the Word

I can’t remember a time when the Word of God wasn’t a factor in my life. There are cassette tapes with my tiny voice on it, quoting the birth narrative of Christ. A tale of the time I memorized Psalm 100 in the nursery at church, and then said it in front of the congregation. I think the prize was my own little Bible. Memories of mom pantomiming verses so my sister and I would remember the passages we’d been assigned for school. Numerous Gideon Bibles – the version with the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs – handed out at Backyard Bible Clubs on mission trips in high school. So much of my life was based on the Book, but I didn’t really grasp much of it.

That happened later, my freshman year in college, in a dorm room while I was plowing my way through Romans. As with so many things in university, there was just an unquenchable hunger for learning, for figuring out, for making things my own. So something in the early chapters of Romans – I hate that I can’t remember exactly what – was used by the Holy Spirit to grab hold of me, and convince me of my utter and desperate need for a Savior. So the Word became a constant companion… It nourished me. It picked me up and carried me home when I walked away from the safety its instruction provided. It was a balm to my broken heart, my wounded soul, again and again. In the years that followed, I was just so hungry for what it had to say… I spent so much time in it that passages from the Psalms and the Epistles would just roll of my tongue when I was praying. It was so beautifully familiar.

And it still is. It’s just – different. I think Seminary somehow made it a technical manual for me, as opposed to a finely crafted love letter. I remember a girl at Seminary scoffing that people still read 5 Psalms and a Proverb as their daily time in the Word – “that’s just so immature.” I had done that for years, and it had made my heart soft, and adoring. Yet somehow I felt ashamed. Somehow felt the need to walk away from immature to mature, as if what she said was somehow binding. All that did was allow me to eventually abandon daily reading, because when I tried to read the more mature stuff in a devotional manner, it didn’t work. I hate that… I’m working to rid myself of that bias, to remember what it is to read the Word, all of it, with adoration. Because, the truth is, it is a Book of beauty, of God’s love for His people, and the world, and it is absolutely lovely and life-changing.

Psalm 119 is a meditation, a love letter, written about the Word of the Lord. I go to it when I’m thinking about the beauty of Scripture. Several of my favorite passages are below, or you can read the Psalm in its entirety here.

Psalm 119

⁹How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
¹⁰ With my whole heart I seek you;
let me not wander from your commandments!
¹¹I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.
¹²Blessed are you, O LORD;
teach me your statutes!
¹³With my lips I declare
all the rules of your mouth.
¹⁴In the way of your testimonies I delight
as much as in all riches.
¹⁵I will meditate on your precepts
and fix my eyes on your ways.
¹⁶I will delight in your statutes;
I will not forget your word.

⁴¹Let your steadfast love come to me, O LORD,
your salvation according to your promise;
⁴²then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me,
for I trust in your word.
⁴³And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth,
for my hope is in your rules.
⁴⁴I will keep your law continually,
forever and ever,
⁴⁵and I shall walk in a wide place,
for I have sought your precepts.
⁴⁶I will also speak of your testimonies before kings
and shall not be put to shame,
⁴⁷for I find my delight in your commandments,
which I love.
⁴⁸I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love,
and I will meditate on your statutes.

⁹⁷Oh how I love your law!
It is my meditation all the day.
⁹⁸Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,
for it is ever with me.
⁹⁹I have more understanding than all my teachers,
for your testimonies are my meditation.
¹⁰⁰I understand more than the aged,
for I keep your precepts.
¹⁰¹I hold back my feet from every evil way,
in order to keep your word.
¹⁰²I do not turn aside from your rules,
for you have taught me.
¹⁰³How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
¹⁰⁴Through your precepts I get understanding;
therefore I hate every false way.

¹⁰⁵ Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
¹⁰⁶I have sworn an oath and confirmed it,
to keep your righteous rules.
¹⁰⁷I am severely afflicted;
give me life, O LORD, according to your word!
¹⁰⁸Accept my freewill offerings of praise, O LORD,
and teach me your rules.
¹⁰⁹I hold my life in my hand continually,
but I do not forget your law.
¹¹⁰The wicked have laid a snare for me,
but I do not stray from your precepts.
¹¹¹Your testimonies are my heritage forever,
for they are the joy of my heart.
¹¹²I incline my heart to perform your statutes
forever, to the end.