The BEGINNING of Wisdom

First, a couple of comments on Psalm 119. I like it so much that I think we'll read it aloud this coming Sunday during class (this is a joke--feel free to laugh). Having said that, it's not as long as you think--granted, it is 176 verses, but its word count (a little over 2,500 words) is similar to the Sermon on the Mount, which covers Matthew 5-7. You should have noticed that it was quicker reading than you anticipated.

My post today is based on Psalm 111:10:

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom

I commented on this a bit in my post on April 25th with every intention of returning to it when we reached this verse. We Christians have a tendency to view things that the Lord tells us to BEGIN with as the end. Two examples:

1. Prayer--the hymn "With the Lord Begin Thy Task" (#540 in the Red Hymnal, the only TRUE hymnal) states in verse 2 "Let each day begin with prayer, Praise and adoration." 

2. We see in the Psalm verse that fearing God is the beginning of wisdom.

Many times, we think that once we pray on something, that's the end of the matter. I'll grant that sometimes, it is--consider asking for healing. If you're not a doctor or in other ways able to heal someone, chances are that's as far as you can take that request, and it is indeed in the Lord's hands, but not necessarily. You can convince someone to see a physician, undergo a course of treatment, make lifestyle changes or any number of things that can bring about healing. However, if you just pray to God to do it and leave it at that, you might not have done all you could have done.

Wisdom is the same thing. The Bible is all we need to understand God and how we should live our lives, but it's not all that we'll ever need in this life--it simply provides the foundation upon which all of the knowledge we acquire in this life should be critiqued and utilized. The Psalmist tells us that in ten simple words--all of our homes have foundations, but we live in the parts of the house that were built on the foundation. 

Amongst certain strains of Christianity, there is an antipathy toward secular knowledge, espousing that it taints or cheapens God's word. As is my wont, I usually won't argue with those people (I won't win, so what's the point?), but I won't agree with them either. All of the knowledge accrued throughout human history only reinforces the grandeur and majesty of the Lord. In a universe that has a radius of 13.5 billion light-years (and, due to expansion, is actually bigger than that, but my head starts exploding when I think about that), in a world that has such accumulated knowledge in science, medicine, engineering and every other discipline, God is greater than all of that, and was indeed, through creation, the genesis of it. What he expects from us is to take that wisdom, grounded in him, and use it to further his kingdom throughout the world. To do any less is to take the gifts of knowledge and wisdom that he's bestowed upon us and let them sit idle.

Scott