God’s Word for You
Psalm 119:97-98 wiser than my enemies
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Sunday, October 6, 2024
The mem (מ) stanza (verses 97-104) shows a return to the word of the Lord with the emphasis on avoiding “every evil path” (verse 104). Six of the eight verses begin with the preposition mi- or min-, “out of, from, on account of” or “than” in comparisons (verses 98). The verses describe various ways of seeing how the word of God is a blessing.
97 How I love your law!
All day long it occupies my mind.
The sun rises on a new day, and there is another marvelous opportunity to study the word of God. The word sichah means “concern, (thing that) occupies one’s mind” (we will see this word again in verse 99, and in Job 15:4). We could also have said, “It is the concern of my mind all day long,” although this has a somewhat negative sound in the English-speaking ear. To read even just a verse or two and take them to heart, occupying one’s mind, is a gift. Here “law” is not limited to those passages that expose our sinfulness, but also the promises God gives about our forgiveness and his never ending love. It’s law and gospel.
Consider, for example, a brief but typical paragraph in the Book of Kings. 2 Kings 15:13-15 gives a very brief report of the short reign (just a few months) of Shallum, King of Israel. He conspired against King Zechariah and murdered him “in front of the people,” therefore breaking the Fourth Commandment. In the same year, he was assassinated and replaced by someone else. There is nothing else said about this man. There isn’t even a report of his wickedness, but that doesn’t make him a good man. It makes us consider: In a list of some of the most wicked rulers in the Bible, Shallum can come across as seeming below average but not all that bad, since he accomplished something God had promised: an end to the dynasty of Jehu (2 Kings 10:30, 15:12). But simply because the Lord uses a man to do something, doesn’t mean that the man who is used is a saint, or even a believer. Remember that God worked through Cyrus the Great, but that doesn’t mean that Cyrus became a follower of the Lord or was saved through faith in the coming Savior. Therefore, the account of Shallum encourages us to meditate on that king’s place in God’s kingdom, and then our place in God’s kingdom. For although it is a privilege to be a tool used by God, we beg him not to throw us away, but to rescue us from our sins. Remember that God our Father “has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). King Shallum turned away from that, but that is who we are: forgiven children of God. This is how we should read that passage, also remembering to keep the commandments that he broke (the Fourth and Fifth, as well as the First). What a delight it is to have the law of the Lord as our chief concern, whether law or gospel or both.
98 Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies,
for they are ever with me.
That is to say, “your commandments” are ever with me, not my enemies. One of the blessings of frequent study is that some passages begin to sink in and be remembered, even for those of us who struggle memorizing things.
Is everyone wiser than his enemy? Ask the prey being stalked by the cat, or the deer being hunted by my dad. And yet “the felon in chains is not wiser than the judge,” nor is the fool wiser than anyone, except in his own eyes (Proverbs 26:5,12).
But the righteous man, the student of God’s holy Scriptures, benefits from God’s wisdom and becomes wise by the way the word of God shapes and deepens his understanding. Like clay on the wheel, he is transformed by the hands of the Maker from a useless lump into a true and useful vessel that is just right for the purpose the Maker makes it for. “We are the clay, O LORD, you are the potter. We are the work of your hand” (Isaiah 64:8). No matter if I will be made into a tall jar for pouring wine, or a little dish for jellybeans or salt, if I have been made by the Maker of all things and fashioned according to his good purpose, then I will serve the way he wants, “for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13). “He will teach us his ways so that we may walk in his paths” (Micah 4:2).
It is with the word of God that we are made wise; even wiser than our enemies and our adversaries, and this is one of the Holy Spirit’s desires as he plants his word in our hearts. For true faith is created in us by the Holy Spirit, along with a pure heart and a good conscience (1 Timothy 1:5). “He makes us holy, righteous, and full of God, and does not let us fall, so that our good conscience is not frightened, nor does our pure heart go astray” (Luther, who also says): “and even if someone falls as David did, nevertheless he is restored in faith.”
Bless us, Holy Spirit, with your divine grace and wisdom, and bless us with your holy word, day by day, until you finally call us home to glory.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.