"As devout and patient scholars more and more its depths reveal."

Scriptorium Monk

Hymn: “Word of God, across the Ages” – Ferdinand Q. Blanchard (1876-1968)
Typical Tune: AUSTRIAN HYMN

This hymnline in context:
    … may the message bless and heal
    As devout and patient scholars more and more its depths reveal.
    Bless, O God, to wise and simple all the truth of ageless worth…

I appreciate so much when pastors and Bible teachers are prepared, when they have plumbed the passages they deal with in public, when they have read and studied the writings of other biblical scholars and theologians. Those devout and patient scholars have given their lives to a fuller understanding of what God is trying to tell his people through the written Word.

I was talking to a friend the other day who said he didn’t like hearing a certain local pastor preach because he seems to have studied too much. My friend’s preference is to have pulpiteers who “preach from their heart and their own experience.”

Some preachers and Bible teachers may tend to TELL us too much (I plead guilty to this one!), but I would never criticize anyone for being too well-prepared to unveil the truth of scripture. I want to learn something new every time the scriptures are opened: a fact, a revelation, a syntax, a meaningful realization… an ‘ah ha moment.’

With the writer of this fairly contemporary hymn (as hymn history goes!), I applaud those who have patiently combed those not-so-easy-to-understand passages, gone back to the original languages, studied the contexts and the situations. I am grateful to those whose gift is “gardening” the Word of God.