Monday Morning Mail, 3rd June 2013

Dear all,

I'm just back from a week off (and already submerged in work!). On Saturday, Lydia was bridesmaid at the wedding of one of her best friends. As we were away from home, I decided to do something I don't do as much as I used to, but which is well worth doing - I decided to learn a few Bible verses - in this case Psalm 36:7-9, because I was reading Ps 36 that morning anyway.

Learning stuff by rote isn't very fashionable these days - after all we can access pretty much any information we want at the touch of a button and so if I ever wanted to know what those verses say it wouldn't be difficult to find out. But even without modern technology, I've still got a Bible within reach most of the time, and I can read fairly well, so what's the point of learning verses?

One of the great strengths of learning verses is that it helps truths come to mind more often, which helps me to think about them and pray them. Yes, I know I can find out what Ps 36:7-9 are easily, but this way I get to carry them around in my mind as well as just in a Bible or on my phone. It means that while I'm walking around or doing something else I can be thinking about them, chewing on them and praying into them.

Here are the verses in question:

(7) How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!

People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

(8) They feast in the abundance of your house;

You give them drink from your river of delights.
(9) For with you is the fountain of life -

In your light we see light.

There's a progression in those verses. In v7 it's people recoginsing that God is their security. People really care a lot about security and wanting to feel safe - they go to all kinds of lengths for it. And there is a real safety to be found in God's unfailing love - so much so that his love becomes priceless.

Safe places are often dull places. But God's love isn't just safe, it's fruitful. People don't just hide there to feel safe, they find that in the place of safety is also the place of greatest fruitfulness. People feast in the abundance of God's house, and then they learn to let him give them drink from his river of delights. It's a place of growing connection between people and God as we trust him more and enjoy him more.

It reaches its fulfilment in v9. God isn't just a safe place and a fruitful place - he is the very source of life from which all other life flows, and the source of knowlege. When we see something in this world, we see it because light comes from it to us - light helps us see other things. But God goes beyond that - the light that he gives enables us to see light in the first place. Light enables us to see the world; God enables us to see light itself, and therefore everything else more clearly.

It took me 10 minutes or so to learn those verses, and then a bit more time checking on them later in the day. But now I can carry them round for ages and keep on feeding on them. I guess I might well learn Bible verses a bit more often!

God bless,

John