161 Rulers persecute me without cause,
    but my heart trembles at your word.
162 I rejoice in your promise
    like one who finds great spoil.
163 I hate and detest falsehood
    but I love your law.
164 Seven times a day I praise you
    for your righteous laws.
165 Great peace have those who love your law,
    and nothing can make them stumble.
166 I wait for your salvation, Lord,
    and I follow your commands.
167 I obey your statutes,
    for I love them greatly.
168 I obey your precepts and your statutes,
    for all my ways are known to you.

“The Holy Scriptures are our letters from home.” -Augustine of Hippo

“Nobody ever outgrows Scripture; the book widens and deepens with our years.” -Charles Spurgeon

Derek Prince said, ‘Faith is taking God seriously.’

It seems to me that those who have made the greatest difference in the world have been ‘people of the Book.’ They have taken (they take!) the Bible seriously because they take God seriously.

N.T. Wright has said, “The Bible is the book of my life. It’s the book I live with, the book I live by, the book I want to die by.”

Many years ago, when I was a child, my dear old pastor, George Tett, sat next to me and pointed to the letters spelling ‘Holy Bible’ on the spine of this most wonderful Book. He said, ‘Honour, Obey, Love Your Bible It Brings Life Everlasting.’

In this section of Psalm 119 we see someone taking the Scriptures seriously. Their attitude – one for us to emulate – involves a mixture of trembling, rejoicing, loving, waiting, following and obeying. It also opens with the implicit warning that the world will hate those who love God’s Word. Nevertheless, there is ”Great peace” in being Bible-centred. But clearly, if we take God seriously we will do what He says.

Kierkegaard commented, however: “The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are ob (and hence ‘God-centred’).liged to act accordingly.”

PRAYER: Lord, help me to be a serious reader of the Bible.