Learning to Love the Word of the Lord

We've all made resolutions to read the Bible more at the beginning of a new year. But soon we find ourselves faltering, hitting a wall, or sometimes feeling convicted and pushing the Word away. 

In this episode, I share how the Lord challenged the motivation behind my goal of reading the Bible in a year. And I talk about how, through Psalm 119, the Lord is answering a prayer He stuck in my heart: how to love the Word more deeply because the Word is Jesus Himself. As we look at Psalm 119 today, my prayer is the Lord deepens our love for the Scriptures and Himself, and that we would see how powerful His word is to revive, correct, and sustain us. 

Scriptures Referenced:

• Psalm 119:25, 71,92,164,172
• Hebrews 4:12
• John 1:1-5
• Matthew 7
• Colossians 1:15-17
• Romans 7
• 1 John 1:1

You can find me on Instagram / Threads

Transcript

Carrie: 0:07

Hey everyone, how are you doing today? I hope you are doing well. Welcome to this new episode of Honey from the Rock. I am glad you're here, and I am looking forward to today's episode because today I am going to be talking about the Lord's word, talking about scripture. And I am excited about it for a number of reasons. Number one, I love the word. I think the Bible is amazing. But also I am excited because I have been on a journey with the Lord regarding scripture. And what I mean by that is I probably, like many of you who are listening, hit 2026 or was getting close to 2026 and kind of started looking at what do I want to accomplish in the next year? What are things I want to see grow? And, you know, just kind of wrapping my mind over putting one year behind me and looking forward to a new year. And one of those things that I was trying to set a goal for was reading the word. And, you know, so I was going to do a, you know, a plan a new version and trying to get all my stuff ready and, you know, getting all tidy because this is going to be the year that I read through the Bible in a year. Woo-hoo. And once I started, I actually really felt the Lord check me, which isn't always an interesting thing, right? It, you know, like, well, what why would the Lord check me about being in scripture and reading the word? Well, what I really perceived was he was checking me in response to a prayer that I have been praying for the last few months, which is asking the Lord for a renewed steadiness, a renewed fire in loving his word. Now, I know most disciples go through seasons where being in the word is difficult, right? It just sometimes it gets dry, and you know, maybe you're doing a Bible reading plan and it's, you know, you're in one section here, and then all of a sudden you're jumping over to a section here and it gets all crazy, or you know, maybe you get to Leviticus and you're just like, I can't keep reading. Although I would challenge you to keep going because Leviticus is actually amazing reading it through the lens of the crucifixion of Jesus and who he is and what he has accomplished. But there are just things, right? There are just places that sometimes we hit maybe it's first chronicles where it's just listing off name after name after name, right? And we just we just kind of fall off. And and we've made goals to read through scripture, which I think is great, right? I mean, just wanting to be in the word is amazing. But like I said, as I was, I was making my own resolution or my own goal, I felt the Lord check me because I've been asking him for a deeper love for his word. And I had to really examine my heart about why I wanted to read the Bible in a year. Now, most people would be like, well, you should just do it. Like the practice of just getting into the word and reading it, you know, that's just so good. And reading the Bible in large chunks at a time is really good. And all of those things, there's a million opinions about out there about how to read scripture, about what kind of plan you should use, and there's so much good advice out there. However, I think there's also a lot of pressure, both internal and external, right? Like internally, I'm a good Christian. If I'm gonna be a good Christian, I need to be in the word, I need to be reading my Bible. Yes, absolutely, we need to be in the word. But what's our motivation behind being in the word? Because scripture tells us that this word that we hold in our hands, right? As John says in 1 John, this word that we have held in our hands that we have touched is sharper than any two-edged sword. That's what the writer of Hebrew tells us. It's living and active, and it's able to divide our joints and marrow and our soul and spirit and discern the thoughts and intents of our heart. And if we're honest, that can get really uncomfortable. The Lord starts dealing with us by his word, and all of a sudden we find ourselves in a place where I don't really like this anymore. You know, I mean, there's there's tender places that the Lord touches in us that he starts dealing with and starts poking around in his word. And and