July 6, 2018 Bible Study — Following and Meditating On God’s Instructions

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Psalms 119.

    I am never satisfied. Some days as I read the Psalms, I was upset because of the many different themes contained in the daily reading. Today, I was bothered because Psalms 119 goes so long on the same theme. That is not entirely true, but as I was going through it I was thinking, “I need to read the whole thing before I start writing, but it is going on so long I am afraid I was lose the thoughts I had at the beginning.”
    One could say that the psalmist keeps coming back to the them of God’s word in today’s psalm. Except for the fact that he never leaves that theme. Do you want joy? Do you want contentment? Search for God with all of you being and obey His instructions faithfully and carefully. Every time I read this psalm I am reminded of why I started this blog, because I agree with the psalmist about the importance of meditating on God’s word, and storing it in my heart. Rejoice in God’s law, study the Scripture. Focus in putting them into practice each and every day, committing ourselves to doing so until the end of our days. I will seek to do as God instructs with greater zeal than the greedy pursue wealth. The thing about Scripture is that while it takes constant study and God’s help to truly understand, anyone who puts in the effort will be rewarded with understanding. It does not take great intellect to understand God’s instructions. Of course, that is one of the reasons that the proud and arrogant dismiss His commands; they wish for a righteousness which favors their “superior” intellect.

    This psalm sums up the paradox of Christian faith, saved by grace through faith. We must struggle, strive, and work to do God’s will, but none of that accomplishes anything unless we fully trust in God to do it all. We must struggle, strive, and work to do God’s will, but we cannot do even that if God’s Holy Spirit does not move within us. God’s words in Scripture will provide us a guide for our feet when the future seems dim and unsure. We may not know what the future holds, but God does. Despite what we may think, the instructions and commands God laid down centuries ago are a better guide into the future than anything man can contrive.