Rejoicing in God’s Promises – A Reflection on Psalms 119:14

Psalms 119:14

¹⁴ I rejoice in following your statutes

as one rejoices in great riches. (NIV)

As we finish our dive into this passage, we must consider the intentionality of the psalmist. He is choosing to make time to rejoice that God has been faithful to His promises. 

The statutes of God are His laws, and His laws come with promises. When we follow the law, He is faithful to keep His promises. For example, one statute of God is to wait upon Him in times of trouble. To wait means we maintain hope, an expectation that God will show up. And to wait also means to continue to serve Him. So, in times of trouble, we are commanded to stay hopeful in our attitude, thoughts, and behavior while we continue to attend to our priestly duties of helping others find Him and grow nearer to Him. And His promise if we do these things is to increase our strength so that our soul soars like an eagle above the trouble. This is strength and peace. All of God’s statutes come with a promise.

In this week’s passage, we see how the psalmist has followed God’s law and now reaps the faithfulness of His promises as well. But when God has been faithful, the temptation set before us by the enemy is to keep moving at the speed of life, so that we never take time to acknowledge God’s faithfulness to our obedience. We must not fall into this trap. The worst way to respond to God’s faithfulness is to let the hurry of life push our minds past it so quickly that we miss the transformative value of taking the time to note it in our hearts and minds. This time of intentionality roots the faithfulness of God deeply, so when trouble comes again, maybe in a stronger way, our first response will be obedience. 

Sharing our testimony is powerful. Usually, the thoughts of testimony revolve around others. We witness to them when we share our testimony. But sometimes, we need to stop to share our testimony with ourselves. We need to remind ourselves of God’s faithfulness when we were disobedient and His greater faithfulness in our obedience. 

Prayer: Lord, help me to take the time I need each day, each week, to pause life long enough to consider when I obeyed and You kept Your promise. Amen.