Psalms 119:15
Psalms 119:15-16, “Psa 119:15 I will
meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. Psa
119:16 I will
delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.”
In These verses there are 4 key words: meditate, respect, delight, and
not forgot. These 4 words describe for us handle the Word of God, how we should
respond to the Word of God, how we should use the Word of God in our lives.
Jesus
taught a very important truth when He said in the Gospel of Matthew 4:4, “Mat 4:4 But He answered and said, It is written, Man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God.”
What Jesus is saying is that the Word of God is more important than
your physical needs. There is another way of saying it. Jesus said in Mark 8:36,
Mar
What good does it do a person if they eat healthy every day, live to
be 90 years old but never rely upon, never feed upon God Word? Such a person
will have no spiritual strength. Such a person will accomplish nothing for God.
Such a person will succumb to all the pressures of all the evil forces and
influences in the world around them. Then at the end of their life when die and
stand before God what will they have? They will have wood, hay, and stubble,
nothing but things to be burned and cast into the fire.
You
see everything is connected to the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing and
hearing by the Word of God. How strong your faith is, is not dependant upon how educated you are or how degrees you
have, how strong your faith is, is not wholly dependant
upon how much you know about the word of God, but its dependant
upon how much you study God’s Word daily. Your faith tomorrow is not dependant upon what you study from God’s word today but
from what you study tomorrow. Your faith today is not wholly dependant upon how much you studied God’s Word yesterday
but how much you study it today.
Matthew 4:4, “Mat 4:4 But He answered and
said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
Now Jesus was actually quoting from the Old Testament when He said
this. It should be obvious because He said, It is
written. The quote comes from Deuteronomy 8:3. Lets
read Deuteronomy 8:2-3 which says, “Deu 8:2 And thou shalt
remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the
wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was
in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his
commandments, or no. Deu 8:3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to
hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest
not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth
not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.”
The truth is everyone has had a time t hey
have gone without the word of God. You
weren’t born reading the Bible. So you some experiences in life which you can
draw upon and use as a comparison too see what
happens when you don’t feed on the Word of God. So you do know what will happen
if you do not feed upon God’s Word every day.
Now
this is what verses 15 and 16 of Psalms 119 are doing. There giving us detail
about how important the Word of God is and about how we should be taking in the
Word of God into our lives.
This
is what a wise person will realize and will do. A wise person will come to
realize that t hey need the Word of God, that they need
to feed upon the Word of God every day, that the Word of God can make them
strong spiritually and build up their faith, bring them close to the Savior,
guide them safely through the storms of life, fill their hearts with an
unbreakable and undiminishable joy, be the shield
which protects them from the false teachings and immoral influences of the
world that lead people astray and destroy lives.
Psalms 119:15-16, “Psa 119:15 I will
meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. Psa
119:16 I will
delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.”
A wise person will do these 4 things with the
Word of God: meditate, respect, delight, and not forget.
To meditate means to muse, to ponder, to
consider, to think deeply upon. The word can actually
even mean pray. You see to feed upon the word of God implies using your mind.
One of the great mistakes that many people in the
world make is they don’t use their minds properly. They don’t learn to think
for themselves. They hear someone say something on tv or on the news and they soak it up and believe it.
They hear something taught in public school when there a young child and they
soak it up and believe it. Or some false religious group comes along and
teaches them things and they soak up those teachings and believe them.
But the truth is you have not learned to think
properly or to truly think for yourself until you have learned to mediate upon
the Word of God. Meditation implies using all the strength and effort of the
mind and the human will as far as it is involved in getting the mind to
function.
A great truth is said about meditation on the
Word of God in Psalms 1:1-2 which says, “Psa 1:1 Blessed is the man that walketh
not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in
the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the
scornful. Psa 1:2 But his delight is in the law
of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.”
If only we would meditate on the Word of God day
and night. And that is the question what do you think about? You can think
about God’s Word and God’s great promises when your
working, you can think about it when you’re doing chores around the house, you
can think about the bible when you’re going to the grocery store, you can think about the bible when you lay in
your bed at night to sleep. There is no situation or circumstance in which you
should not be thinking about God’s Word.
To Meditate means to put an effort into using
your mind into
thinking about God’s word.
The next word mentioned is the word respect.The word respect has to do with a person’s
attitude. What is your attitude about God’s Word and What
is your attitude about following God?
A lot of people have this attitude about God’s
Word, well I believe the Bible is God’s Word but it has errors in it. O No This
is a mistake. Jesus said He would preserve His Word. SO for a minute just
forget about archeology and History and make a decision based on faith not
based on human reasoning. Either you are going to choose to believe God’s Word
or not believe it.
What should a person’s attitude be about the Word
of God? The proper attitude is to believe that God gave His Word and that God
preserved His Word without error. He said He would. So either you believe what
God said or you don’t believe that God keeps His promises. You can study out
the archeological and historical evidence, the thousands of ancient biblical
Greek and Hebrew manuscripts and you will come to the conclusion that God has
preserved His Word. But you’re always better off with the right attitude the
attitude of respect towards God’s Word and what God has promises. Take it on
Faith not on science. God wants you to take it on Faith. Faith pleases God.
Psalms 119:15-16, “Psa 119:15 I will
meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. Psa
119:16 I will
delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.”
Respect unto Thy ways. What is your attitude
about what God does. You see some people have this
attitude, they say I’m going to serve God and see how it goes…But here’s the attitude
you should have…I’m going to serve God no matter what happens no matter what
God allows to happen I’m going to accept the truth that God is good that God is
just that God is merciful that God knows what He is doing. I’m going to have
respect unto Thy ways not unto my ways. You see the difference? It is people
that respect unto their own ways that turn back from following God. If you have
respect unto God’s ways and you can say just as it says here in Psalms 119:15,
respect unto Thy ways, Then you will never turn back from following God because
God always gets His way. God always wins. God does whatever He wants to do.
