Daily Bible Nugget #274, Psalm 119:18

The Nugget:

Psalm 119:18 Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.

My Comment:

Saints pray to be taught the Scriptures (The New Topical Textbook, subtopic under the main topic “The Scriptures,” page 240).

The Psalmist prayed that God would open his eyes. The Psalmist wanted to behold wondrous things out of God’s law. God’s word, the Bible, is indeed full of wondrous things. One life is not long enough–even if you start in childhood–to learn all that is in the Bible. The more you do learn, the more interesting and exciting it gets. God will open our eyes too, if we ask Him to do so, so that we will understand the Scriptures.

I suggest that we start with a plain-text Bible first. The idea is to let the Bible speak for itself. Start by reading straight through the New Testament. Some chapters you will like so well you may wish to read them over again several times. Once you have read through the New Testament once or twice, focus on reading and rereading a particular book of the New Testament. For example, if you happen to choose the Gospel of John, reading three chapters a day will let you finish it once a week. Doing this for a month will help you get much better acquainted with that Gospel. As you notice verses that are particularly meaningful to you, or verses you want to understand better, look up the cross references for those verses. You will be amazed, enlightened, and encouraged to find how the whole Bible ties together when you study cross references.

Once you have gotten as much as you can by your own independent Bible study of a particular passage or Bible book, you can consult some study Bibles if you have access to them and learn more things that you may have missed on your own.

Now, just what should you do with the knowledge and insight God enables you to gain from your study of His Word? You may be in the position to teach the truths you learn to your own children. Even if your children attend public school, it would be a good idea to home school your children in the Bible. They won’t learn much Bible in public school, most likely. They can learn much about the Bible in Sunday school, and some churches employ catechism classes to that end quite successfully–except I have noticed that sometimes the intensive instruction comes to a close at just the point more and deeper instruction would be spiritually beneficial. That additional, continuing instruction could well take place in the home as parents teach their children. You may also use your new-found knowledge of the Bible as preparation and background for teaching a Sunday school class yourself. You would find that the discipline of preparing weekly Sunday school lessons is a good way to learn more yourself. We always learn more when we teach what we know to others. All this could lead to the opportunity to teach and guide young people in a church youth group.

The main thing is to get into the Bible for yourself. Like the Psalmist, ask God to open your eyes to the wonderful truth it contains.

For those who desire to DIG DEEPER into this subject:

(1) Consult the cross references given in Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible on page 627 for Psalm 119:18.

(2) Consult the cross references given in The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge on page 672 or in Logos 5 Bible software for Psalm 119:18.

(3) Lacking access to those two resources, consult the cross references for this passage as I have developed them as given below:

Psalm 119:18. Open. Heb. Reveal. Or “uncover:”—remove the veil from them (Kay). T#1482. ver. Ps 119:27, 125. Ps 146:8. +Ge 3:7. 2 K 6:15-17, 20. Is 29:10-12, *Is 29:18. 32:3. 35:5. 42:7. 43:8. Mt 13:13. 16:17. 20:30-34. Lk 11:34. +Lk 24:16, *Lk 24:45. Jn 9:30, 39. Ac 26:18. 1 Cor 2:9-16. 2 Cor 2:11, 14. *2 Cor 3:14-18. 4:4-6. *Ep 1:17, 18. Re 3:18. that I. ver. Ps 119:7, 10, 125. Pr 14:6. 20:12. Da 9:13. Mt 11:25. Jn 3:27. 6:45. wondrous things. Heb. Niflaoth;—the wondrous, spiritual, truths that lie hid beneath the letter. Compare ver. Ps 119:27, 129 (Kay). ver. Ps 119:7, 96, 129. *Ho 8:12. 2 Cor 3:13. He 8:5. 10:1. thy law. ver. +Ps 119:1, 96.