“A Fourfold Determination”

Psalm 119:15-16 I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate your ways.I will delight myself in your statutes; I will not forget your word.

While the earlier verses of this Psalm speak mainly of the past, here the Psalmist builds for the future.  He has already sought, hid, declared, and rejoiced.  Now he vows to meditate, contemplate, delight, and not forget.

            Meditation is the act of actually digesting the truth of the Word of God.  Spiritual thoughts are distilled in the heart as the Psalmist meditates on the Word.

            Meditation will show that God’s ways are the right ways, and will lead to a full contemplation and choice of following God’s ways.  At the same time, that choice will cause one to avoid every other way.  Following this pattern will allow one to make a firm, steady and persevering progress in the Christian life.

            God’s statutes deserve delight because the Author is God.  They are God’s storehouse of riches for our poverty, comfort for our afflictions, life for our death.

            That which we delight in will be easy to remember.  Thus, forgetfulness of the precepts of God’s Word will not be our pattern.  How many Christians today are guilty of forgetfulness of God’s precepts.  Sunday, how many forsook the assembling of themselves together on the Lord’s Day in order to do that which they wanted because it was the weekend after the Fourth of July.  That is a precept found in the book of Hebrews, and one that is important for all of us.