Psalm 119:97-104 מ Mem – Waves, Water

Psalm 119
97 Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.
98 Your commands are always with me and make me wiser than my enemies.
99 I have more insight than all my teachers,  for I meditate on your statutes.
100 I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts.
101 I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word.
102 I have not departed from your laws, for you yourself have taught me.
103 How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path.

Right >§§§> Left

All day long I meditate on your law.  Oh, how i love it!  I am made wiser than my enemies because your commands are always with me.  I meditate on your statutes for I have more insight than all my teachers.  I obey your precepts for I have more understanding than the elders.  So that I might obey your word, I have kept my feet from every evil path.  You yourself have taught me.  I have not departed from your laws.  Sweeter than honey to my mouth are how sweet your words are to my taste.  I hate every wrong path therefore I gain understanding from your precepts.

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The Psalmist recognizes there is a purpose for God’s laws, commands, statutes and precepts.  He’s used the Hebrew letter “Mem – waves, water” to reveal it to us as eye-catching waves rising repeatedly from the ocean of truth that is God’s knowledge.  Those waves regularly break the surface of the water as they begin their push toward the shore to deposit their power and become one with it before ebbing back into the vastness of depths that are unseen.  

Waves and water are the imagery the Psalmist chooses to show God’s persistence to raise up His laws, commands, statutes and precepts as a recurring opportunity to release His power upon the shore…His people…and in that moment become one with them. 

The Psalmist has seen God at work repeatedly in his own life.  He recognizes those waves have touched him with wisdom, insight and understanding.  They’ve risen from the depths of God’s knowledge to break upon him with new realities that sustain him over and over.  The imagery is God’s laws, commands, statutes and precepts are “waves”that have broken on him and united him in that moment with the unseen depths of the “water” that created them to enable him to “obey” and keep his “feet from every wrong path.”