“Oh how I love your law!” (Psalm 119:97)

Oh how I love this verse!  Many verses in many parts  of Scripture resound with expressions of the believer’s passion for God’s word.  If we don’t have that love in our hearts, how do we get it?  If we must admit that we take no great pleasure in spiritual things, what are we to do?  Faith can transform our hearts, so that God’s word is no longer foreign to us, but natural and delightful.  David is set before us as a great example of one who loves the word of God.  He was not some special saint far above the ordinary Christian.  His horrible failures make that painfully evident.  Yet his love for God was genuine, and the exercises of his heart in faith are beautifully portrayed for us in his many psalms.  What is said of him in Scripture can be, and should increasingly be, true of us.  David found delight in serving God.  He loved the commandments of God more than gold.  They were sweeter to him than honey.  He often rose in the middle of the night to contemplate the wonders of God.  Faith gave him strength in all of the troubles he endured.  The sins of this “man after God’s own heart” had calamitous consequences, but the grace of God overcame them all.