The unfolding of your words bring light; it imparts understanding to the simple Psalm 119:130
When I encounter Scripture I don’t fully understand, I like to allow it time to roll over and over in my heart and mind. I savor its unique prose, meditate on its words, question its meaning.
What does it mean to unfold your words, God?
How do your words bring light and give understanding?
As I pondered these questions and set them before the Lord, He reminded me of a story.
My daughter was born with a neural tube defect discovered at birth. As the midwives discovered this, chaos and confusion filled the small room as they attempted to figure out what to do.
I lay in bed with what I thought was a perfectly healthy baby, only to be told: “Your baby girl may never walk or function normally.”
Before these frightening words unfolded from the mouth of the attending doctor, the Lord had spoken His own Words to me.
I wish I could say His Words were poetic and eloquent, but they were simply what my soul needed at that moment. The Lord said, “Jenny, everything will be alright. Trust me.”
As the words from doctors, nurses, and test results continued to unfold all around me, they ricocheted off the only words that mattered: The Word Himself.
At that moment, when God spoke to my heart, I encountered the Word as my shelter in a storm of uncertainty. It illuminated the light of peace into the what-ifs of the situation. Fear fled at the sound of the Word.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1
My second favorite thing to do as I encounter Scripture is to study the words used. I was intrigued by the word “light” as found in Psalm 119:130. This word in its Hebrew translation means to illuminate, to become bright, to shine.
When we encounter God’s Word, it illuminates that which He is speaking. It shines the spotlight and makes brighter that which we cannot see.
The reality of life and of what we see in the natural can often leave our souls in the dark. Our mind, and even our words begin to wander trying to grapple and find understanding to what is going on around us.
My daughter spent her first night in the NICU while I sat on a cold, hard rocking chair. Although I had the support of my family and the prayers of my church, I was a single mom, and so I sat alone through the midnight hours. Answers were few, and understanding was limited, but I gripped tightly to what I had received only hours before.
The Word.
The light of the Word illuminated in the dark places of my soul and brought an understanding to the deepest places of my heart. I knew everything would, in fact, be alright—just as the Word had spoken.
I wish I could say that I go through life with the infamous Bob Marley song “Everything is going to be alright” as my anthem when life doesn’t go as I planned. Although, I trust in God’s plans, timing, and goodness. I often struggle with the desire to grasp for a well-laid out blueprint of exactly how things will turn out. I want to know the details. I want to be in control!
Through this season of my life, the Lord reminded me of this: when we encounter God as the Word, we don’t need the details. We, in fact, don’t need control. His words unfold in our hearts and in our minds and we can’t quite understand it, but everything begins to make sense. Our thoughts are in the proper place, our heart is at peace and that which we couldn’t see becomes clear before us.
We may not have answers, we may still question what is going on, but deep inside us, we know that it will be alright.
That God is who He says He is.
That He is walking with us and has good plans for us.
That He can be trusted.
Have you ever experienced this kind of peace? The peace that surpasses an earthly understanding (Philippians 4:7). The peace that seeps down into your soul and sits with you no matter the chaos and confusion around you?
When we encounter God, and the unfolding of His words, we experience supernatural peace. When we meditate on His words and speak them out, we encounter Him — the Author of the Word.
While I was pregnant with my daughter, a good friend gave me a very special book. Far better than What to Expect When Your Expecting, this book was about spiritually preparing our hearts and our bodies for the labor and delivery process. It compelled me to create a “birth plan” that included dozens of Scriptures that would be spoken over me while I was in the thick of laboring.
These words were rich in the atmosphere during the hours of laboring. They were alive and active in my heart and in my mind. Every time we declare Scripture, we are encountering the Word Himself.
Hours later I would birth my sweet baby girl, and shortly thereafter as the words of confusion and chaos began to rise into the atmosphere, they couldn’t help but clash against the words already spoken. The Word himself had taken up residence and shined a light. It helped me see through the smoke of fear quickly filling the room, it brought understanding and peace to my soul.
Ladies be encouraged that the book we hold before us, the Bible, is alive and active. (Hebrews 4:12) The Spirit of God lives in the Words of His book. When our voice gives breath to the Scriptures, they unfold before us, and we encounter the Lord God Himself.
And when we encounter God’s promises, they shine a holy light that infuses our circumstances with truth. This allows us to walk one more step down the broken cobblestone road of our lives, and confidently say, “Don’t worry about a thing, because every little thing will be alright”.
