Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Why Study the Bible? 8 Powerful Promises from Psalm 19 | Bible Study Transformation Guide 2025

Episode Date: December 31, 2024

Discover why the Bible is essential for spiritual growth in 2025. Through an in-depth look at Psalm 19, learn how God's Word transforms lives through 8 incredible promises: it revives the soul, grants wisdom, brings joy, enlightens, endures forever, produces righteousness, satisfies deeply, and provides divine warning and reward. Perfect for anyone starting their Bible study journey or seeking to deepen their walk with God.Learn about:The 6 titles of God's WordWhy the Bible is called "perfect" and "pure"How Scripture differs from other booksPractical steps to start studying the BibleBiblical wisdom for spiritual transformationWhy God's Word endures while trends fadeWhether you're making New Year's resolutions or seeking lasting spiritual change, this guide shows why the Bible is your essential foundation for authentic spiritual growth in 2025.Watch VideosVisit the Website Buy Consider the LiliesFollow on Instagram

People have been reading and studying and committing their life to this book for thousands of years. Why is it so important? It is the worship book that defines the conduct that rightly regards God for who God is, but it's also flawless. There's no imperfection. This is the supernatural power of God through the Word of God to do the work of God in my soul. That's core to me. It's healing to me. It's life giving to me. It's life restoring to me. That doesn't change. This book is reliable from beginning to end. Hey Ariel, thanks for sitting down. I wanted to walk through some things today as we embark on a

new year. Different people have New Year's resolutions. It's often a time where people make goals and objectives for the year that's coming. And if you told me, you know, I want to be fit in 2025, but that was divorced from maybe a habit of exercise or a conscientiousness of what you ate, I would be like, well, you're delusional. And if someone said, I want to grow in my walk with the Lord this year, but was disconnected and detached from a personal commitment and devotion to the Word of God, I would say, well, that might be a good goal, but it's not a goal that's going to be realized.

You can't become more like the Son of God if you're not committed to the Word of God. And so I wanted to begin to maybe just in this episode talk through why we should study the Bible and look to the Scripture to provide those reasonings, but we have to first understand what the Scripture is when we open it. But before we embark on that, would you just maybe initially, someone's listening and going, why is this so important to study the Bible? What would you just say off the bat? Well, the Word of God is living and active, and it has the capacity to

inform you in the categories of life, internal and practical, so that you can become what Jesus Christ saved you to be. The Word of God is what we're going to talk about today, the tool, the instrument, the means by which the goals of God are achieved because of what it provides us directly from God. And so if you're going to benefit in terms of your spiritual life, the Bible's foundational. It's transformational. It gets places where nothing else can go, and it does what nothing else can do. And it's supernatural. Yeah. Living, active, the Word of God. Yeah, I think, you know, there's probably a number of people that can say amen to the idea that, you know, the Bible is the Word of God. But even for Christians that have a habit and a rhythm of reading the Word of God, we need to remind ourselves of even the supernatural nature of it, that this isn't just dry commitment.

It's something supernatural because God speaks to us through his word. And in order to kind of highlight some of the promises that God's word offers to those who invest their life in it, I want to look to Psalm 19. C.S. Lewis once said that he takes this to be the greatest poem in the Psalter and the greatest lyric in the world. Psalm 19 begins, and you're familiar with it, by saying that the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day into day pours out speech, and night into night reveals knowledge. The point that David is conveying is that all of creation is the theater in which God displays his glory. I think it was Joseph Addison that once wrote that song that in reasons here they all rejoice, the stars that is,

and utter forth in glorious voice forever singing as they shine, the hand that made us is divine. Meaning everyone should be able to look at the stars and recognize, Romans 1, right, that God is a great God. He's glorious, worthy to be worshiped. But the whole point of this passage after kind of setting up this reality that God speaks to us through his world, is that that's not sufficient to save, because you can know that God is glorious through creation, but you wouldn't know anything about his sovereignty or his holiness or his, you know, the reality of our sin apart from God's revelation of reality, is what you call it in his word.

