The Bay Psalm book was the first book printed (in 1640) in North America. As you would guess from the name, it is a translation of the book of Psalms into English, in meter. The book was used for over a century but is not currently in use. There are eleven known copies still in existence.

One of those copies sold back in November for $14.2 million. It was purchased by a David Rubenstein. Rubenstein, according to Forbes, has a net worth of $2.6 billion – thus his ability to spend $14.2 million on a three-hundred-year-old book of psalms. He said that he would loan the book to libraries across the country.

How valuable is your Bible to you? The author of most of the psalms in Rubenstein’s Bay Psalm book said that God’s word is more important that money. “The rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb” (Psalm 19:9-10).

“The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces” (Psalm 119:72). In verse 127 of Psalm 119, it is also written: “Therefore I love your commandments above gold, above fine gold.”

We should treat the Bible – its message of salvation through Jesus Christ to the glory of God – with deeper respect and with more value than Rubenstein’s $14 million Bible. Gold will not get us to heaven. The Bible will.

–Paul Holland