Have you ever encountered a passage of Scripture that just didn’t click with your brain? That really was no more than words on a page?
That sounds sacrilegious, doesn’t it? Rebellious in so many ways. (Also, it bugs me that sacrilegious reverses the “i” and the “e” in religious, making it very hard for me to spell, but that’s not important right now.)
Let’s stop and think about this for a moment, though. If we believe that the Holy Spirit brings the Word of God to life in our hearts and minds, using black and white words on a page to help us get to know the true Word, Jesus Himself, then it would make sense that the Spirit wouldn’t illuminate all of the Bible to us at once. It would be far too much. Our brains couldn’t handle it. So, from that perspective, it makes sense that we don’t “get” all of the Bible.
But that should never keep us from working toward that goal, opening ourselves to the Spirit’s guidance as we grasp truths a little at a time.
When we do, we will eventually experience that moment when something that didn’t make sense before suddenly does. When what was just words on a page becomes alive. When understanding clicks and the light comes on.
That’s the Spirit, by the way, fulfilling the promise of Jesus to not just comfort but teach and guide. It’s an amazing reality!
Psalm 119 used to be one of those “words on a page” passages for me. As the longest chapter in the Bible, it often felt tedious and repetitive. Then the Spirit opened it up to me. It’s been years, decades even, since that happened, but I still remember it vividly. Suddenly this poem went from words on a page to a celebration of the very Word I was exploring. I began to sense the passion behind the words.
We have no idea who penned Psalm 119. It could have even been a group of worshipers, each assigned a letter of the Hebrew alphabet (Psalm 119 is an acrostic poem with 22 stanzas, one for each letter of the alphabet) and told to write words of praise to God for His law. Or it could have been a single individual excited about how the law helped them understand God. Whatever the case, Psalm 119 is essentially a love song for the Word of God, focused on what we now know as the first five books of the Bible.
I “caught” that passion one day when reading it after another passage had caught my eye. I don’t remember what the other passage was, just that I was excited about learning and growing and experiencing the teaching of the Holy Spirit. So, when I read Psalm 119, I realized the psalmist was experiencing the same thing, a joyous response to the life-giving reality of the Word of God. The psalm would never again be just words on a page.
I confess that right now I’m in a bit of a bog when it comes to reading the Bible. I do it every day, but processing takes work. Very little jumps off the page at me. I have to work for it. Dig for it. Study it. All of which is a good approach to Scripture, but it can be hard to do for my daily reading when I don’t have several hours to sit with a chapter.
I’ve been in this place before. A place where I get the most out of the Sunday school or Bible study passage that I sit with and immerse myself in for a whole week rather than from my daily reading. I feel like I’m missing a lot and struggling a lot.
So, I go back to Psalm 119, and I’m reminded of the deep beauty of the Word and of the reality that the Spirit is teaching me faithfully. Sometimes it’s bold and bright and eye-catching. Sometimes it’s slow and steady and even laborious. But, it’s always there. And I am thankful.
