• Psalm 119:1
  Your Word Is a Lamp to My Feet
  Aleph
  Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord!
• Psalm 119:105
  Nun
  Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

It took 104 verses to get to the point. The assigned title for Psalm 119 is “Your Word is a Lamp to My Feet”. The editors of the ESV added that title as they deemed it to be so important that they stated it right up front. That is an editor’s choice.

The editors for the NASB chose “Meditations and Prayers Relating to the Law of God“ as their title, deeming meditation and prayers as the most important.

The NRSVA chose “The Glories of God’s Law”,

The ISV chose “Living in the Law of God”.

Many revisionists chose not to add titles to Psalm 119. This indicates that revisionists have influence in our bible studies. Many of us chose one version to read as our primary study bible for our own personal reasons. I chose to write in the ESV because it is free of copyright and is a modern language unlike the archaic KJV.

What is written in my heart is the KJV, my first and most read version of the bible.

What if we draw the conclusion that if it takes 104 verses to come to the point of this Psalm, then like “Cliffsnotes” we do not have to read all that is written to understand what is important?

Summaries should come only after a thorough study of all of the subject matter. The revisionists do not all agree on what is important. So what is important?

All of it is important because the Holy Spirit will use what has been written to remind us of a verse at a time when that verse holds the meaning we need in the moment.

How do I know that? The bible tells me so. The whole bible and not just my “favorite verses”.

We all have favorite revisions and favorite verses because that makes reading His Word pleasing and encourages us to read more. The Bible is the “Good Book” but it is more than just a good read. It is the truth we need to hear when we need to hear it to serve God’s will. That might be a next step or it might be a correction. We will never know which of those it might be if we only know what others have told us is important.

Romans 10:14

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

Why would anyone listen to a preacher?

The answer is different for everyone but at the core the reason is the same.

Dissatisfaction.

Each of us has to come to grips with how we respond to dissatisfaction. We might not even know why we are dissatisfied. I can only answer for myself and the same goes for each one of us. What we are dissatisfied with is as varied as our experiences.

The issue for the preacher is to offer up a solution to one and only one problem, sin.

If a person is not caught in sin they might not see that sin is their problem. In fact the sin they seek to escape might not even be their own. It might be that of their abuser. Abusers are in every aspect of life seeking those that they can prey upon for their own needs.

The most sinister abuser fails at love. Those that cannot do it, cannot share it and will mask their agenda of abuse under words of love with empty promises. I call this the most sinister abuse because sometimes the abuser themselves do not know what they are doing to their victims. God loves us and if we have never been loved in any way how can we come to know the love of God having never been loved ourselves?

John 13:35

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

The success of the preacher is seen by how his flock loves one another. If a flock cannot love one another, why would a stranger want to join them?

It will never be a safe place for the abused to find help if we do not show them that we share a love they have never experienced for themselves.

The love of Christ abides in us, let it show.