Day 129, Year 1

Those who Seek God Understand All

“Make me understand the way of Your precepts, So I will meditate on Your wonders.” (Psalm 119:27 NASB)

“Evil men do not understand justice, But those who seek the LORD understand all.” (Proverbs 28:5 NKJV)

In both verses of today, the word “understand” appears three times and is the same word in Hebrew, biyn, all meaning “to understand with discernment.” The first verse indicates a connection—those who understand God’s precepts will meditate on His wondrous works. The word “meditate” is siach in Hebrew, which could also be translated as “to ponder, to muse, to talk, or to speak.” “Precepts,” piqqud in Hebrew, also means “commandment, or direction.” When we understand God’s precepts, we can easily comprehend where His wonderful work directs us. It is worth noting that understanding God’s direction does not mean knowing what we should or should not do, but rather comprehending His wonders. The “discretion” mentioned previously refers to the connection between our heart, mouth, and hands. Here, understanding from God enables us to comprehend the connection between the words from His mouth and wondrous works by His hands, together with their meanings. After that, we could cooperate with Him and participate in His marvelous work. Similarly, when we pursue His correct and righteous interpretation of the Word and perceive all matters through Him, our divine understanding will increase significantly, especially those related to His righteousness.

The second verse of today states that evil people lack understanding of God’s justice. The verse mentions an essential principle in faith, that we should first change ourselves according to His words in order to understand His righteous works better. In other words, mere human effort is not enough for us to understand the spiritual world. Rather, we need to change ourselves and remove all evil in our lives first before we can have the accurate understanding to perceive all of His wonders. This verse also implies that those who truly seek Him could hardly become evil, because God-chasers will abandon anything that displeases Him, as we always do what pleases Him. In other words, we will abandon evil things and anything lacking eternal value or hindering our understanding of God’s justice. Hence, this attitude of seeking and believing in God transforms us drastically because we are always willing to abandon everything standing against Him. Yet, we should be aware of those who pretend to seek God, as they might put forward pseudo-truth to deceive those who lack God’s wisdom.

Reflection questions:

1) Do you need to ask the Lord to help you better understand the connection between His words and His works?

2) Are you willing to seek God and abandon all evil and things without eternal value? What difficulties would you need to overcome by relying on the Lord in this process?