PSALM 119:15-16

I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.

 I delight in your decrees;I will not neglect your word.

TO PONDER

Let me offer you a pastoral translation as I expand upon some of the Hebrew vocabulary.

¹⁵ I read aloud your principals for living and setting the world right, I ponder them and make them part of my way of living.

¹⁶ I find joy in these foundational principals of yours, for me; I will not forget the things you have spoken into my life.     

This Psalm section forms the basis of the Lectio Divina or sacred reading. Luther altered the order of the Roman Catholic Lectio and gave it an ending which better gives meaning to suffering or struggle with the living Word, and as it struggles to change us. It’s a wrestling match. The Lectio Divina begins with Oratio, meaning to read the Word aloud. Meditatio, means to take time and ponder the Word of life. Tentatio, means to struggle with it, to suffer through the process of transformation and the renewing of our minds.

I understand this struggle and its suffering and have great admiration for those who persistently return to it. It is in this struggle that the character of God is developed in us, that the mind of Christ is established in us, and it is in this struggle that we become the loving, identifiable people of God.

Spiritual Intelligence is found in the struggle with the living Word of God.

PRAYER

Lord, you didn’t give me a spirit of cowardice, but a Spirit of courage, of love and of a sound mind. The mind of Christ. Holy Spirit fill me with your courage to face up to myself as I wrestle with your life giving and life changing Word. Amen.

Today's devotion written by David Schuppan, LifeWay Illawarra