sometimes we're like, mmm, I don't really want to deal with this right now, Lord. And then there are times where the word just comes alive and it and we are just we are getting revelation of the Lord and we are soaking it in. We're like a sponge, and it's just amazing and incredible, and we're feeling fed, and all of those kinds of things. And all of those experiences have happened to me in reading the word of the Lord. But where I felt the Lord's challenge again was my motivation. And I really I know that the Lord gave me the prayer, right? Because it's his desire for us to love his word. And I know he, I know he gave that to me because I do. I want a deeper love of the word of the Lord. I want a not a hot fire, right, that burns really intensely and that dies really quickly. I want that steady, that steady flame, right? Like a like a pilot light in a water heater, um, that or in a in a in a furnace that that just burns. That's what's used to to turn the heat on. I don't even know if that's exactly how that works, but just follow me here. In in my in my desire to love the word, when I sat down to start reading the Bible in a year, I the Lord checked my motivation. And so I so I stopped. And actually, where I have landed for what I am going to do in reading scripture is I'm in the Psalms. I have a I have a piece of a section of scripture. It's just the Psalms, and it has lined, lined paper on one side and a psalm on the other. And I'm reading a psalm a day, and then recording any reflections or thoughts or questions I have for the Lord as I read. And I'm in other places in scripture, but I really felt like this was this was a practice that that the Lord was going to use to help grow and feed the flame of the love of the word within me. And so, while I know there's probably a lot of you who are listening who are doing a reading the Bible in a year plan, please hear me. I think that's amazing and wonderful. And if that's what the Lord's called you to do, that is so great because I think he will bless it. I think the Lord loves any effort that we put into being in his word. But I also think he desires to lead us in his word. And depending on where we're at in life and how he's dealing with us and how he's working with us and how he's trying to reveal himself to us, he leads us in different places. And so as I was thinking about today's episode and wanting to share this with you all, the Lord led me to Psalm 119, which in my reading, I'm not there yet, right? It's only January 14th, and so I'm on Psalm 14. So you would think, oh, doesn't this just fit so nicely? Psalm 14 for day 14. No, because the Lord is good and he leads. And so I got into Psalm 119, and I want to share a few verses from this psalm uh with you because it's a psalm that obviously has a lot in it. I think it's got 176 verses. I know it has 22 sections in it because each section, I believe it's called an acrostic psalm, because each psalm in the Hebrew starts with um the corresponding letter in in the Hebrew alphabet, and which I am going to bless you today by not trying to not trying to pronounce. But as I'm seeking the Lord and wanting to grow in into a maturation in my love for the word and feasting on the word, the Lord led me to Psalm 119. But as the foundation for today's episode, what I want to read first is John 1, because I think this is the fountain out of which all of our love for the word grows. And so Psalm uh sorry, John 1, 1 through 5 says, In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God, all things came into being through him, and apart from him, not even one thing came into being that has come into being. In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it. Very, very familiar verses, especially just coming out of Advent, where we are talking a lot about Jesus being the light who shines, shines into the darkness. But here, John describes Jesus as the word. Jesus is the word of the Father. And so when we are seeking to be in the word and we want to understand the word better and study it more, that that it would be used by the Holy Spirit to conform us into the image of Jesus, we can't forget that it is actually Jesus that we are reading, right? This is the revelation of the Father to us, and everything in Scripture in some way, shape, or form points to Jesus, whether it's in fulfillment, fulfillment of messianic prophecy that Jesus has already fulfilled, whether it's fulfillment of messianic prophecy that Jesus has yet to fulfill, whether it's the promise of the giving of the Holy Spirit, which has which has come to pass, everything points to Jesus. And so as we are digging into the word, I want uh I want to anchor us in the fact that this word is alive. It is living and breathing and sharper than any two-edged sword, yes, but it is also the weapon that the that the Lord has given us in the armor that we can actively use to fight against our enemy, the devil, and to fight against the enemy that is sometimes our flesh and definitely the world, in in the temptations