Smart Guy
Scripture Reading: Psalm 119:97-104
I started college later than most. It was after I had worked a few years after high school that I was called into ministry and began the long slog through higher education. My first year was in a secular university and one of my required courses was a humanities class. Our professor was a solid atheist who had a particular animosity toward Christianity and the Bible.
Maybe it was because of my age and life experience, but I wasn’t intimidated by his Antichrist rants. I pushed back. I will concede he was a much better debater. He was far better educated than I was (that’s why I was in a chair and he was behind the podium). But my faith didn’t crumble under his assaults and I was never convinced by his arguments even when I didn’t use the best available retorts. I like to think my defense of the faith, as weak as it was, helped other students.
The Psalmist isn’t being arrogant in the “Mem” section of Psalm 119 when he says he has “more understanding than all my teachers…” and “I understand more than the aged…” and that he is “wiser than [his] enemies.” He is acknowledging what knowing and living by God’s word had done for, to, and in him. It was “through your precepts [he got] understanding.”
What he said about himself can be true of us as well. We can have more wisdom and understanding than our teachers, elders, and enemies if we will listen to, engage with, and obey the word of God.
100% Agree