (v.48). AWE

5. “Let the insolent be put to shame, because they have wronged me with falsehood; as for me, I will meditate on your precepts” (v.78). SINGLEMINDEDNESS

6. “My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promise” (v.148). DILIGENCE.

E. David meditated habitually but not mindlessly. There was focus and purpose in his thoughts, not repetitive ritual learned by rote.

II. WHY WE SHOULD LOVE GOD’S LAW

A. God’s law makes us wise (vv. 98-100)

1. Loving God’s law does not come naturally. We must develop a taste for it. The younger the taste is developed, the better. Wise parents do not assign their children so many Scriptures to memorize each day, rewarding them when they succeed and punishing them when they fail.

2. Children love to learn, but they soon learn to hate the educational model so common in many school systems. Forced memorization of Scripture seems too much like forced memorization of the times table.

3. Paul said that from childhood Timothy had known the Scriptures that were able to make him wise for salvation (2 Tim 3:13). Timothy did not learn the Scriptures in any rabbinical school. He had learned them on the lap of his mother and grandmother (2 Tim 1:5).

B. God’s law can guide our feet (vv. 101-102; 1 Cor 6:18; Prov 7:21-27; Jam 4:3-5).

1. God’s law can guide our feet in business, education, social interactions, and any other relationship. However, it cannot do so if we wait until we are tempted to go searching through the Scriptures for guidance.

2. When we have meditated on it day and night, refusing evil will come naturally to us. It may not come easily, but it will come naturally.

C. God’s law can bring us joy (v. 103).

1. Ironically, some do not find God’s law so sweet (Rev 10:9-10).

2. Lenski commented: “The gospel is certainly sweet as honey, for ‘he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.’ To proclaim that is sweet beyond compare. Then, however, follows the bitterness: ‘he that believeth not shall be damned.’ ‘To the one the savor of death unto death; and to the other the savor of life unto life,” 2 Cor. 2:16, and ‘savor’ means taste. The fact that the sweet taste is placed in the mouth and the bitter taste in the stomach, merely separates the two; both are effects of the booklet” (gospel, DC).

3. We need only to read David’s words to understand why they were sweet to him (Psa 32:1-5).

III. IF WE LOVE GOD’S LAW, WE HATE FALSEHOOD (v. 104)

A. We cannot love what God loves if we do not hate what God hates (Prov 6:16-19).

B. Jesus Christ, who epitomized love, also hated (Heb 1:9).