In the past few months, I have made the Psalms feature much more prominently in my daily Scripture reading by working them through each month. As I got around to the end of last month, I came to one of my favourites, Psalm 119. It always strikes me that David's longest Psalm is an extended reflection on how much he loves God's law.

This time around, I spent some extra time thinking about verses 97-104. What stood out to me was David's perception that wisdom and understanding were given to those who loved God's law and feared him. Sometimes Christians find themselves on edge when they are confronted by some of Christianity's highly intelligent detractors, who have seemingly well-thought out and sophisticated objections to the faith. Indeed, dealing with these arguments can be troubling.

But that is why David's words here provide so much comfort, because it is not about how sophisticated your arguments are, or how airtight your logic is, or how knowledgeable you are. Wisdom and understanding, David says, come from following God's Word. And because he submits himself to God's revelation, he writes, David is now 'wiser than my enemies... I have more insight than all my teachers... I have more understanding than the elders.'

This is not to say, of course, that Christianity is something that defies all logic and reason. It makes sense, and provides the most coherent framework for understanding the nature of reality. We have apologists who have gone to great lengths to provide us with reasoned and sound defenses of our faith.

But if you have trouble making sense of all arguments and debates that take place on more academic levels, don't be discouraged by the seemingly intelligent and sophisticated criticisms that people level against Christianity. The truth is that by fearing the Lord and meditating on his Word, we gain the fullness of wisdom and understanding. All the knowledge in the world means nothing if you do not confess Jesus as Lord.