To Encourage You

Psalm 19:7b “the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple”

One word used in Psalm 19 to describe the Word of God is “testimony.”  A testimony is an account provided by a witness.  It’s a true statement about something that a witness has seen.  Well, one of the great benefits of the Word of God is that it is given to us by the One Who has seen it all.  He knows the truth about everything and everyone, including Himself.  The observations He gives us are for our benefit. Without His testimony, we are “simple.”  We don’t know enough about life, and we are very prone to make foolish and sinful choices as a result.  God has given us testimony, true accounts about Himself, and accounts about many individuals throughout history, contrasting the wise with the foolish.  He has given us one example after another to guide us in the paths of righteousness, “rightness” if you will, so we know how we should think and act as we face various circumstances in life.  Which one of us would not want to make wise decisions in life, rather than simple and foolish ones?  1 Corinthians 10:6-11 summarizes these thoughts very well with these words about the example of the nation of Israel recorded as God’s testimony throughout the Old Testament: “Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, ’The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.’We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.”  May God help us to pay heed to the testimony He has given us, and thereby walk in His wisdom as we live our lives in this day and age – an age in which the simple fall by the wayside as they fail to heed the Word of God.