IT appears evident that God, by His Spirit, is leading many of His people at the present time to set an especial value upon His own Word. Many see that they have read it scarcely at all, others that they have read it in a wrong way, or that they have substituted something in the place of it, such as the word and writings of man, which in our day are so multiplied and profuse.
When we come to read God’s pure word with faith and prayer alone, it seems like a new book. Passages we had long been familiar with have a new light shed upon them; truths, which in our wisdom we thought we had long mastered, and needed to learn no more, now become like the sweet oil or the heavenly manna; and elementary doctrines and simple statements we find to have a value and profit which we before knew nothing of. These methods of study, viz, faith and prayer, are divine methods. No wonder they produce such blessed results. May they be more known and manifested, as surely they will, if the children of God study the word of God for the heart rather than for the intellect. The true way to learn God’s word is by putting it into practice. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all they that do His commandments” (Ps. 111:10).
But the Holy Spirit is our only authorized Teacher, our recognized Interpreter. His interpretations, His teachings alone, we account genuine, and the word written on the fleshly tables of the heart, that only we account learning.
From Psalm 119 we learn the value set upon the word of God by one of old. He sets himself to compose a poem descriptive of the virtues and excellencies, the qualities and uses of this precious word. Each verse describes, more or less, some new and varied quality of the word of God. What a profitable study for the present day! The writer had proved the power, the preciousness, the value of the word. It seems to have been his source of light, his library of knowledge, his mine of wealth, his casket of treasure. This blessed book suits all times and all circumstances, adapting itself to youth, to maturity and to old age; being the comfort in affliction, the guide in darkness, the joy in adversity, the companion in prosperity; moreover, useful for cleansing, quickening, correcting, edifying, teaching, strengthening, healing, &c. &c.
Does not all that which is going on around us teach us to cultivate communion with the Scriptures, which alone give a just comment upon everything? And shall we not set them above all price, and be careful lest we put anything in place of them, whatever be its claims or its pretensions?
The panting, the longing for, the preventing the dawning of the morning, the making haste, and similar expressions, show what state of mind we should have in reference to the word of God.