Preached on Sunday, July 12, 2026, the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Little Rock.

Your word is a lantern to my feet and a light upon my path. (Psalm 119:105)

Today, I want to talk about the Bible. I want to talk about this remarkable book that Christians carry into worship, place upon their bedside tables, read to their children, and return to again and again throughout their lives. I want to speak about the singular gift that God has given us in Holy Scripture and about the confidence with which the Psalmist declares that these words are a lantern for our feet and a light upon our path. For the Christian life is not a life of wandering without direction or making our own way through the world by instinct and guesswork alone. God has given us a lamp, and He intends for us to walk by its light.

Now, at first glance, that claim may seem rather strange. The Bible, after all, looks very much like an ancient and ordinary thing. It is a collection of writings from peoples and places far removed from our own experience. Its pages speak of kings and prophets, shepherds and fishermen, deserts and rivers, temples and empires that have long since vanished from the earth. We can study its languages, trace its manuscripts, and reconstruct the cultures from which its books emerged. In one sense, it is a paper trail stretching across centuries, the record of God’s dealings with His people long ago.

And so, many people wonder how such a book could possibly function as a light for us today. They look upon it as a fascinating historical artifact, worthy of study and respect, but not necessarily as something that could guide a modern person through the ordinary questions and burdens of contemporary life. The temptation is to leave the Scriptures on the shelf as an object of admiration—next to Shakespeare and Plato and Melville and Angelou—while looking elsewhere for the wisdom our daily lives require.

And yet, the Psalmist invites us to look again. She does not say that God’s Word was a lamp for our ancestors. She speaks in the present tense, with the confidence of one who has walked by its guidance. “Your word is a lantern to my feet,” she sings, “and a light upon my path.” The lamp still burns; the light still shines.

The image that the Psalmist gives us is a profoundly practical one. A lantern does not reveal the entire journey all at once, nor does it remove every mystery from the road ahead. Instead, it illumines the ground immediately before us so that we may place our feet securely and continue onward without stumbling. Such is God’s gift to us in Holy Scripture. The Bible teaches us what is good and what is evil. It instructs us in forgiveness, patience, courage, generosity, and prayer. It reminds us that every human being bears the image of God and that our lives find their meaning in loving God and loving our neighbors. By its light, we are kept from many a misstep that comes from walking by our own understanding alone.

Still, an important question remains. How can a book composed over so many centuries, in circumstances so different from our own, continue to guide those of us living here and now?

Some of us know what it is to begin reading the Bible with great enthusiasm only to become discouraged. We encounter passages we do not understand. We miss a day, then a week, then a month. Eventually, the book returns to the shelf, and we quietly assume that perhaps it was never meant to become a real part of our lives after all. If that has been your experience, you are hardly alone.

The answer is that Christians have never believed that the Scriptures are merely an ancient book. We believe that the God Who spoke then is the same God Who continues to speak through these same Scriptures today. Human history changes, technology advances, and cultures rise and fall, but the human heart remains remarkably familiar. We still wrestle with pride and fear, love and loss, temptation and hope. We still long to know what is good, and we still need mercy when we fail to pursue it. The God Who instructed His people in former generations has not ceased to be their teacher.

That is why the Church does not simply hand us a Bible and leave us alone with it. We hear the Scriptures proclaimed in worship. We study them with other Christians. We return to them again and again across the seasons of our lives, often discovering that a passage which once seemed obscure has become exactly the word we needed to hear. The light of Scripture does not always come all at once. More often, it comes as a lantern does: steadily, patiently, one step at a time.

That is also why Christians have always returned to the Scriptures with gratitude and expectation. We do not read the Bible merely to acquire information about the ancient world, nor simply to admire one of history’s great literary achievements. We read because we trust that God has given us in this book a faithful guide for His people. We read because His wisdom is greater than our own, and His light is steadier than the flickering lamps the world so often offers us.

So, I want to encourage you, very simply, to take up and read this book. Make time for it in your life, and allow its words to become familiar companions. Join a Bible study and read alongside other Christians who are seeking to walk by the same light. In fact, our study of the Gospel of Matthew began today, and there is still room for anyone who wishes to come and learn together. Most importantly, read the Bible with the expectation that God has something to say to you, because He does.

The Psalmist is really on to something. God’s Word is a lantern to our feet and a light upon our path. The darkness of this world is real, and none of us can see the whole journey that lies ahead. But God has not left His people to stumble through that darkness alone. He has placed into our hands a light that has guided His saints for countless generations, and He bids us to walk by it still. Those who walk by that light need not fear the darkness that surrounds them. Amen.