Maybe just expound on that for a moment. Yeah, no, I agree. I've heard it said. I like it a lot. The world, the created world is the world book. God's self-revelation about his power, his capacity, his glory, Romans 1. God declares through his creation, his great capacity, his wondrous glory, his infinite ability. And then there's the word book, as you just said, which is self-revelation about God that the world cannot communicate absent God's revelation in his word.

Both in his son, the living word, and his word, the Bible. Also the living word, one written, one personified. Yeah, well, so good. And there's a special section that I love in Psalm 19, 7 through 11, where we see, it's often been noted, there are six titles for the word of God, six qualities of the word of God, and then six, you know, eight attributes, or I refer to them as eight promises from the word of God.

I want to talk about those titles for the word of God and the qualities. And then I really want to camp on these different promises that the word of God offer. The first of which is that in verse seven, David calls the Bible or the scripture, the law of the Lord, just meaning that the Bible is full of instruction. He calls it the law of the Lord. We think of law and maybe we think of just, you know, right and wrong. But from a scriptural perspective, why do you think David refers to the Bible as the law? The way I take the law here is it's God's prescriptive direction. Okay. So it's not so much right and wrong. This is the way to live life that is right and fulfills the maximum potential of life. It's God's prescriptive direction in life that allows you to know how to navigate it, how to live it, how to enjoy it, and how to be transformed in it.

Yeah. I think sometimes that we have to understand the law of the Lord in that regard, because it makes no sense. Where David will say in Psalm 119 verse 174, your law is my delight. We don't really think about delighting in the law of the Lord unless we understand it to be what you mentioned, the direction for our life. That's why David says, I love it because without the law of the Lord, we're lost in ambiguity. Then he calls it the testimony of the Lord in 7b, meaning that if you're, when we say, hey, will you share your testimony? It's you sharing your story, who you are. And so when we open up the scripture, it's God's testimony concerning himself. Then we have precepts. That is doctrines. Maybe just talk about that, Harry, for a moment, that the scripture's not full of suggestions. Yeah, the word precept is an interesting word. It involves leadership.

It involves direction, like a father would give. This is directional guidance, but it feels more like coaching and counsel. So the precepts of God involve God's counsel to us as our leader, like, hey, do this this way in order to achieve this outcome. It is counseling from God. the one who's created it all, designed it all, and created a pathway that he coaches you in so that you can experience what he designed it to be. Like a father would say, hey, Johnny, this is how you want to do this in order to achieve this outcome. So it's precepts, it's concepts, but it's counseling concepts. That's how I take it. No, so good. And all of these different names for the Bible, David is using really six synonyms,

but they describe the culminating work of the Word of God. Well, they're nuanced too. They're not all the same word. They're categories of related thought about how God is communicating. Revealing himself. Yeah, because he's a king and he's giving you mandates, but he's also a father, like you just mentioned, who's saying son and counseling.

And if you only view him as king, maybe your understanding of God's word is so top down, but he's also coming alongside us as a father. That's a good way. A, B, it says the commandment of the Lord. Then in nine, David calls the word of God, the fear of the Lord. This is an interesting, you know, name for the word of God. We don't often think about the Bible being called the fear of the Lord, but I think if you're looking at the Old Testament, the fear of

the Lord is really the worship of God. It means to be in awe of him. And I just take that to mean, that the Bible is our worship manual for life. I mean, if the fear of the Lord is to worship God, you don't know how to worship God, which is your life's ambition if you're a Christian without this book. It is the worship book that defines the conduct that rightly regards God for who God is. The Bible is the prescription or the revelation of that, the fear. Yeah, meaning that worship isn't just singing a song on Sunday morning. It's our life. And the conduct that it represents our worship of God.

