Your testimonies are my delight;
they are my counselors.

Psalm 119:24 ESV

We conclude stanza gimel with the second half of verse 24: they are my counselors. As the first line revealed, Scripture as the testimonies of God is the subject of this verse. Now after declaring God’s self-revelation to be the psalmist’s delight, he exults that they are his counselors. Let us draw two points from this phrase.

First, God’s testimonies ought to be our counselors precisely because they reveal the character and will of God. As the Creator of all things, God’s sovereign wisdom decrees what ought to be done and establishes the unchanging standard for all that is good, right, and true. Thus, in order for us to live in wisdom, goodness, righteousness, and truth, we must discover evermore of who God is through His Word and conform ourselves into being imitators of Him. What counsel could ever rival knowing God Himself and seeking to be like Him? Truly the Scriptures are our greatest counselors.

Second, we cannot call the Scriptures our counselors unless we actually turn to them for counsel. Just as this Psalm began with a beatitude describing those who are blessed, Psalm 1 begins the Psalms with such a statement: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked… but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:1-2). The implication, of course, is that the blessed man walks in the counsel of God’s law by meditating upon it day and night rather than in the counsel of the wicked. Regardless of what we believe theologically about the Scriptures, they are not our counselors until we go to them for wisdom, understanding, and direction. By God’s common grace, the world apart from the Scriptures is not entirely cut off from wisdom in general; however, it is only by God’s Word that anyone is granted “all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3). Indeed, they reveal to us our Savior who is Himself “the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25) and “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15).

If we claim to delight in God’s testimonies, we should also be a people who cherish them as our counselors. Meditate upon the Word day and night and shape your life according to its pattern, becoming imitators of our loving Father and gracious Lord.