21 Days of Prayer in Psalm 119 (Day #14)

Read Psalm 119:105-112

     “Lamp”

The most well-known verse in this stanza is undoubtedly verse 105,

“Your word is a lamp to my feet
    and a light to my path.”

If you are like me, you have experienced those times when God’s Word was exactly that, a light to our feet. I’m referring to those times when we are unsure where to go, what to do, or how to avoid the snares the wicked have laid for us (v.110). Those times when we have asked the Lord to speak to us, to direct us, to deliver us, and a verse we read at that moment cut right through the darkness of our circumstances with the light of clarity.

Often the illuminating nature of the Bible is described with images of lighthouses and halogen spotlights…but that is not the kind of light described in this verse.

The lamps used by the Hebrews were small earthenware lamps that held olive oil and a wick. This means that the lap was about as bright as a candle. If you were using one to follow a path it would be bright enough to show you where to place your next step but not much more.

So, does this description downplay the effectiveness of the Word as a guide for our lives? Not at all. If you are in total darkness, an olive-oil lamp would be a tremendous blessing! However, there may be a lesson in this verse for those of us who are used to long-distance lights.

Sometimes I am the kind of person that thinks that once I am pointed in the right direction I can handle things on my own. God’s Word is more relational than that! The lamp metaphor in this verse would have been understood that you had to take the lamp with you every step of the way. Do we stay close enough to God’s Word to say that? I hope that this year we will not want to distance ourselves in any way from the Lord’s precious words to us! We need to take joy in the Bible and incline our hearts to do what it says, not just our heads to study it and our mouths to discuss it. As verses 111-112 say,

Your testimonies are my heritage forever,
    for they are the joy of my heart.
I incline my heart to perform your statutes
    forever, to the end.

Lord Jesus, please keep me close this week. Don’t let me run ahead or lag behind your word. No one can take your words of love and purpose from me, they are my heritage—may I rejoice in them for they teach me about you and your plan for me. Lord, it is true that we do what we desire so incline my heart to desire to do your word for your word will not return emptyhanded (Isaiah 55:11).