Psalm 119:12-16

"Praise be to you, O LORD; teach me your decrees. With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word."

Again the psalmist requests God's help in learning His decrees and proclaims the benefits of knowing and following them. He compares his joy in this, to that of possessing great riches. He declares his complete enjoyment in following and knowing God's decrees and declares that he will not neglect God's Word.

What do you suppose it might look like, practically, to neglect God's Word? To my mind it could take a number of forms. First, the neglect of reading God's Word at all (in favor of some other activity perhaps) would seem an obvious answer. Second, there is the reading of God's Word, but neglecting to put it into action in one's day to day life (for example: commiting adultery despite the Bible clearly declaring it to be a sin). Then, there is a neglect which I believe to be more subtle and more easily fallen into: the neglect to truly study God's Word, instead of simply breezing through it at the speed you would a bedtime story or an interesting news article.

Unfortunately, many people, spend more time searching for depth of meaning in a piece of classic literary fiction and more time memorizing bits of scholarly texts, than they do studying their Bible.

Often times the Bible is turned to as a source of counseling in time of need- and that is good. The problem arises when someone flips open their Bible, reads one or two chapters at best and suddenly decides they know what those verses are trying to say and that they know the answer to their problem. Now, sometimes, yes, it can happen that way, but many times their are layers, and circumstances, and crossreferences which can cast an entirely new light on a given set of verses.

No portion of the Bible is meant to stand alone. As the true and living Word of God, it must all work together to present God's message. Where one verse may appear to say one thing at first glance, there may be another verse which seems to directly contradict it, again at first glance. Yet when you take those same two verses and add in their contexts and a thorough knowledge of the Bible as a whole, you may find that either a new understanding of one or the other of the verses is revealed, or that the two seemingly exclusive verses actually coexist.

*** I know that there are those who would say that portions of the Bible contradict each other and therefore we must carefully choose which to believe and which to discard, but I hold that this is an impossibility as God does not lie, and if it is not Truth than it is a lie. There are portions (such as cultural laws) which were circumstancially based, but there is still truth and a knowledge of God to be gained from them. I believe that the Bible must be studied and accepted in its entirety or not at all.

Note: As always, I include myself in any exhortations. I have no delusions of perfection. I welcome any comments and questions presented in a considerate, but honest manner.