Incline my heart to your testimonies,and not to selfish gain! Psalm 119:36 ESV Recently, my wife and I were reminded by the author of one of our daughter’s books that “you don’t need to teach children to do wrong but you do need to teach them to do right—and to trust in the only one …
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Lead me in the path of your commandments,for I delight in it. Psalm 119:35 ESV Who delights in following commandments? Sadly, most of us do not. As our original father and mother did in the garden so we also follow their example by constantly pressing back against the regulations that God imposes upon us, for …
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I will run in the way of your commandmentswhen you enlarge my heart! Psalm 119:32 ESV We come now to the concluding verse of stanza daleth, and it is remarkably different from where the stanza began. The psalmist opened with the lament that his soul was clinging to the dust, and he called for the …
Deal bountifully with your servant,that I may live and keep your word. Psalm 119:17 ESV With this verse, we begin Psalm 119’s third stanza, which is titled gimel because each verse begins that Hebrew letter. Like Beth (verses 9-16), Gimel (verses 17-24) continues the psalmist’s prayer for God’s instructing grace to guard him, while also …
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I will keep your statutes;do not utterly forsake me! Psalm 119:8 ESV This verse concludes the first stanza of Psalm 119 in which every verse begins with the Hebrew letter, aleph. It immediately also concludes the two part pledge of action that began in verse 7, but it further parallels verse 4, which began his …
I will praise you with an upright heart,when I learn your righteous rules! Psalm 119:7 ESV The overall pattern of this first stanza of the psalm continues to unfold before us. Verses 1-4 form a unit wherein the psalmist first utter two beatitudes describing the person who walks according to the law of the LORD …
Then I shall not be put to shame,having my eyes fixed on all your commandments! Psalm 119:6 ESV This verse piggybacks directly upon the previous one, which is evident through the word then. Although that verse was a hopeful yearning for the psalmist’s ways to be steadfast in keeping the statutes of the LORD, this …
Oh that my ways may be steadfastin keeping your statutes! Psalm 119:5 ESV The blessed, those whom God favors, walk in God’s ways, keeping His testimonies and remaining blameless in all things. Because God desires us to keep to this path of blessedness, the psalmist acknowledged to the LORD, “You have commanded your precepts to …
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You have commanded your preceptsto be kept diligently. Psalm 119:4 ESV The psalmist has already pronounced to us that a defining quality of the blessed is that keeping the LORD’s testimonies, which are the revelations that He has made regarding Himself. Now after three verses of beatitudes describing the person who walks in the way …
who also do no wrong,but who walk in his ways! Psalm 119:3 ESV The word also reminds us that we are continuing the thought of verse 2: Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart. To keep the LORD’s testimonies, to hold onto them with all one’s might, seeking …
