Author: Scott Walter

Editor’s Note

This week, we’re changing our rhythm. Normally we read one chapter a day, but this week we’re going to spread out this one chapter over the next six days. Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in all of Scripture, so squeezing it all into one day could make it hard to absorb. While we don’t know who wrote this psalm, we do know that it was written as a collection of thoughts and prayers largely focused on one main idea: God’s Word. Today, we’ll read verses 65-96. Thanks for reading along! 

Go Deeper.

Although we don’t know the exact situation this psalmist was in, we know it was dire. In verse 87 and 92 the author references he was close to death because of the affliction he was facing.  Even though he could possibly die at the hand of these afflictions, he declares in both verses “…I have not forsaken your precepts.” The author of this Psalm is so devoted to the word of God even the threat of death would not cause him to ignore its wisdom and promise.

The Good News Translation of verse 82 says, “My eyes have become strained from looking for your promise.”  Our current culture understands eye strain. Digital eye strain is a very real condition that we have all likely experienced as a result of working too long at a computer or scrolling too long on a phone. We are familiar with the blurred vision, dry eyes, or even headaches we’ve had after staring at a backlit screen for too long. But how many of us have experienced these symptoms as a result of searching diligently for promises in God’s word?

It’s the diligence of the Psalmist in not only searching for these promises, but also in believing that they will keep him afloat amidst the tumultuous battles he is facing. In these 32 verses of Psalm 119, we are given the picture of a person who is fragile and weak but:

• “but now I keep your word.” (v. 67)
• “but with my whole heart, I keep your precepts.” (v. 69)
• “but I delight in your law.” (v. 70)
• “but I have not forsaken your precepts” (v. 87)

The author is modeling 2 Corinthians 4:8-10. He is “afflicted in every way, but not cursed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.” May we follow the example of this psalmist, and be a people of faith whose eyes are strained from reading and believing the promises of God’s word and whose eyes are fixed on Jesus, even amidst the battles we face.

Editor’s Note

This week, we’re changing our rhythm. Normally we read one chapter a day, but this week we’re going to spread out this one chapter over the next six days. Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in all of Scripture, so squeezing it all into one day could make it hard to absorb. While we don’t know who wrote this psalm, we do know that it was written as a collection of thoughts and prayers largely focused on one main idea: God’s Word. Today, we’ll read verses 33-64. Thanks for reading along! 

Go Deeper.

The theme of all of Psalm 119, and this section in particular, is rejoicing in the law of the Lord. The author of this psalm continually rejoices in it. However, our culture doesn’t seem to share the same attitude toward the authority of Scripture. We live in a culture that celebrates rebellion. We wrongly believe that freedom is the ability to do whatever we want, whenever we want. But ultimate freedom–freedom from sin and freedom in Christ–comes in submission to a good God. He gives us the law for our protection. God knows, even better than we do, what is good for us. He gives us His Word and teaches us that abiding by it will bring about abundant life. His instruction is good so we can rejoice in it and learn to live according to it, just as the psalmist does here. Praise the Lord for His Word, decrees, laws, and precepts! They are good and worth delighting in, meditating on, and memorizing. 

What can come of us following God’s Word? This passage tells us we will find delight (v. 35) and we will be able to walk in freedom (v. 45). Verse 52 tells us that the psalmist finds comfort in God’s Word. God’s Word is there for our good! Elsewhere in Scripture we see that God’s Word is sufficient to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness (2 Timothy, 3:15-17). It teaches us and gives us encouragement and hope (Romans 15:4-5). 

In order for us to pursue holiness and live in a manner worthy of the gospel, it is essential that we know God’s Word intimately. God transforms us as we renew our mind by meditating on His Word. Jerry Bridges, in his book The Discipline of Grace, puts it this way, “I am very much aware that Scripture memorization has largely fallen by the wayside in our day… But let me say this as graciously but firmly as possible: We cannot effectively pursue holiness without the Word of God stored up in our minds where it can be used by the Holy Spirit to transform us.”

Editor’s Note

This week, we’re changing our rhythm. Normally we read one chapter a day, but this week we’re going to spread out this one chapter over the next six days. Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in all of Scripture, so squeezing it all into one day could make it hard to absorb. While we don’t know who wrote this psalm, we do know that it was written as a collection of thoughts and prayers largely focused on one main idea: God’s Word. Today, we’ll read verses 1-32. Thanks for reading along! 

