Every once in a while, I see a graphic floating around the internet that looks spiritual and inspiring, but when you check under the hood, the details just do not hold up. One of the most common ones claims that Psalm 118 is the middle chapter of the Bible, that Psalm 118:8 is the exact center verse, and that this is God’s way of highlighting the verse “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.” As much as I love the message of that verse, the math behind this claim simply does not match reality. I want to walk through it with you, not to win an argument or spoil a good meme, but because truth matters and God’s Word does not need cute numerology to shine.
When we look at the Bible as it is in our hands today, we know it contains 66 books (39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament) and 1,189 chapters. Psalm 117, which sits right before Psalm 118, holds the distinction of being the shortest chapter in the entire Bible with only two verses. Psalm 119, which immediately follows Psalm 118, is the longest chapter, with 176 verses. Those are fun facts, and they are completely accurate.
Where the viral meme graphic goes wrong is with the middle chapter. Psalm 118 sounds like a strong candidate at first glance, but when we actually count the chapters from Genesis to Revelation, the true middle chapter of the Bible in a standard Protestant translation is Psalm 117. It has 594 chapters before it and 594 chapters after it. Psalm 118 does not sit in the center at all. I had to double-check that more than once to make sure I was not missing something, and that is the real count.
The next part of the meme says that if you remove Psalm 118 you get a total of 1,188 chapters, and therefore Psalm 118:8 must be the exact center verse of the Bible. It sounds spiritual. It sounds clever. It is also completely inaccurate. Once again, the numbers only work if you start with the wrong middle chapter. The truth is that the Bible has 31,102 verses in total. That is an even number, which means there cannot be one single verse in the exact center. The mathematical center would actually be the space between Psalm 103:1 and Psalm 103:2. Psalm 118:8 is nowhere near the middle of the verse count.
This is where we need to remember something that many Christians are not taught. Chapter and verse numbers were not part of the original inspired text. Moses did not number the paragraphs of Genesis. Paul did not divide his letters into neat little verses. Chapters were added in the 1200s by Stephen Langton, a professor in Paris who later became the Archbishop of Canterbury. Verses came even later when a French printer named Robert Estienne added them to his Greek New Testament in the 1500s. These tools eventually became standard because they made studying and referencing incredibly convenient. Although the present chapter and verse partitions are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, I am thankful we have them. They help us find things quickly and memorize Scripture with clarity. But the humanly-created chapter and verse designations are not God breathed. They do not carry divine meaning. So, looking for secret messages or hidden codes in the numbering system will always send us down the wrong trail.
Still, even though the numerology does not hold up, the message of Psalm 118:8 absolutely does. God repeatedly calls His people to trust Him instead of trusting themselves, powerful leaders, governments, or cultural momentum. Scripture is full of reminders that every human strength eventually crumbles, but the Lord never fails. Psalm 146 warns us not to put our confidence in princes because they cannot save. Proverbs 3 calls us to trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean on His wisdom rather than our own understanding. Jeremiah 17 paints a picture of a man who trusts in people as a withered shrub in the desert, while the one who trusts in the Lord is like a flourishing tree planted beside flowing water.
So even though Psalm 118:8 is not the mathematical center of the Bible, it expresses the central truth of the Christian life. We are safest, strongest, and most whole when we rest ourselves fully in God. We do not need a numerical coincidence to confirm that. The entire storyline of Scripture testifies to it.
I am grateful when people share verses like Psalm 118:8, and I love the heart behind wanting to spotlight the beauty of trusting the Lord. I just want to help my brothers and sisters walk in truth. When we let Scripture speak for itself, without embellishment or myth, it becomes even more precious. God did not hide secret puzzles inside the arrangement of chapters. He gave us a clear and trustworthy Word that points us to Christ and calls us to anchor our lives in the God who never fails.
In the end, the real treasure is not the “center” of the Bible. The real treasure is the God who stands at the center of all things, steady and faithful, calling us to trust Him by His power and grace He gives us.
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