Scripture Read: Psalm 119, 120
Key Verse: Psalm 119:24
“Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors.”
Observation:
God’s Word give the answers man longs to hear. Throughout this Psalm, it repeats over & over the longing for being righteous, yearning for God’s word, commandments and the desire to be obedient & faithful! This Psalm is an alphabetic acrostic. Each word in each section begins with the same Hebrew letter. Pretty amazing.
Application:
I remember being in my teens and being introduced to horoscopes, tarot cards, mood rings and compatibility finders searching for answers. I remember my free subscription of daily horoscope email that always seemed to be spot on! That was… Until I started reading all of them & realized I was not only a Cancer, but a Taurus, Sagittarius, Scorpio and Aquarius too. And then I thought my mood ring was broken because it always seemed to be stuck on blue, and at that age I was not always a happy camper. When I filled out my last compatibility finder to a boyfriend that was everything but compatible to me, I gave it up. I was a typical 90’s teen looking for answers, hope & love in all the wrong places. In my late teens, I picked up the Bible & began to read it freely and it was then I heard God’s voice. He didn’t say tell me my future in love, when success will come my way or whether I was happy or sad at that moment, but He taught me about patience, how to love and who His Son was.
The point is, I learned that no amount of horoscopes, fortune tellers or teen magazines could give me what I was truly searching for. To read the stories of the people in the Bible and to see their trials, tribulations and victories was immeasurable compared to the small stumbling blocks I had faced. To read about their moments of absolute rock bottom, their tortures, their obedience & their love towards God taught me that His Word is all we need….
Prayer:
God, thank you for the testimonies of your people. Thank you for giving me a book that has an answer to everything I could possibly endure in this life. I pray for those who struggle with your word and are still searching for other avenues. You have provided us with everything we could ever need on this earth and I pray that more people come to see this and rejoice in it! Thank you for your protection, guidance and answering our prayers. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.
By Sandy 217staff team
Blessed are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the LORD!
Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,
who seek him with their whole heart,
who also do no wrong,
but walk in his ways!
Psalm 119:1-3
These three verses begin an amazing love affair with the word of God. Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in Bible with 176 verses. It is broken down into 22 stanzas, one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is the longest psalm in the biggest book of the Bible and it has on central theme: the Torah (the Law of the Lord). The word of God gives us wisdom and direction for life. It comforts and protects us when we are afflicted. God’s word provides us with understanding for who God is and who we are in perspective to him. The more in tune with God’s word we are, the greater our desire for God’s word will become. We will thirst, hunger and ache for it like castaways lost at sea desire land, fresh water and food. We will also become more discerning about who we allow to influence our lives. We will become brokenhearted as see God’s word broken. We will no longer stand apathetically on the sidelines and watch our world go to hell. When we fall in love with God’s word we are not only blessed but we are changed. We will stop telling the world to do as I say not as I do. We will stop looking down on other and being proud of our own accomplishments, because the more we know God’s law the more we can never live up to God’s holy standard. We are sinners saved by God’s grace and good favor. We fall in love with God’s law because it draws us closer to the God we love, who loved us first. Like in every true love relationship we will want to please the object of our affection, to bring a smile to the face of God. So I want to live a Psalm 119 life, a life consumed A to Z for my God and deep desire to know his love letter to me. From ALEPH to TAW.