Yeah, which is why David calls it the fear of the Lord, meaning you can't worship God if you're not in God's word. And then the final title is he refers to the word of God as the rules or the judgments of the Lord. And this just means that scripture contains divine verdicts, even as you mentioned, they're nuanced. God is a king, God is a father, but God is also a righteous judge.

And so in his word, he gives us these divine verdicts. And then I wanna focus now on just on these qualities because in seven, we already examined that the Bible is called the law of the Lord. But he says here that the law of the Lord is perfect. Maybe talk about that for a moment, just meaning it's unscathed. I think it's two things. Perfect means it's complete. It's full in its content. It's sufficient in all of its content. It's comprehensive's complete. It's full in its content. It's sufficient in all of its content.

It's comprehensive. Correct. It's everything, I think Peter says, you know, everything you need pertaining to a life of godliness. And not only is it comprehensive, complete, perfect in the sense that it speaks to all that needs to be spoken to, but it's also flawless. There's no imperfection. It's not tainted, twisted, defective. It's exactly what should be communicated in order to enjoy benefit in all of life. It's perfect. So good. So we're doing the titles and the quality so far. We'll get to the promises

because it says the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. We'll come back to that promise. But then it says this other quality is that the testimony 7B of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. We'll come back to that promise. But then it says this other quality is that the testimony, 7B, of the Lord is sure. I think in Hebrew it just refers to the Word of God being faithful. It's reliable. In and of ourselves, we're standing on sinking sand. Maybe even what comfort does that produce in someone knowing that God's Word is sure? Yeah, it's reliable, as you just said, and it's eternal, which means it's not changing.

It's sure, like it's here today. It's here forever. It's never gonna change. And that's encouraging and affirming about stability, security, that if I accept this, I apply this, I know that it's not going to be changed in the future. It's not today and somehow different tomorrow. Yeah, and when we open it, we're not pursuing novelty.

We're looking to just understand what it meant back then. Then it says in 8a, the precepts of the Lord are right. I just think that we live in a crooked world with crooked people, but God's word is right, which means it's straight. The fourth would be in 8b, it says the commandment of the Lord is pure. Maybe just talk about this, you know, Harry, we've already examined that the law of the Lord is perfect, which means untainted. But here, David's going to say that the commandment of the Lord is pure, which means not corrupted, but I think it means more than that in the sense

that it's plain. Yeah, it's clear and understandable. Yeah, that's how I would say it. You can see through clearly. It's pure in the sense that it's not muddied. Maybe encourage someone then, because they might be starting a year going, man, I don't even know where to start, right? Like this, the Bible is so hard to understand, but God's word says, no, it's plain. There are tensions, difficulties, challenging passages, but how do we receive that the word of God is clear? Well, it's the way I would take, first of all, the idea that it's meant to be understood is undeniable because God wouldn't have given it if he didn't want you to understand it. It's not just a religious book. It's a life book. It's a self-revelation and how

to live life from God to you. So I think maybe the best advice I could give is recognizing that it's one story, it's connected, and you need to be able to contextualize it, which means you need to look at it as you read it so that you can connect it to what God has been saying and what he intends this book or this passage to reveal about what he's saying. So, you know, I would always encourage people, start at the beginning. You know, I would read the Old Testament, start from the beginning, have some sense of what God's communicating. And then the New Testament, which is the culmination, the coming. And see the Bible as one book with many contributing chapters and books meant to tell you a story of God's revelation

about the world he made, what happened to the world he made, your place in it, what's happened to you, and what he's done in order to recover. And restore us. And restore. Yeah. And through whom he does that and how he does that.

