By Pastor J. F. Odesola
“I rejoice at thy Word, as one that findeth great spoil” (Psalm 119:162).
What a great time the Psalmist was having as he read and meditated on God’s word! He was just thrilled with it, as so many of God’s people have been down the years. This should be the experience of every Christian; every true believer should be able to say: “I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil!”
It is a wonderful thing that God, in His Love for us and in His desire for our salvation, has given us not only His only son (the Word Incarnate), but He has also given us the Holy Bible (His written Word). In it we have all that we need to know in order to make us “wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” and “to enable us become perfect (complete, mature), thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:15 and 17).
Here, in this longest of the Psalms, David, the writer, mentions God’s Word in practically every one of the 176 verses; he does this, however, under one or another of ten different synonyms for the word of God, such as “law”, “way”, “testimonies”, “commandments”, “precepts”, “word”, “judgement”, “statutes”, and “truth”. Little wonder that one writer has described this psalm as a “masterpiece” and “a compendium of heavenly wisdom”!
It is the exultant cry of King David, the poet, in verse 162, that we are to think about. He was so thrilled as he read the Scriptures that he could not restrain his sense of joy and excitement that he cried out, “I rejoice at their word, as one that findeth the spoil!” He realized what a treasure house of good things God’s Word is, so he dug deeply, and went on digging, and the discovery of treasure after treasure in its pages filled him with joy. So should it be with us, if we love the Lord and if we are earnest and as dedicated in our reading and studying of the Bible as this man was.
Before we examine David’s treasure, let us look at this treasure house.
- What the Bible is:
David tells us that the Bible is God’s Word: “I rejoice at thy Word…” In fact, he uses this reference to the scriptures eight times in this one section of eight verses (verses 116 to 168). Our Bible is much larger than David’s was, of course, for since his time, the canon of scripture has been completed, so that now the Bible consists of sixty-six books. But the wonder of this sacred volume is seen at once when we remember that it’s sixty-six books were written by forty different writers, all of whom came from different walks of life. They were all quite different with regard to their backgrounds, experiences and abilities, and their writings spread over a period of 1,600 years!
There was, therefore, no opportunity for collusion or comparison of notes before each wrote their book or books. They could not meet together and say, “Do you think we ought to write this down…? If so; I’ll write the same thing.”
It would have been impossible for anything like that to have taken place because the distance of time was too great in relation to the span of man.
But what happens when we place all the sixty-six books of the Bible in one volume? We find that there is a perfect unity about all the writings of these forty different writers. This, in itself, is a miracle. It reveals the fact that they were only instruments in God’s hands. He was the author of the book, and while these forty men did the writing, God superintended all that they wrote.
Thus, we read in 2 Timothy 3:16: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God”; that is, all scripture is God-breathed. We also read in 2 Peter 1:21 of the way in which all this happened: “For prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
This is why the Bible is called God’s Word. As God gave it to us, it was entirely free from error, and as such, is to be relied upon and is altogether trustworthy. We should mention today, there are very many translations and paraphrases of the original scriptures as originally given; they are inspired throughout and are infallible. Thank God for this! We can fully trust the Bible, for it is God’s Word to us.
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