The Bible is so available; it’s as close as reaching out our hand. The Bible is on our phones and our nightstands in hotels all across our nation. The Bible is handed down from generation to generation. Around eighty million Bibles are printed every year and it is thought that there are between five and seven billion copies of the Bible printed in the last 1,500 years. The Guinness Book of World Records tells us that the Bible is the best-selling book of all time, and it is the best-selling book each and every year. The very book that commands you, “Thou Shall Not Steal,” is the world’s “most stolen” book, as copies of it disappear from hotels and hospitals every year.
Banning the Bible
The Bible is the most banned book of all time. You can guess that dictators such as Stalin sought to ban the Bible. But the Bible was the most challenged book in school libraries and public libraries around the nation according to the American Library Association in 2015. The Keller ISD recently returned the Bible to circulation in its libraries after it was flagged for removal last year. The Bible has been challenged as objectionable reading for students and schools since I was in college. And it’s not just us Americans that flag the Bible. When the wind is right, South Koreans launch “Bible Balloons” into North Korea, where the Bible is banned. An American pastor Eric Foley fills forty-foot balloons filled with hydrogen, and they are chocked full of Bibles on SD cards, flash drives, and photos of the Bible’s pages. With GPS technology, he can direct the balloons to go into rural areas. But the North Korean regime will shoot down the balloons if they are spotted. “The Bible has been criticized, challenged, and banned by individuals, groups, and governments through centuries of persecution.” What other book has this kind of reaction?
The Bible and the USA
Despite all this, the Bible has been special for our country, the United States of America. The Bible is so important that astronaut Buzz Aldrin read the words of John 15:5 silently before his counterpart Neil Armstrong said those immortal words, “One small step for man…” The first time men stepped off this planet, they depended on the Bible for inner strength. Martin Luther King, Jr. used imagery from the Bible to argue for civil rights as he talked about the “promised land.” The Bible helped frame our nation’s constitution, and it’s our nation's foundation for civil rights. And every President except one used the Bible when being sworn into office. And the one exception was John Quincy Adams. God has given us a great gift when He gave us the Bible. The central storyline of the Bible is the worship of God made possible by the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.
If you’ll find Psalm 119 with me (page 609 in your Black pew, Bibles in front). One thing the Bible has in common with every book that has ever been written is that it is absolutely useless if it stays closed. The psalmist takes 176 verses to motivate us to get into the Bible and get the Bible into us.
1. I Meditate On Your Word All the Day
“Oh how I love your law!
It is my meditation all the day.
98 Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,
for it is ever with me” (Psalm 119:97-98).
1.1 Meditate
The word “meditation” in verse 97 is the idea of thoughtful contemplation. The idea here is not to read a verse of the day and go about with your day. The idea here is to pull from the pages of Scripture all day for every part of your day. For every possible thing that comes your way, you connect Scripture to real life.
Earlier the psalmist said, “I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways” (Psalm 119:15). My greatest single habit is to read the Bible each and every day. There have been seasons when I neglected to read my Bible. I am not perfect. But again, my greatest single habit is to read the Bible each and every day. My reading of God’s Word has saved me from more heartache…
… given me more wisdom…
… protected me from more mistakes…
...given me more comfort…
… and provided me with more encouragement than anything else I’ve done in life.
Listen to the words of Psalm 119: “How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 Through your precepts I get understanding;
therefore I hate every false way” (Psalm 119:103-104).
He meditates because there is such profound wisdom that comes from Scripture.
1.2 Why Meditate
Again, the longest chapter in your Bible is devoted to how important the Bible is to our lives. Now hear this: the aim of Bible study is not just to know the Bible better. No, the aim of Bible study is to know God better.
How important is it to know God? Knowing God is oxygen to your lungs. Knowing God is water to the soil.
The quality of your life is in relation to how well you know God. Again, the aim of Bible study is to know God better.
1.3 Embarrassing
“Oh how I love your law!
It is my meditation all the day.
98 Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,
for it is ever with me (Psalm 119:97-98).
