Daily Manna · Day 127 · May 7
Light and Understanding
“The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.”
Many people assume that light from the Bible comes mainly through hard study. Today's verse puts it a different way.
Read it slowly: "The entrance of thy words giveth light." It does not speak of mastering God's words, or studying them, or piling up years of learning. It speaks of their entrance. The Hebrew word means an opening, like a door swinging open. Light comes when the words get in, and getting them in is different from reading about them. A man can spend ten years surrounded by books about the Bible and keep the door shut the whole time.
The verse also says who receives the light. It is "the simple." In the Psalms and in Proverbs, the simple person is the open one, the untrained one, the one whose mind is not yet made up. The word is not praise for being clever, and it is not an insult either. It describes the only kind of heart the light can come in through. The next verse paints the same picture another way: "I opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy commandments." The psalmist is wide open, and hungry for God's word.
That explains something uncomfortable. You can hold all the right opinions about Scripture and still stay in the dark, because opinions can stand at the door without ever letting the words in.
So today, close the tabs and pause the podcasts. Take one psalm and read it slowly enough that it changes your mind about something. Begin by telling God that you do not understand it yet. Being the simple one in the room is no disgrace. It is how the light gets in, and God has promised that when His words enter, they give light.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 127 is The Seventh Day (Genesis 2:2-3).