Psalm 119:97 NKJV

Oh, how I love Your law!
It is my meditation all the day.

Loving God’s Law: A Daily Meditation

A contemplative man holding a closed book, gazing upward against a colorful sunset sky with clouds and birds, set in a scenic landscape.

My Notes

Scripture: “Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.” — Psalm 119:97 (NKJV)

My Thoughts

Love for God’s Word is not merely admiration—it is devotion. David’s cry, “Oh, how I love Your law!” is not a passing sentiment but a declaration of lifelong affection. His love is proven by his meditation. From morning prayer to evening reflection, even in the midst of daily tasks, his heart remained tied to the truth of Scripture.

True love does not seek to change the beloved. So it is with the Word of God. We do not bend Scripture to fit our minds—we bend our minds to fit Scripture. To love God’s law is to embrace its doctrines, its precepts, its promises, its warnings, and its exhortations. It is to cherish every word from Genesis to Revelation, even to the point of laying down one’s life rather than surrendering a single verse.

The shallow believer may read, understand, and even obey the Word outwardly. But the spiritual man loves it. He lives as though he cannot live without it. To him, Scripture is not mere duty—it is nourishment, healing, light, and comfort. It is life.

David’s meditation was born of love, and his love deepened through meditation. The more he dwelled in the Word, the more the Word dwelled in him. Familiarity bred affection, and affection sought greater intimacy. When “Your law” and “my meditation” walk together through the day, the day becomes holy, joyful, and anchored in God’s presence.

Those who truly love the Word cannot help but speak of it. Just as we talk often of those we love, so the devoted heart speaks often of the Scriptures that have shaped and sustained it.

Cross Reference

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…” — Colossians 3:16a (NKJV)

Questions

What does loving God’s law look like in your daily life?
Are there specific passages that have become your meditation throughout the day?
How can you cultivate deeper affection for the Word this week?

Prayer for Today

Lord, I love Your law. Let it be my meditation from sunrise to sunset. Teach me to treasure every word, to lead my heart to Your truth, and to live as somebody who cannot live without Your Word. May my love for Your Word grow deeper with every passing day. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Summary of Commentaries:

Psalm 119:97 expresses David’s deep love for God’s law, describing it as a source of meditation throughout the day. The commentaries below highlight the intensity of this love, suggesting that it stems from a relationship with God, where daily engagement with His word leads to wisdom and holiness. David’s fervor is evident as he reflects on the transformative power of God’s law, which he finds inexpressibly beautiful. Through constant meditation, he gains understanding and guidance, emphasizing that genuine affection for the law enhances one’s life, providing comfort and insight amidst life’s challenges.

NOTE:Psalm 119 is an acrostic pattern. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet; each of the 22 sections is given a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and each line in that section begins with that letter. Today, we’re looking at verse 97, which is in the 13th section, which is called “Mem מ”. The website https://www.abarim-publications.com/Hebrew_Alphabet_Meaning.html defines the meaning of the letter Mem מ as: ם (mayim) means waters in the sense of a larger body (sea, ocean). It is suggested that the letter Mem מ looks like a wave. The letter Mem מ is written ם when it occurs at the end of a word, and מ when it occurs at the beginning or halfway through a word.

……..Bill

A person holding an open Bible with the text of Psalm 119:97 overlaid, expressing love for God's law and meditation throughout the day.

Commentaries:

Charles Spurgeon

“O how love I thy law!” It is a note of exclamation. He loves so much that he must express his love, and in making the attempt he perceives that it is inexpressible—and therefore cries, “O how I love!” We not only reverence but love the law; we obey it out of love, and even when it chides us for disobedience, we love it nonetheless. The law is God’s law, and therefore it is our love. We love it for its holiness, and pine to be holy; we love it for its wisdom, and study to be wise; we love it for its perfection, and long to be perfect. Those who know the power of the gospel perceive an infinite loveliness in the law as they see it fulfilled and embodied in Christ Jesus.

