Psalm 119:77 Delight

Let your compassion come to me that I may live,
for your law is my delight

  Psalm 119:77

As a fine, upstanding, card-carrying Christian, I refer to God's Word as the final authority on everything having to do with life and godliness.

But can you say, with  David, that God's law is your delight?

There's a difference.

I've come across several Christians who are dedicated to God's law, obsessed with God's law, and analysts of God's law. But many of them don't seem to delight in it.

To understand what David means by delighting in the Law, we need to go back to the beginning of the Psalms, where first uses that word.

How blessed is the person,
  who does not take the advice of the wicked,
  who does not stand on the path with sinners,
  and who does not sit in the seat of mockers.
But he delights in the Lord’s instruction,
  and meditates in his instruction day and night.
He will be like a tree planted by streams of water,
  yielding its fruit in its season,
  and whose leaf does not wither.
Psalm 1:1-3

If you say you believe in the authority of the Word in areas of theology, but in your daily life you tend to follow along with the advice of the predominant culture, your delight might not be in God's law.

If you've rationalized, minimized, and sidelined the scriptures in order to make you or your church appear more tolerant of cultural norms, you might be delighting is something other than the Law of the Lord.

If you're so zealous in your opposition to "alternate lifestyles" that you lead with judgment rather than love in your interactions with people, you might be delighting in something other than the law of love.

If your political leanings are causing you to speak and act in ways that are more in tune with the modern American bipolar political climate than with the Fruit of the Spirit, you might be delighting in something other than the Lord's instructions.

If your social media posts are filled with memes and videos and comments that mock the people and things you oppose, you might be delighting in something other than the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

If you make use of the Bible like it's a cudgel, laying waste to anyone who disagrees with your opinions - whether they be non-believers or believers - you might be delighting in your own brilliance rather than in God's law.

If you've allowed the Lord's instructions to plant their roots so deeply in your heart that your go-to response to everything is to bear fruit, then you are probably delighting in the Law of the Lord.