Like Honey on my Lips

Psalm 119:97,103,105

97 Oh, how I love your law!
I meditate on it all day long.

103 How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!

105 Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light for my path.


I absolutely love the Bible. It is the most beautiful and confusing book of all time. I believe wholeheartedly that it is God's Word that He inspired through individuals to be a testimony of two things: 1) Who God is, and 2) How to have relationship with Him.

I say it's confusing because there is a lot more to the Bible than we tend to think. It's simply not as cut and dry as many people believe. In fact, it is nearly impossible to just pick up the Bible with the assumption that it will be clearly understandable. Why is this? Why would God not make His word clear? Perhaps it is because God wants us to look to Him, and not only His Word. Maybe just maybe the Bible has the potential of becoming an idol if we aren't careful to handle it properly. Maybe God doesn't want us to have it all figured out, and so somehow not to have any need for Him in our daily lives. I know I am guilty of going straight to the Bible for things instead of praying to the living God who promises to be dwelling in me. I don't know. Just a thought...

The problem I see is that we can twist and skew the Bible to make it say whatever we want it to say - within reason of course. Ultimately, the Bible has caused more divisions, more church splints, and created more denominations and religions than anything else. Wait? Did I say the Bible has done this? Maybe what I mean to say is that people's understanding of the Bible have created these things. It is not the actual Bible that creates any division, but rather it is what people claim the Bible actual says that is the author of such division. It is this fact that makes my heart heavy.

The reality is that we all have certain lenses in which we view the Bible. Each person that picks up the Bible and reads it, interprets it through their own worldview. It has been said that once the Bible is read it ceases to be God's Word and becomes the reader's interpretation of God's Word according to their own values and convictions.

So what's the point? Should we not even attempt to read the Bible because it's impossible to understand? I don't think that's the case at all. I think the important factor to helping us understand the Bible is historical and cultural context. The Bible must be read with the knowledge of who the original audience was. For example, when we read the book of Colossians, we are reading a letter from the Apostle Paul to the Colossian church. This letter and others like it were written to a specific group of people, in a specific point in time. To ignore audience and the historical/cultural context would be pointless. Too often we read it and think it is talking directly to us within our 21st century world. I do believe that God uses the Bible to teach us and guide us, but we must be open to what it is actually saying and who it is saying it to.

There is mystery to the Bible and there is mystery to God - something that our minds can't fully comprehend. But thank God that He doesn't require us to have it all figured out. To me that is the beauty of the journey. Let us jump in and continue to strive towards more understanding of God and His Word. After all, it is honey to our lips.