O how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.
– Psalm 119:97
What a great picture that leads to a question. Is that true in your life? In my life? Do we love God’s law so much that we meditate on it all day?
Psalm 119:97 Is a Calling to Meditate on God’s Word
I’ve shared before about when Heather and I started dating, and this was before email or social media or anything like that. It was back in the day when we would write letters to each other. And she would write letters to me, and she was the first girl I’d ever dated. She’s the first girl I ever received a letter from. And I remember how I would just devour every word. Talk about meditation all the day, I mean, I would open that up and I would read it. I’d read it multiple times. I’d think about every word like, “Dear David.” Oh, she said dear to me. She would talk about this or that, and she’d put a smiley face at the end of a sentence. And I’d be like, “Why did she put a smiley face there?”
She would say, “I’m praying for you.” And I’d be like, “Huh, I wonder what she means by that. She’s praying for me like she prays for all kinds of people, or is she praying for me like she prays for her future husband?” I would devour every word. And you would say I was obsessed, and you’d be right. And that’s kind of the point.
Psalm 119:97 Is a Calling to Love God’s Word
What would it look like if we loved God’s law like that? If we loved God’s word? Didn’t just read through it we meditated on it. Like, “God, what did you mean by this word? What did you mean by this phrase?” And we soaked it in, even to the point where we memorize it, hide it in our hearts, and we look at it, not just here or there, but all the day. This is the relationship God has designed for you and me to have with him in his word, to be obsessed with the word of God, to love it.
That’s Psalm 119:97, “O how I love your law!” Exclamation point, I love it so much. I meditate on it all day. God, I pray for this kind of love for your law. I pray for this in my own life. And God, I pray right now for this kind of love for your word over every single person who’s listening to this right now. I pray that they would love your law, that they would love your word, and meditate on it. Soak it in, read it, devour it, digest it, obey it, and find life according to it. That they would grow in love relationship with you, through love for your law, through meditation on your law. Oh God, we pray this over each of our lives.
Praying for the Chukchi People
We pray that Psalm 119:97, this kind of affection and longing and love for your law would mark our lives. And not just in our lives, oh God, we pray for the love of your law to spread among all the peoples of the world. God, we pray for the Chukchi people of Russia, 16,000 of them, this small people group with just a few followers of Jesus.
Lord, we pray for those brothers and sisters among the Chukchi people, that they would love your law and that love for your law would spread among the Chukchi of Russia, and among all kinds of people groups in Russia. God, we pray for love for your law to spread among all the nations of the world. And we pray that as your church in each of our lives and in our families and in our churches, we would show what love for your law looks like to the nations. In Jesus’ name, we pray according to Psalm 119:97. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