If you were to estimate what percentage of your personal beliefs will be an embarrassment to your great-grandchildren, what percentage you would estimate? Again, if you were to estimate what percentage of your personal beliefs will be an embarrassment to your great-grandchildren, what percentage you would estimate?
1.3.1 Planned Parenthood and Eugenics
How much of what is written in blogs, tweets, and Snapchat will be dismissed as embarrassing to people fifty years from now? Today, Planned Parenthood clinics dot the American landscape of America. The organization arose from the beliefs of a woman named Margaret Sanger who believed in a racist ideology called eugenics. Sanger believed that certain people were unfit to have children and if we planned breeding for “desirable traits” such as intelligence and hard work ethic, we would be better people. In the early twentieth century, eugenic ideas were popular among highly educated, privileged, and mostly white Americans. I wish I could say that Planned Parenthood had improved on its founder but I cannot. We are rightfully embarrassed at the beliefs of eugenics today as we will one day be embarrassed by all thinking that abortion could be thought to be ethically right. What beliefs do you hold right now that will be equally embarrassing as eugenics to the next generation? Or do you think all your personal beliefs are right ??
1.4 The Word is True
The Bible is wisdom dropped into our lives from above. That’s why the Psalmist loves the law because it comes from a supernatural source. The reason he gets wisdom from God is because the Bible is true truth.
“Your righteousness is righteous forever, and your law is true ” (Psalm 119:142).
“But you are near, O Lord, and all your commandments are true” (Psalm 119:160).
“The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever” (Psalm 119:160).
If you don’t accept the Bible as the absolute authoritative, infallible Word of God in every nook and cranny of it
… if there are some parts of the Bible you don’t accept because they’re offensive to you or you don’t believe in a God who would say that … If there are parts of the Bible you follow and parts of the Bible you don’t, I want to ask you a question: what source of truth is greater than the Bible? Where do you turn for real truth, true truth? Where do you go for wisdom?
Jesus was in complete agreement with Psalm 119. He knew wisdom came from God. Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will” (Luke 10:21b). Jesus relied on the power of the Scriptures for His wisdom.
1.5 My Greatest Habit
Again, my greatest single habit is to read the Bible each and every day. My reading of God’s Word has saved me from more heartache…
… given me more wisdom…
… protected me from more mistakes…
...given me more comfort…
… and provided me with more encouragement than anything else I’ve done in life.
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105).
1.6 Be Honest
Be honest with yourself for a moment: If you are not in the habit of listening to what God has to say and letting God speak to you every day, you believe you can make it on your own and do life by yourself. If you are not in the habit of listening to what God has to say and letting God speak to you every day, you don't need God’s help or you believe that what God has to say is not just that important. Now if you deny that, then what single possible could you have for not reading, studying, and meditating on the Bible?
Again, one thing the Bible has in common with every book that has ever been written is it is absolutely useless if it stays closed.
There is not a day in your life that you do not need to hear from God. There is not a day in your life that you do not need to listen to God.
1.7 Wisdom for Every Part of Life
Look at the what the first thing the ancient Hebrew king was to do when he sat on his throne: “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. 19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them…” (Deuteronomy 17:18-19).
Imagine the President sitting down at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, taking a quill pen to start copying out in Hebrew long hand the ancient words of the Torah. What a sight that would be! He’s supposed to copy out the Bible, or some significant chunk of it, and then he’s supposed to read it … every day. Every day that’s what he’s supposed to do. He’s supposed to copy it, keep it nearby so it’s with him all the time, and then read it every day. That’s how valuable the Bible is to life. The Bible isn’t just religious wisdom or good thoughts for Sunday. The Bible is everyday wisdom and sound thinking for all of life.
Imagine if you took a new job and you sat down at your new job to write out the Ten Commandments. That way you can read it and keep it close to you every single day.
1. I Meditate On Your Word All the Day
2. I Meditate On Your Word During Tough Times
“I am severely afflicted;
give me life, O Lord, according to your word!
110 The wicked have laid a snare for me,
but I do not stray from your precepts” (Psalm 119:107, 110).
We don’t know who wrote Psalm 119 and we don’t know when he wrote Psalm 119. We do know that when Psalm 119, this guy was facing some real challenges. But we know this: he was facing some real personal challenges.
