Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Your precepts. I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Your word. I have not departed from Your judgments, for You Yourself have taught me. How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 119: 97-105, NKJV.
Most Holy Father, it has been good for us to sit at Your feet and study about the benefits that Your Word brings to our life. Please help us to practice what we learn that we might be blessed in our going out and our coming in. In the blessed name of Jesus Christ we humbly pray. Amen.
“Through Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” As we come to this portion of our scripture, I would like us to linger at this first sentence for a while. In the physical, the spiritual, as well as in the emotional, phases of our lives, two objects cannot occupy the same space, at the same time. Two people cannot stand on the same spot, we cannot serve God and Mammon, we cannot be sad and happy, at the same time. One person, or action, or feeling, precludes the other. By saying, that God’s precepts begets understanding, and, as a consequence (“therefore”), he “hates every false way,” it sounds as if the logical conclusion is that, God’s Word reveals (“understanding” of) the true nature of things, and at the same time, produces a love for that which is true. In other words, as the psalmist’s eyes are open, he can distinguish between the true and the false, and he learns to love the true, and hates the false.
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” This text is perhaps, one of the best known, most repeated, and, dearly loved. From the very beginning of creation we find that light is used to replace darkness. Light is also seen as something good. “And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness” (Genesis 1: 4, emphasis provided).“Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you (Isaiah 60: 1). “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5: 16). “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, “Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, ‘ “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” ‘ ” (John 8: 12). “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1: 7). This thought is prevalent throughout Scripture.
How wonderful it is to have a light shed upon our path when walking in the darkness. When I was a little girl, oftentimes my grandmother and I would walk a significant distance to go to a clubhouse in what was then, the Canal Zone, to purchase icecream. There were certain areas along the way where there were no street lights, so we were actually “walking [more] by faith, than by sight.” What a delight, to tread those same paths during the full moon, and walk in the light provided by the moon! It is interesting how we can take the everyday things of life for granted – until they are gone! For many, having electricity is just part of the way we live our lives. But in times of an outage when evening falls and the problem has not been solved, all of a sudden, we realize how much of a difference our chandeliers, and lamps, and outdoor lights make.
Many of us also take our spiritual blessings for granted, until we lose them. The prophets of old had prophesied of an outage that was to come upon Jerusalem in the days of Israel of old. I believe that this same prophesy could be applied to our day. It speaks of a time of gross darkness. “For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people” (Isaiah 60: 2a). Today, nearly every family owns a Bible. Bibles are placed in hotel rooms by the Gideons. There are individuals who have made it their duty to buy Bibles and distribute them. But for a light to be of benefit to someone, it must be turned on, or in the case of a lamp, put someplace where it can shed its light (Matthew 5: 15). We may have the light, but unless we use it, it will profit us nothing. I believe that much of the moral decadence and spiritual darkness that has plagued our society, and the world at large, is proof that the light of God’s Word has been put out.
We have spent several days studying about the blessings we receive by applying the teachings that are found in the Word of God to our personal experience. Now, may God grant us a love for His Word, and the determination to live according to its precepts.