97 O how I love Your law!
It is my meditation all the day.
98 Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies,
For they are ever [as]mine.
99 I have more insight than all my teachers,
For Your testimonies are my meditation.
100 I understand more than the aged,
Because I have observed Your precepts.
101 I have restrained my feet from every evil way,
That I may keep Your word.
102 I have not turned aside from Your ordinances,
For You Yourself have taught me.
103 How sweet are Your [at]words to my [au]taste!
Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 From Your precepts I get understanding;
Therefore I hate every false way.
In this passage, it nearly sounds like the psalmist is bragging, except that he tells us why he feels that he is wiser and has more insight. And that is because of God’s principles and precepts. Because of God’s instruction, he is able to restrain his feet from evil, and not turn aside from God’s path. Rightly then, God’s words are sweet to the taste, even sweeter than honey, and anything less is hateful and disgusting.
A lot of smart folks try to reinvent timeless truths, they look for shortcuts, and they find one of two things: that shortcuts are painful, or that those truths, God’s truths, are still timeless. Or both, if they are fortunate. That’s not to say we don’t learn new things all the time, I certainly do, and I don’t think we should be content with what we know this moment.
The same applies in our spiritual walk as it does in anything else, we ought to keep seeking knowledge. The psalmist certainly couldn’t have made any of those claims by just sitting around, hoping God’s truth would hit him in the head.
So watch out for shortcuts, or anything that doesn’t line up with God’s truth. And if you’re not sure, seek His truth, and you will find the answer. As Solomon noted, “There is nothing new under the sun…” because God already laid down the foundations of the earth, and He created us, and knows us inside and out. Learn God’s truth, so you can be like the psalmist, and the apostle Paul, and the prophet Jeremiah, who all said (more or less), “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”