Committed to Christ: Bible Reading
Sycamore Creek Church
March 16/17, 2014
Tom Arthur
Psalm 119
Peace Friends!
Let’s face it. The Good Book is hard to read. In fact, it may be the best selling book of all time with enough copies to get us
to the moon and back, but I suspect that many of those copies are setting on a shelf somewhere gathering dust. I came across this helpful infographic that shows us the state of things when it comes to books being sold, but I’m skeptical that those 3,900,000,000 Bibles sold have all been read. I read that most families have about four copies of the Bible. I probably have fifty! But I don’t read them all.
When we look at those in the room, there are a lot of different people in the room when it comes to the Bible:
- Some are apathetic about it and simply don’t read it.
- Some think it’s a dangerous book and stay away from it.
- Some think it’s a hard book to understand and not worth the effort and don’t read it.
- Some think it’s a hard book to understand and worth the effort and put a lot of time into reading it.
- Some think it’s God’s inerrant (without error) and infallible (reliable) word and read it daily.
- Some think it’s God’s inerrant (without error) and infallible (reliable) word and rarely read it.
- Some think it’s a good spiritual and moral guide and read it occasionally when looking for guidance.
- Some don’t know what to think about it but read it daily and encounter God regularly in their reading.
During the month of February we took an anonymous survey to get a lay of the land for how often people in our church read the Bible. Here are the results:
Survey Results: Do you read the Bible?
2 – No, I have never read the Bible.
1 – No, I don’t read the Bible, but I want to with all my heart.
6 – I used to, but I don’t anymore.
32 – Yes, I read the Bible sometimes.
17 – Yes, I read the Bible frequently.
12 – Yes, I read the Bible on a daily basis.
My own experience with reading the Bible has been mixed. I remember growing up and walking in on my mom reading the Bible in her prayer chair. It still happens today! She’s never upset that I’m interrupting her reading the Bible. She just looks up with a smile and waits for my question or comment. Once she has satisfied me, she goes back to reading her Bible. This makes me wonder how often my kids will walk in on me reading the Bible. How likely is that to happen in your home? I share this just to let you know that I had a mother who modeled for me the importance of reading the Bible daily, but as a kid I didn’t follow her model.
When I was in third grade I had an incident with a skateboard. In the wisdom of a third grader I decided to skate down a huge hill while wearing my plastic soccer cleats. When the skateboard got going so fast that it wobbled back and forth, I jumped ship. Of course, my plastic cleats had no traction on the asphalt to stop me, but my knee did. I tore my knee up pretty bad, and there was a lot of blood everywhere. I had to walk a mile to get home, bleeding the whole way. When I got home my mom wasn’t there, so I climbed into bed, and prayed a desperate Hail Mary to God, “God, I’ll read the entire Bible if you stop my knee from bleeding.” I picked up my Bible and began reading Genesis, the first book of the Bible. About three chapters in, my mom came home, my knee had stopped bleeding, and I stopped reading the Bible. I didn’t keep that promise then, but I have since read the Bible several times over. in her prayer chair. It still happens today! She’s never upset that I’m interrupting her reading the Bible. She just looks up with a smile and waits for my question or comment. Once she has satisfied me, she goes back to reading her Bible. This makes me wonder how often my kids will walk in on me reading the Bible. How likely is that to happen in your home? I share this just to let you know that I had a mother who modeled for me the importance of reading the Bible daily, but as a kid I didn’t follow her model.
In high school, I was very active in youth group. We were reminded regularly that we should be reading our Bibles daily. I don’t know that I read my Bible daily, but I did pick up the practice of reading a devotional every day, or most days. I don’t know why I picked this particular devotional, but I began reading Our Daily Bread (http://odb.org). Maybe I picked it because they would send it free to your house. They still do that today!
I had grown up with a certain view of the Bible called “inerrancy.” This view of the Bible claimed that the Bible was without error in any way, although it usually admitted that this was in the original “autographs” written by the authors themselves. I wrestled with this view of the Bible considerably while in college. I didn’t wrestle with it so much because I thought there were a lot of glaring errors in significant things, but I wrestled with it because of how this view had been used over the years to create “inerrant” interpretations (like a literal six days of creation) while ignoring that there was any interpretation going on at all.
When I graduated college, got married, moved to Petoskey, and began working at the Petoskey United Methodist Church, I got involved in leading a thirty-four week Bible study called Disciple Bible Study. This study covered most of the Bible from cover to cover. I believe this might have been the first time I made good on my third-grade bargain to God and read the Bible all the way through. But in this reading of the Bible with a small group over a year, I encountered a power in the Bible that I had never encountered before. It was a power to convict and to call. It was during this Bible study that I began to sense my call to be a pastor and where Sarah and I were first convicted to begin to share our house with those who were in need in some way.
