Tag Archives: Psalms 119

Daily Bible Study

July 6, 2023 Bible Study — Knowing the Joy of Reading Scripture

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 119.

This is the longest chapter in the Bible and an acrostic poem, with each verse of the poem (not each Bible verse) starting with a letter from the Hebrew alphabet.  Throughout this entire long psalm, the psalmist directs us to seek God with all of our heart and follow His commands, laws, and statutes.  And he does not just tell us to strive with our own might to do so, he instructs us to beg God to turn us to Him, and to cause us to obey His commands.  We can choose to turn our hearts and desires towards God, or we can turn towards selfish gain.  If we look to God’s laws they will provide light so that we can see where we are going and avoid stumbling.  We have a choice.  We can choose to meditate on God’s laws, and walk with a clear light.  Or we can follow the schemes of the wicked, and stumble in the darkness, far from God’s salvation.  Meditate on God’s law and hide His word in your heart by reading and memorizing Scripture.  This will bring you joy.

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

Daily Bible Study

July 6, 2022 Bible Study — Meditate On God’s Law So That We Obey It And Can Tell It To Others

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 119.

Today’s psalm is an acrostic poem using the letters of the Hebrew alphabet to start each stanza.  It is also the longest psalm in the Bible by a wide margin.  I am not sure what all of that has to do with the theme of my blog today.  The psalmist dedicates himself to steadfastly following God’s instructions.  He tells us that obeying God’s laws as we understand them while seeking to learn and understand them is the path to a good life.  Learning and obeying God’s laws comes from studying them, meditating on them, and repeating them out loud to others.  In addition, we must avoid that which we know to be deceitful and evil.  One step precedes these, and that is recognizing that we fail to truly obey God and that the only way we can actually do so is by allowing His Spirit to transform us.  So, let me meditate upon God’s word and listen to His Spirit speaking in my heart so that I might praise God while obeying Him.

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

Daily Bible Study

July 6, 2021 Bible Study — Study And Meditate On What God Has Said

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 119.

This psalm is an acrostic with each verse in the Hebrew beginning with the next letter in the Hebrew alphabet.  It is the longest chapter in the Bible which is very appropriate considering its theme.  For his theme the psalmist chose to focus on the value and importance of learning, knowing, and keeping God’s word.  We must long to follow God’s commands.  If we long to follow God’s commands we will read His words so that we might know what He commands.  We will not only read God’s words. we will study them and meditate upon them.  We will ask Him to give us understanding of what He has said.  In fact, this psalm discusses the feedback loop which faith in God creates.  If we seek God with our entire hearts, it will lead us to study and meditate on His word.  The combination of those two things, seeking God and studying His word, will lead us to obey His commands, which will lead us to seek Him even more.  It works the other way as well.  If we study and meditate on God’s word, it will lead us to seek Him, which will cause us to study and meditate on His word even more.

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

Daily Bible Study

July 6, 2020 Bible Study Joy Comes From Doing God’s Will

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.

In the Hebrew language this psalm is an acrostic where each letter of the Hebrew alphabet is used, in order, to start a stanza.  Which makes it very appropriate that the psalm is about the importance and value of following God’s instructions.  Following God’s commands will make us people of integrity and give us joy.  If we do not compromise with evil, God will teach us His decrees and guide our paths.  We should not let the scorn and ridicule of the wicked dissuade us from seeking to faithfully follow God’s instructions.  The wicked reject God’s wisdom and will seek to convince us to do likewise.  They will use persuasion, ridicule, and persecution to that end, do not let succeed.  Remember that God’s love is faithful and everlasting.

Daily Bible Study

July 6, 2019 Bible Study — Following God’s Instructions Brings Joy

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.

Psalm 119 is rather long and I often have trouble finding a theme to write about when I come to it.  Interestingly enough, this year the themes jumped out at me.  The psalmist starts with a basic theme and then builds on it.  That basic theme is one which comes up again and and again in the Psalms: following God’s instructions brings joy.   Actually what the psalmist says is that joy comes to those who have integrity, but he immediately tells us that integrity comes from following God’s commands.  If we want that joy we must study and embrace God’s commands.  But it is not enough to study them, we need to ask God to make them clear to us.  As we study His commands we need God’s Spirit to enter into us and make clear what God wants us to do.  If we ask, God will give us understanding so that we can do as He desires of us.  

