Psalm 119 – Zayin

v. 49-56

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…)

Psalm 119 – Waw

v. 41-48

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…)

Psalm 119 – He

v. 33-40

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…)

Psalm 119 – Daleth

v. 25-32

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…)

Psalm 119 – Gimel

v. 17-24

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…)

Psalm 119 – Beth

v. 9-16

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…)

Psalm 119 – Aleph

v.1-8

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…)

Ending it well

Communion message from 12/27/15

( Note (1/4/16):  these are my raw notes from the communion message from 12/27/15.  I may revise these to make them more readable later, but here they are for now…) Last Sunday / worship service of 2015 end of the year, but beginning of a new year  – look back at fun memories, victories but also disappointments and failures  – look ahead to resolutions, goals, new opportunities, with new challenges ending things well:   2 villians of of Christmas and what they were like after Christmas was over  – Scrooge quote “And it was always said of him, that he (more…)

He brought everything back, all the food for the feast, and he… He himself, the Grinch… carved the roast beast.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

“And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!”

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens