Remember the word to Your servant,
Upon which you have caused me to hope.
This is my comfort in my affliction,
For Your word has given me life.
The proud have me in great derision,
Yet I do not turn aside from Your law.
I remembered Your judgements of old, O LORD,
And have comforted myself.
Indignation has taken hold of me
Because of the wicked who forsake Your law.
Your statutes have been my songs
In the house of my pilgrimage.
I remember Your name in the night, O LORD,
And I keep Your law.
This has become mine,
Because I kept Your precepts.

Key words: remember, comfort, Your law,

There’s a discussion at Intellectuelle, started by my Baylor friend, Laura, about the relationship between right thinking and right actions–and by extension, how emotion plays into our Christian pilgrimage. It seems to me that according to the psalmist we are to use our minds to remember God’s law, and as a consequence we are to be comforted (emotion). Of course, keeping God’s precepts involves right action that is based upon our remembering and being emotionally strong enough (comforted) to do what God commands. Yes, the intellectual act of remembering comes first, but it is no more vital to righteousness than emotion or action. Right thinking, which comes from God as the first verse indicates, produces both comfort and right action. I remember what God says; I am comforted by His word; I keep His precepts. Then His statutes can become my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.