Go Deeper.

If you were blindfolded and dropped off in the middle of nowhere and told to find your way home, one thing can make or break your journey: a map. We have been given a roadmap to help guide us through life. We can either study it, learn from it, and let it become part of us or we can ignore it, keep it in our pocket, and just try and figure it out on our own.

The first section of this chapter sets the table for what this entire psalm is about: God’s Word is the foundation for all who follow Him. It is all we need—like spiritual oxygen. The author of this psalm uses several different words when talking about God’s instructions: law, commands, precepts, decrees, and more. While each of these words has a slightly different meaning, they convey the same message: following God’s Word always leads to life. Sin and disobedience, however, always leads to death. So, if it’s that simple, why does it feel so difficult sometimes? 

When we rely on our own hearts, we allow ourselves to be deceived by our own wants and desires. Psalm 119:11 says, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” That’s the psalmist’s answer to his own question regarding how to stay on the path of purity. Meditating on God’s Word and burying it deep inside our hearts changes everything. Jesus, in Luke 6:45, tells us that the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. If our hearts are full of Scripture, we will speak Scripture and life into the people around us. And if they aren’t, we won’t. 

If we believe that Scripture is inspired by God and was preserved for thousands of years, we would be foolish to not learn from each and every page of it. Whether the passage is descriptive (describing something that happened) or prescriptive (teaching or commanding something that should happen), all of Scripture is useful as we try to know and understand the character of God. 

We often look to anything and everything around us to find a sense of security. We look to our jobs, the amount of money in our bank account, the items we own, the relationships we’re in or want to be in, or our own abilities to determine how secure we feel. Psalm 118 speaks of God’s character and causes us to reexamine the source of our security.

David reminds us that attempting to find security in earthly things will only disappoint us (v. 8-9). We are told throughout Scripture that this earth and everything in it will fade away (Isaiah 40:8, Matt. 24:35, Hebrews 13:14). We can count on that.

We can also count on the promise God has given us – the promise of Himself. Because He is with us, we do not have to be afraid (v. 6). We are reminded throughout this chapter that, “His love endures forever.” His love will not fade like the things of this earth. From generation to generation we can count on His love toward us. God is our helper, and He alone is our strength (v. 7, 14). He is good (v. 1), so we can trust that what He does is good, even when we do not understand. In His goodness and love, He has secured our salvation by becoming the One who saves us. His promise is not simply to rescue us from our current, temporary situations, but to give us eternal security through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the cornerstone of our salvation, the One on whom our faith rests (Psalm 118:22, Ephesians 2:20, 1 Peter 2:4). Our only true and lasting security lies in the enduring love of our Father and the plan He has laid out since before the beginning of creation to bring us salvation.

We can walk in confidence today because we know that this life is only temporary, and our security lies in the One whose promise is unfailing. When we feel overwhelmed by life’s circumstances, may we look up and remember God’s enduring love and give thanks because of his goodness. We praise Him because His love endures forever.

Yes, that’s the whole chapter. Two verses. Psalm 117 is the shortest chapter in the Bible, but despite it’s length, we can still learn a lot from it this morning. So go read it again (it shouldn’t take too long), or as many times as it takes to let the words sink in, and then let’s dive in together. 

Our reading today begins with a simple command to all the nations: Praise the Lord. This command is repeated in the next line, and the last line of the chapter. When the Bible repeats something, it means we should be paying attention. It’s the author’s way of telling you something in a way that you can’t miss or ignore. It’s a simple command, but despite how clearly the Bible commands us to do this, many of us fail to do so. As we see this command, we should think about how often we praise the Lord and how we can do so more consistently. 

For some of us though, we might not see the point. “Why should I praise God? What has He done for me recently that gives me a reason to praise Him? What makes Him worthy of my time and praise?” We only need to look into the second verse to find reasons–His unfailing love is powerful, and His faithfulness endures forever. His love doesn’t fail. Ever. And His faithfulness endures. Forever. He doesn’t love us until we mess up or fall short. He doesn’t stop being faithful even when we turn away from Him. 

So now we know that we should praise God, and we know why. But what exactly does that mean? This is what gotquestions.org says in response to the question “What does it mean to praise the Lord?”: 

Whom do we praise? The Lord alone (Psalm 148:13). How do we praise Him? With singing (Psalm 149:1), with dancing (verse 2), with musical instruments (Psalm 150:3), with our words (Psalm 35:28), with our actions (Colossians 3:17), with our uprightness (Psalm 119:7), and with all our hearts (Psalm 86:12). 

