We have designated January and February as Bible Reading and Bible Study Months at First Christian Church. All are encouraged to read and study a portion of scripture each day for these two months. I don’t believe the importance of Bible reading can be emphasized enough. Our body needs food and water to be healthy, our soul needs love and encouragement to be healthy, and so our spirit needs Bible reading and communion with God to be healthy.

George Washington Carver , the great African-American scientist, is credited for discovering over 100 uses for peanuts including oils, varnishes, colorings, and medicines. He was invited to testify before the Senate about all these new uses. After sharing, one of the Senators asked, "Dr. Carver, how did you learn all these things?" He replied, "From an old Book." The chairman asked, "What book?" He said, "The Bible." He was asked, "Does the Bible tell about peanuts?" He answered, "No, Mr. Senator, but it tells about the God who made the peanut. I asked Him to show me what to do with the peanut, and He did."

In the same way, the Bible can be our guide. Not only do we find spiritual answers to many of our questions, but we also learn more about God who can help us with our questions. Bible reading, study, and meditation is essential to our spiritual development.

This morning I want to examine a few verses from the 119th Psalm. This psalm is the longest chapter in the whole Bible. It contains 176 verses. Some believe the psalm was written by Ezra about 450 B.C., others by David about 1000 B.C. The reason it is so long is that it is a composition from the heart written to extol the virtue of studying God’s word. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. The psalmist wrote 8 verses for each letter with all eight beginning with the same letter. 8 x 22 = 176. The author obviously thought studying the Bible was important.

In English we would say that he wrote the first 8 verses beginning with the letter "A," then the next 8 beginning with the letter "B," and so forth. Some of your Bibles will have the names of the Hebrew letters at the beginning of each section. For example before verse 1 there’s aleph, before verse 9 there’s beth, before verse 17 gimel, then daleth, he, etc. These are the names of the Hebrew letters. This morning we will be looking at verses from the beth and the gimel sections.

In 174 of the 176 verses the author has used one of nine words to describe God’s scripture. These words show us the completeness and impact of the Bible. They are: law, word, ordinance, testimony, command, statute, precept, saying, and way. He methodically switches between these words in a work of love to express from his soul the grandeur of the Bible. So lets take a look at this psalm and see what it has to say about reading and studying God’s word.

David Heller interviewed hundreds of children about what they thought of the Bible. When asked what she had learned from the Bible, Francis age 7 said, "Don’t be a bad boy or girl. You should listen to God or you might end up in a whale."

We can all learn important lessons from reading the Bible. The more we know about scripture, the more we will understand God. The psalmist didn’t want to find himself sinning against God because he didn’t know what the Bible taught. We need to be the same way. Too often we see Christians who are more interested in their opinions or other’s opinions about God than finding out for themselves. If we really desire not to sin against God, let us spend time in his word.

The psalmist wanted to be taught God’s statutes. Are we willing to learn? Every school child knows that if they want to learn in school, they will have to spend time reading, studying, and working at it. What kind of students are we in God’s school? Are we willing to spend the time reading, studying and working to get good grades? Or are we only barely doing enough to pass? Or worse yet, do we feel that we don’t have to study and at the end of the year the teacher will overlook our laziness and let us pass anyway? What kind of a student are we in God’s classroom? I wonder how many people will be ready for God’s final exam!

As we learn about God and his word, not only does it prepare us for our heavenly graduation ceremony, but it also helps us with our everyday troubles. Spiritual guidance, answers to problems, direction for the future, help with decisions, growth in our faith, encouragement in our soul, wisdom and understanding all come from faithful Bible reading. Let us be willing to be taught – taught by God, taught by his word, taught by his Spirit.

Spurgeon comments, "We need to be disciples or learners; but what an honour to have God himself for a teacher: how bold is David to beg the blessed God to teach him! Yet the Lord put the desire into his heart when the sacred word was hidden there.... Who would not wish to enter the school of such a Master to learn of him the art of holy Living? To this Instructor we must submit ourselves if we would practically keep the statutes of righteousness."

I believe the psalmist has intentionally chosen these two words – my lips and your mouth. – to indicate that his mouth will speak the ordinances that come from God’s mouth. This is why it’s so important that we spend time in God’s word. Many people have different ideas about God. It is easy to express our own opinions as if they were true, and many people have been led astray by those who have elevated their thoughts about God to the level of divine truth. But just because we think something is true does not make it so. The only true standard is what God thinks. Fortunately for us, God has provided his words for us in the Bible. No matter what our own opinions might be, it is better for us to express things about God that we have learned from his word. Instead of expressing our views on subjects, let our mouths speak the words that have come from God’s mouth.

I think it’s important to not only learn from God’s word, but also be willing to teach others what we have learned. Because of my calling, God has given me the time, inclination, and training to learn new things from his word that others might miss. As I read scripture from my Bible, examine it in the original Hebrew and Greek languages, compare my thoughts with those of other godly commentators from this and previous centuries, and allow the Holy Spirit to teach me, I always learn new things. Nothing thrills me more than when I discover something from these long hours of study than to be able to share it with others. Each of us are called to minister in different ways, and this is one of the ways I get to minister to others. However, I believe that the teaching God wants me to present is his words not my words, his ideas not my ideas, his thoughts not my thoughts. In order to do this, I must be willing to learn his words, his ideas, and his thoughts.

As Dickson wrote in 1655, "The word of God in Scripture should be looked upon as the sentence of the supreme Judge, uncontrollable and unalterable by any creature, and whereby men must judge of all truth, looked to be judged by it...."

