This following passage sets forth the intrinsic place God's Word should have in our lives.
WHAT IS THE KEY AIM OF THIS PORTION OF SCRIPTURE?
It is to instill within our hearts a holy respect for God’s Word and the necessity of compliantly responding to it. WE MUST READ OUR BIBLES WITH A VIEW TO:
1. OBEDIENT CONFORMATION (9b)
“By taking heed according to Your word.”
(To take 'heed' is more than merely reading or memorizing the holy Scriptures. It is to understand and put it into action.)
2.WARY ANTICIPATION (10b)
“Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!”
(The human heart easily opts for and delights in alternatives. The old hymn declares: "Prone to wander, Lord I feel it; prone to leave the God I love....")
3. DEEP-DOWN APPLICATION (11a)
“Your word I have hidden in my heart.” (11a)
(An elderly person says, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks. The problem with this thesis is, YOU are not a dog." A busy young person says, "I'm too busy." Too busy to tuck a treasure away in the heart?)
4. SOUGHT-FOR EDUCATION (12)
“Teach me Your statutes.”
(Read Proverbs 2 and notice the intense and striving verbs for finding God and the Words He has spoken.)
5. READY DECLARATION (13)
“With my lips I have declared all the judgments of Your mouth.”
(When we share the truth of God's Word we reinforce it in our own lives. "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so."
6. HAPPY CELEBRATION (14)
“I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, as much as in all riches.”
(To learn that discovering truth in the Bible is like discovering a large nugget of gold.)
7. CONTINUED MEDITATION (15a)
“I will meditate on Your precepts…”
("Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God" - J.I. Packer)
8. SEARCHING CONTEMPLATION (15b)
“…and contemplate Your ways.”
(Applying God's Word to my life and making the necessary adjustments thereunto?)
9. HEART-FELT GRATIFICATION (16a)
"I will delight myself in Your statutes…”
(Reading, memorizing and meditating upon God's Word should be the greatest thrill in life. The Almighty and eternal God is talking to me and wanting to show me the way?)
10. DETERMINED RECOLLECTION (16b)
“I will not forget Your word.”
(Is it not amazing the God instructed holy men of old to write His Word down and then He made sure to preserve it for all time?)
The shortest road to an appreciation of the Bible is the acceptance of the idea that God is speaking in every line, yea, in every word.
- Dr. Dick Christen