Yeah, and that's what I think David's getting at when he says the law of the Lord, the commandment of the Lord is pure. It's just, it's clear. It's one story. I remember reading an R.C. Sproul's book, Knowing Scripture, when I was a boy, he asked the question, what kind of a God would reveal himself in terms so technical and concepts so profound that only an elite group of scholars and professionals could understand him? And the answer is not our God, right? Our God reveals himself in the clear, plain, pure teaching of his word. Then it says in 9 that the fear of the Lord is clean. This again just means without corruption,

God's word can't be twisted by the highest bidder. In 9b, it says the rules of the Lord or the precepts of the Lord are true. Maybe talk about this. We live in a world of fog and deception and lies. I think I've read before that there are 487 million books that have been sold on Amazon Kindle, but only one book in the world is altogether true. Maybe talk about that just in regards to the contrast in the world is altogether true. Maybe talk about that just in regards to the contrast in the world we live in. Yeah. And I think it's one thing to have liars lie and they know they're lying in order to sell a product or to promote an agenda. It's also a reality that sometimes people present things they think are true that are not true.

They're sincerely represented, but they don't, yeah, they just don't get it. Or the data that they're utilizing is limited in its capacity to represent reality. And what you have in the Bible is 100% trustworthy. It's true. Everything that it talks about is absolutely reliable as it's measured by what is, which is reality. It's true. It represents what is, and you can count on it, which is something that's really desirable and valuable in a world like ours. Yeah. It gives it uniqueness. So we've covered so far six titles for the word of God, which would be the law of the Lord. And it says the precepts of the Lord, each time reminding us that the Bible is not man's word. It's God's word. Then we looked at six qualities that the word of God is perfect. It's sure it's right. It's pure. It's clean.

It's true. Now I want to get to these, what I will call promises from the word of God. And we see that in 711. The first promise is that, I'll just list them all off, that God's word transforms, it makes wise, it rejoices, it enlightens, God's word endures, it makes righteous, it satisfies, and it warns and rewards. But the first one is in verse seven, the law of the Lord is perfect. And then it says reviving the soul. Maybe just talk about that for a moment. What does it mean that God's word revives or transforms our soul? Yeah, well, what it does is it repairs the damage that sin and the world produces. So it renews, it refreshes, it recovers. It puts back into place what has been damaged by the fall, by choices, by the impact of the world in which we live.

So it has the ability to recover and recreate in a way that's healthy. Renew, refresh, revive my soul. the truest me the fullest me which means it transforms in in a world of pragmatism that offers tips and tricks right no the bible's not here to just offer tips and tricks it's here to transform which is like a systematic what you referred to as a recreation, a renewal. And if you're longing for that restoration, you have to look to the source, which is the word of God. Well, it's a supernatural healer. It's not Harry doing a series of things that somehow recover. 12 steps. Yeah, whatever. This is the supernatural power of God through the Word of God to do the work of God in my soul.

That's core to me. It's healing to me. It's life-giving to me. It's life-restoring to me. That's one of my favorite promises, the one that leads the list. It restores my soul. Because our souls are damaged. Yeah.

Even for a believer, our souls need to be. I live in a fallen world. Yeah. I injure myself through sin. Others injure me through their sin. I got a world that's against me adversarially, the system that promotes things that are injurious to me. I need recovery and healing, and this is the means by which God provides it.

So good. That's the first promise. The second promise is in 7b, which says the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The second promise just is that God's word will make you wise. We're left to ourself. We're foolish, unwise. We don't know the right place, you know, right direction to go. Maybe just talk about that. We need wisdom and there's a wisdom from this world and there is in James, a wisdom from above. Talk about the need for wisdom and how there's only one source for it. Well, wisdom comes from God. Yeah. God gives his wisdom through his word and wisdom is knowing the best goals and the best way to get there.

It is divine perspective on the where to, where to go, and the how to, how to get to where you need to go. The simple is someone who doesn't have definition on moral direction. They're open-minded to things they shouldn't be open-minded. Wise people have closed their mind about certain categories of opportunity or options because they know that's not healthy. That's not a good place to go. So the simple person doesn't have a moral compass. The Word of God provides the wisdom that enables you to navigate life fruitfully and successfully. Yeah, so important.

