After talking about the comfort and protection that God’s Word brings, the psalmist explores how God delivered him from being afflicted – he mentions how he was afflicted before he went astray (v. 67) but that by obeying God he realized God’s goodness. He realizes it was good to be afflicted (v. 71) because it helped him to learn God’s decrees. Without God’s Word we often can feel the weight of problems and feel afflicted – like somehow God is causing us to have hardships.  But turning to God’s Word shows us the goodness of God, that he is looking (more…)

After discussing remembering and comfort in God’s Word, the psalmist talks about security he finds in the Word and it’s connection to obedience.  He talks about promising to obey and not hastening to obey, and about how the Lord is his portion (what he is given to meet his needs), and that God protects him from straying in his ways, being bound by the wicked and through his friendships. By walking in obedience, we are protected from just doing what we have learned or decide we want to meet our needs.  When we have the attitude of “the Lord is (more…)

The psalmist mentioned feeling weary in stanza Daleth, then makes his requests of God in He and commitments to God in Waw.  Now in Zayin, he talks about how God’s Word is his comfort, using the word twice in the passage.  He mentions that the promises from God give him hope, preserves his life and helps him find comfort. He also calls God to remember him, and that he remembers the “ancient laws” and the name of the Lord.  Both the repeating of the words “comfort” and “remember” seem significant to the psalmist. There is a connection between remembering and (more…)

After making his requests from God in the last stanza, the psalmist talks about how his desire to obey God’s Word will direct his life.  First, he can stand up and answer those who oppose him in his love of the Word, and he will focus on speaking only “your word of truth”. He then makes three commitments to how he will live for God’s Word: “I will always obey your law, for ever and ever.” – he commits to a life of obedience to the Word, and for it to have no end. “I will walk about in freedom, (more…)

For this stanza of Psalm 119, the psalmist makes eight requests of God concerning His Word. Teach me (v. 33)- first he wants God to teach him “the way of your decrees”.  This is different than teaching him the decrees – he wants to know the way, the path that God’s Word leads him to.  It’s very similar to what Jesus tell us in The Great Commission (Matt 28:20 NIV) “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”.  Jesus didn’t want us to just teach what his commands are, but how to obey them to live the life he (more…)

In this fourth stanza of Psalm 119, the psalmist mentions that following the Word can be difficult – he feels “laid low” and is weary with sorrow.  Maybe the persecution mentioned in the last stanza from those not obedient is stressing him out.  He calls on God to strengthen him (v. 28) and to not let him be put to shame (v. 31). It’s difficult to obey God when those around us ridicule or slander us.  We can feel weary and want to give up, but like the psalmist, we need to call on God to strengthen us, keep us (more…)

The third stanza of Psalm 119 looks at how the word separates those who obey it from those who don’t.  The psalmist starts with calling on God to help him obey the word by being good to him and opening his eyes to what the law says (v. 17-18).  Then he says that he is a stranger on earth (v. 19) – that obeying God’s commands makes him different than those in the world who don’t obey the Word.  He makes the distinction between those who obey and those who are arrogant and stray from God’s commands (v. 21) and (more…)

The second section of Psalm 119 talks about how to stay on the path to purity and to have a heart that wants to avoid sin.  It talks about the “young person”, or someone not yet possessing great wisdom.  This section tells us that the word helps us to gain wisdom we need to keep from sin. In v. 11, the NIV translates the verse as “I have hidden your word in my heart”.  From the NIV Study Bible (my primary commentary for this study of Psalm 119 – mainly because I’m using the Bible app on my phone so (more…)

To begin the new year, I’ve decided to read through Psalm 119 to get my heart focused on God’s Word for the year.  Most Bible readers know that Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, but it’s also interesting for being an acrostic where the first letter of each section follows the pattern of the Hebrew alphabet.  The author, which some commentaries attribute as a priest, took care to find a way to express his love for God’s Word through a highly organized and complete psalm. The NIV Study Bible notes that the author used eight Hebrew terms (more…)