No Wrong Turn

DEVOTION

PSALM

NO WRONG TURN

Ps 119:97-104

97 Mem

Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. 98 Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. 99 I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. 100 I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts. 101 I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word. 102 I have not departed from your laws, for you yourself have taught me. 103 How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! 104 I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path.

NIV

Day thirteen in the longest psalm. The path of life could take many turns and twists which could lead us to one of two directions. There are only two destinations the path of life can take us. One is heaven the other is hell. The path to heaven brings eternal life while the path to hell brings death. How do we know we are on the right path? It is easy as we have the law of the Lord, we have Jesus who sent us the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth which is the only path to heaven and eternal life. The trick is to meditate on the law, on Jesus and the Spirit throughout our daily journey along this path. His commands, the word of God, Jesus makes us wiser then the enemy of our soul, who puts up barricades in an effort to make us take a detour along the path. If he can get us make a wrong turn our journey may get distracted, but not detained. We are wiser than he is for he is not as wise as the Spirit who dwells within us. We have far more insight into the right path, even more then human teachers, because we meditate on the statutes, or rather on the Lord’s testimony about himself, as the Hebrew word implies. These elders are actually the ancients rather than the meaning we attach to an elder in the church. The reason the psalmist has more understanding than the ancients is he has more of the word of God than they did, in fact he is penning more words of God. We have even greater understanding then both all the ancients, including this psalmist because we have the complete word of God, we have everything he said concerning himself and what path we are to walk and we obey by walking on that narrow path. We keep our feet from taking detours, or turning down a wrong direction when faced with a choice or intersection. Because we have chosen our final destination, we do not have decide which way to go, we know the path straight to our eternal home. When faced with a choice, a decision, we forge onward to the path God has laid out for us to bring us to him. We will not depart from this path, we will not take that detour or wrong turn for God himself has taught us the right way, the correct path. How sweet his words are to our taste, we delight in knowing his words, we rejoice he has written them on our heart and we know they are sweeter then honey. This honey may be one of those detours Satan has set in our path. Honey could represent many things, different things to different people. But the reality the sweet taste of honey represents a physical pleasure, a satisfying of the flesh in some way. It is not that we should be void of pleasure, but our pleasure is in the Lord, and he fills all our needs, he knows we need certain things, but as we seek him first, putting our heart on him and his kingdom above all else, he will see to it we have the things of life we need, the little pleasures of life, those things the pagans chase after, but will never truly find happiness in them.  So we walk the path of God, we enjoy the path we walk as it gives us understanding and insight into God, into life, and life eternal. His precepts or mandates gives us this understanding and therefore we avoid all those wrong turns. We detest the wrong path, we cannot tolerate the wrong path for it only leads to destruction. When we walk in the light of the Lord we make no wrong turn.