What Are You Reading? Making Wise the Simple

Well, hi ladies and good morning. I hope that you're having a wonderful start to your week this morning. And we're actually going to jump into Psalm 19 and kind of like a confession that Jacqueline had about hers last week. This isn't so much something that I was personally reading in my own time, but was kind of revealed to me through a Bible study that I did. It was just a one-course thing, and she said something. This is from Christy McLelland. If you know, I'm teaching the Acts study, Gospel on the Ground. We're about to enter our fourth week of that, but this was actually from something different of hers. I just really love the way that she looks at scripture. She looks at it through a Middle Eastern lens, and the lens in the context of which it was written, because we tend to look at things through the Western lens, because that's our culture, right? So, and she said something that I've just kind of been marinating on, something that I've been just pulling apart or thinking about now for the last, I want to say four or five days. It's just been the little pieces that I'm kind of eating on, and it's in Psalm 19, one of my favorite psalms, and this is a psalm that, you know, starts off, the heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands day after day they pour forth speech you know we're looking at and night after night we're just looking at the creation of God but then we get down to verse 7 and you probably know this verse you've probably heard it before these verses and I'm just going to read 7 through 9 and so if you're not driving and if you're sitting just just close your eyes and I know I probably don't have the world's best reading voice but I just want you to take time to just intake these words and to Psalm 19 7 through 9 the law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm and all of them are righteous. So we've established God's word and how great it is um the the the the pureness of it the um that they are right and they bring joy to the heart right that's what it says in verse 8 but there's this particular word in here that that's what i've been stuck on and it's in verse 7 it says the statutes of the lord of trustworthy making wise the simple and maybe if you're like me you think thank goodness because i'm simple and i need somebody to, uh, you know, I need God to show me how to be wise. Right. And that is a way to take that. Um, I just learned this week, didn't know this. There are 400,000 words in the English language and the modern English language. There are only 8,000 in Hebrew. And so old Testament being in Hebrew, um, this again, a Christie is I'm a Christie McLellan ism. She talked about, she had this really good picture of how you can think about, um, how Hebrew words have multiple meanings, right? She said if each word is a suitcase, when you open it up, you can unpack different meanings, and so you have to go to the context of the word, correct? So she looked at this word, simple, and that word actually used in this context is not just when we think simple, we think somebody who's just not overly smart. Can I get an amen? You know, something like that is what we think of, but really what it means in this context is someone who is open-minded, someone who is malleable, someone who is willing to be formed, shaped, changed, transformed by the word of God. And so let's read that verse again with that in context. The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. Refreshment. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple making wise those who are open to teaching and so my question to you today is are you in a place where you're wanting to be taught where you're wanting to be changed where you're going to God's word to be transformed because he transforms us inside out are you interacting with God's word or are you just reading it is it just for information or is it for transformation so I want you to think about that and to definitely think about how in our Western lens, we tend to look at God's word of how does this define me or how does it teach me about myself? Like what is, what does God's word teach me about myself? But I want you to answer a different question. Whenever you come to God's words, God's word, what does this teach me about God? What does this teach me about God? So we look at Psalm 19, seven, verse seven, the law of the Lord is perfect, we find out that his word is perfect. He is so perfect we can't even fully grasp it. He refreshes the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple, the open-minded. So God seeks out those who are ready and willing and wanting to know who he is. He also is perfect. His word is perfect. He is also refreshing to the soul, and he is also trustworthy so i just want you to think about that today and then i want to ask you a question why are you here why are you listening to this devotional why are you taking time to spend time in god's word why are you doing that and oftentimes we can answer that question with um well because you know i want to know more about god or i do want to be transformed or but i want you to sit in this question today i am here because my heart needs fill in that blank is it that like psalm 7 that you need some refreshment for your soul not psalm 7 i'm sorry psalm 19 verse 7 do you need some refreshment for your soul do you need to be reminded that whenever you are open the eyes of your heart when you are open and ready to be transformed that god will be faithful in that that he is trustworthy is it that you need to be reminded that his precepts are right that they are the way to live and they give joy to the heart is that is that what you need to be reminded of why are you here today why are you learning about this today so i want you to take time to think about that to pray about that and to more importantly just thank god that he likes to make us wise and it's not if we're simple it's not if we're but it's it's well it is if we're simple, but you know what I'm saying? It's if we are open-minded and we are open to learning what God wants to teach us, not just for information to be able to say, oh, I can quote the scripture, which is a great thing to memorize scripture. No. Are we willing to let the scripture go from here down into our heart and to transform us from the inside out? So that's my challenge for you today to just sit and think, I am here because my heart needs blank. Not so much just here with me on this video, but here facing God's word, you are there. Why are you reading God's word? Because your heart needs what? And answer that question today. And just remember that God is so faithful when we are there and we open our minds and open our hearts to say, Lord, show me what you want to show me in your word. Just show me. So I hope that that encourages you today. I've been stuck on this phrase, like I said, really all week. And hopefully it's a good encouragement to you for the rest of the week. And just remember to be simple, be open-minded. So thank you so much and we will see you next week.

Originally published at warren.church.