By W. Jay Tyree
College Hill Church of Christ 

Lamps, flashlights and God's word

 

December 2, 2016



“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my pathway” (Psalm 119:105). Since the book of Psalms is the only Biblical document to have more than 119 chapters and Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, it takes a lot of reading to get to that strong statement of faith. It’s been estimated that (on average) it takes about 15 minutes to read this Psalm out loud. I’m guessing they didn’t let the guy who reads the “fine print” at the end of car commercials have a shot at it.

This Psalm always makes me think of my days at Christian summer camp. For one week out of the year, we set aside our boom boxes and video games (Pong and Donkey Kong) and spent some time studying scripture, swimming and enjoying the amazing food in the “mess hall.” But the thing I recall most, when thinking about this Psalm, are the night-time devotionals.

Every evening, weather permitting, we would hike out to the designated “devo” spot. Oftentimes, these places were fairly nondescript in the daylight but offered the best view of the night sky or a place far enough from the cabins to allow for bonfires. To get to these awe-inspiring spots, we would hike through some fairly spotty terrain. To make the passage successfully, it was good to have a strong flashlight.

(You might have noticed that I didn’t say “a great spotlight on my phone.” It would have been a real task to get enough extension cords to transport the one old wall phone from the nurse’s quarters to the devo site.)

My phone was usually one of those Walmart specials that were designed to last a few hours and then increase the size of the landfill. However, I did have a friend named Doug Schwartz whose parents evidently weren’t hoping he’d get lost in the woods. He always carried a big torchlight flashlight to camp. As long as I walked next to Doug, I was likely to have a great view of the terrain. God’s word is like that. A constant companion that helps us clearly see the road ahead. See ya Sunday.

 

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