Praising the Word, Day 15 Who do you spend time with? Read some 119:113-120. I remember my parents constantly telling me as a teenager that I needed to pick my friends with caution. I needed to be wise about who I chose to spend time with because I would be like them. Here, we see the psalmist saying essentially the same thing. He’s making a choice not to spend time with evildoers because he wants to do things that glorify God. That choice is going to help them psalmist to be able to spend time with God. And it will make following God’s commands easier. You see, my parents were…

Praising the Word, Day 14 The lamp. Read Psalm 119:105-112. I love the idea of God’s word being a lamp. Obviously, the initial reference makes me think of the light that helps us to see where we’re going and gives us direction and focus. While all of that is true, one thing that made me stop, and think about a lamp is the fact that in those days, a lamp didn’t really light very far down a path. If I was holding a lantern at the beginning of a path, I would probably only be able to see 2 or 3 steps down the path. I would not be able…

Praising the Word, Day 13 Wisdom. Read Psalm 119:97-104. What gives us wisdom? We know and have read many other places that God is the source of all wisdom. Godly wisdom will trump human wisdom every single time. So how do we get Godly wisdom? We find the answer here in this verse. God’s word is his wisdom, and by reading it, studying it, and applying it, we can experience and benefit from the wisdom of God in all areas of our life. Are we seeking God’s wisdom? Are we spending time reading and studying his word? We can be wise only through God and his word. How much time…

Praising the Word, Day 12 No end. Read Psalm 119:89-96. Gods word endures forever. No list of the attributes of God or his word would be complete without talking about the eternity of God’s word. God’s word is everlasting and there is nothing that will endure beyond the word of God. God’s word is everlasting, because God himself is everlasting. God will endure forever. Because God endures forever, the attributes and characteristics of God are also enduring forever, including his faithfulness. God’s faithfulness will continue through all generations. We can count on that. God’s word testifies of the nature of who God is. We can trust him and we can…

Praising the Word, Day 11 Hope. Read Psalm 110:81-88. Life can be very difficult and challenging. We can experience trials and struggles. There are several situations that we will face in our lives that are hard. We know that God is going to provide salvation, but it can be hard to wait for that. The psalmist knows this. He expresses the same frustration that we often feel many days. We know what it is to have our heart feel faint. Still we have hope. Our hope is in the Lord. We can have hope, even if we don’t see it. That is the nature and essence of hope. We have…

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…