Open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things from your law.
Psalm 119:18
Your servant meditates on Your statutes.
Psalm 119:23b
The Bible is meant to be understood. Paul told the Ephesians, “. . . when you read this you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ (Ephesians 4:3).” How should this insight be sought?
In attempting to understand the Bible we must, before everything, be conscious that we are entirely unable to understand the Bible. The Word of God is surrounded by massive walls with gates that are unshakable. And God Himself has both erected and sustains this protection of His book. To seek to understand it with your own strength is like trying to collapse a medieval castle by throwing pebbles.
This truth hit me like a wave as I was studying to teach through Romans chapter 6. Whatever tactic I would use and from whatever direction I would come, I found that I could not penetrate Paul’s words. I could read them, but I could not understand them. This has proved to be one the most valuable lessons I have learned. God alone has the keys to open the gates to His Word and the power to shatter the walls.
What must our approach be, then, in our search for Biblical understanding? David’s example provides the answer. He cried to God, “Open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things from your law (Psalm 119:18).” This is the only true response to a deep-seated knowledge of mankind’s impotence and God’s power—prayer. Is it not logical, if only God has the keys to His gates and the power to break down His walls, to go to Him and beg Him to exert them on your behalf? Above all, our search for understanding should be soaked in prayer.
Martin Luther both taught and lived this truth. Here is one of many things that he said about it.
“That the Holy Scriptures cannot be penetrated by study and talent is most certain. Therefore your first duty is to begin to pray, and to pray to this effect that if it please God to accomplish something for His glory—not for yours or any other person’s—He may very graciously grant you a true understanding of His words. For no master of divine words exists except the Author of these words, as He says: “they shall all be taught of God.” You must, therefore, completely despair of your own industry and ability and rely solely on the inspiration of the Spirit.”
There is a second element that is subordinate but not less essential. David’s example is again helpful. “Your servant meditates on Your statutes (Psalm 119:23b).” God in giving understanding, as in almost everything else that He does in relationship to humankind, uses means to bring about His ends. Prayerful study is His means. As beggars, we ask God to break down the walls and then, despairing of our ability, we beat upon the walls with study and thought. And often God breaks the walls through our efforts.
Luther saw the essentiality of hard study. And he saw that it must be mingled with prayer. With regard to attaining Biblical understanding, the two cannot be divorced. One phrase that he used when talking about this issue captures the thought; “studying with pious prayer.” Beat hard on the walls and loudly on the gates, but always as a beggar who knows that all authority and strength is in God.
Bryan Elliff © 2007
