Living Word

During that time the devil came and said to him,

“If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.”

 But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say,
‘People do not live by bread alone,

but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” 

Matt 4:3-4 (NLT)

A word study of Psalms and especially Psalm 119 reveals the many benefits produced in our lives from hearing and receiving God’s living word.  The creative voice of his word heals and revives.  It brings encouragement and hope.  It is a lamp to guide our feet and gives light to our understanding.  The psalmist rejoiced in the word like someone who has just discovered great unexpected treasure. 

The word certainly is like a great treasure.  It is a book that is more than a book. It is a fathomless depth of life and knowledge that offers something fresh every day even from passages we have read many times.  It is not just a book of knowledge, but a book of life.  Just as bread gives sustenance to our bodies, so God’s word feeds our souls and illuminates our minds.  As we read, it works deep in our hearts at the core of our being.  

Here again are some words from Anne Rice about reading the Gospels:

Also something else has happened to me in the study of these documents.  I find them inexhaustible in a rather mysterious way.

I’m at a loss to explain the manner in which every new examination of the text produces some fresh insight, some new case of connections, some astonishing link to another part of the canon, or to the Old Testament backdrop which enfolds the whole. 

The interplay of simplicity and complexity seems at times to be beyond human control.

Picking up the Gospel on any given morning is picking up a brand-new book.

In sum, there’s no visible bottom to this well of meaning.  It’s unlike my experience with any other written text.*

For the word of God is alive and powerful.
It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword,
cutting between soul and spirit,
between joint and marrow.
It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. 

Heb 4:12-13 (NLT)

Open my eyes, that I may see

Glimpses of truth you have for me;

Place in my hands the wonderful key

That shall unclasp and set me free.

Silently now I wait for Thee,

Ready, my God, your will to see;

Open my eyes - illumine me,

Spirit divine!

Clara H. Scott (1841-1897)

*Rice, Anne, Called Out of Darkness, a spiritual confession, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008), pp. 221-222.