<\/p>\n
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
(Psalm 1:2)<\/p>\n
FOR THOSE WHO DILIGENTLY SEEK GOD, THERE IS NO GREATER DELIGHT THAN LEARNING GOD\u2019S WILL, DOING IT, AND REFLECTING ON IT IN THEIR MINDS. Along this path lies the good life. Joshua was reminded of this in God\u2019s charge to him: \u201cThis Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success\u201d (Joshua 1:8). Because God is good, any word that He has spoken is good. To love Him, revere Him, and respect Him is to rejoice whenever He speaks. \u201cThe statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart . . . more to be desired are they than gold\u201d (Psalm 19:8,10).<\/p>\n
In Psalm 1, the person who is said to be blessed is one who \u201cmeditates\u201d in God\u2019s law. Meditation requires more than a hurried glance at the Scriptures once in a while. It first involves concentrated study and then the leisurely contemplation of what has been learned. When we meditate on God\u2019s law, we admire its beauty and ponder its application in our lives. We ruminate on it and mull it over, indulging ourselves in the real enjoyment of thinking about God. The godly person doesn\u2019t just do this on rare occasions. He does it \u201cday and night.\u201d<\/p>\n
We must learn to appreciate God\u2019s word as our rule of life, our law, our torah.<\/em> The word law<\/em> has such a negative connotation that it\u2019s hard for us to have such an appreciation. We\u2019d rather think of the Scriptures as \u201cinspirational\u201d literature, there for us to consult if we ever need a lift. But the very lift we need is to delight in the law<\/em> of the Lord. God has revealed His will not just to inspire us, but to govern<\/em> us \u2014 we need to meditate on it day and night.<\/p>\n Delighting in God\u2019s law is simply a part of our delight in God Himself. In another of the Psalms, David said, \u201cI delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart\u201d (Psalm 40:8). The more we discover what God is really like, the more joy it will bring us to turn His precepts over and over in our minds and revel in the sheer goodness of such a great God.<\/p>\n \u201cGod is my being, my me, my strength, my beatitude, my good, my delight\u201d (Catherine of Genoa).<\/p>\n Gary Henry \u2013 WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com<\/p>\n