SHIN—Princes persecute me without a cause, but my heart stands in awe of Your word. 162 I rejoice at Your word as one who finds great treasure. I hate and abhor lying, but I love your law. 164 Seven times a day I praise You, because of Your righteous judgments. 165 Great peace have those who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble. —Psalm 119:161-165

We relate to our psalmist’s plight of being persecuted by the government without cause, but how does he deal with it? “My heart stands in awe of Your Word.” God’s Word brought much rejoicing to him, as if he had found something very valuable. And indeed he had! The Hebrew word for “treasure” means “spoil,” implying the expectation of a victorious reward. He says that he hates lies, but he loves God’s law, and proves it by praising the Lord as His righteous Judge. Look, friends, no matter what our personal difficulties may be, we can handle them the same way: by looking to, leaning on, and treasuring God’s Word.

Back in Ecclesiastes, Solomon wrote: “Here is what I have seen: It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him; for it is his heritage. As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of God. For he will not dwell unduly on the days of his life, because God keeps him busy with the joy of his heart” (Eccl 5:18-20).

My, how things have changed! God said through King Solomon that there’s joy in our labors and toils, but today not laboring, letting the government take care of you, seems to be the goal for many. The Bible says the opposite is the right way. If our heritage is to be busy all the days of our lives for the glory of God, then we can certainly understand this: The more we live by the Word, the less the enemy can steal our joy!

Do you ever wish you had more money? Or dreamed of taking the vacation of a lifetime or fulfilling something high on your “bucket list”? Did you know that you can be perfectly content if you never have more money, take that trip, or have that experience? How often does the devil come along and rob people of the joy of their salvation because of what they don’t have or get to do! Our psalmist declares that seven times a day he will praise the Lord! Even though he’s being persecuted by people in power, he knows a better Power and will continue to rejoice in Him all day long. Psalm 19 tells us that God’s law is perfect, able to convert our souls; His commandments are pure, and the fear of Him is clean and eternal; His judgments are true and righteous and desirable. There are warnings contained within those words, which, if we keep them will yield a great reward. Have you ever done something that you regretted? Something that hurt yourself or grieved God’s Spirit, and you experienced a loss of a sense of peace? Obedience and adherence to the Word will take care of that! But even more than that, do we see and live as if God’s Word is more to be desired than gold and sweeter than honey? Listen to me: part of the heritage of knowing the Lord is joy of heart, even when we’re being persecuted without cause, overlooked, belittled for belief, and even when you can’t ever seem to get ahead and trials seem to be without end. What’s our heritage? It’s a heart that rejoices all day because of the righteous judgments of God!

One day, you’ll walk on streets of gold. One day, you’ll never be sick again or be treated unfairly. It only gets better! Knowing what’s coming will affect how we handle what is now. The more we live by the Word, the more time we’ll spend rejoicing, because, friends, there is great peace in not stumbling.

Excerpt from “Beside Still Waters” now available on Amazon.

BARRY STAGNER