Why Read the Bible This Year

The focus of Psalm 119 is God’s Word and as you read this psalm you get the strong sense that the psalmist loved God’s Word. In verse 97 he shouts out, “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.” Have you ever done that?

We may wonder why the psalmist so loved the Word. You don’t have to read far in chapter 119 before you begin to see why it was so precious to Him. His reasons include:

· It makes us blessed of the Lord (vs. 1)

· It insures we will not be put to shame (vs. 6)

· It keeps us from sin (vs. 9,11,36)

· It is our counselor giving us great guidance (vs. 24,105,130,133)

· It strengthens us when we are grief stricken (vs. 28,50)

· It helps produce reverence for God (vs. 38,63)

· It provides for us the way of salvation (vs.41,155)

· It gives us an answer for those who reproach us (vs. 42)

· It gives us much comfort (vs. 52,76,92)

· It gives us wisdom, discernment and knowledge (vs. 66,98-100,104)

· It helps us stay on the right path (vs. 110)

· It keeps us single-minded (vs. 113)

· It gives us the only security for life (vs. 152,160)

· It offers great peace as it keeps us from stumbling (vs. 165)

Centuries later the Apostle Paul penned similar words to the young Timothy. In 2 Timothy 3:15-17 he writes, “…and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” Paul found in the Scriptures a treasure of incomparable worth!

Since it is true that the Scriptures are such a value to us, why is it that they are so easy to neglect? William Wilberforce, member of the British Parliament in the last 18^th and early 19^th centuries who was instrumental in abolishing the slave trade in the British Empire admitted his neglect. He wrote on his birthday one year, “I fear that my devotions are too much hurried, that I do not read Scripture enough. I must grow in grace; I must love God more; I must feel the power of Divine things more. Whether I am more or less learned signifies not. Whether even I execute the work which I deem useful is comparatively unimportant. But beware my soul of lukewarmness.”

That same year, as his New Year began with Holy Communion he entered into new vows. He said, “I will press forward and labor to know God better and love Him more.”

As our New Year is upon us, I want to encourage us all to make a similar vow. Take the Bible Reading challenge and commit to reading through the Bible this year. Use the M’Cheyne’s Calendar or a calendar of your own. Avail yourself to the devotional guides (Bryce Morgan and Don Carson both have devotionals that follow the calendar.) Do so in the hopes that you will, as Wilberforce put it, “grow in grace,…love God more,…feel the power of Divine things more”.

I’ll be praying that God does a great work in you and through you as you avail yourself to diligent reading and studying of His Word.