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⁹⁷ Oh how I love your law!
    It is my meditation all the day.
⁹⁸ Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,
    for it is ever with me.
⁹⁹ I have more understanding than all my teachers,
    for your testimonies are my meditation.
¹⁰⁰ I understand more than the aged,^[h]
    for I keep your precepts.
¹⁰¹ I hold back my feet from every evil way,
    in order to keep your word.
¹⁰² I do not turn aside from your rules,
    for you have taught me.
¹⁰³ How sweet are your words to my taste,
    sweeter than honey to my mouth!
¹⁰⁴ Through your precepts I get understanding;
    therefore I hate every false way

The opening chapters of Romans are a serious examination of how everyone stands guilty before the living God having broken his law. Although Paul makes his point using rigorous theological arguments, the climax is a series of statements which are quotations from the Psalms. In Romans 3:10-18 he shows us just how deeply rooted our sin and guilt lies. It affects every part of us - including our throat, tongues, mouth, feet and eyes. As sinners we use every part of our body to commit sin. 

Thankfully that is not the end of the story. Romans continues to speak of the salvation there is in Christ - which includes justification, and being set apart as holy and for holy living. If we are “in Christ” we are saved from the inside out. Those same body parts which were used to bring dishonour to the Lord now show the fruit of our Union with him.

As a faithful servant of the Lord, in relationship with him through the covenant the Lord has made, the Psalmist expresses this in this section. He doesn’t just read and obey God’s word. It transforms him from the inside out so he is a new person. The word of the Lord truly changes him. It is the means the Lord uses to change us as he works by his Spirit in us.

God’s word affects the mind of the believer. We are more than what we think - but we are never less than what we think. The Psalmist loves God’s law. Do we love the truth? There is no place for simply thinking “God says it so I must believe it, but I secretly dislike it”. 

God’s word educates him in wisdom - showing him how to live. This is because he meditates on it. Christian meditation is the polar opposite of other kinds of meditation. We do not empty our minds - we fill them with what the Lord says, and think over Scripture again and again. We constantly ask the question “how does this affect me right now?”

We know it is where true knowledge is found. While we still respect those whom society should respect - the aged and the scholars (verse 99 and 100), we know that God’s truth is only heard through revelation. We don’t get to know God because we have studied hard, or because we have lived a long time. 

God’s word then affects our feet (verse 101). We stick to the path he has made plain in his word, which keeps us safe. The Lord doesn’t promise to keep us from suffering, but he will keep us from  sin which is far worse.

The word of the Lord changes our taste (verse 103). When once we may not have enjoyed opening the Bible, because we either found it boring or just plain wrong, now we love it! By God’s grace the believer acquires the taste for God’s truth. We also hate the opposite (verse 104).