that the world gives us to not walk in the path of Jesus. And so digging into Psalm 119, you know, it's there's a couple of verses that we can traditionally go to, right? Psalm, the writer of Psalm 119, which most scholars have come to the consensus that it's David, but there are some scholars that think it might be Ezra, some that think it might be Jeremiah, because it doesn't actually say who wrote this psalm, which is just interesting to think about. There are actually several psalms that David did not write. He wrote majority of them, but there are a few other authors sprinkled throughout. And so Psalm 119 has, Your word I have hidden my heart that I might not sin against you, right? Or your word is a light to my feet and the lamp to my path. Both beautiful, beautiful scriptures that point us to Jesus. Jesus as the word, Jesus as the light, Jesus being hidden within us, being Lord of our life, it ruling and reigning in us, so that we wouldn't sin against Him. You know, the Lord says, I look for truth in the inward parts and I make it wisdom. That that we would grow in our knowing of the word unto maturation, that truth, truth has to transform us, right? And truth has to be transformed in into wisdom. And I think that's part of this journey that I'm on is that deeper revelation of love for Jesus and love for the word. So that truth that the Lord has so graciously imparted to me through studying his word and through reading the gospels and being in the epistles and reading Genesis and reading First Chronicles or reading Job, that the truth that the Lord has so beautifully engrafted into me that by the by the handiwork of the Holy Spirit, it starts to become wisdom. So it's not just uh abstract truth, you know, stuff that I can just kind of, oh yeah, that's true, you know, or or just kind of tip my hat to, but that the word starts to become my my familiar friend. It starts to become my experience. The word literally shapes the way that I live my life. And these are the verses that I want to go into here in Psalm 119 because it's it's how the the writer of this psalm talks about how loving the Lord's statutes, his commandments, his law, his ordinances, his word. It's how he talks about it. It's so full of passion. Psalm 119 is a magnificent love letter to the Lord and his law, to the Lord and his word. And so walk with me on this journey through Psalm 119. I've only picked a handful of verses, but I pray that as as we go through them, that the Lord would stir the waters of our heart, that He would, He would take the truth that He has given us in His Word, and through the power of the blood of His Son, through the perfection of Jesus and who He is and the finger of the Holy Spirit, that it wouldn't just be truth that resonates within us, but that it would become wisdom, the very wisdom that transforms our life into a discipleship walk, that we would grow in the Lord's wisdom. And so the first verse that I want to pick uh through or go through, pick through, um, is Psalm 119, 25. And he writes, My soul cleaves to the dust, revive me according to your word. And I love this particular verse because of the cry to right, my soul cleaves to the dust. And and this can be taken a couple of different ways in the Hebrew. Uh, in in the word cleaving, there is there's a sense of affliction, there's a sense of distress. But also as I read it, just the picture of, you know, so many times our souls cling to what we are. We we cling to the dust, right? From dust you have been made to dust you return. And and there's so many times in wrestling with the Lord and in wrestling in this discipleship walk and to embrace the cross that Jesus appoints us, our soul cleaves to the dust. There are many times we desire to cleave to the things that we know and understand when the Lord is calling us to a better way, and in a way that's unknown to us, in a way that quite frankly, sometimes makes us really afraid because we don't know what the Lord is going to do. And so the verse can be read a couple of different ways, but it but it really did hit me in the context of revive me according to your word. My soul cleaves to the dust. Lord, I I cling so often to what I am, but but revive, revive me into who you are, into your word. And and that I love so the word revive, I did a short word study on it, and it means give life, revive me by yourself, Lord, with the fullness of your life in your favor. Now, in the New Testament, when you see the word favor, it's very closely connected with the word grace. And and so I just reading this, just hearing the cry of the psalmist to say, Lord, I'm clinging to the dust, whether it's in crippling affliction and suffering, or Lord, in the wrestle of discipleship where my soul desires to cling to what I am, I need your reviving. I need your word. And and and this word in the Hebrew, which you you say Hayah, it is in the Old Testament approximately 263 times. And I love how the topical lexicon, my favorite resource, talks about this word because it transcends