A Read Bible

Portions of Texas can related to the “dry and thirsty land” of Psalm 63. But that’s not what caught my eye on my friend’s picture, so I focused on just a few verses to talk about how we can tell this is an often read verse.

The highlighting is obvious, beginning with:

O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; (Psalms 63:1 KJV)

My Bible tells me this was written by David when he was in the Judean wilderness, pursued by enemies but firmly grounded in God’s ability to sustain him. Then we skip to the last half of verse 4:

I will lift up my hands in thy name. (Psalms 63:4 KJV)

and verse 6:

When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches. (Psalms 63:6 KJV)

Those remind me of highlights I’ve made that have very personal applications. What’s very noticeable is that these highlights were not made at the same time as the underlining. And, the underlining shows that different verses were marked with different pens, indicating different times.

This Psalm of David was visited, revisited and revisited again and again. There are multiple messages in these short verses.  Of course, the Psalm is much longer, but I cropped only the portion of the page that contained this Psalm.

I’m familiar with such a read Bible – I have a few. I carried one from 1977. It has highlights, underlines, notations, dates, preachers’ names – reminders of messages from its pages. I’ve moved to e-Sword on my computer (the copy/paste of verses come from there) and my smart phone. The app has the ability to highlight, but my note taking has moved to a purse-sized spiral so my notes are more copious!

I encourage Bible reading for a number of reasons – primarily as the foundation of faith:

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17 KJV)

… the source of doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction:

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: (2 Timothy 3:16 KJV)

That’s why it’s a blessing to find proof of a read Bible – over and over again. May I suggest 1 John as a good place to start? There he speaks of the witnesses, the events and the reason he writes:

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. (1 John 1:1-4 KJV)

Just listen close to the rest of the story. Don’t be afraid to re-read – there are additional messages in the good news given to us.