Morning Psalms and Prayer: Psalm 119:9-16
Contemplate these questions as we look at Psalm 119:9-16:
1. How does the Psalmist's emphasis on storing up God's word in our hearts relate to the concept of keeping one's way pure? What practical steps can individuals take to ensure they are consistently storing up and meditating on God's word?
2. In the context of the passage, what is the distinction between modern meditation practices and Christian meditation as described by the Psalmist? How does Christian meditation, focused on filling the mind with God's word, contribute to spiritual growth and purity of heart?
3. The Psalmist expresses a commitment to meditate on God's precepts and delight in His statutes. How can believers cultivate a genuine delight in studying and reflecting on God's word, especially in a world filled with distractions and competing priorities?
Transcript:
As we come to the second section of Psalm 119, we see something very important. The focus here in Psalm 119 is on the word of God. And what we see is a question, how can a young man keep his way pure? Well, that goes for anybody. How can an older man? How can a younger woman or an older woman? How can any of us keep our way pure? And the answer that the Psalmist has is by guarding it according to your word. That is important. If we want our way to be pure, we need to guard our lives according to the law of God, according to the word of God. We see here in verse 11 what the solution is, to store up God's word in our hearts that we might not sin against him. We often might pray, God, deliver me from sin. That's a wonderful and good prayer. We should pray that every day. But often we think that that somehow is magically going to happen. But that isn't how any of this works. God works through his word and through his spirit. We need to have his word within us, to be working and sanctifying us.
We need to know and hear what we have done wrong, how we have violated a Holy God through his word. Then we need to hear that refreshing news of the gospel to refresh our spiritual lives. That's why we need to store up God's word in our heart, not to win arguments, not to know more Bible verses, not to be able to pass a test later on in life or in death that God will see how many Bible verses we know. That's not the point. We store up God's has word in our hearts so that it works in us, so that it convicts us of sin and reminds us of the gospel, and that keeps us from sin. And so verse 15 and 16, I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes. I will not Forget your word. That needs to be our focus, to meditate on the precepts of God. Now, I've talked about this before in a sermon. It's important that we understand meditation versus Christian meditation. What the Psalmist here isn't talking about is what we hear maybe or we see on, say, a meditation app.
Modern meditation, Eastern religion type of meditation, is emptying your mind. Christian meditation is filling your mind with God's word. We're meditating on God's word, and that is our focus. That's why we want to know scripture, because we want to be filling our minds with God's word, and that is how we delight in his statues. That's how we fix our eyes on God. That's how we keep from sin. And so may today be a day where we go to God's word, where we meditate on it, where we fill our hearts with it, and may God's Holy spirit be at work in us, as he will be, making us holy and conforming us to the image of Christ.