Today’s reading was shorter than normal, but that doesn’t mean we spend less time with God. With this extra time, challenge yourself to really go through the questions, and write down your answers somewhere. Use the rest of your time praising the Lord, because His love never fails. 

This psalm is an account of the psalmist calling out to the Lord in a time of great distress. He is overcome with sorrow and close to death. Then he calls out to the Lord, and God hears his cry. God’s Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our paths (Psalm 119:105), so we can look to this psalm as a guide and an encouragement when we find ourselves in a dark place.

Even in the midst of despair, this psalm begins with a declaration of love for the Lord. Deuteronomy 6:5 commands us, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart.” But what if we struggle to love Him? How does this psalmist love God even in the midst of such sorrow? What causes the psalmist to boldly declare his love for the Lord? Verse 1 says it was because the Lord heard his cry for mercy. Verses 6-8 tell how God saved and delivered him. Charles Spurgeon writes, “Answered prayers are silken bonds which bind our hearts to God. When a man’s prayers are answered, love is the natural result.” So, maybe the way to strengthen our love for God is to return to the Lord again and again in prayer asking for help, confident He hears us. 

The psalmist’s prayer is not long or wordy or eloquent. He simply says, “Lord, save me.” That’s it. All he did was ask for help. Then a remarkable thing happened. The God of the universe, the one who made the heavens and the earth, “turned His ear” and heard this man’s cry for mercy. We won’t experience answered prayers unless we pray. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says to “Pray continually.” Call out to Him. Our God is full of compassion.

The lyrics of an old hymn say:

“What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear.
What a privilege to carry, everything to God in prayer.
Oh, what peace we often forfeit, oh, what needless pain we bear.
All because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer.”

As we consistently come to the Lord in prayer with our needs, we will experience the Lord “turning His ear” to us. As the psalmist shows us, this will cause us to love God more, regardless of our circumstances.

As we read through Psalm 113-118, commentaries tell us that these chapters were songs of praise sung by the Jews during Passover. This is important to understand because Jesus sang these songs on the night before He was crucified. This is the same night Judas betrayed Him and He was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

 Let’s look again, then, at the words Jesus was singing (v. 1) as He alone knew what the next few hours would hold: “Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but to your name give glory, because of your mercy, because of your truth.” In light of verse 1, why should the Gentiles say in verse 2: “So where is their God?”

We know from Luke 22:42 that Jesus asked God to spare Him from death. Jesus was not asking where God was at the moment. Jesus certainly was asking God to show up and change things. Don’t we all feel like that at some point, even when we have faith in who God is and where He is? Our prayers can easily become a plea for deliverance from struggle and pain.

But in the midst of those prayers, are we also giving God glory? Jesus understood exactly what torture He was facing. Yet He knew God to be merciful and truthful and believed His Father to be worthy of praise and glory. As the Enduring Word commentary explains: “Singing these words must have moved Him in a way beyond our comprehension. No soul—neither that of the composer of the song, nor that of anyone who employs it—ever entered so completely into all its deep spiritual significance, as did the soul of Jesus, as, before passing out to Olivet, to Gethsemane, to Calvary, He sang it with that little group of men.”

When we face struggles, even those that seem insurmountable on our own, we can remember who our Father is. He never changes (Malachi 3:6). He is all-knowing (Isaiah 46:10). He is with us wherever we go (Psalm 139 and Jeremiah 23). He walks the road with us to the very end. No matter what happens on earth, he is worthy of our praise and glory. He knows what is ahead, because He has already been there. We can trust Him completely.

There are two major concepts that can be learned from this psalm. First, Psalm 114 is a psalm of praise. Clearly the author is reflecting on the mighty works of God, praising His name among the world, reminding their readers of who God is. This almost seems like a redundant observation, but this is something many Christians don’t regularly remember to do. Throughout the Scriptures we see a call to remember the works of God and to remember His faithfulness from generation to generation. This isn’t because God is on some ego-trip, but rather because Christians must be reminded daily of His love and mercy that sustains us every moment of every day.

Along with this, the author is also reflecting on God’s absolute power. With a beautiful display of the literary device known as personification, we see nature’s response to God’s commands. It has no choice but to obey!

