Gratification In The Word Of God

Text: Psalm 119: 97-104

O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.
Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies:
for they are ever with me.
I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my
meditation.
I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.
I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy
word.
I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me.
How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my
mouth!
Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false
way.

Have you read Psalm 119 lately? It's a long Chapter; but it provides such a strong encouragement to read and study the rest of the Bible. In his work, Confessions, Augustine spoke of two reasons for which God has given us the Scripture. One is that we were too weak to find the truth by pure reason, and for that cause, we needed the authority of Holy Writ. I now began to believe that in no wise would God have given such surpassing authority throughout the world to that Scripture, unless He wished that through it, we believe and seek it.

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Psalm 119 indeed shows how we come to believe in God and seek Him through the Word of God. But there is another purpose for the written Word that stands out in this Psalm: the sheer delight of the Word, as the Lord opens our eyes to the truth of His Words and gives us new insights from them every day.

Maybe this was what Augustine felt when he wrote about God's work in his life through Scripture: “Then little by little, 0 Lord, with a most mild and merciful hand, you touched and calmed my heart". The Psalmist worded it this way: “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth (Psalm 119: 103). We also can experience such delight when we prayerfully devote ourselves to the study of the Word of God.