During my time in Petoskey I eventually let the idea of inerrancy go. I felt it had so many problems that it was no longer tenable. In doing so I became uprooted. If the Bible wasn’t “without error” then how could it be trusted? When I was called to be a pastor and went off to seminary, I was afraid that seminary would completely destroy my view of the Bible and all I would be left with was some old crusty tradition-laden book. Thankfully, that’s not what happened. I went to Duke Divinity School which required all incoming students to take an entire year of Old Testament. I had Ellen Davis as my Old Testament professor. She saved the Bible for me. She showed me another way to look at the Bible besides a book “with errors” a book “without errors.” She showed me that the Bible was a collection of writings where the community of faith had encountered God. The Bible is a story that we can enter and find our place that becomes a faithful guide to life and faith. There is an ongoing discussion among the community of faith about what these stories mean for us today. The Bible is a book that convicts, challenges, and confronts our complacency with the holiness of God. It is a book that comforts us in our brokenness with the compassion of God. And perhaps most surprisingly, it does all of these things in an artful and creative way.
What I’d like to do with the rest of our time today is show you one example of how the Bible teaches us about itself in an artful and creative way. I’d like to do that with the longest chapter in the Bible: Psalm 119. Psalm 119 is 176 verses. It is a love poem about the Bible. But it is no ordinary love poem. It isn’t like someone sat down and just started writing lovey dovey stuff about the Bible and after 176 verses was exhausted. No. Psalm 119 has a unique hidden structure. It’s hidden in the English but it’s obvious in its original language. Psalm 119 is an acrostic with eight verses per letter of the Hebrew alphabet. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. So 22 x 8 = 176. This means that the first eight verses all begin with A. The next eight verses all begin with B, and so on. Not only does it have that unique form of an acrostic, but every line has a synonym in it for the Bible. Every line! Now that’s artistic.
So today I’d like to look at the ABGs of the Bible. ABGs? Yes, in Hebrew, there is no C. Hebrew goes Aleph, Beth, and Gimmel. So let’s begin at the beginning.
ABGs of Bible Study – Aleph
The first eight verses of Psalm 119 begin with Aleph. The first verse of Psalm 119 begins with the word “Asher” which means happy, fortunate, or blessed. Here it is:
[Asher] Happy are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the Lord.
~Psalm 119:1
From the first verse of Psalm 119 we learn that if you want to know the way of life that will lead to life, read, study, obey, and love the words of God. Happiness comes in reading, knowing, and walking in the way of the Bible. Those who do so are fortunate and blessed. If you want to be happy, fortunate, and blessed, the Bible will be a significant part of your life.
ABGs of Bible Study – Beth
The second set of eight verses in Psalm 119 all begin with Beth. Verse eleven begins with the word, “Buleve” which means in my heart. Here it is:
[Buleve] In my heart I treasure your word
so that I may not sin against you.
~Psalm 119:11
Reading the Bible isn’t just about rotely following commands and rules out of duty. It’s about shaping and forming your heart, the seat of not only the emotions, but the governing center of the physical, intellectual, and psychological (EDB). Ellen Davis liked to tell us that the best word in English to translate what usually gets translated as “heart” is really “imagination.” So you could read this verse in this way: “In my imagination I treasure your word…” How do you image each day? How do you imagine each situation you find yourself in? Does the word of God make its way into your heart and imagination for all of life? There’s nothing rote about that, but it’s a vibrant thriving way of life that Psalm 119 is describing.
ABGs of Bible Study – Gimmel
The third set of eight verses in Psalm 119 all begin with Gimmel. Verse 18 begins with the word, “Galayne” which means “open my eyes.” Here it is:
[Galayne] Open my eyes, so that I may behold
wondrous things out of your law.
~Psalm 119:18
Notice that this is a request to God. The psalmist is asking God to open his eyes as he reads. It takes God’s Spirit illuminating the eyes of our heart, shedding light on dark places, so that we can see and understand. We usually think that we must first understand in order to believe, but here we see something different. We believe in order to understand. When our eyes are open we see the wonder of God’s words. Maybe this is why Jesus said let those with eyes to see and ears to hear, see and hear.
