Praising the Word, Day 10 Find your friends. Read Psalm 119:73-80. Living the Christian life can be hard and sometimes lonely. When we are standing up for the things of Christ, we will often find ourselves going against the “normal” or the “common” thoughts and principles in the world. However, we are to stand together with other believers. As the psalmist notes here, we are to rejoice around other believers. We are to be the encouragement for other believers, just as they are to be the encouragement for us. For all those of us who put our trust in the Lord, we can have hope and joy in the Word…

Praising the Word, Day 9 What is valuable to you? Read Psalm 119:65-72. There’s an old saying that if you want to know what is important to someone, take a look at their spending habits. You can review a bank statement or any kind of record of spending habits and get a pretty good idea of what’s important to someone. If we think something is important to us, we will spend money on it. The same could be said about our time. If you want to know what’s truly valuable to somebody see how they spend their time. Today, the psalmist is talking about how important God’s word is, that…

Praising the Word, Day 8 Make a choice. Read Psalm 119:57-64. What does it really mean to consider our ways? Do we take time to truly evaluate what we are doing and why? If we are reading God’s word and studying and learning more about him, there must come a point where we evaluate what we are doing in our life and ensure that it lines up. We have to make a conscious choice to turn our steps and direction to align with God’s word. If we don’t make that conscious decision, we will not naturally do that. Have we taken the time to self-evaluate? And once we evaluate, are…

Praising the Word, Day 7 A life preserver. Read Psalm 119:49-56. Have you ever been out on a boat? One of the key features of any boat, ship, or anything that’s out on the water is that it has something that floats as a life preserver for emergency situations and difficulties. That is an essential tool that can save someone in a crisis. As the psalmist writes through these verses based on the Hebrew letter “Zayin,” we see that he is comparing God and his promises to the life preserver. If he stays in God’s word, God’s word preserves him, even while he is in crisis. Life is going to…

Praising the Word, Day 6 Shout it out! Read Psalm 119:41-48. What are you willing to say about Christ to others? When we take a look at these verses based on the Hebrew letter “waw,” the Psalmist was willing to shout it out to kings and anybody else who would listen. Our relationship with Christ is such that we should be able and willing to say everything that he has done for us. We should have no problem testifying to all that God has done in our lives. God has truly blessed us in amazing and fantastic ways. If we will continue to witness and testify of that greatness to…

Praising the Word, Day 5 Look away! Read Psalm 119:33-40. As we look at the section of the 5th letter from the Hebrew alphabet, “He,” we see a reminder that we need to guard what we look at. As we are studying and concentrating on God’s Word, we realize that we need to be careful at everything else that we look at. We need God’s Word to help us define what we should be focusing on and what we shouldn’t be focusing on. If we are focusing on God’s Word, we won’t be focusing on the worthless things of this world. If we look away from these things, we will…

Praising the Word, Day 4 No automatic understanding. Read Psalm 119:25-32. As we read through this fourth section of Psalm 119 representing the Hebrew letter Daleth, we see that our relationship with God and his word is something we must actively choose. We cannot passively fall into a relationship with God and his word. We must actively choose to listen to him and to seek him. He is the one who must grant understanding. We’ll never truly understand God’s word apart from his Holy Spirit’s guidance and interpretation. People who do not follow Christ struggle to understand what the Bible means because they do not have the Holy Spirit to…

Praising the Word, Day 3 Where do you get your advice? Read Psalm 119:17-24. As we read through this section of verses, we see that others are not focused on the word of God, and that is a detriment to them. Other people are rebuking and slandering the Lord, but the psalmist explains that he goes to God’s word for everything. He even sees God’s word as the source of advice. When he is wondering about something or questioning something, he goes to the word of God as his source of strength and insight and advice. Do we seek advice from God’s word? Are we basing all advice that we…

Praising the Word, Day 2 Hiding the treasure. Read Psalm 119:9-16. Today, we look at the section of Psalm 119 that starts with the Hebrew letter “Beth.” When we think about a treasure, often, my mind goes to pirates and stories of hidden, buried treasure. They would bury it and hide it to keep it safe so that no one could take it from them. When we think of God’s word, it is truly a treasure. God has provided his word and we are to treat it as a true treasure. How can we hide a treasure so that no one can take it away from us? We memorize it…

Praising the Word, Day 1 A Love Letter to the Word of God. Read Psalm 119:1-8. This series is going to walk through the entire chapter of Psalm 119. This chapter has the distinction of being the longest chapter in the Bible. With it’s 176 verses, it is a sophisticated piece of poetry. In the original language, Hebrew, it is written as an alphabetic acrostic. Each eight verses start with a letter from the Hebrew alphabet. Eight verses each letter, 22 letters in total leads to 176 verses. This entire chapter is all about praising the Word of God. As we go through each letter grouping, today’s section of verses…