The unfolding of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple. Psalm 119:130 (NASB)
Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible. It has 176 verses. It is full of praise and adoration for Scripture. There is so much here that Charles Spurgeon spent about 350 pages discussing this one psalm in his classic, The Treasury of David.
A story is told of a man who loved old books. He met an acquaintance who had just thrown away a Bible that had been stored in the attic of his ancestral home for generations.
“I couldn’t read it,” the friend explained. “Somebody named Guten-something had printed it.”
“Not Gutenberg!” the book lover exclaimed in horror. “That Bible was one of the first books ever printed. Why, a copy just sold for over two million dollars!”
His friend was unimpressed. “Mine wouldn’t have brought a dollar. Some fellow named Martin Luther had scribbled all over it in German.”
Do we realise the worth of the Word of God? I have several different copies at home, plus one in the glove compartment of my car. Interlinears, paraphrases, annotated, amplified and study Bibles, leather-bound, hard-bound, paperback, large print, red letter, wide margin, and many other renderings of the Bible abound. We have a treasure trove within easy reach, but do we mine for its nuggets of gold?
The entrance and unfolding of Your words give light; their unfolding gives understanding (discernment and comprehension) to the simple. Psalm 119:130 (AMPC)
In the complex world in which we live, we desperately need God’s wisdom for making sound decisions. We need insight for living. In Luke 24 the two men on the Emmaus road were reminiscing about how they had met the Saviour and how He had walked and talked with them. They said to each other:
“Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” Luke 24:32 (NIV)
May our hearts burn within us today as we allow His word entrance into our hearts. May we receive ifs light and gain understanding for our lives.