So we’ve looked at Aleph, Beth, and Gimmel. When I wrote this sermon originally, I had nineteen more points to get through the whole alephbeth! But it became clear fairly quickly that this was absurd. But I would like to jump ahead to Mem and Nun and give you two more bonus insights into the Bible.
Bonus! – Mem
Quite a ways into Psalm 119 you will find eight verses that all begin with Mem. Verse 103 begins with the word “MaNemlutzu” which means how sweet. Here it is:
[MaNemlutzu] How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
~Psalm 119:103
I find it interesting that the psalmist calls the Bible “sweet.” The Bible is, admittedly, a bit of an acquired taste. It’s like wine or beer. Do you remember the first time you tried one of them? You probably had to gag it down. I still don’t like the taste of beer, but the beer aficionados around me always wax eloquently about this or that sweet taste of beer. They offer me a sip, and I gag it down. I had the same experience when I first tasted wine, but over time I’ve acquired a taste for wine. It took time and perseverance, but now I can’t imagine not liking wine. The more time we spend in the Bible the more that the words become sweet as honey. The Bible grows on us. How much could you be missing out on if you did not give yourself time to acquire a taste for it?
Bonus! Bonus! – Nun
Following eight verses that all begin with Mem you’ll find eight verses that all begin with Nun. Verse 105 begins with the word, “NerLuragne” which means lamp to my feet. Here it is:
[NerLuragne] A lamp to my feet is your word
and a light to my path.
~Psalm 119:105
What the psalmist is telling you is that when you feel like you are in the dark and you don’t know where to go or where to turn, the Bible provides practical guidance for your next step. It may not always cast light on a mile down the road, but the more time you spend in the Bible the more you will know what to do right now. This isn’t always because there’s a verse about what to do for every situation. “Lord, should I buy a new car or a used one?” No. But rather it forms and shapes your character so that you begin to look at the world the way God looks at the world and you begin to see the path forward if just one step at a time.
Reading the Bible
All of this is good and dandy, but it really doesn’t mean much if you don’t actually get in the Bible and read it for yourself. I’d like to spend the rest of our time giving you a couple of tips for reading the Bible daily in a modern world.
First, if you don’t know about the YouVersion app, get on your phone right now and download it. Here’s a brief video that highlights what it does:
Millions of people have downloaded this app and find it helpful for reading, listening to, and watching the Bible.
Another great website I like is www.pray-as-you-go.org. Here you’ll find a bit more contemplative reading plan. Each day, you can download a twelve or thirteen minute MP3 that includes some music, scripture, and questions for reflection. Just listen to it in the car or while you’re exercising. You can even download an entire week at a time. Turn your car into a prayer room. Turn the gym into a temple of prayer. Turn your run or walk into a prayer and Bible reading walk. BINGO! You can pray or read the Bible as you go.
So you don’t like any of those ideas. What about getting daily emails sent to your inbox that include the Bible portions to read? Can you turn your daily email reading into daily Bible reading too? Check out www.biblegateway.com to sign up for an email Bible reading plan.
Want to go deeper? Want to be a Hebrew or Greek scholar even though you don’t know Hebrew or Greek? Then check out www.BlueLetterBible.org. You can easily look up the original languages and go deeper without knowing Greek or Hebrew!
Personally, I still like the old fashioned bound book with a cover and back and pages in between. I am currently using the NRSV Daily Bible to read through the Bible. It splits the Bible into 365 readings and goes from front to back, which is not necessarily the best way to read the Bible, but it works for me. I began in January of 2013, and I’m currently somewhere in the 200s. Moral of the story: if you don’t get through the Bible in 365 consecutive days (aka “a year”) who cares? Your pastor doesn’t either. Just keep reading.
One last way of reading the Bible that I want to share with you is what’s sometimes called “The Classic Bible Reading Plan.” If you divide the number of chapters in the Bible by 365 you’ll get four. So if you read four chapters a day, you’ll get through the Bible in a year. You don’t have to read all four chapters side by side. So here’s the classic way of doing it: read two chapters from the Old Testament, read one chapter from the New Testament, read one Proverb (and when you get to the end of the Proverbs just begin again and repeat the book), and read one Psalm (repeat the Psalms in the same manner that you repeated the Proverbs). Pretty simple. Now all you have to do is do it!
You’ve heard my story about reading the Bible, I want you to hear one more story. Justin Kring was baptized at our church a couple of summers ago and has been reading the Bible through for the first time. Here’s his experience:
I don’t know what level your commitment has been, but I know what level my commitment has been. Today we are all invited to take one step in a new commitment.
Are you ready to climb one or more steps in your Bible reading? Check all that apply.
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