“It is my meditation all the day.” This was both the effect of his love and the cause of it. He meditated in God’s word because he loved it, and then loved it the more because he meditated in it. He could not have enough of it, so ardently did he love it: all the day was not too long for his converse with it. His morning prayer, his noonday thought, his evensong were all out of Holy Writ; yea, in his worldly business, he still kept his mind saturated with the law of the Lord. It is said of some men that the more you know them, the less you admire them; but the reverse is true of God’s word. Familiarity with the word of God breeds affection, and affection seeks yet greater familiarity. When “thy law,” and “my meditation” are together all the day, the day grows holy, devout, and happy, and the heart lives with God. David turned away from all else, for in the preceding verse he tells us that he had seen an end of all perfection; but he turned in unto the law and tarried there the whole day of his life on earth, growing henceforth wiser and holier.

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Enduring Word

Oh, how I love Your law: Twice before in this psalm, the writer has declared his love for the word of God (Psalm 119:47-48). Yet here, the phrasing is more passionate. His devotion to God and His word has built a love relationship between the psalmist and God’s word. (Guzik)

i. It isn’t “I used to love Your law,” or “One day I will love Your law.” He describes how he feels about the word of God right now. He also speaks for himself; the psalmist isn’t saying how others should feel, but about how he feels. (Guzik)

ii. We also notice that he says, “Oh, how I love Your law!” The word how describes a comparison; the psalmist loves the word of God more than other things. “It is a word of admiration, or a note of comparison; so is it taken in divers other places…it noteth a kind of excess or excellency, even such as cannot be well expressed. The prophet seemeth to speak with a kind of sighing, as being so ravished with love towards the law of God, that he was even sick of love.” (Thomas Stoughton, cited in Spurgeon)

iii. “The Order of the Divine mind, embodied in the Divine Law, is beautiful…. It is the language of a man ravished by moral beauty. If we cannot at all share his experience, we shall be the losers.” (C.S. Lewis from Reflections on the Psalms, cited in Boice)

iv. The superficial Christian may read and understand and even, in an outward sense, obey the word of God. But only the spiritual man loves it; he lives as if he could not live without the word of God. To the superficial Christian, it is a duty to satisfy the conscience; to the believer, it is food and medicine, light and comfort – the word of God is life. (Guzik)

v. If you desire to, you can increase your love for God’s word. You can’t make yourself love something or someone, but you can cultivate love toward someone or something.

· Give it your time; set it before you constantly.

· Give it your attention and care; look after the word of God (it is my meditation all the day).

· Give it a truly listening ear.

· Give it your honor and your obedience.

· Give it your appreciation; value it for all the good it has done for you and be thankful for all that good.

· Give it your dependence and trust; let it care for you.

· Give it your praise; speak highly of it before others. (Guzik)

vi. When we truly love someone, we don’t wish to change him. “You cannot bend the Bible to your mind; how much better it would be for you to bend your mind to the Bible, and to say, ‘O how I love thy law, – the doctrines of it, the precepts of it, the promise of it, the ordinances it enjoins upon me, the warnings it sets before me, the exhortations it gives me!’ Love the whole Bible from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation, and be prepared even to die rather than to give up half a verse of it.” (Spurgeon)

vii. “I beseech you to let your Bibles be everything to you. Carry this matchless treasure with you continually, and read it, and read it, and read it again and again. Turn to its pages by day and by night. Let its narratives mingle with your dreams; let its precepts color your lives; let its promises cheer your darkness; let its divine illumination make glad your life. As you love God, love this Book which is the Book of God, and the God of books, as it has rightly been called.” (Spurgeon)

b. It is my meditation all the day: Because the psalmist loved God’s word, it was natural and expected that he would think about it often. A lover finds it easy to think about, to meditate upon, the one he loves. (Guzik)

i. “My meditations; the matter of my constant and most diligent study…” (Poole)

ii. “He meditated in God’s word because he loved it, and then loved it the more because he meditated in it.” (Spurgeon)

iii. When we love the Bible, we find much to meditate on.

· The Bible is a letter from our distant Father.

· The Bible is a picture of our best and most faithful Friend.

· The Bible is the certificate of our adoption into the family of God.

· The Bible is the declaration of our liberty, our freedom from slavery.

· The Bible is the description of our heavenly inheritance.

· The Bible is the evidence of our nobility, for we are made kings and priests by God.

· The Bible is the instruction manual for wise and blessed living.

· The Bible is both a statement of our account and a checkbook for what belongs to us by the promises of God.

