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The Scriptorium

Why We Should Love God's Word

Because it's pure. Psalm 119.140

Psalm 119.137-144 (3)

Pray Psalm 119.140.
Your word is very pure;
Therefore Your servant loves it.

Psalm 119.140, 141.
(Divinum Mysterium: Of the Father’s Love Begotten)
Zeal consumes me for Your Word, O Lord, for my foes forsake Your ways.
Yet Your Word is very, very pure, and I keep it all my days.
I am small and I am much despised, O Lord,
yet Your holy Name I praise,
and Your precepts guide my ways.

Read Psalm 119.137-144; meditate on verse 140.

Preparation
1. How did the psalmist describe God’s Word? What does that mean?

2. What was his own attitude toward the Word?

Meditation
The word “pure” here is metallurgical: “refined.” Psalm 12 uses the same image concerning the Word of God, saying it is refined as in a furnace seven times, that is, perfectly (Ps. 12.6). Pure metal is without flaws or faults, having no impurities and therefore of the highest value. It is stable and solid. Reliable. True.

Apply this image to the Scriptures, then add “exceedingly”. The Scriptures have been prepared by God to be perfect, true, unbreakable, utterly and completely reliable, and therefore valuable above all things (cf. Ps. 119.72). But the only way to appreciate and benefit from the perfection of God’s Word is to love it. Skeptics and unbelievers dismiss the Bible as full of contradictions and nonsense statements. They don’t love the Word and so they not only cannot they will not see its many perfections and wonders. Don’t expect them to unless the Spirit of God bursts into their hearts and minds for a full-soul makeover.

But do not allow yourself to be discouraged or deflected from the perfections of the Word by the dismissive and scornful views of those who neither know nor love it. Receive the Word for what it is. Receive it every day. Marvel at its scope and majesty. Wonder at its mysteries. Praise the Giver of the Word and Him Who dwells in your heart to teach it to you. Rejoice to see Jesus glinting out of every facet of the gem of Scripture. Receive the perfectly refined Word of God by faith and your love for it will increase. Then, as love for the Word increases, you will find the Word increasing in you, as your soul and life take on more of the likeness of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 3.12-18).

The Word is pure, very pure. Love it as God’s servant, and live in the freedom, power, and joy the living Word provides.

Treasures Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
Pure. God’s Word is pure. I love it. And so do you, no doubt. And why wouldn’t we love something of that quality? Something pure is not mixed or adulterated with any other substance or material; it is without any extraneous and unnecessary elements; it is free of contamination. Thus says the Oxford dictionary. God’s sixty-six books are altogether pure, and righteous, and good. And Jesus, The Word, is purity embodied.
Without Jesus, and His purity covering our sin, God could never look at us. “You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness” (Hab. 1.13). But He does. How amazing.

Everything about God is pure. His Word, His love, His wisdom. “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure…” (Jms. 3.17). His holiness exhibits itself in purity that is “like silver tried in a furnace…purified seven times” (Ps. 12.6).

And we have been instructed by Paul to meditate on God’s holiness. We are to think about whatever things are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy. This is the beauty of our King and He, in His purity, is worthy of our minds being set on Him. Loving Him. Obeying Him. Worshiping Him. Forever, to the very end (Ps. 119.112).

And in all His purity He has given us hope that we can live each day in the guidance of this pure Word. And that one day, we will not only see Him in His pure Word, but we will see Him: “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 Jn. 3.2, 3). Pure and purifying hope!

And that is “Why We Should Love God’s Word”!

For reflection
1. The Word of God is pure, as God is pure; but we are not. What are the implications of this for us?

2. Why would we want to purify ourselves as He is pure? What role does the Word of God play in this?

3. How would it be evident to others that we love God’s Word?

The more effectually to repress the foolish rashness with which we are chargeable whenever we imagine that there is any fault in God's word, he declares that in commending it he gives utterance to the unfeigned feeling of his heart, having experienced a blissful pleasure in that purity of which he speaks. John Calvin (1506-1564), Commentary on Psalm 119.140

Pray Psalm 119.137, 138.
Praise God for His upright and righteous Word. Commit yourself in all your ways to following His pathway.

Psalm 119.137, 138.
(Divinum Mysterium: Of the Father’s Love Begotten)
Righteous are You, O my Lord! Upright are Your judgments, too!
All the words You have commanded us we will surely keep and do!
For Your testimonies all are righteous, Lord;
all Your faithful Word is true:
We rejoice, O Lord, in You!

T. M. and Susie Moore

You can listen to a summary of last week’s Scriptorium study by going to our website, www.ailbe.org, and clicking the Scriptorium tab for last Sunday. You can download any or all the studies in this series on Psalm 119 by clicking here.

The winds of false doctrine are exceedingly strong in our day. If we don’t recognize them, we may become swept up in them and blown off course in our walk with Lord. Our ReVision study on “Winds of Doctrine” can help you keep the sails of your soul in the wind of God’s Spirit. You can download all the studies in this series by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (Williston: Waxed Tablet Publications, 2006), available by clicking here.

T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in the Champlain Valley of Vermont.
Books by T. M. Moore

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