After closing the first half of the psalm with a prayer stanza, the psalmist begins the second half with thoughts about what God’s Word is and what it does. To start the psalm’s first half, he used the first three verses to talk about those who follow God’s Word – those blessed by walking according to the law and keeping the statutes. He then talked about what followers do – understand obedience and promise to praise God and obey His Word. In the second half, the first three verses (v. 89-91) talk about God’s Word, then uses the rest of
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It’s finally here (almost) – Reach 2016! If you’re attending, and you run across my website, please register for access (see “Subscribe to Blog via Email” to the right). I’m currently posting lessons on Psalm 119, and there are lessons I’ve presented recently at worship services and devos. Also, I’ll be posting some past lessons I’ve put together on marriage, parenting and spiritual disciplines, and I’m in the process of writing a few books – as I develop these, I’ll post many of the chapters and other notes. Please join me, and together we’ll “make every effort to add to your faith…”.
| Date: |
July 7, 2016—July 10, 2016 |
| Event: |
Reach 2016 |
| Sponsor: |
International Churches of Christ |
| Venue: |
St Louis Convention Center |
| Location: |
St Louis, MO
USA |
| Public: |
Public |
Our congregation has a great tradition from over the years called the “Passing the Torch” night with the teen ministry. It’s a special teen devotional that celebrates graduating high school seniors and welcomes students entering high school along with their parents. This year’s event featured some great fellowship time and lawn games (including some spirited tug-of-war battles), a lesson and a ceremony where an actual torch was passed from the group of graduating seniors to the new high schoolers with an inspiring charge given by our teen minister. I was honored to be asked to teach the lesson for the
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Over the last few stanzas, the psalmist has expressed his feelings about God and the Word: Zayin (v. 49-56) talked about comfort God provides through remembering His laws, Heth (v. 57-64) talks about security by walking in God’s Word and Teth (v. 65-72) mentions how God teaches us in times of persecution when we obey his precepts. In Yodh, the psalmist provides a bit of a summary, with stanzas in an unusual structure. The verses of Yodh form what the NIV Study Bible calls a “concentric structure”, with similarity of verses in pairs from beginning to end: 73/80: these verses
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Christians, from the earliest 1st century followers to today, view Jesus as Lord and Christ – the Master of our lives and Savior who gave his life to save us from our sins – and he is all of that, but more… In the OT book of Isaiah, there are four passages that some commentaries refer to as the “songs of the servant” – prophecies of the Messiah. The first of these is in Isaiah 42, after Isaiah talks about how God will come and comfort his people, who were in exile, and that God is superior to the enemies
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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