How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path (Psalm 119:103-105).

A nature trail that my family enjoys meanders through woods, parallels a stream, and circles a lake as it leads us to trees and rocks identified with placards explaining each landmark’s significance. 

The explanations help us understand and enjoy the features of the forest around us. But as interesting as these descriptions are, no trail sign is more important than the one at the beginning — the one with the arrows and the words that say, Begin Here.

Without a proper beginning we will struggle to find our way, see our path, or reach our destination.  The same is true with God’s Word. We get on the proper path of Scripture when we start reading with the understanding that God will be revealing his heart in all the features of his Word.

His instructions are sweet and he lights the path that is good for us because he intends to share with us the beauty and wonder of his care. Every path that begins with any other understanding is false and we will end up hating it. 

Jesus is at the end of the path designed by God’s Word. Knowing that destination, as we begin, will help us read Scripture’s landmarks as revelations of God’s heart – a heart that reveals our sin only to make us desire a Savior and delight in his path.

Prayer:
Lord, may your Word guide my steps today, leading me closer to my Savior, Jesus Christ. Help me to delight in the words that reveal your care for me, my need of Jesus, and your path to Him.