AP

Psalm 119:101-104 I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word.  I do not turn aside from your rules, for you 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.

Our culture here in Australia is moving further and further away from its historical roots in God, the Creator and the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ the only Saviour, and from the trustworthiness and authority of God’s Word, the Bible. Consequently, it is becoming more and more confused and uncertain about the meaning and purpose of human life, and less and less able to discern between truth and error, good and bad.

As I see this happening, I get great encouragement from passages like today’s verses (and in fact all of Psalm 119).  Evil and crime are increasing in our society, and we don’t know how to address this problem because we no longer have any benchmark or standard to determine what is right and wrong.  We try desperately to make some headway with the few remaining vestiges of truth and morality that were a vital part of our worldview in the past, even from the time of my own youth, but there is no remaining solid framework to hold it all together.

Let us ponder on the points the Psalmist is making in today’s verses.  God, our Creator, has clearly given us reliable ‘rules’ for living, to make our lives more peaceful and fulfilling within ourselves and in our relationships with each other, and we ignore them to our peril.  God, our Designer, has made us to be enriched spiritually by his Word on a daily basis, in the same way honey has the power to enrich and revitalise our bodies (cf Jonathan’s testimony in 1 Samuel 14:25-30).

Reading God’s Word each day also gives us understanding of his absolute truth, protecting us from the harmful falacies with which our culture relentlessly bombards us through simply living in, and of necessity ineracting with, the world around us.  In the very next verse (105) the Psalmist will declare, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path”, made more essential for our spiritual health and effectiveness as ‘salt’ and ‘light’ (Matthew 5:13-16) as the surrounding darkness gets darker and darker.

So let us make every effort to keep this light shining on the path before us in the rush and bustle of our daily lives.  “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.” (Psalm 1:1-2)

– Bruce Christian