I remember reading Job 28. He asked that question, where can wisdom be found? And he draws to our attention the reality that people drill for oil, they search in the depths of the ocean for pearls or whatever it may be. And then he says, well, where does wisdom come from? Do you drill for it? Do you dig for it? Do you ascend the heavens for it? And then he just draws our attention to the reality that wisdom can only be found in God's word. And it's something that we must pursue. Maybe just talk about this for a moment, because in Proverbs 2, it says, if you search for it, like silver and search for it as hidden treasure, I think it's just important to recognize that wisdom doesn't fall in your lap as you wait for

it. It has to be sought after. And the source that provides it is here in the word of God. And we have to dig for it. The third promise then is the first was that it revives our soul. Second, it makes you wise. The third promise from the word of God to you, if you commit your life to it, is an 8A. It says the precepts of the Lord are right. And here's the promise, rejoicing the heart.

The question would be, if you desire true supernatural joy, where do you find it? And the Bible says only here in the Word of God. It's the outcome of applying the precepts, which is the guidance and direction of God, which is right both to the means and the outcome. And when you employ the means that He guides you to apply, to the ends that he's asking you to aim at, guess what's at the end of that path? Joy. Joy. Yeah. It keeps you from corruption. It's self-validating.

Like when you live this way, the outcome of that is not just profit or benefit, but internal. I can't imagine this joy exceeding. The word is exaltation. It's elevated joy. It's like victory joy because I'm living a life fruitful, governed by God, guided by God. And those pathways, they're right. They take me to the right places, the right way. And when I walk the right way and I end up at the right place, guess what I experience? Joy. And even in the midst of trials, you're reminded when you're in the Word of God that you're in the hand of God, right, even in difficulty. Because sometimes life doesn't feel like victory joy.

Sometimes it feels like despair. But only the Christian that's rooted in the word of God can be like Paul, who's sorrowful yet always rejoicing. Sometimes the right means is a difficult tool. It's trial. It's trouble. But the right means to employ that challenging tool is to enable you to get to the place that you need to get to. That's why you count it joy is because this tool, which is hard, trial and trouble, will achieve an outcome that brings transformation. Whole, complete, lacking in nothing. Which gives you joy because you want to be like the God of the word that's like victory the outcome not the means fourth promise here is

that it says in 8b the commandment of the lord is pure and then god's promise to you is that god's word will enlighten your eyes um i think this just you know if you want to reject worldly thinking if you want to see reality the way it really is, you need to look at life through the spectacles of the word of God. You're wearing glasses. I'm wearing my contacts. But I remember the first time I put on glasses. I stole someone else's in first grade and I put them on. And it was the first time in my life I realized I was blind and I could see the leaves on the trees and I could see reality.

Yeah. And this is what the word of God does. This is why sometimes even at church, people will say, I started reading the word of God and life finally makes sense because it in left to yourself, you're, you're not 2020, you're, you're blind. Right. And that's why I think even here, it's talking about the reality that it, the scripture is the instrument by which God turns the lights on in your own thinking.

It says here, fifth promise, that the fear of the Lord is clean. And then the promise to you, and we've touched on this briefly, but that it endures forever. Talk about that, Harry, about how God's word isn't a fad, right? Like we're in 2024, embarking on a new year. People chase fads, but people have been reading and studying and committing their life to this book for thousands of years. Why is it so important? Well, because the reality behind what you can see is governed by a God who does not change. And he's given his word, the revelation of himself, revelation about you, revelation about the world in which you live. And that's not going to change, not from generation

to generation, because he doesn't change. The world that we're in is governed by certain laws, both scientific laws, but also spiritual laws, realities, and the reliability, the stability. The, I can count on this today, just like David could count on it in his day, or Moses in his day, is a great comfort and encouragement, because the winds of the culture, everybody knows this, there is a new trend, there's a new fad, there's a new way to see the world. There's a new way to see gender. There's a new way to see marriage, a new way to see home life. And what you have in the Bible is the clarity that never changes. It endures forever.

