Lighting The Way Series

The alphabet has always been foundational to learning. If you’ve ever watched The Sound of Music, you probably remember the scene where Maria is teaching the children to sing. She tells them, “Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. When you read, you begin with A B C.”

One of the first things we learn in school is the alphabet. I have vague memories of the Kindergarten class having groups of pictures of things that began with each letter. In youth groups, there’s a common ice breaker game to help get to know names in a new setting. You say your name, and then name a couple of things that start with the same letter. For example, my name is Scott, a food is spaghetti, and an animal is snake. Churches and ministries often use acronyms to help people remember the event name. Here at the Church of Christ, we have JAM Club- Jesus And Me and LOL Youth- Live Out Loud. Some preachers like to use alliteration to outline their sermon. I began to look for a funny example, but came across this instead- Alliterations are almost always absolutely atrocious- and decided to stop looking.

But when David wrote Psalm 119, he built it around the Hebrew alphabet- all 22 letters. This resulted in a psalm that is 176 verses divided into 22 stanzas with 8 verses, each verse in the stanza starting with the same letter. Our passage today is the 14th stanza, based on the letter nun- creating a psalm full of non-atrocious alliteration.

Read Psalm 119:105-112 and pray.

I’m going to stay focused on David’s use of language to communicate just a bit longer. You see, not only were all these verses in alliteration, David chose his words to draw a picture illustrating what God’s word is for us.

For years, when I read verse 105, I pictured someone who was struggling in the dark of night. Looking at the Hebrew, I realized I was only partly right. The first line is “Your word is a LAMP to my feet.” The Hebrew word for lamp is Ner. It’s a word that describes the oil burning lamp that someone holds in their hand as they move around at night, like a predecessor to a flashlight. It lights up the area around one’s feet, so they can see well enough to know where they’re going.

The second line is “And a LIGHT to my path.” The Hebrew word for light is Or. This describes a much brighter source of light, more like sunshine lighting up the day and revealing the way much more clearly.

As I got thinking about this, I realized that David is reminding us that God’s word is needed in all circumstances. Whether it’s the darkness of night- the struggles we may be going through- turn to God’s word to cast light on the situation. When it’s the light of day and life seems to be going well, remain in God’s word to remain on the path. Dark or light, God’s word lights the way, He is our guide.

During my study, I noticed a few other passages that used the same type of metaphor of light to describe God’s word. Read Proverbs 6:23. This verse is written from the viewpoint of parents who are teaching God’s word to their children. God’s commandment is a lamp, His teaching is a light, their purpose is to protect the children from the temptations of the world, adultery being the example used in this passage.

In 2 Samuel 22:29, as David is celebrating that God has delivered him from Saul, he refers to God Himself as the lamp that lightens the darkness. And in 2 Peter 1:19, Peter, who was an eye witness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, tells us to pay attention to God’s word- it is the light shining in the darkness that will get you through until the dawn comes and the Son returns.

If God’s word is a lamp by night and a light by day, how do we put it to use in our lives? First, David tells us that God’s word is given for guidance. Read vss 105-6. How does light guide us? Well, for centuries sailors have looked to the skies for navigational purposes. They keep track of the north star at night, knowing it’s in a steady location. They know the sun rises in the east, midday is more overhead but to the south, and then sets in the west. (When I’m indoors I become very directionally challenged, so I may very well have pointed in the wrong direction for all of that.)

Drivers today know how important it is to have good headlights to light the way. I grew up in the country and worked at a Pizza Hut my senior year. There was more than one occasion after working to close, that I would wonder why it seemed so dark that night before realizing that I hadn’t switched on my headlights, the streetlights were bright enough at the beginning of the drive that I hadn’t noticed until I got out of town.