How to Delight in God’s Word

“But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night.” (Psalm 1:2)

It’s been said that the man of God is known by the company he keeps. What better company to keep than the Word of God? What better delight? In fact, the word “delight” comes from a Hebrew word which means “to bend towards something or someone with your full inclination, heart and will.” In this case, the Word of God is the godly man’s delight. He will do everything he can to bend himself toward the Word. Nothing will get in his way. The Word of God is his rule of life and not ungodly men and their evil ways.

David will say elsewhere, “I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart” (Ps 40:8). And then, “Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who delights greatly in His commandments” (Ps 112:1). Or “Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, for I delight in it” (Ps 119:35).

This delightful keeping is habitual and purposeful. There is a plan for it and there is a commitment to keep doing it.

And he does this by meditating upon it. My Dad did much research I his lifetime on this Hebrew word. He explained one time that it means “to murmur, to mutter, to ponder.”

John Gill, the reformed Pastor who preceded Charles Spurgeon, wrote, “This is to be understood of a diligent reading and serious consideration of it; and of the employment of the thoughts and of deep study upon it, and which is to be done constantly, every day, as often as there is leisure and opportunity for it.”  

When Psalm 1 was written, remember that no one had personal copies of Scripture. They were dependent on hearing it read and, therefore, they memorized the Scripture so they could meditate upon it. They couldn’t pull the Bible off the shelf, read a few chapters, and then meditate upon it. They had to memorize it so they could later pull some chapters off a mental shelf to meditate. And you see evidence of men of God memorizing Scripture with Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Steven, Paul, Peter, James, and Jude. Meditation is the key to delighting in the Word of God, vs. 2 says.

John Stott writes in his book Favorite Psalms, “Delight is an indication of the new birth, for ‘…the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so’ (Rom 8:7). As a result of the inward, regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, however, the godly find that they love the law of God simply because it conveys to them the will of their God. They do not rebel against its exacting demands; their whole being approves and endorses it…Delighting in it, the godly will meditate in it, or pore over it, constantly, day and night.” The point: if you love the Word, you will always be in it.

When is the last time you read and meditated on God’s Word? Today? Yesterday? Last week? The man of God is known by the company he keeps – not with the ungodly but the Word of God. Meditation in the Word of God will keep you from sin; or sin will keep you from meditation in the Word of God.  

John Stott, Favorite Psalms (Grand Rapids: Baker Books,  2003), 8.