Dig Deeper by Dr. Lisa Burkhardt Worley
Jesus answered, ‘It is written: Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ (Matthew 4:4)
This past week at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention was a whirlwind, and I am still reflecting on the many blessings we received. Our team always pray for divine appointments at NRB. We also pay attention to patterns, and for the past two years, the LORD has connected us with an outreach that pairs Orthodox Jews and Christians to support Israel. It’s called Israel 365. Last year at the “Breakfast to Honor Israel,” we sat with three of the Israel 365 rabbis, including founder Rabbi Tuly Weisz. This year at NRB, I had another opportunity to chat with Rabbi Weisz.
So yesterday, I attended a Shabbat lunch that Israel 365 hosted, as well as a class at the event. In the class, Rabbi Pesach Wolicki, seen on the left in this photo, taught us how to take a deeper dive into the Psalms. He said that when we read a Psalm, we should name it. He had the group use Psalm 92 for this exercise. I came up with the title “Praise and Flourish” for this Psalm. That was wrong because I left out the middle of the Psalm which speaks about evildoers perishing. However, giving a Psalm a title makes one think more reflectively, even though we won’t always get it right.
In addition, Rabbi Wolicki asked us to divide the Psalm into three sections. I believe I did better in this aspect of the exercise, sectioning off Psalm 92 into verses 1-5, 6-11, and 12-15. Over eight years ago, the Holy Spirit highlighted the last part of this Psalm, Psalm 92:12-13 and brought me into a more devout place of prayer. It says, “The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God.” I realized that to flourish in this life, we must spend greater lengths of time in God’s court. I equated “planting ourselves in God’s court” to prayer, so my prayer life went from a few minutes to an hour at times.
If you feel that your Bible reading is dry, there are tools like the one Rabbi Wolicki shared that can help you to meditate on the Word in a more meditative and meaningful way. The LORD wants us to chew on His Word rather than skim through it. Joshua 1:8 also promises a fruitful life when we spend time in God’s word: This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
I don’t want to miss anything the Holy Spirit has to say to me through the Word of God. What about you? Let’s dig deeper!