“The sea looked and fled, the Jordan turned back; the mountains leaped like rams, the hills like lambs.” (Psalm 114:3-4)

The waters moved to the side; the very mountains jumped out of the way! Isn’t that literally the definition of awesome? The most mind-blowing part of this psalm, however, is how it starts:

“When Israel came out of Egypt, Jacob from a people of foreign tongue, Judah became God’s sanctuary, Israel His dominion.” (Psalm 114:1-2)

Just as Israel came out of Egypt, so too have Christians of today come out of the world and into the family of God through the act of Christ on the cross. By His blood, we are made new, passing from the old world to the new! Don’t think we do this alone, however.

We see in these first two verses that God goes with the Israelites. That’s why mountains and oceans sidestep when they come through. Nature doesn’t fear humanity but God. It is this same awe-inspiring power that goes with us as God, in His Holy Spirit, lives within all followers of Christ. Because of this, we have nothing to fear, as God goes with us. This doesn’t mean life will always be easy, but God will always be with you, and that will be more than enough.

Think back to when you first learned to ride a bike, or to water ski, or to drive a car. Remember what it was like to approach that learning experience with excitement and a little bit of healthy fear? Then, you mastered it. You figured it out. A bike went from something to learn and respect to something that took you from Point A to Point B, the destination now more important than the vehicle used to get there. 

Let’s apply that same logic to a difficult, 1000 piece puzzle. Once all the pieces fit together and the picture appears the same as the one on the box, there’s a sense of satisfaction in mastering something that was once impossible to figure out. Mission accomplished—and we simply move on to the next challenge.

Oftentimes, we approach God this same way. What if we could figure Him out? What if we could make sense of the ways He moves and acts, or the way He answers prayers, or His decisions to bless or judge? What if we had a god who we could master? Would we then rest in the satisfaction of self-accomplishment? Would we simply use that god as a means to an end, rather than the end itself? 

Yet sometimes, we make this our goal—to make sense of something we can’t figure out. His ways are not our ways. And the truth is, we don’t need a God we can make sense of or figure out. We need a God unlike anything else, a God worthy of the weight of worship. Worthy of the weight of holding all things together. Worthy of the weight of mystery. Worthy of the weight of glory. 

Psalm 113 reminds us that God is unlike anything else. He is worthy of all our praise. He is majestic and exalted and glorious, and He is near and He is good. The contrast between verse 5 and verses 6 through 9 can’t be lost on us. He is majestic and without rival or equal; still, He bends down to interact with us. Our humanity is not a problem for Him because He is the solution for the brokenness of it all. God is not a means to an end, He is the end, and all glory and honor and praise is due Him. We’d be wise to remember to approach Him with excitement and healthy fear, rather than make ourselves like Him by trying to figure Him out. There is nothing like our God. And that’s a good thing. He’s good at being God. He’s good to us. 

A cursory reading of Psalm 112 can seem to support the concept of the “prosperity gospel,” the idea that Christianity Today describes as “God rewards faith …with financial blessings,” but a careful study reveals a call to deep faith resulting in peace, perseverance, and purpose.

Psalm 112 constructs a biblical concept through the literary technique of cause and effect, beginning in verse 1. Blessed (cause) are those who have respect for the Lord (cause). “Blessed” is translated from the Hebrew root word asher. which means to go straight or advance and be happy. This isn’t blessed in the world’s terms of riches, but in God’s terms of guidance and peace. How do we receive this blessing? By having respect for the Lord, recognizing His power and perfection and giving it the appropriate priority.

The writer elaborates on this blessing: They (those who have respect/fear for the Lord) find great delight (effect) when they obey God’s commands (cause). Obedience is difficult, as demonstrated by every human being in the Bible. What we see in Psalm 112 is that we were designed for obedience to God. In obedience, we find the warm fuzzy blanket of guidance and protection which provides peace, patience, and purpose.

When we seek the blessings of the world we will encounter trouble, but when we walk in the directions of God, we will find peace (John 16:33). This world and our own self-centeredness lead us to pursue our desires and our plans, but we know that His purpose is better (Proverbs 19:21). Through following God’s commands, we receive the grit of perseverance because we know we are in His will (Ephesians 1:1) and He works all things to His good (Romans 8:28).

The remainder of Psalm 112 elaborates on the blessings and delights God graciously grants us (effects) as we respect and obey Him (cause). May we never mistake the true and eternal blessings of God built on faith for the temporary and shallow matter of this world.