mere survival. Like the writer of Psalms is not just asking the Lord, um, you know, just kind of bring me back to life and I'll be good. It's it's more than just survival, it's more than just put breath back in my lungs. It actually portrays spiritual invigoration produced by divine revelation. That's what the psalmist is asking for, and he knows that the word of the Lord will do it for him, right? The Lord breathed into Adam the breath of life, the Lord breathed his very person in into Adam. And we we know from what we read in in John 1 and what Paul writes about Jesus in Colossians 1, that Jesus is the creative word. He is what spoke everything into being. And so the psalmist saying, Lord, I'm I'm either he was in great distress or affliction, and maybe part of that was his affliction was in, Lord, I'm wrestling and I and I want to die to myself. I know what I am against you, I know how I sin. My soul clings to the dust. I so many times, Lord, I just keep my hands clenched around what I know and what I am. But I need, I need revival, Lord. I need you to revive me according to your word. And I loved this other note that that Hayah weaves a unified tapestry. God creates, God sustains, God revives, and ultimately God resurrects. And you think about the example, he spared Noah, he restored Hezekiah in the Old Testament, he revived a remnant a remnant, or he promises final triumph over the grave, which we then see fulfilled in the person of Jesus. This verb directs all glory to the Lord who kills and makes alive, 1 Samuel 2, 6, and who in Messiah offers life abundant and everlasting. And this word is used in Psalm 119 three times. That that calling out, Lord, revive me. I don't want to just survive, I want to thrive, and I need your word to do that. And so I love I love the passionate language that. That he uses. I'm cleaving to the desk, but Lord, revive me. Revive me in your faithfulness. Speak to me. I need revelation of you, Lord. I need revelation of who you are. I need, I need you to speak to me, to show me, to revive me, Lord, again in only the life that you can give. And so then that ties into the next verse that I want to pull out from Psalm 119, which is verse 38. So we have verse 25, Lord, my soul is clinging to the dust. Revive me according to your word. Now verse 38, establish your word to your servant as that which produces reverence for you. I love this so much. Establish your word to your servant, Lord, make make your word known. And that word established, just bringing the picture of something that's established, is a foundation is laid and it's immovable. Right? It it brings to mind the picture that Jesus, that Jesus says in Matthew 7 of everyone who hears my word and does it is like the man who builds his house upon the rock. He's the wise man who builds his house upon the rock. So establish your word to your servant. Lord, establish your word in me. I am your servant. I want to serve you. So I need to know what you're saying, but establish it in me, Lord, so that I walk by it and I'm not moved. When lie comes against your word, I reject it because your word is established in me. And not only is your word then established in me, Lord, but it produces fruit. And the fruit that it produces are many things, but one of them is reverence for you. And I love this word, reverence, because the it's it follows the connotation of the word servant. The the psalmist recognizes that he is a servant of the Lord. And I want to serve you, Lord, but I, in order to serve you, I can't be an uppity servant. I can't be someone who gives lip service to you and then goes and does something else, right? That's that's a parable that Jesus gives about the two sons. When the father says, Son, go do this, and he says, I will, but then he goes and he doesn't do it. And the second one says, I'm not gonna do that, but then he turns around and he goes and does it, right? We can't be servants who who who are double-minded, but the word needs to produce reverence within us. And so this reverence, yeah, speaks of an attitude of awe-filled reverence that may include trembling before God's majesty, but always presses towards loving obedience, right? It's a joy to serve the Lord, it's an honor, it's a privilege to serve the Lord. The word gathers together emotion, intellect, and will. The heart is struck by God's glory, the mind acknowledges his authority, and the life aligns with his ways. Therefore, Yerah is not a relic of ancient religion, but the heartbeat of biblical faith, drawing God's people into humble, obedient, and joyful communion with their sovereign Lord. And again, that definition is from the topical lexicon. And I just I I love those pictures that that when we when we go to serve the Lord, we're not soulless automatons, right? We're not robots. The Lord engages our heart, our mind, our soul, our spirit, and that we are created to to serve him in loving obedience, to tremble with awe before him because of his great glory and majesty, because of who he is. But