Read the Scriptures and suddenly you will recall an unusual occurrence from your childhood; in fact, you will probably remember something you wish you had not remembered some things, and others will be quite fresh and refreshing.
Reflecting on a few verses in Psalm 119 was like enjoying a breakfast prepared for you as a guest. I was asking myself the inevitable: “Lord! How did you know what to put on my plate for this moment?”
Verses 105 through 112 begin with: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” As a youngster I loved to go fishing. I do not recall ever coming home with sufficient fish to feed our family, but to reflect on that whole process was enough to want to repeat it as often as possible.
Because most of our fishing was “off de rocks”, and we never could afford fishing rods and reels, you would be lured back by the stories of what we had not caught on the last “expedition”, and the anticipation of what we might correct before coming home tonight.
We possessed one of those old fashioned kerosene lanterns, and it was mandatory that we get it cleaned up and filled with oil. I was never certain if we needed it more to see the path before us, or if it would be necessary for those of us who got lost would have an easier time of being found. After all, the best fishing places were always in locations that demanded climbing the “rocks” to get to that perch that was perfect.
I know that a lantern was an implicit item for us to climb those rocks, and locate a path that did not exist. I also know that if we ever caught something “big”, we had to return with it. We never caught more than a few “rock fish” and lost most of our hooks in the process.
The Psalmist has been explicit about the path he must tread. He knows that he must do more than “freewill offerings of his mouth”. He must be taught that the principle of survival when his enemies are attacking him from every possible direction there is only one logical solution: “I have not gone away from thy precepts. I have inherited Your testimonies forever, for they are the joy of my heart, I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes FOREVER, even to the end.”
HE, God/Jesus Christ is “a lamp to my feet and a light to my path!”
-Ted
ETCetera 