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My Constant Delight (Psa 119.16)

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I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word (Psa 119.16).

As with so many declarations of the godly soul in Scripture, this text at once sets forth a spiritual trait shared in some degree by all true believers, and also our spiritual goal to be earnestly sought. That is because the psalmist states both his honest testimony and the yearning of his renewed heart. Therefore it is useful both as a test of our sincerity and an exhortation to spiritual maturity. Let us meditate mainly on this verse as exhortation.
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Pondering God’s Precepts (Psa 119.15)

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I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways (Psa 119.15).

Biblical godliness includes a life of reverent contemplation or meditation with your attention fixed upon the very words of Scripture. God calls you to this, whatever your intelligence or personality or particular circumstances.

Some communities like the urban poor or Southern poor generally tend to disdain the importance of education. Strong social pressure works against individuals who would become good students, make high grades, go to college, and earn advanced degrees, and this general disapproval discourages many from breaking out of their community mold.
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Rejoicing in the Biblical Way (Psa 119.14)

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I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches (Psa 119.14).

Everyone loves certain things and hates others, and our frame of mind varies based on our interactions with them. Even the mere remembrance of these things can elevate or depress our mood. Meditating on things we disdain or despise works against our happiness, while pondering our favorite things gives pleasure. Remember Maria singing “My Favorite Things” in “The Sound of Music”? And the same things that make one person angry may please another, and vice versa. It all depends on what each evaluates to be good and bad, beautiful and ugly, valuable and worthless, helpful and harmful. When the provoking objects are things in the spiritual and moral realm, our innermost spiritual and moral character is revealed by our responses to them.
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Faith’s Echo (Psa 119.13)

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With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth (Psa 119.13).

A really good echo can be an unforgettable experience. The best ones have a long delay and high fidelity. The physical phenomenon involves your sending out sound waves, typically a word or phrase, and having them come back to you again. Echoes require the right environment; well-suited conditions to produce the desired effect are unusual, as in a cave or empty stadium. Usually our voices are just physically lost with no return.
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Worship and Discipleship (Psa 119.12)

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Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes (Psa 119.12).

A life of genuine piety can be summarized as praising God and learning from God. These two things are mutually symbiotic—they thrive together and need each other. A famous example is Egyptian plover and crocodile. The bird loves to eat the crocodile’s little parasites and the crocodile appreciates this so much it will open its jaws and let the plover in to hunt. The croc-dwelling bird enjoys a safe place as few of its predators would dare approach this fierce perch. So the bird and crocodile live happily together, mutually advantaged and dependent.1
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Hidden Treasure that Sanctifies (Psa 119.11)

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Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee (Psa 119:11).

All the wealth of this world cannot make you a better person. To be rich is not to be good; nor is a poor person necessarily a bad person. There is no correlation at all. A foolish teenager once boasted her boyfriend was a great guy because he had a flashy car and a pleasure boat. I never saw the connection.

Hear a riddle. What treasure is invisible, and yet people know who has it because of its positive effects on him and his life? What cannot be bought with money, and yet is worth more than all the gold in the world? What valuable thing cannot be grasped with hands, and yet many have seized it to their everlasting good? What wealth cannot be seen with the naked eye, but can be stored up in a secret place where no one can take it away?
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Spiritual Preservation (Psa 119.10)

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With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.

“All’s well that ends well.” This cliché is true, and nowhere is it more important to end well than in your relationship with God. The redeemed in heaven had widely differing spiritual experiences while they lived on earth. Some were saved so young they cannot even remember being converted, while others received saving faith just moments before death. Of those who knew God over many years, some made steady soul-progress with good consistency, while others had grievous moral lapses, like David, only to recover by God’s grace. Many mere professors of faith do not finish well, as they return to their sins and ultimately to perdition. All true believers, in contrast, persevere to the end, and the apostasy they suffer is only partial and temporary. They all end well. As the 1689 LBCF puts it, in spite of all the grievous sins they may actually commit, “yet they shall renew their repentance and be preserved through faith in Christ Jesus to the end” (XVII.3).
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Purifying a Young Life (Psa 119.9)

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Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.

This is the first verse in the second eight-verse section, where every verse begins with “beth,” the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is one of this psalm’s few questions, and unlike any of the others in its form, very much like a catechism question and answer, in which an instructor poses questions and awaits the memorized answers:

Q. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?
A. By taking heed thereto according to thy word.
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A Humble Resolution (Psa 119.8)

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I will keep Thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly (Psa 119.8).

The gospel reveals a heaven-taught logic which none but sincere Christians really understand and embrace. It involves the relationship between grace from God and obedience to God, and it declares that God’s grace precedes our obedience, not only chronologically but causally. “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4.19). Without the illumination which comes only through the Holy Spirit, we are apt to think in just the reverse way—that if I will take the initiative to seek God and to love God, proving my love by obedience to His commandments, then He will respond by loving me as His loyal son. If such were the case, we would all remain in our sins.
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Learning to Worship (Psa 119.7)

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I will praise thee with uprightness of heart,
When I shall have learned thy righteous judgments (Psa 119.7).

Our sinful hubris makes us think we “just know” how to worship God, and without grace inevitably we follow Cain’s wicked example of bringing unacceptable offerings to the Lord (Gen 4.3-5), whether we realize it or not. When preachers expose our spiritual ignorance and the Lord’s displeasure with our religious folly, our countenance also falls, except He change our hearts.

Most of the worthwhile things we do require some knowledge, skill, and practice before we become very good at them. No one sits behind the wheel of a car for the first time ready to drive on the highway. Real cooking (not TV dinners) cannot be done without culinary learning and training. Any kind of serious sport requires a serious commitment to discipline before excellence appears. So why do so many people fancy themselves expert in religion and worship, while they remain mostly ignorant of Scripture and grossly inconsistent as professing Christians?
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