This is the way to live life. This is the way to do marriage. This is the way to do your home. This is the way to invest in a way that at the end of life will provide satisfaction and joy. That doesn't change. This book is reliable from beginning to end. I love that. I remember traveling through Europe after college. And one of the funny things when you go to Europe when you're from America is you see all these torn down castles everywhere. And it was just, you know, for me,

kind of shocking that at one time, this was a symbol of solidity and strength and permanence. You have these fortresses and they're in ruins now. There's rats and they're toppled over. And you just reminded of the reality that every single one of man's best attempts at permanence fails. But then you read in scripture forever, oh Lord, your word is established in the heavens. It endures forever. And that's a promise from God. The sixth promise is that God's word in 9b is righteous altogether.

I just think for the sake of brevity that God's word produces righteousness in your life because it itself is righteous. The seventh promise, and we've touched on this at the beginning, but I think it's worth highlighting. David says in Psalm 1910, more to be desired, that's the word of God,

are they, the words of God, than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb, which leads me to the seventh promise that God's word not only restores you, but it satisfies you. Maybe just talk about that, Harry, about how the word of God is the instrument by which God satisfies our hearts. Yeah, this is a figure of speech meant to say, just like the sweetest and the finest food

satisfies your palate and fulfills and sustains, so does the Word of God. It's more desirable than any pleasure you could experience in life when the Word of God in the ways of God satisfies the heart of a person who desires God. It's life-giving. It's life-satisfying. That's why Job said, I desire your word more than my necessary food. That's why David said, I desire this more than marrow and fatness, Hebrew idiom for the richest of food, steak and lobster tail. I want to meditate on you, oh God, in the night watches, using your word because it satisfies. Yeah. And we need that satisfaction. It's not an optional extra because we are hardwired to seek satisfaction in something or someone. And if we're not getting it from the word of God, we're going to seek it elsewhere. And so that's a promise. And then

this final promise is formatted differently in the poem, but in verse 11, just the promise that God's word is going to warn you and reward you. Verse 11, moreover, by them, the words of God, yourly informs your conscience of the path that you may be on that may be more subtle. It tells you don't go down this road. It warns you. And maybe just even talk about that for a moment. Why do we need to be warned? And what's the danger when we're disconnected from the Word of God that our life is stripped of those warnings of the path of sin. Well, it's like the Proverbs. He knows not. The warning is stay away from the adulterous woman, the woman who flatters with her words.

And the reason Proverbs 7 is given, like 5 and 6, is because he does not know that it will cost him his life. So here's a warning, a neon sign saying bridges out, bridges out. You continue down this road, it's catastrophic. So I like to say, what's a warning worth? Well, it depends on how catastrophic the outcome is. If you don't hear the bell, you don't hear the warning, the trumpet, the sound, the alarm, the blinking lights. The Bible is a preservative because it protects you from what you need to know in order to avoid what can cost you your life or the joy in your life or relationships in your life and ultimately warns you about the consequences of ignoring God in your life. Which are real, even for a believer. You know, there are consequences to sin

and sometimes we lose sight of that. I mean, the saying is well known that sin will take you further than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay and cost you more than you're willing to pay. And the word of God is there to warn you that sin is dangerous and the consequences of sin are legitimate

and can't be disregarded. And then David just says, in keeping them, there is great reward, meaning that there is a benefit to living for the Lord, holy and solely. It's not the prosperity gospel, but we've already talked about it. The rewards of a righteous life are that joy. It's that stability in a shaking world. And so those are the eight promises from the Word of God. And Harry, maybe next time we talk, I want to just look at verse 14. It says, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Meaning that these titles of the law of the Lord, the precepts of the Lord, these qualities that it's perfect, sure, right, and these promises that God will revive you and

restore you and it endures and makes you righteous are really the most applicable to the person, not just that affirms the Word of God or reads the Word of God, but meditates on the Word of God. And so we'd love to pick up there next time we talk. And thanks so much for your insight in this regard. You're welcome.