then also it's it's it's that loving obedience. We can also call him Abba. We Jesus is the friend that sticks closer than a brother. And so just these words that the psalmist uses establish your word to your servant as that which produces reverence for you. Lord, I know that the revelation of you in your word, part of your design for that is to work reverence of you within me as your servant. And so the two tied together, my soul cleaves to the dust, revive me according to your word, establish your word to your servant as that which produces reverence for you. These things all start to work together, right? As I am crucified with Jesus, it's no longer I who live, as Paul says in Galatians 2, but Jesus lives in me, and the life that is now in me, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Jesus is resurrecting in, he's resurrecting in me. He is he is controlling my life, he is He's conforming my mind to his mind rather than the ways of the world, which are sin and death, the ways of my flesh, which are sin and death, and the ways of the devil, which are sin and death. He is he's literally changing me and conforming me to his image. And it produces reverence because we read in scripture, we get the revelation we hold in our hands through holding the Bible, the very revelation of who God is, the magnitude of what he has done for us. We see his justice, we see his grieving, we see his heartbreak, we see his longing to be reconciled to his creation and to his people. We see the lengths he is willing to go in order to save us and redeem us. We see the willingness of Jesus to absolutely lay down his life in love for us, that we would come to him through the perfection of his blood and sacrifice, the gift of the Holy Spirit, who is wisdom and the spirit of truth and speaks all truth to us, and who witnesses Jesus to us. I mean, this is this is the word that we hold in our hand. This is the sword that we are given to fight the enemy, but it's also the revelation that gives that fills us with that awe, that that fills us with reverence for the Lord, that that we can also fall down with Isaiah. Woe is me, I am undone. I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people with unclean lips. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. We can fall down with Peter that says, Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. Because Peter got the revelation of the Lord's amazing holiness and the magnitude of what the Lord could do. All of these things, just that reverence for the Lord. I mean, Paul, Saul getting knocked off his donkey and on just falling the the majesty, the majesty absolutely just bursting forth on that road to Damascus to knock Saul off his donkey and put him on his face before the Lord. And so establish your word to your servant Lord, which produces reference for you. And then I put Psalm 119, 71, and 92 together because both both of these words, both of these verses reference affliction. And I really appreciate that this is in here because it has been the experience of my life. And so Psalm 119. So I love that these two verses are essentially two sides of the same coin. Right? So David is saying, David or whoever wrote it is saying, first of all, it was good for me that I was afflicted. This is how I learned your statutes, this is how I learned your law. And again, that word affliction, it can mean a couple of different things. It can mean oppression imposed by a superior power or an external affliction, or it can mean a voluntary or divinely induced self-humbling. And so both of these ideas flow from the larger covenant theme that the Lord alone is Israel's sovereign, that He brings down the proud and lifts the lowly. And this word here, I love, I love these two verses together. It was good for me to be afflicted, it was good for me to be humbled. I needed to be humbled. I needed to be shown the error of my ways. I needed to see the sinful dispositions of my heart and my soul and my spirit. And Lord, I could only see them in your word. And not only did your word expose those things within me, but then as I repented and responded to you in your word, I began to learn your statutes. I began to see that your law is good, that it is best for me to live according to what you have commanded. It was good for me to be afflicted that I would learn your statutes. And then later he says, if your law had not been my delight, then I would have perished in my affliction. It's again, it's the other side of that coin. When I'm in the midst of my suffering, when I'm in the midst of my affliction, Lord, your word has to be my delight. Your truth is what has to triumph when I am in affliction. Whether it is something I have brought on myself or it is affliction and suffering you have appointed to me, it's gonna get messy, right? Because we're gonna experience warfare. The devil is a liar and he's going to whisper lies to us. We're going to get discouraged and be tempted to feel defeated. You know, we're going to look at the world and