TODAY’S SCRIPTURE Psalm 119:160
I remember it to this day. My fourth grade teacher Mrs. Doyle was clearly irritated with my refusal to learn the multiplication table. Thus, she sent a note home to my parents, and my Dad and I sat at the dining room table that night until I had learned it all. The ability to know the product of two parts was important then and is also extremely important now. I’m thankful, even today, to know that 2 x 2 = 4.
The 119th Psalm is not only the longest chapter in the Bible; it is also the longest treatise on the Word of God itself. Tucked away in the 160th verse is a gem of wisdom that hearkens back to a mathematical analogy. The psalmist wants us to know that if we take all the commandments, all the prophecies, all the parables, in fact every word of Scripture, and add them together, “The sum of God’s Word is truth.” God says, “It shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). Not only is “every Scripture given by the inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16, emp. added), but also the sum or total message of God as revealed by the Holy Spirit is truth. It is therefore trustworthy!
Because the “sum” of God’s Word is truth, we must always be careful not to interpret one passage of Scripture in such as way as to contradict another clear passage of Scripture. Truth never contradicts itself; thus Scripture, when correctly interpreted, will always agree. It is truly a blessing to know when reading the Bible that we are reading the truth of God. Not one word is false. In fact, every single passage and the Bible in its entirety is the truth of God!
Today, I will…“ do [my] best to present myself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).