Praising the Word, Day 22 Do we overflow with praise. Read Psalm 119:169-176. As we conclude this incredible chapter, we are reminded that this has been a song of praise to God. This has been a song of praise of God’s word. God’s word is holy, just as he is holy. Our praise should overflow in everything that we do. Our entire life should be about the praise of the Lord. As we go through our day, that praise overflows in everything we say, everything we do, the way we treat people, and our attitude. All of these things should be an overflow of the praise of God that is…

Praising the Word, Day 21 What do peace and stability have in common? Read Psalm 119:161-168. I don’t always tend to think of peace and stability as being synonymous. The word peace tends to think make me think of happiness and joy and contentment. But here, the psalmist reminds us that those who love God’s law will have great peace and that nothing will cause them to stumble. So, loving God’s law provides peace and stability. The people who love God’s law are able to walk the path that God gives them without stumbling or tripping down that path. They don’t fall on the obstacles that life sets up in…

Praising the Word, Day 20 Be my defense. Read Psalm 119:153-160. We can end up going to a lot of trouble to try and defend ourselves. Then, we’re often not very good at it! We are focused on the wrong things and we’re not always very effective at trying to accomplish our goals. Ultimately, we need a solid defense. We aren’t any good at defending ourselves and we need God to stand in the gap for us when other accuse us. So, we need to ask ourselves, are we vocal enough about our faith that others would accuse us of being Christians and if so, do we allow God to…

Praising the Word, Day 19 First things first. Read Psalm 119:145-152. When do we come to the Lord? For the psalmist, he chose to come to the Lord first. Before he tried anything else, he came to the Lord to ask for help. This took priority over anything else that the psalmist did. Do we seek the Lord first? Are we coming to God first thing with our troubles, with our praises, and with everything about our life? Watch the video devotional here: https://youtu.be/A54jf5BFlIk

Praising the Word, Day 18 We all need God’s Word. Read Psalm 119:137-144. Everyone needs God’s word. Sometimes, we start to think that we are so good that we don’t need to bother with following through on God’s word. And sometimes, we tend to think that we’re so terrible that we couldn’t possibly do God’s word. The psalmist reminds us that it doesn’t matter what we think of ourselves, and it doesn’t matter our status or station, we all need God’s word. The psalmist knew that, compared to God, he was nothing, but that didn’t change the fact that he needs God’s word. Are we willing to seek after God’s…

Praising the Word, Day 16 Why the wait? Read Psalm 119:121-128. There are a lot of things that I enjoy about the psalms, but one of them is the raw emotion that is often conveyed through the psalmists. Here we really understand that the psalmist sees the injustices and sin running rampant through the world and wants to understand why God has not acted yet. When we see our world and the condition it’s in, it can truly infuriate us. We don’t understand why God allows sin to happen. We don’t understand why it seems like evil prevails through our world, and we want God to act. We want him…

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…