Friday, September 14, 2018

Scripture to Meditate On

I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. 
Psalm 119.15

The first part of this declaration is what lies behind these running comments on Psalm 119. Here is an example of a saint who meditates on the Scriptures. One of my goals is to aid all of you in imitating his example.

To appreciate the second part of the verse we'll need to take apart some of the words. First, there is 'ways'. What is the psalmist referring to here? What are God's ways? This is simply one of the ways that the Scriptures refer to how God acts. A history of His ways is recorded in the Bible. We can see how He has brought about and responded to various events in history. Sometimes He is pleased. Sometimes He isn't. There are important lessons to be learned about who our God is by considering His ways. And then, on top of that, there are our own personal histories of how God has acted in our lives, bringing about these things and responding to those.

The psalmist says that he will fix his eyes on these ways of God. What is this about, and why does he say this after his declaration about meditation? Here's one possibility. To understand God's words, you need to consider God's ways. And to understand God's ways you need to consider His words. The two interpret each other. So, to understand well some teaching that you've read in the Bible it will help to relate it to some appropriate act of God in the lives of His people. And as you see God at work in the history of His people you will be able to understand what He is doing as you consider those other places in the Scriptures that explain Him and His expectations. And all of this becomes so very helpful when you take what you are seeing of God's word and His ways, and use it to understand what He is doing in your life.

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