While this is primarily designed to show all the posts in my current series of meditations on Psalm 119 one verse at a time, which started in November, 2024, it also includes any other posts that are tagged Psalm 119.
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Psalm 119:8 – I’m Going to Do It; Help!
I will observe your statues.Don’t completely forsake me! Sometime we’re so busy looking for the really holy things and the absolutely correct commands in scripture that we fail to see the human element. But to miss that human element really misses much of the message of scripture. Scripture speaks in the way it developed and…
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Psalm 119:1-8 – Wrapup
As I’ve meditated on these first eight verses of Psalm 119, I’ve opened up a number of topics. Let’s put them together, sort of! I hope you’re enjoying this journey as I am. Tomorrow morning, I’ll be posting the first verse in the second section. (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)
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Psalm 119:9 – Talking about Purity
How shall a young man keep to a pure way of life?By keeping it in the bounds of your word! I have a feeling that some would question the way I translated that verse. It’s OK. Poetry is challenging. In this case I was aiming more for meaning that being faithful to the poetic form.…
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Psalm 119:10 – Seeking and Finding
With my whole heart I have sought you.Don’t let me wander from your commands. The word here translated commands is mitsvot, which is often thought of as good deeds, but Jewish commentators use this primarily of the 613 commands in Torah. In this way, the mitsvot can be considered another way to refer to the…
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Psalm 119:11 – The Word in My Heart
In my heart have I hidden your Word,That I might not sin against you. I was introduced to Psalm 119 in elementary school. I had read a fair amount of Bible before that time, but hadn’t read it through. I went to a small Christian school where Bible memorization was a key component. We memorized…
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Psalm 119:12 – Teach Me
Blessed are you LORD.Teach me your statutes. Mark Twain said, “Good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from making bad decisions.” Or something like that. I’ve found a number of variations, all attributed to Twain. The prayer, “Teach me!” is one that is pretty much guaranteed an answer, positive at least in the sense that…
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Psalm 119:13 – Speaking It
With my lips I have recountedAll the judgments from your mouth. We tend to talk, and also write a great deal about speaking. On social media, people take note of the things you don’t speak out about, and consider you apathetic for your apparent silence. On the other hand, there are those who are just…
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Psalm 119:14 – I Have to Be Joyful Too?
In the way of your testimonies I rejoiceAs over great wealth. Teachers and preachers often say that Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, was moving the law inside and making it of the heart. And that is certainly a theme of that sermon. But the fact is that the heart was always the object…
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Psalm 119:15: Looking at God’s Ways
On your precepts will I meditate;I will look at your ways. There’s a big difference between meditation and biblical exegesis. I tend to use exegesis to refer to extracting the meaning from a text in the narrow sense of what a particular author meant by a particular statement or passage. Hermeneutics generally refers to the…
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Psalm 119:16 – Ways to Forget
In your statutes I delight.I will not forget your word. If this were not poetry, I might be tempted to talk about the rather optimistic promise of not forgetting God’s word. But then I remember how many times I have said, “I’m not going to forget that” in reference to some planned task or another.…