Your testimonies also are my delight;
They are my counselors.
— Psalm 119:24
When we think of counselors, we think of advice, guidance, and wisdom from trusted sources. We rarely stop to think of the law of God as an advisor. This is partly because when we hear words like law, testimonies, or commandments, our minds tend to go somewhere negative. We think of constraint. We think of freedom being stripped away. We imagine being told what we cannot do, being hemmed in by a long list of requirements. The word law does not typically evoke delight.
A Completely Different Perspective
And yet this is precisely what makes the psalmist so striking. He draws our attention to these testimonies and calls them his delight. He is not grudgingly tolerating the law of God — he finds joy in it. He finds happiness when he thinks about it.
The perspective the psalmist carries toward the law of God is entirely different from the one most of us default to. Where we see restriction, he sees something life-giving. Where we feel discomfort, he draws strength, peace, and joy. You can sense the genuine excitement in his tone as he speaks about the testimonies of God.
The Law as Counselor
The second line of the verse gives us the key to understanding why the psalmist delights in it so much — he says the testimonies are his counselors. Rather than viewing the law as something designed to make him feel guilty and confined, he sees it as something that guides him, directs him, and advises him on what is right and what is wrong. Later in this very psalm he would describe the word of God as a lamp to his feet — something that lights the path ahead so he can walk without stumbling.
This is fundamentally a matter of perspective. When we can come to see the law of God not simply as a list of prohibitions, but as a window into the heart of God — showing us what delights Him, what pleases Him, what puts a smile on the face of our heavenly Father — then our entire relationship with Scripture changes.
The testimonies of God are meant to give us a glimpse into who God is and what He values. And we, as His children, ought to delight in the fact that He has been gracious enough to let us know. He has not left us to guess what pleases Him. He has spoken. And what He has spoken is a gift.
When we come to see the law of God as a counselor and tutor — one that, as Paul tells us in Galatians, is meant to bring us to Christ — then we can begin to delight in it the way the psalmist did.
A Renewed Mind
May the Lord grant us this change of perspective — that our minds will not be conformed to the pattern of this world, which tells us that the Word of God is a burden designed to make us miserable. Instead, may we be transformed by the renewal of our minds, so that we can know and embrace what the will of God truly is — His good, acceptable, and perfect will.
Grace and peace.
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