Psalm 119:48, “My
hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will
meditate in thy statutes.”

            The psalmist here declares his
determined purpose to meditate upon the statutes of the Lord.  His declaration, I will meditate, is not a simple prediction of an action that will
of necessity occur at some point in the future, as one might say, “I will read
a grocery list,” but a determined purpose of heart: I will meditate.  Yet this
was not just a determined purpose, done simply as an action of a disciplined
will—although such a determination and discipline appears in his
declaration—but an expression of his love, of his passionate desire for
Jehovah’s statutes.  They are thy commandments, which I have loved.  He is determined to meditate upon them in the
future, for they are the joy and rejoicing of his heart.  He would have no contentment without this
meditation.  The lack of it would be to
him a tragedy, a failure to fulfill a heart famished for Divine milk and
meat.  Nor is his love the fleeting
sprout of a minute, but a living, growing thing which extends back in years to
the time He first knew the Lord in truth, and which continued to develop to the
time of his present prayer—he can say I
have loved—and also something which will yet further flourish, a hunger and
thirst for His Savior’s statutes which will grow the more it is fed—for he yet will meditate and will lift up his hands to his God’s commands.  These statutes are precious to him because of
their author—“They are thy statutes,
oh my God, therefore I do love them.” 
Nor is his love selective, so that he would have certain of these
statutes, and not the others—all the commandments
and statutes are his meditation,
love, and delight.  To all of them he will lift up his hands—he yearns for them, desire them, values and blesses them; he
stretches forth his hands to them all, out of love for them (cf. Ps 63:4; Lam
3:41; the only other OT vv. where lift
and hands are conjoined).  He expresses this love, not to his neighbor
only, or to the people of God in general—although he would also gladly sing
this section of the hymnbook of Israel with them—but to the all-seeing God, He
who searches and tries the reins and the heart. 
No half-heartedness, no secret reservations, are possible, for all
things are exposed to the One with whom he has to do.  He freely confesses his feelings toward the
Word to its Author, as to one who already knows and can verify the truthfulness
of his declaration of love, and the determinate purpose of his future resolves
with respect to it: My hands also will I
lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy
statutes.

Oh my soul, how
is it with you?  Is it your determination
to say, I will meditate?  Have Jehovah’s statutes been your burning
passion since the time of your conversion to this time?  It must be so, to some degree, if ever you
have tasted that the Lord is gracious. 
Is your respect to all his statutes, or are there certain which you
would only halfway embrace?  Search your
mind and heart.  Can you join the
psalmist in his prayer, or sing this portion of the inspired songbook to the
Lord?  Oh for grace that it might be so,
now, and for ever more!

TDR