Living and Active
Notes
Transcript
What does it mean for the Bible to be “Living and Active”?
What does it mean for the Bible to be “Living and Active”?
Today I want to spend sometime unpacking . Many Christians have fallen in love with . If we were to build a survey of the most beloved passages of the OT than most would have this chapter on their list. Martin Luther, the father of the Reformation and one of the most prominent figures in church history once wrote that he would not take the whole world in exchange for one leaf from this beautiful Psalm.
One of the questions I have learned to ask about myself is, do I love the Bible, or do I use the Bible?
For those who may not be overly familiar with this passage of Scripture here are some quick facts by way of introduction. is the longest book of the Bible. The author is not named, but it is almost universally affirmed that the author is David.
Let me explain to you what I think the difference is in these 2. When I use the Bible I approach it with predetermined expectations and ideas. We may not realize it, but this is the case for many Bible Readers. The predetermine the message of the text long before they actually open the Bible. So, they take pieces and chunks for the Bible and make sure they fit inside the cookie cutter they have already made up, and the text stands to do nothing but reinforce their ideas and logic.
Now, what is really cool about this Psalm is its written form. It is an acrostic. There are 22 sections of the Psalm and each of the 22 sections begins with one of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Each of these sections contains 8 lines- it is remarkable and intricate.
The proper way to approach the Bible is leaning on the living and active characteristics of the Bible. Or as some have said- our task is not to read the Bible, but allow the Bible to read us.
Now, inside of this Psalm we find 8 titles for the Scriptures. Each of them portray an aspect of God’s Word that the church should be aware of. So, today I want to identify each of these 7 words, and expound on each of them for a moment.
To love the Bible is to be in relationship with the Bible. When we love the Bible we are not merely approaching it but being in conversation with- respecting it, listening to it, and allowing it entry into our lives.
Law- This word is used 25 times in the Psalm. In this context the word law literally means the legal opinion of what should be done. The first 5 books of the Bible- the Torah as they are known in the Hebrew Culture, are often called the “Books of law” because of the emphasis on the way the Israelites were called to live. The idea behind law here is the customs and regulations laid out by the books of Torah. Think of it like the Constitution of the US- the Law laid out in the Constitution are supposed to be the most sacred and important laws for us as citizens of the USA. The same can be said of Torah for the people of Israel. The Psalmist is pointing at the Torah in these moments. We know that God’s Word contains laws that are to be a framework for our lives together. In the same way that the Torah gave shape to the community life of Jews God’s Word is to still give structure to our lives as Christians.
So what does it mean for the Word of God to be living and active and sharper than any 2 edged sword? Let’s take a look.
Judgments- This word is used 23 times in the Psalm. This term is used to talk about the outcome of an offense or disagreement. We are really talking about justice in this context. On Sunday in Youth Sunday School we talked about how justice was the image of balanced scales- that the punishment fit the crime. Justice is concerned with the fair outcome for all parties involved. When the Psalmist is talking about God’s judgements he is pointing at how the Scriptures show us God has dealt with God’s people. This is seen in a section like v20-21 when the Psalmist talks about how God rebukes the proud.
The writer first says that the Bible is LIVING or the King James says quick. It is the Greek word Zao and means has vitality in and of itself. The Word of God is not a puppet. Puppets come alive when a puppeteer puts his hand into the puppet. The Bible is not like that. The Scriptures are the source of life because they have been infused with the Spirit of God. The Bible is alive and thus speaks on its own accord.
Testimony- Used 23 times. This word means witnesses. This is one of my favorites. This term really drives home that God’s Word bears witness to who God is. There are millions of books out there that we can read and remain clueless about who the author is. You can read every Mark Twain book and not catch a glimpse of who Mark Twain really was. The Bible is not like that- the Bible bears witness to who God is and what God is like. The Psalmist wants us to see that when we read the Scriptures we are, in a sense, reading God. Not that the Scriptures are God, but that they are the profile of who God is.
One of my heartbreaks from Seminary training was the extensive time that so many people spend interpreting the Scriptures. Now, please hear me, I do believe that we need to interpret the Bible. We need to interpret what the Bible says, but we do not need to OVER interpret either. When I do sermon prep I always look at the historical setting of a passage, I try to understand the setting and time of which the writer was in; and I try and grasp what their intent was- but all of those things are done to hear the voice of God in the midst of the text. I do not need to provide the life for the Bible, the Bible provides the life for me. This means that I need to spend more time with the text than anything else. I struggled so much with some of the modern techniques of sermon prep because the instructors were asking us to spent 2-3 times more time in commentaries and resources that the Scriptures. However, we are told that the Bible is the source of truth- not man made resources interpreting the Bible.
We then think about the term ACTIVE. The Greek is energēs literally where we get energy. Every time this word is used in the Bible it is connected to spiritual- not physical energy. The Hebrew writer is trying to help us grasp that the Scriptures are vital and working. As some have said, the Bible is not a flat text that sits flat on a table, but the Bible is moving and shifting and searching. When Melvile wrote Moby Dick the story stopped when he laid is pen down. When the historian laid down their pen at the end of writing their account of WWII the story was over- but this is not the case for the Bible. No, the story of the Bible continues on texts and passages take on new life and new meaning when we apply them to the current situations and settings of our lives.
The Bible is active because God is still active. When we affirm a living God we in turn affirm a living Bible because we are told that the Bible is the Word of that living God. God is still speaking to us, but he is speaking in accordance and harmony with the Bible. He is speaking to us by way of the voice of the Bible.
The last descriptor we get from Hebrews is sharper than any 2 edged sword- machaira. Now, when we think sword we automatically think of giant metal sword, and that is one definition of machaira, but there is a second use that is of a small precision blade. This type of blade was often carried by a judge or a magistrate. This is not a sword used for battle, but more like a pocket knife that many of us would carry. Not to make war, but for daily use of the blade.
I like to think of the Bible not as a Samaria sword for destruction, but like a surgeon’s blade used for health and healing. Yes, you have to be cut by the blade, but that cutting is for your healing and wholeness. That when the Bible is doing its job in our lives it is revealing and laying open the raw parts of our life, and there are times when it will need to cut things away, but it will always
Commandments- Used 22 times- meaning the right to give orders. The Psalmist is indicating the sovereignty of God. God’s commandments