Psalms 119:2 Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.
In the first week of this year I came to Psalms 119 in my Bible reading. Psalms 119:2 says, “Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.” Someone has said, “A new day is a fresh start to a wise person.” The same is true of a new year or a new month. It seems to be easier to make a fresh start of things when there is a date you can look at and say, “This is the beginning,” whether you are referring to the week, month or year. The fact is, you can start anew on any given day, but it is just easier on the first of a week, month, or year, when you have a set time and think, “This is a new day.” Every day is a fresh start to a wise person.
A frequent New Year’s resolution for people who love the Lord is, “I want to read the Bible through this year.” That is not necessarily a bad goal, but let’s talk about aspirations, goals, and habits.
When it comes to reading your Bible, there are aspirations, goals, and habits, and what you invest in your Bible depends greatly upon what you hope to gain from it. Verse 2 tells us that a person is blessed by keeping God’s testimonies and seeking Him with the whole heart. At the outset, it is interesting that keeping God’s Words is companion to seeking God Himself. I can’t draw closer to God if I do not know Who God is, how He is, and what He has said. The way to do that is to read and understand the Bible.
So, think about aspirations, goals, and habits. Here is someone who says “My New Year’s resolution is to lose twenty-five pounds this year.” That is a goal, and these are interchangeable to some extent, but the unstated aspiration is, “I want to look better and feel better.” That is the desire behind all this, the driving force. The concrete goal is “I want to lose twenty-five pounds.”
All that is worth nothing unless there are habits. Losing twenty-five pounds is merely abstract. What does that mean I am going to do as far as what I eat? What is the habit going to be? It may mean I am not going to eat this or I am going to eat that every day at the same time. So, aspirations lead to goals, and goals are bolstered by habits. When it comes to reading the Bible, if you are going to seek God with the whole heart, that means knowing His Word.
My aspirations or desires, not my goals or habits, for reading the Bible are delight, understanding, and life. Throughout this psalm you find the idea of delight. Verse 16 says, “I will delight myself in thy statutes.” There are 176 verses in this psalm, and all but a very few deal directly with the Word of God. There are perhaps ten synonyms for God’s Word in Psalm 119 like statutes, judgment, laws, commands, etc. So, I want to delight. “I will delight myself in thy statues,” it says. “O how love I thy law! it is my mediation all the day,” says verse 97.
So, the first thing as far as aspiration is that I want to enjoy reading the Word of God. Duty may have a place, but I’m not a better Christian just because I read the Bible every day. It is not reading the Bible, but understanding the Bible that is important. That has to begin with a desire to know and love it. So, my aspiration for reading the Bible is that I want to delight in it and love it.
Secondly, there needs to be understanding. There is no meaningful reading of the Bible without understanding. Verse 27 says, “Make me to understand the way of thy precepts.” Later, on it repeatedly talks about understanding. Verse 73 says, “Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments.” It is not just reading the Bible that is important; it is understanding what you are reading so you can do something with it.
Ultimately, the desire behind reading the Bible is just life itself. In verse 25 it says, “Quicken me according to thy word.” It is God’s Word that gives that kind of life. Don’t you want to be able to delight in the Word of God, understand what you are reading, and know God’s mind on issues like how to treat people, how to treat money, and how to know what is right and wrong? Wouldn’t you like to know God’s mind on your matters? I believe you can. It is not a matter of being genius, but it does come down to your aspirations that lead to your goals that are bolstered by your habits. So, remember delight, understanding, and life.
There is a difference between knowing what you have read and knowing where you have read in the Bible. Perhaps I say to you, “Hey, did you read the Bible today?” You say, “Yes, I read Matthew 1.” Well, that’s good, but Matthew 1 is an address; it is not the person who lives there. Suppose you asked me, “Wil, did you meet anyone today?” I say, “Yes, 2501 Oak Ave.” That is not a person; that is an address. Who lives there? That is what you are asking. If I say that I’ve read Matthew 1, that is an address where I find something. That is not who is actually residing there. To be sure, it is work and a habit that must be cultivated to understand what God has said and know what you should do with it.
We will talk more about that in subsequent days, but what you invest into the Word of God, time, effort and intent, really depends on what you hope to get out of it. Three things I think we should all hope to get are delight, love for the Word of God; understanding, making sense of it all; and life, judgment and savvy for life.