The Meditation of My Heart

Ps.119: 97 Oh, how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day

Your mind is an extraordinary thing. With it you can understand, evaluate, decide, create, imagine - so many things! One of the activities that people find fascinating is meditation; closing out everything else and being alone in sober thought. When today’s text speaks about meditation, it is speaking about focused thinking. The psalmist is saying that he thinks consistently about God’s law. But what is there to think about God’s law? I suppose he thought about the meaning of each law, about deeper meanings that he had not thought of before, of how he may be failing to observe that law and how he could possibly do a better job of keeping it. He might be considering how good and wise God is for making such a law and thanking Him and praising Him for it.

It is a good way to occupy one’s mind. What do you think about when you have a chance to choose your thoughts? Do you daydream about things you might want to do or places you might want to go? Do you fantasize about storybook situations where you are the “star of the show”? Do you create new poems, songs or other artistic expressions or do you spend time planning new strategies and approaches for your workplace? There are so many positive and productive things you can do with your mind, but by far the best thing would be to think about God’s goodness and the requirements of His law.

As your mind goes to the law you should think happy thoughts. God’s law is not a burden or oppressive rules. It simply tells us what we can do if we really appreciate God and want to please Him. If we try to follow the law and fail (which we will very likely do, one way or another) Jesus covers for us where we fail. It is not so much how perfectly we keep the law that is important, but how perfectly we love God as we try to keep His law. That is what makes His law something to enjoy thinking about.

Dear Lord, thank you for your law which is wise and good for me. Help me to love you so much that I will love your law and seek to please you always, in Jesus’ name, amen.