Read + Do = Blessing

About the year 1451 BC, God drew His people’s attention to the importance of habitual meditation in His Word, saying, “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success” (Joshua 1:8).

Four hundred years later, the Lord needed to remind His people of this exceedingly important habit of life. In describing a truly blessed man, He says of him, “But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper” (Psalm 1:2,3).

After a lapse of a thousand years, in AD 60, God speaks—for the third time—to impress upon forgetful minds the highly essential practice of steadily going on, day after day, with the thoughtful reading of His Word: “Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed” (James 1:25).

—F. Ferguson

We can never tell how far our acts of kindness, or other service for the Lord, may cast their blessing. Deeds which may be directed at one person, can have an effect which touches many others. Because this is true about all deeds—both good and bad—we are solemnly bound to examine our motives and guard our doings, so that they may bring only honor and glory to the name of Jesus. —Selected