To Encourage You

Psalm 119:162 “I rejoice at your word like one who finds great spoil.”

As with a number of Bible passages I’ve studied of late, I have to thank the late F.W. Boreham for his wonderful insights on the verse above. Boreham points out that one of the keys to understanding this verse is the idea that “spoil” is a term to denote the treasures that an army comes upon after having overtaken an enemy.  Often it is the treasures to be had that are the reason for war. One country has something that another country doesn’t have but either wants or needs, and so a battle ensues in order to get it.  Boreham recounts how often it was by way of a siege that ancient warfare was done.   An army would surround a city, thus shutting off access, and the citizens of that city had to rely only on the provisions they had on hand. It was when those provisions ran out that the white flag of surrender was flown by that city.  In all of this there was the element of TIME.  And so, it is so often with the treasures of God’s Word.  

God, in His infinite wisdom, has determined that the deep things of His Word, the most wonderful and glorious things, are often hidden deep within its pages and will never be extracted without this element of time.  It’s a battle. It takes effort. It requires deep reflection and a wrestling of one’s mind.  That’s why we are told so often by God that we are to meditate on what He has said (e.g., Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1:2, 63:6, 119:15, 23, 48, 78, 148, 1 Timothy 4:15). The word “meditate” means to ponder, to converse with oneself, to roll over in the mind again and again.  Meditation is a battle. It takes dedicated and mindful effort. It’s a discipline of someone who’s not satisfied with a surface understanding of things. It’s a practice by which the meat of God’s Word, the treasures it holds, are so often unlocked for us.  Boreham likens it to gold that lies deep within the earth.  It is only those who are willing to dedicate tremendous effort to extract it that will ever find it.  But in the pages of God’s Word we have that which is “more precious than gold” (Psalm 19:10).  So do we think that such a precious thing would be any less difficult to extract?  But that’s how God has chosen to hide Himself.  He doesn’t cast His precious pearls before swine. He doesn’t provide His most precious things to those who have no regard for them.  But to the victor belong the spoils.  

You see, God really DOES want to reveal Himself to us. There is reward to those who endure. But the question is, will we do it? Will we take time from our busy pursuit of much lesser things to dig, to ponder, to meditate on the glorious truth that God wants to reveal to us?  Or does our Lord look at us as Jesus looked at the city of Jerusalem and spoke these tragic words: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Luke 13:34).  Like the Pharisees in Jesus’ day that thought they already knew everything, paid no attention to Him, and even opposed Him, we can also live a life of enmity with God, and pay the consequences like they did. Or like Jacob, we can wrestle with Him with an attitude, “I will not let you go unless you bless me” (Genesis 32:26).  

May God give us the passion to wrestle until the spoils that are there for us are surrendered by this One Whose “understanding no one can fathom” (Isaiah 40:28), for, while “it is the glory of God to conceal a matter” (Proverbs 25:2), it is even more glorious when He opens our eyes to see the wondrous things that are hidden deep within His Law (Psalm 119:18).