The gift of the Bible
Psalm 19:8-10, 15. January 14, 2023 - Saturday, 1st Week in Ordinary Time
The part of Psalm 19 that we hear today focuses on the Torah, the teaching of the Lord given to His people. But the refrain that accompanies our psalm is taken from the Gospel of John where Jesus states that His words spoken to us are “spirit and life”. Thus, the Old and the New Testament come together, the entire Bible is God’s gift to us.
I was born and grew up when my country was ruled by the communist party. Religious education was banned from public schools, only those books related to our faith and spirituality that were permitted by the government were available on the market, and a copy of the bible was nearly impossible to get. But, I was among those few who were lucky. I got my first copy of the Bible from my parish priest. It was a protestant Bible with red cover outside and no indication that it was the bible. How did my parish priest got it into his hands remains a mystery and that he gave it to me was a miracle.
The psalmist tells us that the law of the Lord refreshes the soul, gives wisdom to the simple, rejoices the heart, and enlightens the eye. You cannot imagine my joy coming home with a copy of the bible in my hand. No gift before and after made me so excited. It was small, so I could easily hide it in the packet of my winter jacket. I went into my room and began to read. And I am reading it till today. As I am writing this reflection, this Bible is by my side. For more that forty years it has accompanied me through life and it will continue to do so.
The psalmist continues by mentioning something that is so dear to me, namely “the fear of the Lord”. Before I read about the fear of the Lord in the Bible, I was introduced to this phrase by my mother. Whenever I did something that did not please her, she would ask: “are you not afraid of the Lord”? So what is it, this “fear of the Lord”? Someone who gets to know the Lord in intimate way cannot but revere and respect Him. After all He is God and we are his creatures. The psalmist says that “the fear of the Lord is pure”. That has been also the conviction of my mother. Someone who reveres and respects the Lord will not break His commandments.
The psalmist ends with a request directed to the Lord: “Let the words of my mouth and the thought of my heart find favor before you”. Before uttering this request, the psalmist prayed for forgiveness from sins, from “unperceived guilt” or “hidden faults” (Ps 19:13). None of us is perfect and many of us, in our pride, do not acknowledge our errors. But the Lord knows us from the inside out. Through his holy words that are spirit and life, He can convince us of our sins and points to us the way of repentance that leads to blameless life, a life of trust and obedience.