Hank Williams recorded an old song called “Dust on the Bible.” It’s a song of lament in which he has gone to a friend’s home and asked to see their Bible. When they bring it to him, he realizes it has obviously not been read for a very long time, for it is covered in dust.
Oh, you can read your magazines of love and tragic things
But not one word of Bible verse, not a Scripture do you know
When it is the very truth and its contents good for you
But if dust is covered o’er it
It is sure to doom your soul.
Perhaps Williams had encountered this quote by Charles Spurgeon, who wants us to consider that there is a terrible disconnect between a profession of Christian faith and an apathetic disposition toward the Bible. “If you find a professing Christian indifferent to his Bible, you may be sure that the very dust upon its cover will rise up in judgment against him.”
While we may all go through lulls when for a time we drift from our commitment to the Bible, the true Christian will always return to it, for to neglect it is to imperil our very lives. It is food for our souls, it is light for our eyes, it is enlightenment for our hearts. We cannot live and we cannot thrive without it.
(FYI, I’ve always been partial to this version of “Dust on the Bible” by Lost Dogs.)
