I just
finished teaching a 4 month study on Psalm 119 for the adult Sunday School
class at my church. Yes – you read that correctly; 4 months over 1 chapter in the Bible. Psalm 119 is the longest of the psalms and at
176 verses, is also the longest chapter of the Bible.
What is the
focus of Psalm 119? God’s Word, or as we
know it today, the Bible. I encourage
you to read Psalm 119 for yourself. In
it you will see the psalmist’s delight for and dependence on God’s Word. You’ll read about the trust he places in
God’s Word, to keep him from stumbling, to help him in his battle against sin,
and to find strength when faced with struggles – especially those caused by
other people. The psalmist talks about how
God’s Word makes him wiser than his enemies – and more than that – it makes him
wiser than his teachers and those who have been experience life for a long time.
Of all the
176 verses – verse 160 struck me most of all;
The
sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures
forever.
The sum of God’s Word is
truth. Did you catch that? For those that know me, you know I have been
posted a daily Bible verse on social media for years. Those verses are typically ones I came across
in that day’s reading or have been meditating on. But those postings can be dangerous. Any one of those verses taken out of context can
yield the wrong interpretation. The
Bible is a collection of 66 books written over a time period of 4,000 years yet
containing one central theme – God’s plan of salvation for man. It is meant to be taken in the context of
the time periods it was written along with the style (or genre) of each
individual book. And in a time such as
today, when the “truth” seems hard to find or is different for each person or
groups of people it is comforting to know that we have a standard for
truth. But it’s not contained in any
individual verse or passage, but in the sum of God’s Word.
Today, Bible
verses are used by well-meaning (and in some cases not so well-meaning)
individuals to instruct us on God’s views on things like climate change,
immigration, gender issues, and so forth.
But if not viewed in the context of the whole Bible, where we learn of a
loving, holy God who grieves overs us and cannot tolerate our sinful actions,
yet provides a way for our sins to be dealt with so that we can experience an
everlasting love relationship with Him, then these individual Bible verses and
passages can lead us further away from the truth not towards it.
So this
year, may it be your goal and your desire to know the God of the whole Bible
and not just a part. May you know and
experience truth and may that truth set you free!
