For my undergraduate studies, I attended a Bible college, so it might surprise you that my top five classes included a class that wasn’t specifically related to Bible, theology, or ministry. One of my top five was Shakespeare. For that class, we read something like five of his plays. Also, my professor, Dr. Joan Tompkins, divided the class into small groups, and each group performed yet another play. My group did Henry V. We also saw a professional production of Othello at a local theater. My mind was filled with Shakespeare that semester.
This week we’ve been learning about what it means to have a heart after God’s own heart, like Israel’s great King David. David writes in Psalm 37:31 “The law of their God is in their hearts; their feet do not slip.” In Psalm 40:8 “I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart.” A heart in line with God’s heart is a heart filled with God’s word.
Some people think David wrote Psalm 119, the super long psalm. We don’t know for sure, except that Psalm 119 really sounds like David’s writing when compared to the psalms we know David did write. When I think about having God’s word fill our hearts, I think about Psalm 119:9–11,
“How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”
A person with a heart for God intentionally strives to read, learn, know, and meditate on God’s Word, so that it is in our hearts. A person with a heart for God, wants God’s word to be deeply rooted in our conscious and conscience.
That semester I took the Shakespeare class, I was swimming in Shakespeare. No surprise, all sorts of things in my life seemed like they related to Shakespeare plays. Some of my friends were in the class, and when we saw each other, instead of saying, “How are you?” we said, “How art thou?” We were constantly reading plays, watching them, and ourselves performing them.
Likewise, what will it look like to hide God’s word in your heart? To the point where it is on the forefront of your minds, on the tips of your tongues when you speak? To the point where, because it is living and active, God’s word helps you follow God’s heart? It will look just like Jesus!
Remember when Jesus was in the desert and tempted by Satan? What method did he use to defeat Satan’s three temptations? Jesus used this method to combat all three temptations. Call down angels to battle Satan for him? Use supernatural power to send Satan into hell? No. Jesus simply quoted the Bible. Three times. Actually, Jesus only quoted from one book of the Bible. Deuteronomy. Three times in a row he defeated Satan with Deuteronomy.
Jesus is a wonderful picture of a heart after God’s heart that is saturated with God’s word, allowing God’s word to guide the person. As Jesus’ brother James writes, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.” (James 1:22-25)
How are you striving to hide God’s word in your heart?
But what about when we don’t live in line with God’s word? What about when we fail, and sin? We’ll look at what David writes about how a person with a heart after God’s heart responds to its own sin.
Engaging Scripture 