This past summer I enjoyed a 12 week Women’s Bible class in Psalm 119. We generally worked through two octaves per week, breaking them down as much as possible, verse by verse. I consider this a rich way to meditate on Scripture. Nothing is lost or skimmed over when focusing on a particular verse, pondering why the Lord (through the psalmist) penned these words. Along with studying together, our teacher provided a supplemental commentary written by Charles Spurgeon. His reflection on Psalm 119 is so dense it was made into a book titled The Golden Alphabet: An Exposition on Psalm 119. Spurgeon’s meditation on Psalm 119 led him to the analogy of a kaleidoscope. While a number of the verses seem redundant, he argues that the reader is not properly viewing the entire psalm as it should be. He writes:

“This psalm is a wonderful composition. Its expressions are many as the waves, but its testimony is one as the sea. It deals all along with one subject only; but although it consists of a considerable number of verses, some of which are very similar to others, yet throughout its one hundred and seventy-six stanzas the self-same thought is not repeated: there is always a shade of difference, even when the color of the thought appears to be the same. Some have said that in it there is an absence of variety; but that is merely the observation of those who have not studied it. I have weighed each word, and looked at each syllable with lengthened meditation; and I bear witness that this sacred song has no tautology in it, but is charmingly varied from beginning to end. Its variety is that of a kaleidoscope: from a few objects innumerable permutations and combinations are produced. In the kaleidoscope you look once, and there is a strangely beautiful form: you shift the glass a little, and another shape, equally delicate and beautiful, is before your eyes. So it is here.”

Our class was encouraged to journal through each octave, so the bulk of this study was left up to us to personally reflect through Psalm 119 as the Holy Spirit illuminated His treasure trove. This is the explanation I can give you for my posts on Psalm 119 the last few weeks. I hope to share the entire psalm with you as a means of encouragement. To write these reflections out again for this blog has been a comfort to me all over again. We are always in need of remembering the truth we know. So I write these posts for my personal encouragement as much as it is an offering of love to you. My hope is you are blessed in reading snippets of what the Lord is teaching me. Which leads me to ask, what is God teaching you? I think it is wonderful to share with fellow believers how the Spirit is at work in our hearts. We don’t seem to talk this way very often. Maybe the Bible has become stale to you or you aren’t sensing the Lord’s presence near. Cling on to the encouragement trusted believers have found in God’s Word and let that sustain you until you drink deeply again from your own well. God will not let you stay thirsty. He is faithful to show Himself to those who seek Him. God is faithful to help the weary believer persevere because of His promise to never leave or forsake His own.

Grace upon grace,

April

Grow deeper: Deuteronomy 31:6-8; Isaiah 40:29-31; Isaiah 55:6