How many of you dream of being rich? Sometimes you daydream of what you would do with millions of dollars if you would have it. You think of all the things you would buy. I tell my wife that that is the reason we will never be rich. If you really want to have a lot of money, you have to be willing to save and invest, not spend. But we spend it as fast as we make it, so I guess we’ll never be rich.

Even more important than financial riches is the way of God’s testimonies. If we follow his rules and commands, we will be like the psalmist and "delight as much in all riches." Our soul will be rich with God’s blessings, our spirit will be filled with the divine presence, our mind will be filled with God’s peace and love, our desires will be satisfied by the eternal treasure, and our life will be guided by the direction of God’s word. We may never be rich by the standards of this world, but we will be rich with heavenly gems.

James M. Gray wrote this poem about the riches of the Bible

The Bible – There It Stands!

Where childhood needs a standard

Or youth a beacon light,

Where sorrow sighs for comfort

Or weakness longs for might,

Bring forth the Holy Bible,

The Bible! There it stands!

Resolving all life’s problems

And meeting its demands.

Though sophistry conceal it,

The Bible! There it stands!

Though Pharisees profane it,

Its influence expands;

It fills the world with fragrance

Whose sweetness e’er employs,

It lifts our eyes to heaven,

It heightens human joys.

Despised and torn in pieces,

By infidels decried –

The thunderbolts of hatred

The haughty cynics’ pride –

All these have railed against it

In this and other lands,

Yet dynasties have fallen,

And still the Bible stands!

To paradise a highway,

The Bible! There it stands!

Its promises unfailing,

Nor grievous its commands;

It points man to the Saviour,

The lover of his soul;

Salvation is its watchword,

Eternity its goal!

Have you learned how to meditate on God’s precepts? Many of us spend time in Bible reading but never spend the time to think about what we read. A time of meditation and reflection on God and his word is important for our spiritual growth. We are a busy people. It is difficult to find a quiet time to spend before God. But it is important that we do this. Christian meditation is an important part of our spiritual growth, and it is too often neglected. Let us reserve some time each day, not only for Bible reading, but also for meditating on God’s word.

The Treasury of David tells us, "As the miser often returns to look upon his treasure, so does the devout believer by frequent meditation turn over the priceless wealth which he has discovered in the book of the Lord. To some men meditation is a task; to the man of cleansed way, it is a joy."

Another advantage of regular Bible reading is that we will not forget God’s word. As we re-read passages, we will be reminded of things that may have been forgotten, and we will correct our ideas which are based on a faulty memory of scripture.

We had a young Assistant Pastor one time who quoted a scripture as his "favorite verse in the Bible from childhood." He did this on more than one occasion. It was obvious to me that he didn’t spend much time reading the Bible, because he was misquoting the verse combining two verses from different parts of the Bible, and he had apparently been doing this for years. If he had been regularly reading the Bible, he would have discovered at least one of the two verses and realized the error he was making.

We all make mistakes like this where we misquote or mis-remember Biblical passages. Or sometimes we think the Bible teaches something because someone else taught us that way. When we read the Bible for ourselves, we may discover that we don’t agree with the interpretation of the person who taught us. But we won’t know that unless we read it for ourselves. And regular Bible reading gives us the added benefit of correcting our own misconceptions. As we spend time reading and re-reading the Bible, our mind is focused on God and we remember more of what he has taught. As the psalmist says, it will cause us to delight in his statutes. If we truly love God, we will want to read his word. And as we read it, we will gain a greater love for God.

In 1867 Plumer commented, "All the fuel to keep the fire of devotion burning on the altar of the heart is the word of God."

Now the psalmist points out the importance of not just reading God’s word, but living it. It is one thing to know what we have been taught, but it is quite another to put into practice that teaching. The psalmist asks that God will help him to live and to observe God’s word. To live God’s word, we must apply it to our daily situations and circumstances. The instruction from the Bible can be used each day throughout the day if we are willing to live it and allow scripture to have an impact on our life. But not only applying God’s word, the psalmist prays that he will be able to observe God’s word. I think he is asking for help in obeying scripture. We can know God’s word and even see how it applies to our life, but our Christian task is to also obey God’s word – to follow the instructions from the Bible which we have learned.

We like to make excuses for our actions. We easily ignore doing what we know we should. But as we spend more time in Bible reading and Bible study, we discover a desire to obey, to observe God’s word in our life. Bible reading feeds our spirit. And as our spiritual side grows, we gain new desires, insight, and strength. Bible reading helps us grow in faith and helps us to be obedient.

The psalmist had discovered that as he spent time reading scripture, he beheld wondrous things. His prayer is that God may continue to open his eyes to spiritual insight. Is this your prayer? Do you long to learn new spiritual truths from God? If so, spend time in the Bible. Notice the psalmist tells us we behold these wondrous things in God’s law, his written word. The more time we spend in reading, study, reflection, and prayer, the more our eyes will become open.

Spurgeon points out, "Some men can perceive no wonders in the gospel, but David felt sure that there were glorious things in the law: he had not half the Bible, but he prized it more than some men prize the whole. He felt that God had laid up great bounties in his word, and he begs for power to perceive, appreciate, and enjoy the same. We need not so much that God should give us more benefits, as the ability to see what he has given."

As we continue this new year, and especially for these two months, let us dedicate ourselves to spend time each day in Bible reading and study. By devoting time to God, you will find that you too will behold "wondrous things" from God.