say, man, all those people out there, they're not following Jesus and their life looks pretty dang good right now. There's there's just going to be so much junk. But here, the psalmist is saying, if I hadn't delighted in your word, and this goes to what I was talking about earlier, if your truth hadn't been implanted in me, then I don't, I don't survive in my affliction because I'm swallowed up by it, because there's no anchor for me to hold on to. It reminds me of what of what Paul writes in Romans 7, right? No matter how hard I try to do right, I do wrong. You know, if the law hadn't come, I wouldn't have learned what coveting was and that I was in it. Like, you know, when I learned the law, it exposed my sin. That's what David is saying here. It's what the writer is saying here. Whoever it is, we'll just go with David. But then on the other side, when I was in my affliction, if I didn't have your word to cling to, if I didn't have your promises and the word that consistently shows me your goodness and your faithfulness and your sovereignty and your power and your justice and your might and your holiness and your righteous anger, all of these things, Lord, then I would have perished. I would have perished in my affliction. I would have had no hope. And how often does Paul talk about that as well? You know, and and Jesus says it, my meat is to do the will of my father who sent me. Jesus feasted on the will of the Lord. He said that it was his, he knew it was his purpose, he says in John 12, to speak everything that the Father had given him. That was the whole point of why Jesus had come, to give the gospel and then to fully live out the gospel that the Father had given him in laying down his life for the Father and for us, in sacrificing himself, that we can be cleansed and redeemed from our sin, that we can be changed and conformed into his likeness, that his righteousness is then what we are clothed in when we come to him in repentance. These are powerful truths. And I will tell you, friends, I have messed this up seven ways from Sunday. There have been times I have been in affliction and I have been drowning in it. And I have, I have not clung to the word of the Lord like I should. And that was part of this prayer of wanting that deepening desire and love for the word, is because in the midst of some difficult things, sometimes it was hard for me to remember what the Lord had said. And I had to get after myself and I had to come under the correction of the Lord to say, What have I already said? Go to my, I've given you a whole, I've given you 66 books. Get in it and read my character. Trust that when you get in it, I will show myself to you. I will. And that's why I was saying at the beginning: if it's been your goal to read the Bible in the year, praise God. He'll meet you there. But also be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. Be sensitive to how you're getting in the word so that it doesn't just become a wrote checklist of I've read three verses today. No, this word is is it has power, it keeps us afloat in affliction. Affliction is what teaches us his statues, it produces reverence for for the Lord. The Lord's word revives us. And I just think it is so beautiful, and I think it is so powerful. And so the other verses that I pulled out, and these are the final verses that I that I pulled, are Psalm 119, 164, and 172. And again, this is this is kind of like the verses that I just went through. They're a mirror of each other. And so so um verse 164 says, Seven times a day I praise you because of your righteous ordinances. And verse 172 says, Let my tongue sing of your word, for your commandments are righteous. And I I love I love the language here. I love the language of worship, right? And and these verses are just a microcosm of the richness and the beauty that is in Psalm 119. And I and I hope that this encourages you to go and and to sit and to study, to really sit and ruminate and marinate in Psalm 119 because it is powerful and it is amazing. So seven times a day I praise you, and seven being symbolic in scripture of the number of perfection. I just, you know, he's he's saying, Lord, I I will. Well, David was not perfect, he's not a perfect human being. It was seven is also completion. You know, I want my praise, Lord, to be full and complete each day, to praise you because of your righteous ordinances, and let my tongue sing of your word, for all your commandments are righteous. I this word righteous is it's pronounced sedek in the Hebrew. And I want to read again the definition from the topical lexicon. And I read a lot of different uh word dictionaries and and lexicons and that kind of thing, but but this lexicon I keep coming back to because I just whoever wrote this, man, they're amazing. Like God bless them, because the way that they talk about the word and the way that they talk about these words in the Hebrew and the Greek is powerful. So Sedek gathers into one term the ideas of what is right, straight, just, normal, and in