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⁹ How can a young man keep his way pure?
    By guarding it according to your word.
¹⁰ With my whole heart I seek you;
    let me not wander from your commandments!
¹¹ I have stored up your word in my heart,
    that I might not sin against you.
¹² Blessed are you, O Lord;
    teach me your statutes!
¹³ With my lips I declare
    all the rules of your mouth.

¹⁴ In the way of your testimonies I delight
    as much as in all riches.
¹⁵ I will meditate on your precepts
    and fix my eyes on your ways.
¹⁶ I will delight in your statutes;
    I will not forget your word.

Any true Christian longs for a felt experience of God’s closeness. If we are not careful this right desire can lead us to follow people who lead us away from God, rather than to him. Gatherings which offer signs, wonders and strong emotion can seem more “spirit filled” and God centred than a few folk opening a book together. But this Psalm shows us that it is as we fill ourselves with the word of God and act on it that we meet with the Lord.

In this section the Psalmist is concerned to walk in the way of blessing he wrote about in verse 1-8. He may well have been a young man - which is why he says what he does in verse 9. It is just as true that an older man (or woman) keeps their way pure by guarding it according to God’s word. We constantly need the course correction that Scripture brings to our life. 

This desire is not simply for a kind of tick box obedience. The Psalmist is seeking the Lord with his whole heart - that is why he does not want to wander away from what the Lord says. He knows the tendency of his heart to drift from the Lord and into sin - and so he knows he shouldn’t simply hear the word, but he must store it in his heart. We must read, listen, meditate and memorise God’s word. 

How do we know what God’s word has truly taken root in our hearts? When it then begins to come out - affecting what we say (verse 13), what we delight in (verse 14 and 16), and what we fix our eyes on (verse 15). 

Listen to yourself speak for a day. What does how you speak say about how much your life is shaped by God’s word - his gospel, his commands, his priorities? 

Think about what makes you happy. Is it what makes the Lord happy? 

What do you pay attention to during the day? What do you avoid? 

These are challenging questions. 

As we think about this, let’s not misunderstand the Psalmist. We will see this more clearly as we go on, but he knows he lives by grace and not works. The fact that the Lord has spoken to him is evidence of the covenantal relationship he is in. 

The law is the law of the LORD (see verse 2) - the covenant making and keeping God who has bound himself to his people. This is a Psalm we can sing even more loudly than the Psalmist as we know the same Lord - who has given himself to us because of what Christ has done. 

We have been saved to bring glory to him, and his Spirit within us works to fulfil God’s law in us (see Romans 8:1-8). Just like the Psalmist we desire to seek the Lord who has found us - and we do so in his word.