Note: this week I'm reversing my normal schedule for Wednesdays and Fridays, since a brief illness left me unable to finish the recording over chapter 2 of The Mortification of Sin. That post should certainly be ready for Friday, so for today we continue our verse-by-verse meditations through Psalm 119. Confirm to your servant your …
Continue reading Confirm to Your Servant Your Promise | Psalm 119:38
Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things;and give me life in your ways. Psalm 119:37 ESV “The eye is not satisfied with seeing…” (Ecclesiastes 1:8). Despite the very best efforts of streaming services like Netflix, the Preacher’s words still remain true. Our eyes now have literally more content to view than can possibly be …
Continue reading Turn My Eyes from Looking at Worthless Things | Psalm 119:37
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 …
Continue reading Incline My Heart to Your Testimonies | Psalm 119:36
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 …
Continue reading Lead Me in the Path of Your Commandments | Psalm 119:35
Give me understanding, that I may keep your lawand observe it with my whole heart. Psalm 119:34 ESV The fifth stanza of Psalm 119, he, continues with this second verse that very clearly parallels the previous one. Where in verse 33 the psalmist prayed to be taught God’s statutes, now he prays to be given …
Teach me, O LORD, the way of your statutes;and I will keep it to the end. Psalm 119:33 ESV The psalmist begins the fifth stanza, he, with a prayer that is quickly becoming a refrain of this psalm: teach me your statutes. We should notice, of course, that while both verse 12 and verse 26 …
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 …
I cling to your testimonies, O LORD;let me not be put to shame! Psalm 119:31 ESV Continuing on from the psalmist’s previous two declarations to put away false ways and to walk in the way of faithfulness through knowing and following God’s law, the writer now cries for the LORD to keep him from being …
I have chosen the way of faithfulness;I set your rules before me. Psalm 119:30 ESV This verse very much piggybacks onto the previous one. Where the psalmist spoke of putting away all false ways in verse 29, now he resolutely declares his commitment to the way of faithfulness. And where he previously prayed for God’s …
Continue reading I Have Chosen the Way of Faithfulness | Psalm 119:30
Put false ways far from meand graciously teach me your law! Psalm 119:29 ESV As we now move into the second half of stanza daleth, the fourth eight-verse section of Psalm 119, the psalmist moves away from his cause of lament and toward resolutions of faithfulness. This verse is a twofold petition to God for …
B. C. Newton 