how much is enough?

Standout Verses: Psalm 119:66, 73
I believe in your commands; now teach me good judgment and knowledge.
You made me; you created me. Now give me the sense to follow your commands.

These verses almost seem out of place on first reading. In the middle of this psalm where Ezra spends verse after verse after many a verse declaring how much God’s law means to him, how much he delights in it, they jar. For the writer would otherwise seem to have it all sorted. He must be following God’s law. He loves it, honours it, meditates on it. He has hidden it in his heart and been overwhelmed with desire by it; hoped, rejoiced and wondered in it. It revives him, renews him and sustains him. Surely he must know them all, follow them all and keep them all. But no, for more is needed.
When you pause briefly it begins to make sense, and the truth begins to shine through. We only need to bring ourselves into the equation and we see the possibility of sin. We easily recognise that we like Paul (Rom 7:14) are “all too human” but our response is often to model ourselves after the writer of this psalm. “If I meditate on God’s law day and night, if I learn more, understand more, surely that will be enough,” we tell ourselves. We only get half the picture. Scriptural understanding alone is insufficient to bring about a change in our actions. That change follows a change of heart and of passions which comes from relationship. Scriptural understanding without a Jesus-relationship is meaningless head-noise. Scripture reading that focuses other than on building that relationship is just literary entertainment. The scriptures: the law, the prophets, poetry, gospels and letters point to God and exist to lead us to Him. All other uses are mere moralising sociological history and demean the Word of God.

I believe in your commands; now teach me good judgment and knowledge.
You made me; you created me. Now give me the sense to follow your commands.

Lord God, this is my prayer too. Teach me good judgment and knowledge and give me the sense to follow your commands; and do it through building my relationship with Your Son.