full conformity with God's moral order. It is used of character, speech, verdicts, measurements, social structures, and saving acts. Rather than merely a human idea, this Hebrew word is the objective standard flowing from the Lord Himself, and therefore remains immutable throughout redemptive history. About one-third of the occurrences describe God, one third describe human obligation, and one third speak of the righteous order God will finally establish. This word, Sedec, binds the biblical account together. Listen to this. It binds the biblical account together. The righteous God creates a righteous order, calls a covenant people to live righteously, he judges their unrighteousness, and in the fullness of time provides in the Messiah both the perfect display of righteousness and the means by which sinners may be declared righteous. Consequently, every pursuit of holiness, justice, and faithful ministry today is an echo of the Old Testament cry for this Hebrew word, this Hebrew word sedek, and in anticipation of the day when the heavens will proclaim his righteousness for God Himself is judge. I just think that is so beautiful. And so as I wrap up, just thinking about these verses, singing praise to the Lord seven times a day. I praise you because of your righteous ordinances, worshiping the Lord for his righteousness and for the righteousness of his word. Let my tongue sing of your word, Lord. I want to I want to sing for joy at the work of your hand, right? That's another part of a psalm. I, Lord, I want to sing. All of your commandments are righteous, Lord, and that is so incredible and so amazing. It makes me want to fall down and worship. It makes me want to sing and proclaim your goodness. Again, just the passion and the intensity and the gratitude and the love that is woven throughout Psalm 119. For the word of the Lord, for the Lord Himself and the Word of the Lord. And so I want to encourage you, no matter where you are and how you are tackling getting into Scripture this year, whether it's reading through the Word in a year or it's just daily making time to be in Scripture and seeking out the leading of the Lord in where he wants you to read. However, you are in the word, ask the Lord. And I am asking the Lord that these things that we talked about today, asking the Lord for His His revival, revive me according to your word, his establishment of His Word in us, that we would be reverent towards Him and we would reverence Him, that we would thank the Lord for the affliction both that we find ourselves in when we sin and we rebel against God, and in our repentance, sometimes the Lord still requires us to walk through that affliction, or the affliction and the suffering that the Lord appoints, that we would be thankful for it because we know it's how we learn his statues, statutes. And we also know that it's how we get through affliction. If the Lord's law is not our delight, we can't get through affliction. We will die in it. That's literally what the psalm I would have perished in my affliction. And then in these verses here in Psalm 119, 164, and 172, that as we read the word, that there would be praise and worship flowing out of us to the Lord for his righteous word, for his righteous ordinances, thanking the Lord that his commandments are righteous, that and that he has shown us the way to walk in, right? He has shown you, oh man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, he is God, right? It's what it's it's the very thing that Paul talks about, and I know I referenced it briefly at the beginning, but it is what Paul says about Jesus in Colossians 1, when he talks about Jesus being there with the Lord in creation. For by him all things were created, both in heaven and earth, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. All things hold together. That being in his word wouldn't just be something we check off, that it wouldn't become just a thing we do for devotional and and but and that when we're tempted to feel that way, that we would fight against it, that we would fight against it. And when we're fighting against it, or it's difficult for us to be in the Lord, and we're at being the word and we're wrestling, that we would also rest in the Lord and rest in his promises, rest in what he has shown us, rest in his righteous commandments, in his ordinances, in his statues, statutes, that we would trust that he will revive us according to his word as we fight to feast on his word, to believe his word, and to obey his word because Jesus is the word. And what is so amaz, there are so many amazing things about Jesus, but one thing that is so amazing about Jesus is that he never asks us to do something that he hasn't already done. And so in striving to obey, he gives us the power to obey and to love him and to love his word. And I pray, friends, that this blesses you, that it encourages you, and it strengthens you in your walk with Jesus to love the word and to feast on it, trusting that he will feed you with his daily bread. Amen.