Psalm 119:132 – Be Gracious
Praying for something God has already made standard practice is an inherently confident prayer.
Psalm 119:124 – Grace
When is providing rules a gracious gift?
Psalm 119:114 – Hope
In the chaos of life, we can look to the one whose words conquered darkness and chaos as our shield.
Psalm 119:77 – That I May Live
I reflect on God’s compassion and wisdom, emphasizing the importance of following divine instructions for a fulfilling life and experiencing peace, joy, and love.
Psalm 119:76 – Comfort
I emphasize God’s unwavering love and faithfulness in the covenant relationship with His people, highlighting the importance of understanding this bond in the Christian faith.
Psalm 119:64
God’s grace precedes His laws, illustrating that divine love and covenant obligations are gifts. True holiness comes from God’s actions, not self-sufficiency.
Psalm 119:29 – Grace Me with Your Instruction
Deceitful ways turn aside from meand graciously give me your instruction [Torah]. It’s hard to read this verse when we use “law” as the English gloss for Torah. Graciously give me your rules? Graciously let me live in your rules? But that none of those are actually bad translations. Law or instruction, and the Torah…
Psalm 119:27 – From Precepts to Wonders
Explain to me the way of your preceptsand I will tell of your wonderful acts. We tend to think of particular rules or principles for living as fairly boring, somewhat annoying, and often unreasonably restrictive. We seem to live in a debate between what we ought to do and what we actually do. Even the…
Psalm 119:22 – Reproach and Contempt
Remove from me reproach and contemptfor I have guarded your testimonies. Meditating on a single verse each day means I often get somewhat out of context. But while context is important, literature can easily suggest other lines of thinking. Folks in various classes I’ve taught have called me the king of the rabbit trail because…
Psalm 119:17 – Order of Operations
Deal fully with your servant,So I may live and keep your word. There are numerous translation questions, including differences of opinion about precisely what the word I translate “deal fully with” actually means in this context. Another good option is what Bob MacDonald does in Seeing the Psalter: Grow your servantI will live and keep…