The Progression of His Word

Psalm 119:15-16
15 I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.
16 I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.

Reading Psalm 119 is an awesome way to think about God's word and how important it is to our lives. I've been seeing many of verses written in a "IF-THEN" or "CAUSE-EFFECT" style. With that being said lets look at verses 15 and 16.

Separate verse 15 into IF-THEN or CAUSE-EFFECT; instead of it being "I will meditate on Your word AND focus on following You" it becomes "When I meditate on Your word then I am able to focus on following You."

I am not trying to change God's word at all, but the style throughout Psalm 119 doesn't really use AND's and semicolons to combine simultaneous actions, but rather they are used as a progression to a goal. Just like baking a cake does not mean throwing all the ingredients in the bowl at once, but you add each ingredient at its proper time, you bake it AND you get a cake.

Back to verse 15 and my paraphrase: "When I meditate on Your word then I am able to focus on following You." The only further definition we need is on "meditate." Meditate as it is used here can be as a picture of a cow chewing its cud: chewing, swallowing, regurgitating, repeat... We likewise are go over and over God's word. Reading, dissecting, memorizing - hiding it in our hearts (Ps 119:11). And then when we have assimilated His word we are equipped to apply it (following Him). Do we have to go through this process every time we read the Word? Not exactly; sometimes we understand the application immediately and we just need to do it (the Holy Spirit shortens the meditation process). Either way, the importance is that we assimilate God's word so that we focus on following Him.

16 I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.
Finish this phrase: "You do the hokey-pokey, and you turn yourself around..." Were you able to finish it? Did it bring back memories of rainy days during grade school, Friday night at the roller rink, or even a real fun wedding reception? In case you don't remember: "...that's what it's all about." It's a silly song that we associate with having fun in a large group - so we remember the words. Do you see where I'm going with this? If we are delighting in His word, we will not forget it.

Today's challenge is to first delight in His word. How? The Creator of the universe chooses to speak to you through the Bible. That's incredible. The Holy Spirit has taken up permanent residence in you and He understands the Bible completely. Can you delight in those two facts? The ultimate entity, The Lord God, speaks to you and at the same time dwells in you to interpret.

That's cause to remember His word. Even to meditate on His word (the second challenge for today). And the best way to follow up meditation is application. And by this we are following Christ.