My wife Pam and I came to Christ during the Jesus Movement of the late 60’s and early 70’s. One of the distinguishing features that marked that movement was a joyful hunger to know the Bible. We would all sit quietly for hours in a room with our big King James Bibles out and open, taking notes while a teacher taught us verse by verse. Who would have expected millions of teenagers all over the country to sit quietly for hours taking notes in their Bibles while millions of other teenagers were in the streets protesting the war in Vietnam? It was a God thing! Let's keep that real history in mind as we listen to a passage from the Psalms:

How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes! With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth. In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes;  I will not forget your word. (Psalm 119:9-16 ESV)

About ten years ago, I had lunch with a salesman who was roughly my age. I was 60 at the time. We discovered that we had many experiences in common during our teen years—we both used illegal drugs and we both ran with a pretty rough crowd. Both of us had lost friends due to drug overdoses. Both of us had become Christians at about the same time, although in very different circumstances. We found ourselves celebrating the wonderful and very personal grace of God, in how He delivered both of us from the dire fates we so richly deserved. Today's passage tells us that young people can cleanse their way, as my friend and I experienced. We were delivered out of abusing drugs, but we were also delivered into something else—a community of believers who loved Jesus and sought to keep His Word. Psalm 119 tells us that the key to guarding our way lies in staying focused on God’s Word and its application in our lives. Here are a few key phrases: “I have stored up your word in my heart…With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth…I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.” Over the years I have made many mistakes. Sometimes I treated people badly. Sometimes I have been wayward in the way I spend my time. Looking back though, nearly all of those failures were the result of not faithfully keeping God’s Word.

Today, let me encourage you to begin to spend more time “storing” the Bible in your heart. Meditate on it. Speak it out loud to yourself. Delight in it. God has something He wants to say to you and to me—today and every day—and that is very Good News!