Better than Silver and Gold
Psalm 119:72,127 The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces … Therefore I love your commandments above gold, above fine gold.
None of us like being told what to do. We all have that “I did it my way” streak in us. I think the second word that most children learn after “mum, mum, mum”, is “no, no, no”. Anyone who’s had children will remember the “terrible two’s” … not to mention those challenging teenage years.
That streak of rebellion, that desire to do it my way, starts early on. It’s almost as though we’re programmed that way. King David said it like this, when he was talking to God in repentance for having committed adultery and murder:
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. (Psalm 55:5)
Theologians call that the doctrine of original sin. This idea that we’re born with the stain of sin on our very DNA. And so, no matter what stage we’re at in life, there’s this rebellious streak that raises its ugly head from time to time, in all of us.
How many times have you looked back on something that you did your way, only to realise the world of pain that it ended up dumping on your head? So often we do things out of a wrong heart, for the wrong reasons, with the wrong motivations. And there are always, always, consequences to that.
When we were teenagers, we used to do stupid things because we were teenagers and we acted out of our immaturity. Fair enough. But at some point, we’re meant to grow up. At some point we’re meant to enter that journey of maturity.
That’s the place the psalmist was at when he wrote these words:
The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces … Therefore I love your commandments above gold, above fine gold. (Psalm 119:72,127)
So let me ask you, are God’s ways the right ways? Is God’s wisdom the right wisdom? Well, obviously. So what do you desire more – God’s way or your way? The good fruit that God’s ways bring, or the painful consequences that your own ways bring crashing down on your life?
That’s why God disciplines us when we go wandering off on our own way. That’s why He lets us suffer the consequences of our sin, when we turn our backs on Him. Because He loves us. As a father, when my children were young, one of the things that I was always keen to do, was let them suffer the consequences of their own mistakes.
Dad I’m running late for school, can you drive me? – No.
But I’ll get in trouble. – Good.
They learned responsibility pretty quickly that way.
The point that the psalmist is making here, is that God’s ways are so good, because when we live them, they yield blessing rather than pain. His commandments are so much better than silver or gold. So much better!
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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