2.1 Stress and Anxiety
Life can deal us with some serious setbacks. Max Lucado writes, “Airplanes fall out of the sky. Bull markets go bear. Terrorists will terrorize. And good people do turn bad.” Often we are paralyzed by anxiety and stress when these occur.
2.2 Real-Life Stressors
So many of you are living through substantial challenges right now. In the life of our church currently, I know there is a young mother whose elderly mother is in hospice care, and her father is also suffering from multiple strokes. On top of this, her parents divorced years ago, making life so complicated for this young lady. Another couple’s adult son is addicted to a particular drug and is reluctant to accept any help from the family. This is despite being raised in this church and the prayers of a godly mother and father. Would you pray for each of these precious families in our church?
As of 2013, one in nine people worldwide has had an anxiety disorder. I seriously doubt any of us think this has improved after a worldwide pandemic. The stress and anxiety many feel from life’s stresses are enormous.
Again, the psalmist says: “I am severely afflicted;
give me life, O Lord, according to your word!
110 The wicked have laid a snare for me,
but I do not stray from your precepts” (Psalm 119:107, 110).
2.3 Real Faith
I love the faith of the psalmist. What is faith? Faith is believing God in spite of appearances and obeying God in spite of consequences. Again, faith is believing God in spite of appearances and obeying God in spite of consequences.
2.4 More Real-Life Examples
Recently, a mother in our church family confessed how she is so anxious about what her daughter is hearing and dealing with at school. This mother is overwhelmed with the choices of how to protect her daughter best. Another young mom said she struggles with comparing herself to others around her. She feels she comes up short by comparison. Continually picking up our phones and looking at everyone's Facebook and Instagram highlights creates thoughts of inadequacy and anxiety. Everywhere we look these days, we are anxiety-filled people.
2.5 A Meteor Shower of What Ifs
I love how Max Lucado frames anxiety: “Anxiety is a meteor shower of what-ifs.” What if I don’t close the sale? What if we don’t get the bonus? He says life filled with anxiety is like living perpetually on the plank of a pirate ship.
Studies show that stress and anxiety can be detrimental to our health, there are some heights we cannot reach until we face some serious setbacks and adversity in life. Anxiety will take our breath, and it will take our sleep if we’re not careful. Yet, life’s stressors can push you to a higher level of strength, and personal achievement that you would have never experienced had you not had such a serious setback. When facing a serious setback, are you likely to panic or crumble? How do you respond when you face a serious illness, a job loss, or a severe financial reversal in life? Over and over again, I hear about people who want nothing to do with God, faith, and the church because God failed them.
2.6 I Am Determined
I love this fact about this guy: despite every one of the challenges he faces, he we determined to keep God’s law.
“Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
I have sworn an oath and confirmed it,
to keep your righteous rules” (Psalm 119:105-106).
Are you determined to obey God? I understand that God is the ultimate determiner in our lives, but let me repeat the question: are you determined to obey God? Are you double-dogged, determined to obey the commands of God and to live by the will of God?
Have you made a deep-seated decision to obey God’s will no matter what comes your way? Another way of saying this is, “Do you live by conviction?” You’re not a machine; you’re not a victim of fate. Throw away that silly horoscope. You have a responsibility to choose, my Christian friends! Friend, you make a conscious decision every single day to follow after God. This world is trying to do everything possible to keep you away from God. The world is trying to lead you down a path that will take you away from God’s perfect plan, God’s will for your life.
Yes, when God saves us, He changes us. Yes, He transforms us. We’re a new creation. But every single day, Satan tries to steal and to, kill, and to destroy, we have to make a conscious effort to follow after Almighty God and be diligent about it. Only God determines destinies, but your choices matter, my friend. Yes, you can be overconfident like Peter, who said to Jesus, “I will never desert you,” and the rooster sounded off, reminding Peter he had denied the Lord at a crucial time. Still, this doesn’t mitigate or minimize the importance of your faith-filled, Holy Spirit-inspired choice to choose what is right and what is godly.
