“Oh how I love your law!
It is my meditation all the day.
Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,
for it is ever with me.
I have more understanding than all my teachers,
for your testimonies are my meditation.
I understand more than the aged,
for I keep your precepts.
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” (Psalms 119:97–104; all Scripture quotations from the English Standard Version unless otherwise indicated).

Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible. This anthem to the glories of God’s Word has more verses (176) than 18 entire books of the Bible. Some commentators have called it a “love song” about the Word of God. Imagine if someone wrote a love song to the United States Constitution. Many patriotic songs, like “America the Beautiful” or “God Bless America,” laud our country’s land, culture, and ideals; I know of no song, though, that swoons with passion over the Bill of Rights, Commerce Clause, or other elements of our nation’s laws. However, the psalmist felt it was worth writing an epic about God’s laws.

I could have posted any of the 22 eight-verse stanzas in Psalm 119 above. I have to admit that it is quite repetitive, and I have not read the entire psalm in a single sitting in several years. Usually, I will read one to three stanzas during my devotions.

However, its repetitiveness may be one of this chapter’s greatest strengths. Several words or themes are repeated frequently. God’s Word is referred to as His law, commandment, testimonies, precepts, rules, words, promises, etc. God gives us His law, precepts, rules, and commandments, to show us how to live. He offers His promises. He gives us His testimonies, which prove that He is faithful and able to fulfill those promises.

This psalm challenges us to consider some hard questions about our faith. Do I really love God’s law? Do I read the Bible because I think I have to do it? Do I read it because somebody said, “Real Christians read the Bible 15 minutes per day, or three chapter per day”? Am I afraid that God will get really angry if I do not read it?

Do I read God’s law so that I can win arguments about what it means? Do I read it so that I can show off how smart I am at the next Bible study, or look super-spiritual at church?

Or, do I crave God’s Word the same way I crave my daily food? Do I read God’s Word because I have an insatiable desire to know Him more and experience the full abundant life He offers?

When we come to Christ, God writes His Word upon our hearts. It is part of the New Covenant that He promised to His people:

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:33–34).

As a result of this, the child of God will crave His Word:

“Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Peter 2:2–3).

Dig in! Taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalms 34:8). As you seek Him, you will find that God and His Word are truly worth singing about!

Copyright © 2019 Michael E. Lynch. All rights reserved.