The Pilgrim Path---Psalm 119: 105-108

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a lamp to my path. I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to keep your righteous rules. I am severely afflicted; give me life, O LORD, according to your word! Accept my freewill offerings of praise, O LORD, and teach me your rules.

1. 105---Dark places: The World and our heart. What will “sort” them out and guide us correctly? The Living Word of God. The genuine “lamp” from Heaven dispels the dark places of earth…
2. 106---Decision Time: We make a choice. The Word is to be My Rule: Not my friends; not my relatives; not the world---Empower me Spirit of The Living Christ---to walk even as He walked…
3. 107---Direct Me LORD: Animate Me---Give Me Life according to Your Word!
4. 108---Daily instruct me, O LORD, so I might yield to You and praise you always…
5. I. Packer / PART TWO

When I think of Dr. Packer, I remember a man who called evangelicals back to a solid view of Holy Scripture. Sadly, we have slipped into tragic terrain concerning the Bible. We do not think much of it---and/or we believe it is not quite up to the task of dealing with the cultural matters before us. God’s Word is ready for all ages---and for all issues. As Spurgeon used to say, “Let the Lion loose!” God’s truth is well able to defend itself. Trust it and stay true to it.

From Dr. J. I. Packer, “Fundamentalism” and The Word of God:

“The Bible is inspired in the sense of being word-for word God-given. It is a record and explanation of divine revelation which is both complete (sufficient) and comprehensible (perspicuous)---that is to say, it contains all that the church needs to know in this world for its guidance in the way of salvation and service, and it contains the principles for its own interpretation within itself.

Furthermore, the Holy Spirit, who caused it to be written, has been given to the church to cause believers to recognize it as the divine Word that it is, and to enable them to interpret it rightly and understand its meaning. He who was its Author is also its Witness and Expositor. Christians must therefore seek to be helped and taught by the Holy Spirit when they study Scripture, and must regard all their understanding of it, no less than the book itself, as the gift of God. The Spirit must be acknowledged as the infallible Interpreter of God’s Infallible Word.

The Bible, therefore, does not need to be supplemented and interpreted by tradition, or revised and corrected by reason. Instead, it demands to sit in judgment on the dictates of both, for the words of men must be tried by the Word of God. The church collectively, and the Christian individually, can and does err, and the inerrant Scripture must ever be allowed to speak and correct them.”

From Dr. Packer’s work, “Honoring the Written Word of God” ---

The fact that one knows a lot of theology does not mean that one’s relationship with God is right or is going to be right. The two things are quite distinct. As a professional theologian I find it both helpful and needful to focus this truth to myself over and over again, “What a difference there is between knowing notions, even true notions, and knowing God.” My times with the Bible, like those of all Christians, are meant to be times of knowing God.

O may I love your precious Word, may I explore the mine,

May I its fragrant flowers glean, may light upon me shine.

O may I find my armor there, your Word my trusty sword;

I’ll learn to fight with every foe the battle of the Lord.

Based on Psalm 119

Edwin Hodder, 1863; mod.

Grace and Peace in Jesus Christ Our Risen LORD, Pastor Jason