The psalmist tells us one of the great paradoxes of life.  God’s commands are so easy to understand that even the most simple-minded can comprehend them, but so complex that studying them will make you wise.  The simple who study and follow God’s law become wiser and will be given greater insight than the most erudite person who rejects them.  This explains why we must never compromise with evil.  No matter how things may seem to be, it is always foolish to do evil, or even less than the maximum good of which we are capable.

 

I want to touch on some of the other things the psalmist writes about studying God’s law and asking Him for a better understanding of it.  The psalmist tells us that God’s word gives light so that we can see our path and that God will give us better understanding of His law if we ask Him for it.  I think my opening sentence today is illustrative of this.  When I first started doing this blog in 2012 I struggled coming up with something to write about this psalm.  It seemed to me like it went in too many directions to write a coherent blog entry.  In addition, I felt like in many places it got boringly repetitive.  Yet today as I read through it, even though its length still overwhelmed me at first, I went from “This is so long I am going to lose my train of thought,” to “Oh look, there is another expression and reason about why we need to study God’s word.”  I want to encourage you to read through the Bible, not just once, but as often as you can.  Do it in a year or faster if you can, but read it, then read it again.

Daily Bible Study

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.

Daily Bible Study

July 6, 2017 Bible Study — The Joy Of Obeying God

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.

    This is the longest of the Psalms. It is broken into 22 stanzas. One for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In the original Hebrew each stanza begins with a word beginning with the corresponding Hebrew letter. Each stanza focuses on a different aspect of studying and obeying God’s commands. I am going to apologize now for the inconsistent way the rest of today’s blog is going to be written because I am going to go through this psalm and point out the important thoughts the psalmist brings up.

    Following God’s instructions brings us joy, but we will not find that joy if we compromise between the righteousness of His commands and evil. There is no middle ground. We become able to obey God’s word, and thus remain pure, by memorizing Scripture, speaking Scripture aloud, studying it, seeking God’s guidance to understand it, and rejoicing in following it. We must seek to have God’s Spirit open our eyes to how wonderful God’s commands are, otherwise the spirit of this world will blind us to them. As God teaches us new aspects of His guidance we must put them into practice with our whole heart and all of our being. Let us eek and desire God’s unfailing love. Seek not just His love for us, but to have His unfailing love for others.

    It is not enough to believe in God’s decrees, we must allow God to teach us the good judgement and understanding to follow them as He intends. If we do so, those who wish to malign us will be forced to resort to lies. If we use the good judgement that God will give us if we ask as we follow His directions we will bring joy to everyone who fears the Lord. Our enemies will build traps for us in the darkness, but if we follow God’s instructions they will light a path for us to follow which will take us nowhere near those traps.

    This psalm is quite long, as I mentioned at the beginning, but every time I read it with an awareness of how it teaches us to obey God’s Laws it inspires me to strive to be more faithful. The little nuggets of wisdom scattered throughout this psalm lift me up and bring me down. They lift me up because they show me how to truly live a fulfilling life. They bring me down because they highlight how terribly I fail to do as God instructs, even though I know I would be better off if I did as He says. If we want God’s rescue, we will obey His Laws. Let us seek God’s salvation so that we can use it to bring honor to Him!

Daily Bible Study

July 6, 2016 Bible Study — It Doesn’t Take A PhD To Understand God’s Laws

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

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Psalms 119.

    Writing on this psalm is challenging, the psalmist already does such a great job of making his point. This entire psalm does a wonderful job of calling on us to obey God’s commands. In order to obey God’s commands we first need to know what they are. Therefore, if we wish to obey God’s commands we must ask Him to teach them to us. However, it is not enough to know God’s commands, we must also understand them. In order to understand God’s commands we must study them and meditate on them. Diligent study of God’s law will bring us knowledge and good judgment. His commands will provide us with light to guide our feet. Even the simple minded can understand what God desires. What a joy, we do not need to rely on experts to know what God desires of us. If anyone tells you that you need them to understand what God wants of you, send them on their way.