“and because I consider all Your precepts right, I hate every wrong path.” -Psalm 119:128

The psalmist has already declared how much he loves God’s commands. Now he balances his affection with an equal hatred of anything which is anti-God. That is, false ways, lies and folly- Sin. Since God is the Source from Whom all blessings flow, the psalmist loves all the Father does, beginning with the good instruction He has given His children. False ways are a rejection of God’s authority. Therefore the psalmist declares all of God’s precepts as right. He has found the truth and will not easily let it go.

Sometimes during the course of a day, or even a season, we may have to fight to remember what is true. It is a very real spiritual warfare within the soul, as Lucifer has every intention to mark us as an invalid in the Lord’s army. We are to remember El Elyon, The Most High, King of Kings, when we get swept us in the cares and snares of our earthly life. I believe our Father provides helps in times of spiritual fog. My husband is a great comfort to me when I need Biblical encouragement. What other kind of encouragement is there? I know I can lean on this man to speak the truth I already know, but have somewhere along the way focused on the temporary horizon instead. God is gracious to provide His children with spiritual helps by illuminating His Word to us, and through other Christians. This is a grace that is ours in Christ Jesus. 

Who is in Heaven seated on His Throne but God Almighty? Who is Omnipotent, Omniscient but Jehovah Yahweh? It is God’s mercy to align our thoughts back with His. C.S. Lewis commented on how the Lord speaks to us. He says God whispers in our joys, speaks to our consciences, and shouts in our pain. Adversity then is God’s megaphone, an instrument of grace. We want soft hearts. Soft hearts are pliable to God’s instruction, discerning to sinful choices, quick to repent. Puritan Thomas Case noted, “God softens hearts with the showers of adversity and makes us more attentive unto Him and less influenced by the noise of the world.” Our response in those trials reveals the fruit of our love for Him. May God give us grace to affirm His precepts as truth and turn from every wrong path.

Grace upon grace,

April