"Your word is a lamp for my feet,
I have taken an oath and confirmed it,
that I will follow your righteous laws.
I have suffered much;
preserve my life, Lord, according to your word.
Accept, Lord, the willing praise of my mouth,
and teach me your laws.
Though I constantly take my life in my hands,
I will not forget your law.
The wicked have set a snare for me,
but I have not strayed from your precepts.
Your statutes are my heritage forever;
they are the joy of my heart.
My heart is set on keeping your decrees
to the very end."
-Psalm 119:105-112
This passage continues to lead us on a journey deeper into God's word. Many scholars agree and have come to the conclusion that the Hebrew letter Nun translates out to be either snake or fish, but the shape and continued definition leads more to the description of a fish. In the same way that a fish relies on the water he finds himself in to live, we as Christians must, in the same way, rely on the Lord and the words he has given to us through the bible. If we were to see a fish attempting to escape from the water that is its life-source, we would, hopefully, do everything we could to return it to the water. Unfortunately as Christians, we have neglected our own life-source when we do not hold the same importance to reading and absorbing God's word. We have made reading our bibles as a checkbox on our to-do list instead of a pivotal start to our hectic lives. We have forgotten that God has given us everything we will ever need through his word and his guiding and comforting voice, and it has caused us to leap out of the waters of life into the very dry and dead world that exists on the shore.
In the same way that a fish will swim better when it swims with the current of the river, rather than against it, when we submit to the Father and the path he has placed before us, our journey through this life with ultimately go smoother in the long run. Not to say that life will be easy to go with the flow, but we won't be fighting an uphill battle with nothing to protect ourselves with.
Another way to look at this verse is through the use of the poetic meter, an acrostic poem. The blog God's Growing Garden has studied this psalm and has found the best way for them to understand this endeavor by taking the Hebrew Letter and placing it in proper proportion to the beginning of each section of verses. Here is how they described Nun
No darkness, Your word
is a light Unto my path
like Noonday sunshine.
All though the verse was changed slightly to fit, the meaning shines through. God's word is a lamp to our feet, and a light to our path. He leads and guides, through his word, and directs into still waters (Psalm 23:2). Without trying to sound legalistic or ritualistic, we need to retrain our minds to make time to dive deeper into God's word, even if it messes up our perfectly organized schedule. We grow closer to God when we desire to understand his word and his decrees, but it won't happen if we don't let the scriptures immerse our souls and become more than a checkmark on our list.
In the words of Dory from Finding Nemo, "just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We Swim."
Keep Swimming and God will continue to lead us down the right path.
God Bless,
Adam Semple- A Young Man on a Journey through the Psalms.
