Psalms 119:162 I rejoice at your word like one who finds great spoil. – ESV 

God’s Word becomes precious to His saints who use it as it is intended. Hopefully we don’t read it as some religious rite, or duty to get out of the way. Rather, we should seek it as life-giving spiritual nourishment in every season. If we treat it as dry religious text to appease our conscience, it will appear as dated material that has no practical use to the modern person. Same if we read it intellectually and try to analyze it.

If we seek it as the spiritual nourishment it is, that is what we’ll find, no matter what we are facing. However, in this particular passage, there seems to be a specific season that every saint faces, that the writer is alluding to. It is the season of battle. And more specifically at the victory of the battle. 

Spoil Comes With Victory

This is the only time it is possible to gain spoil. Spoil is the plunder we take from the enemy at the point of victory. This brings us to an important point, since it seems so many of us get battle weary and focus only on fighting defensively. We are not called to fight defensively unless it becomes absolutely necessary. But even when it does become necessary, we should be focusing on how to regain the offense. And once we have the offense, we should be focusing on absolute victory. And once we’ve achieved victory, it’s on to the spoil. Once we have the spoil we take more territory offensively as directed by the Spirit of God.

How many times do we lose our way before making it through this cycle? How many times do we allow the enemy to hold on to what is rightfully ours? You see, the spoil we are getting from the enemy are things he stole from us in the past. Sometimes through curses and strongholds. Sometimes through lies we believed. Perhaps at a sleepy moment when our guard was down. 

The enemy has nothing of value of his own creation. Only God can make beautiful things. In fact, only God can make things period. The enemy can manipulate what God has created. Or he can steal what God has created. But rest assured, God didn’t create any treasures for the enemy’s use. The enemy stole the treasures he has from the intended recipients: You and me. 

A New Way To Look At The Word

So that puts a new light on things as we search the Word of God, doesn’t it? Now we find ourselves looking for spoil. Where are those nuggets hidden that will unlock that which satan has carried off? The Word itself is the spoil granted out of the victory of Jesus. As we find the spoil that’s meant for us, we believe it. We receive God’s Word and believe it, and the spoil returns to its rightful owner. Not without a battle many times of course, but that is a small matter, if we truly believe that the battle was already won 2000 years ago. 

So whether we are in the battle and find the spoil as the victory manifests, or find the spoil and then the battle ensues, which has technically already been won, there is little difference. The principles are the same. The spoil is the same. And our great God is the same. Always.