This week’s lesson is taught by Ashley Ploen.

“The heart cannot love what the mind does not know.” Jen Wilkin

I did not love my husband when I first knew him. It took spending time with him, getting to know him – his heart, mind, thoughts, motives, and intentions. As I began to learn these things I found someone I did not know was there, someone I admired, loved, respected, and only longed for more of – more time, more depth of knowledge and relationship. By learning him and continually learning him well, I can often anticipate his thoughts and responses. Because I take the time to learn and study him, I have a better understanding of what he would want or say. Your love for someone grows as you grow in knowledge of them.

The same is for our love of God that comes from getting to know Him in the pages of the Bible where He has made Himself most fully known to us. The Word of God allows us to learn His heart, desires, motives, and intentions. By learning Him and His word, we are learning His voice and from learning and studying His words we can better understand what He would have for our lives and the decisions we make.

What words or whose words matter? We are inundated with information, voices, and influence. Much calls for our attention, drowning truth and wisdom out if we aren’t attuned and listening for it, to it. And lesser things can disguise themselves as the good eternal things.

God’s Words are identical to His actions. When He speaks He acts (Genesis 1). His words and actions are one in the same. God’s Word reflects the character of God. We read in the Old Testament how God meet with and spoke in an audible voice then. So what about us today? Does He still speak? Absolutely. The pages of Scripture are God’s very Words for us continually today. He sent His Son Jesus to be God in flesh, to be His Word in flesh to fulfill the law, that we may know Him more fully and see ourselves more fully in light of the person of Jesus, reflecting God as His Word (John 1:1-5; Col. 1:15-17).
Rather than telling us exactly what to do in every situation, as if some specific manual for all decisions and circumstances, God gives us the Bible to tells us who He is, what He has done, is doing and what He will do.
Psalm 119 is an Acrostic Psalm and the longest chapter not only in the book of Psalms but also in the Bible. This carefully structured chapter is broken into 22 stanzas successively following the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Each stanza begins with the Hebrew letter and the 8 verses in each stanza begin with that corresponding letter. We loose that in the English language but whether it’s A to Z or Alepha to Taw (in Hebrew) all of human language should be used to extol the glories of God (Psalm 119:171-172).

We will be considering what the Word is, what the Word does, and what we are to do with these Words of Scripture:

We will spend this week looking at that one chapter, Psalm 119, with one theme, The Word of God:

Psalm 119: The Way of the Word
Psalm 119: The Work of the Word
Psalm 119: The Wonder of the Word
Psalm 119: The Nature of the Word
Psalm 119: The Presence of the Word

You can watch this week’s teaching video here: