#DailyDevotion Jesus Is The Lamp For My Feet & The Light For My Path

Psalm 119 ¹⁰⁵Your Word (dabar) is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path. ¹⁰⁶I made a promise with an oath and will keep it, an oath to carry out Your righteous decisions (misphat). ¹⁰⁷I am suffering so very much, O LORD, give me the new life You promised (dabar). ¹⁰⁸Please accept, O LORD, the praise I gladly give, and teach me Your regulations (misphat). ¹⁰⁹I always hold my life in my hand, but I never forget Your teaching (torah). ¹¹⁰The wicked set a trap for me, but I have never wandered from the way You want me to live (piqqud). ¹¹¹The truths (edah) You wrote are mine forever because they are my heart’s delight. ¹¹²I’m always, and to the very end, interested in doing what your laws say (choq).

Jesus says in John 14, ““I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life,…” John also writes in ch. 1, “IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This is the Word the psalmist is looking for. Jesus reveals to us the Father’s will and ways in both the Old and New Testaments. Everything we need to know to walk the Christian life is there in His Word. We need not look anywhere else. Everything else is cheap knockoffs. It isn’t always easy but it is the true path.

We make a similar oath in vs. 106 when we are confirmed. We will be faithful to the teachings and ways of Christ with the help of the Holy Spirit and by the grace of God. When we try to live out Jesus’ way we will endure much suffering at times. This is not unexpected because Jesus said, “If you would be my disciples, pick up your cross and follow me.” Faith in Jesus has the promise of eternal life, a new life as Paul notes in Romans 6, “⁴Now when we were baptized into His death, we were buried with Him so that as the Father’s glory raised Christ from the dead we, too, will live a new life.” It is a now, not yet condition in this age. It is fulfilled at the consummation of the ages when we are resurrected.

We ask God to accept the praise we bring and to teach us His regulations. It is only by grace we may praise the LORD rightly. It is through the teachings of His word we know what to do and that word conveys to us the Holy Spirit that we may understand and do it. To take hold of one’s life means that we are at risk. Indeed apart from the LORD we have no protection from the perils of this world. In spite of our lives being at risk, we do not forget the LORD’s teachings. As we keep them in the forefront of our mind in good times, they will be there for us when life gets rough. The wicked are always there with us to trap us in some sin, but if we do not wander from the ways He has given us to live, their works will be fruitless. Our life must be a continuous yes to the LORD and a no to the world, our flesh and the devil.

When we are regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit through baptism, the Sacrament of altar, absolution and the Word in all its forms, His Word is indeed our constant delight. We will not find it burdensome but a delight. It is only heavy to those who hate God’s ways. His truths are with us forever. He will never take them from us as long as our response to Him is yes. The response to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the free gift of eternal life and the forgiveness of sins is never for believers, “So I can sin all I want?” but rather, “How may I please the LORD who so graciously saved me?” So we in faith by the power of the Holy Spirit seek to do the LORD’s will in all our ways, on all our paths, through all our circumstances. When we fail, we return, we repent, to the Word of the LORD and find the grace, the power, the kindness and mercy of our God in Christ Jesus and return to Him being our Way, Truth, Light and Life.

Heavenly Father, grant us Your Holy Spirit that we may delight in Your will and be empowered by Him to turn from the paths of the world to Your Path, Your Way, Your Life, and Your Light. Give us a heart that delights in all You have taught us through Jesus Christ, our LORD, through whom we pray. Amen