The Supreme Judge, by which all controversies of religion are to be determined … can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture.
—Westminster Confession of Faith, 1.10
The passages and hymns chosen for this morning’s service all revolve around a fairly obvious theme: the centrality of the Scriptures to the Christian life. We begin the service by singing from the psalms, noting that all who know the name of the Lord will “place their trust in the Word of truth” and that blessings shall come to those who “daily find delight within Jehovah’s Holy Word” (O Lord Most High—Psalm 9; Alleluia! How Blest The Man—Psalm 112). We read that “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). We pray in song, asking the Lord to keep us “steadfast in [His] Word” and that His Word might “dwell richly in [our] heart[s] from hour to hour” (Lord, Keep Us Steadfast In Thy Word; May The Mind Of Christ, My Savior). Further hymns remind us that His Word should be our “chief delight,” that we desire His truth to be planted “deep in us” to “shape and fashion us,” and that we know the love of Jesus primarily because “the Bible tells [us] so” (How Shall The Young—Psalm 119; Speak, O Lord; Jesus Loves Me, This I Know). I pray that this morning’s service would encourage us to be like the Bereans in the sermon text from Acts, who “received the Word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”
—Henry C. Haffner
