The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb.
Psalm 19:9-10 (NIV)
Wanting What God Said
The man praying Psalm 19 says the fear of the Lord is pure and holds forever, and that God’s decrees are firm and every one of them righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold, he says, and sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. He wants them the way people want those two. Gold gets weighed and honey gets eaten, and in both cases the wanting comes before anyone explains it.
He means both kinds of wanting: the one a man arranges his whole life around, and the one he puts in his mouth because it’s good. Wanting what God has said belongs with those two, and the psalm puts it over both of them.
Out at a crossing before light, the gates come down on their own. There’s a keeper in the hut all the same, because the circuit can fail and won’t know that it has. Two freights go through in the dark while he stands in the doorway with the door open behind him, and the gates lift again without him touching anything. His night is mostly a matter of being there in case.
Plenty of obedience runs on duty alone, correctly and without appetite, and there’s nothing false in it. Good gets done all day by people working against their own preferences. The psalmist is somewhere else. He keeps God’s decrees and he likes them, the way a man keeps honey in the house because he wants it in the house. When did you last want anything God said?
Light comes up behind the line and lays a color along the rails that nobody can spend. The keeper comes out of the hut for it every time, and it’s the one piece of the night he’d be sorry to lose.
A Prayer to Remember
Put what you’ve said in front of me before the day starts asking me for things. I’ve done what you asked and wanted other things the whole time I was doing it, Lord. Give me an appetite for it. Make the wanting part of the gift, because I can’t manufacture it on my own.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
