Our Daily Bread -- Spiritual Navigation

READ: Psalm 119:97-106

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. —Psalm 119:105

Dava Sobel’s award-winning book Longitude describes a dilemma faced by early sailors. They could readily determine their latitude north or south of the equator by the length of the day or height of the sun. Calculating east/west longitude, however, remained complex and unreliable until English clockmaker John Harrison invented the marine chronometer. This was “a clock that would carry the true time from the home port . . . to any remote corner of the world,” thus enabling sailors to determine longitude.

As we navigate the seas of life, we also have a reliable source of spiritual direction—the Bible. The psalmist wrote, “Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day” (Ps. 119:97). Rather than occasionally glancing at God’s Word, he spoke of pondering the Lord’s directions throughout each day: “Your testimonies are my meditation” (v.99). This was coupled with a commitment to obey the Author: “I have sworn and confirmed that I will keep Your righteous judgments” (v.106).

Like the mariners of old, we need a constant guide to help us find our way and stay on course. That’s what happens when we seek the Lord day by day with an open heart and a willing spirit that says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” —David McCasland

We need God’s guidance from above,
His daily leading and His love;
As we trust Him for direction,
To our course He’ll give correction. —Fitzhugh

With God as your navigator, you’re headed in the right direction.

Bible in a year: Psalm 119:89-176; 1 Corinthians 8

Insight

In today’s reading, we find a portion of the psalmist’s great homage to the Word of God. The verses describe the Word as commandments (v.98), testimonies (v.99), precepts (vv.100,104), and judgments (vv.102,106). He also pictures the Word as honey (v.103) and a lamp (v.105). One idea repeated in this text is that of the singer’s response to the Word, which is meditation (vv.97,99). The word meditate means “to reflect on.” It is a common theme in psalms that speak of the Scriptures—beginning with Psalm 1, which describes the blessed person as the one who meditates on the Word “day and night” (v.2). The word for meditate comes from the Hebrew word habah, which means “to be preoccupied with,” and is also used of a cow chewing its cud in order to more readily absorb the nutrients.

If you are not for the Word, you are for the worms...

Vance Havner

Quote of the Day

“…and he [Herod] was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost. But the word of God grew and multiplied” (Acts 12:23, 24). If you are not for the Word, you are for the worms! Here is a dramatic illustration of the failure of the designs of evil and the success of the purpose of God.

Devotion of the Day

Take His Word for it...

Let God be true, but every man a liar.
Romans 3:4

“Abraham believed God.” The essence of faith is simply taking God at His Word. “What more can he say than to you he hath said?” “He hath said…so that we may boldly say.” We are thrown back upon revelation, not reason. God has spoken and holy men recorded it. Back of everything stands the record. If we are to believe the Living Word we must accept the Written Word. Jesus accepted the Old Testament as the Word of God. And He told us that His words were spirit and life. “Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus” – but how do we trust Him? The next line has it, “Just to take Him at His word.”

Not “a feeling fond and fugitive,” not a frame of mind strenuously maintained, but a calm reliance on, “It is written,” that is it. For “these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God: and that believing ye might have life through his name.”

Take His Word for it!

Psalm 40:4

Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust,

and respecteth not the proud

nor such as turn aside to lies.

The Order of Melchizedek

Henry Morris

“The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” (Psalm 110:4)

The importance of this intriguing verse is indicated both by the fact that it is the central verse of a great Messianic Psalm (quoted at least 12 times in the New Testament) and also because this one verse constitutes one of the main themes of chapters 5–7 of Hebrews, where it is quoted no fewer than five times (Hebrews 5:6, 10; 6:20; 7:17, 21), and where Melchizedek himself is mentioned nine times. It refers to the fascinating personage glimpsed briefly in Genesis 14:18-20. Melchizedek (meaning “King of Righteousness”) is said to have been “King of Salem” (or “Peace”), but there is no record, either in secular history or elsewhere in the Bible, that there ever was such a city or earthly king. He was also called the “priest of the most high God” (Hebrews 7:1), and he suddenly appeared, then disappeared as suddenly as he had come.

Commentators mostly have assumed that Melchizedek was the chieftain of a small settlement of which we have no record, but this hardly does justice to the exalted descriptions of him in Scripture. He was obviously greater than Abraham (Hebrews 7:4), as well as Aaron, the founder of the Levitical priesthood. Furthermore, he was “without father, without mother, . . . having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually” (Hebrews 7:3). Such language is hardly appropriate merely because no genealogy is recorded.

If one takes the Bible literally, such statements could be true only of God Himself, appearing briefly in the preincarnate state of the Second Person, as King of all peace and righteousness. Now this same divine Person, “because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him” (Hebrews 7:24-25). HMM

Obadiah 1:15

For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. 

As you have done, it shall be done to you; 

your dealings will return upon your own head.

Psalm 20

Psalm 20

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.

The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble;

the name of the God of Jacob defend thee;

send thee help from the sanctuary,

and strengthen thee out of Zion;

remember all thy offerings,

and accept thy burnt sacrifice; Selah.

Grant thee according to thine own heart,

We will rejoice in thy salvation,

and in the name of our God we will set up our banners:

the Lord fulfil all thy petitions.

Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed;

he will hear him from his holy heaven

with the saving strength of his right hand.

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses:

but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.

They are brought down and fallen:

but we are risen, and stand upright.

Save, Lord: let the king hear us when we call.