There never is a reason to turn back from following God.
Psa 119:15 I will meditate in thy precepts, and
have respect unto thy ways. And have respect
unto thy ways. God way was to send His son Jesus to give it all, to sacrifice
it all, to suffer and die on the cross for your sins. Salvation is by
grace through faith and not of works. This is God’s way. If you want to go
God’s way if you want to have respect unto God’s way then you will go on the
work of Christ and not on your own works.
God’s way is for you to give it all to Him, to
love Him with all the heart because He gave His all to you. True Christianity
is not for the faint of heart. True Christianity is not for those who want one
foot in the world and one foot in religion. True Christianity is not for those
who are not prepared to face the challenge of being a soldier of facing that
spiritual warfare that comes every day though afflictions and persecutions and
necessities and distresses and disappointments and sufferings.
If you have respect unto God’s way then you will
look at that cross that God has set before you and you will pick up that cross
and you will willingly and joyfully carry that cross for Jesus. Jesus said in
Luke 9:62, “Luk 9:62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put
his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the
Following in the footprints of Jesus is not for
the faint of heart, it is not for the compromiser, or the lovers of the
pleasures of this world. O there are great blessings and great pleasures to be
found in walking hand in hand with the Savior but you must understand that if
you are to follow Christ you must first stop relying upon your own good works
and rely upon the work of Christ on the cross and then you must be able to have
respect unto God’s ways. That means when things don’t go the way you want them
too in life you still recognize that things are going God’s way. It’s not easy.
Not when our dreams in life are dashed to pieces. Not when those we love
abandon us or betray us. Not when those we care about die. And not when the world come against us to oppose us. But if you’re going to
truly have respect unto God’s ways you will accept these things as things that
God allows to happen for His purposes.
Psalms 119:15-16, “Psa 119:15 I will
meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. Psa
119:16 I will
delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.”
Not only do these verses say to meditate and to
respect but they also say to delight. To delight in something means you find
pleasure in it. It is very natural for a human being to pursue in life the
things that bring them pleasure.
Its going to be very
hard to serve God, to follow God especially in the rough times if you do not
delight in God. Now the previous verses in Psalms 119 talked about this some.
And there is a great verse in Psalms 37:4 which says, “Psa 37:4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the
desires of thine heart.”
Delighting in something has a lot to do with what
you love what brings you pleasure. Why is it that serving God and studying his
word would bring one person great delight and not another? It has to do with
the heart. When you have God’s love in your heart when understand The
forgiveness of sins that is in Jesus Christ when you truly have that personal
friendship with Christ it is then that you can delight in God and in His Word
the way that you should.
Delight is a very important word. If you delight
in something then you’re going to continue in it. It’s very hard to meditate in
something to spend time in something to pursue something that you find no
delight in. That’s why to meditate and to respect and to continue therein you
need to also delight in.
You see for a lot of people religion is a
ceremonial thing. Or religion is about them doing works so that they feel good
about themselves. Or organized religion is about social status and social
connections. But for those to whom it is about the love of Jesus and how Jesus
has forgiven them of their sins and washed them clean those are the people that
will delight in God’s Word and God’s way.
Psalms 119:15-16, “Psa 119:15 I will
meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. Psa
119:16 I will
delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.”
The last thing mentioned here is the words not
forget. Part of the use of the mind is to remember things. It does not do much
good to learn all there is to learn and yet never remember. It does not do much
good to go through life and forget the things that God has done for you.
Even God has a memory and God Himself looks back
on the past and considers things. For example God said in Jeremiah 2:2, “Jer 2:2 Go and cry in the ears of
Now what is the chief thing that God remembers in
regards to us? Why God remembers His son Jesus Christ and His suffering and His
death on the cross for our sins.
As Christians there are many man things we need
to remember. We need to remember the things we learn about God’s Word. We need
to remember God’s promises. We need to remember the great things God has done
in the past both the things recorded in the Bible and the things God has done
for us in our life’s such as answers to prayer. Of
course most importantly we should remember the gospel of Jesus Christ.
For the mind to be used properly to serve God
then the memory must be used to remember the right things. Don’t dwell on your
mistakes in the past or your failures or the failures of others. Don’t dwell on
the tragedies and the disappointments that’s the proper way to use the memory.
But dwell on the wonder things that God has taught you and has done for you.
Psalms 119:15-16, “Psa 119:15 I will
meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. Psa
119:16 I will
delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.”
Meditate, respect, delight, and not forget.
2 Corinthians 10:5 says, “2Co 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing
into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;”
This is a great verse. And the key phrase is,
bringing into captivity every thought. You see human beings are creatures of
habit. We form habits in our mind, habits with or thoughts, habits of patterns
of thought. The kind of though habits you want to form are the kind which are
founded upon and filtered by God’s Word. Just think about how many times in the
day you think about something but do not think about God’s Word.
Psalms 119:15-16, “Psa 119:15 I will
meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. Psa
119:16 I will
delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.”
The question is do you value this book? Do you
understand the important of this book and of feeding upon it daily.
This book is the key to success in life? This book is the key to walking
closely with Jesus Christ. Hopefully you will realize this and live not by
bread alone but by every word of God.
Now if you do not know Jesus Christ as your
Savior you can turn to Him today. Repent of your sins and ask Jesus into your
heart and He will save you.
___________________________________________________
Copyright; 2017 by Bruce
Creech
All Rights Reserved