· The Bible is a telescope where we see the heavenly city that is our destination. (Guzik)

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Albert Barnes

O how love I thy law! – This commences a new division of the Psalm, indicated by the Hebrew letter Mem (מ m, “m”). The expression here, “O how love I thy law,” implies intense love – as if a man were astonished at the fervour of his own emotion. His love was so ardent that it was amazing and wonderful to himself – perhaps wonderful that he, a sinner, should love the law of God at all; wonderful that he should ever have been brought so to love a law which condemned himself. Any man who reflects on what his feelings are by nature in regard to religion will be filled with wonder that he loves it at all; all who are truly religious ought to be so filled with love to it that it will be difficult for them to find words to express the intensity of their affection.

It is my meditation all the day – See the notes at Psalms 1:2.

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John Gill

it [is] my meditation all the day; not only in the night, when at leisure, and free from the incumbrance of business; but in the day, and while engaged in the affairs of life, yea, all the day long; see Psalm 1:2. Or, “it [is] my discourse”; what he talked of, as well as what he thought on. Good men cannot forbear speaking of this or the other passage of Scripture, which has been of use unto them: and this is a proof of affection for the word; for what men love, persons or things, they often think of, and frequently talk of; see Deuteronomy 6:6.

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Matthew Henry

Here is,

1. David’s inexpressible love for the word of God: O how love I thy law! He protests his affection to the word of God with a holy vehemency; he found that love to it in his heart which, considering the corruption of his nature and the temptations of the world, he could not but wonder at, and at that grace which had wrought it in him. He not only loved the promises, but loved the law, and delighted in it after the inner man.

2. An unexceptionable evidence of this. What we love, we love to think of; by this it appeared that David loved the word of God, that it was his meditation. He not only read the book of the law, but digested what he read in his thoughts, and was delivered into it as into a mould: it was his meditation not only in the night, when he was silent and solitary, and had nothing else to do, but in the day, when he was full of business and company; nay, and all the day; some good thoughts were interwoven with his common thoughts, so full was he of the word of God.

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Miscellaneous Comments

“O how love I thy law!” Who, without love, attempts anything in the law of God, does it coldly and quickly gives it up. For the mind cannot give itself earnestly and perseveringly to things which are not loved. Only he who loves the law makes it his meditation all the day.

—Wolfgang Musculus.

“O how love I thy law!” Were I to enjoy Hezekiah’s grant and to have fifteen years added to my life, I would be much more frequent in my applications to the throne of grace. Were I to renew my studies, I would take my leave of those accomplished trifles—the historians, the orators, the poets of antiquity—and devote my attention to the Scriptures of truth. I would sit with much greater assiduity at my Divine Master’s feet, and desire to know nothing but “Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” This wisdom, whose fruits are peace in life, consolation in death, and everlasting salvation after death—this I would trace—this I would seek—this I would explore through the spacious and delightful fields of the Old and New Testament.

—James Hervey, 1714-1758.

“O how love I thy law!” He calls God himself to be the judge of his love to the word, witnessing thereby that it was no counterfeit love, but complete and sincere love which he bore unto it. The like protestation was used by S. Peter: “Thou knowest, O Lord, that I love thee!“

—William Cowper.

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Additional Cross-References

Psalm 1:2 (KJV)

² But his delight is in the law of the Lord;

And in his law doth he meditate day and night.

Psalm 119:159 (KJV )

¹⁵⁹ Consider how I love thy precepts:

Quicken me, O Lord, according to thy lovingkindness.

Deuteronomy 6:6–9 (KJV)

⁶And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: ⁷And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. ⁸And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. ⁹And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

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Proverb for Today

Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words, Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar. Proverbs 30:5-6 NKJV

מ MEM Loving the sweetness of God’s word.

Oh, how I love Your law!
It is my meditation all the day.

You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies;
For they are ever with me.

I have more understanding than all my teachers,
For Your testimonies are my meditation.

100

I understand more than the ancients,
Because I keep Your precepts.

101

I have restrained my feet from every evil way,
That I may keep Your word.

102

I have not departed from Your judgments,
For You Yourself have taught me.

103

How sweet are Your words to my taste,
Sweeter than honey to my mouth!

104

Through Your precepts I get understanding;
Therefore I hate every false way.