And nothing causes them to stumble.” ~Psalm 119:165
This same word “love” here is used elsewhere in the Bible to mean the sort of love a husband and wife and a mother and her son show for each other. This is not just “I love carrots” sort of love, this is an “I love my wife” sort of love. It is passionate and intimate. This sort of love causes a lover to want to spend time with the thing (or person) he loves. This is how we are to love the Scriptures.
In this process of spending time in the Word of God and memorizing it, out of our love and desire for it, we will experience great peace and our steps will be established, as the verse says.
As Isaiah 26:3 adds, “You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.” When we choose to meditate on the Scriptures, as we fix our minds on the covenant and promises of our God, we experience “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). When his Word is the delight of our soul, when we love His Word, that love will cause us to keep our minds focused on Him, giving us, in the words of Matthew Henry, “perfect peace, inward peace, outward peace, peace with God, peace of conscience, peace at all times, in all events.”
Oftentimes, I believe we stumble because we lack peace. We lack a complete trust in God. We are discontent with the world around us. We think that we can do it on our own strength. We lack peace. But when we pursue the Word with our whole heart, spending every spare moment in its pages, whether meditating on its truths or reading its word, sin will no longer cause us to stumble. Albeit, we may begin to fall, but as the Word of God settles and begins to grow in our hearts, then we will never fully stumble. And even if we do (by not fulfilling the command to memorize, or blocking out the Bible), the Word of God through Jesus Christ is right there to help us back on our feet.
Think of it this way: If you were headed to the palace of the king, to dine with him upon the most scrumptious delicacies the world can imagine, would you stop by a Big Boy on the way there, knowing if you did you would be unable to eat at the king's table? Of course not! We have no desire for a mere hamburger, when something so much greater awaits us. It is the same with sin and God's Word. As we realize in far greater depths though memorization and meditation the promises that lie in store for those who believe, we will come to disregard the pleasures of the sins of this world. We have something so much better in store for us.
To put that in spiritual terms, as Psalm 37:31 says, when “the law of his God is in his heart; None of his steps shall slide.” Memorizing God’s Word protects us from the sin that causes our steps to become unstable, our work unprofitable, and our spirit unspiritual. When His law (referring to the whole Bible) is in our heart and on our mind, strengthening and establishing us, our steps shall not falter or fail. We see our reward. We know our destination. And we press toward it, leaving those things which are earthly in the dust. If we choose to place God's truths upon our heart and mind the Lord will use them in mighty ways to keep us from the sin that so easily ensnares us. Our job is simple. Memorize God’s Word.
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