Sometimes, we pray for breakthroughs, for the waters to part and the path through to appear, just like the Israelites did as they stood at the edge of the Red Sea. Other times, though, we pray modest prayers, asking God to sustain us. When we ask God to sustain us, we are asking Him to […]

The writer of Psalm 119 declared that God’s word was a lamp for his feet and a light for his path. What a comforting thought. In the darkness of life, we have a light to alert us to the things immediately in front of us and a lamp to identify what waits further down the […]

Our sense of taste is powerful. Sometimes, we say about a particular drink of food, “It was an acquired taste.” Think coffee. Most people do not like the taste initially. Yet over time, they enjoy the taste, the smell, and everything about the experience of drinking coffee. Some tastes require no acquisition. From the first […]

In a changing world, we long for something that does not change. The writer of Psalm 119 affirmed that he found the unchanging in God’s Word because God’s Word told him about an unchanging God. In spite of wicked people intent on harming him, the psalmist discovered a way to empower his soul and disempower […]

One of the things that drew me into Psalm 119 was that the writer expressed real emotions. While he praised God and affirmed the value of God’s Word, he also prayed heart-wrenching prayers about waiting and longing. If the writer of Psalm 119 had been writing modern songs, at least a few of them could […]

Life hurts. We struggle. We seek comfort . . . sometimes in the wrong places. What grace to know that God knows us and feels our pain. In His faithful love, He reaches out to us in faithful love. In this section of Psalm 119, the writer shares his hurts as well as his hopes. […]

Once we believe that God exists, we must answer an important question: “Is God good?” Of course, that question begs for a definition of “good.” By what criterion would we evaluate God? The writer of Psalm 119 walked through a difficult time of affliction that helped him solid his answer to the question, “Is God […]

We live in a “hurry up” world. We race from activity to activity, connected constantly to mobile devices, talking, listening, or watching as we go. Anything that causes us to wait frustrates us. Moving toward whatever comes next reigns as our top priority. Surprisingly, the Bible affirms the value of hurrying. The question is not, […]

In a song, a theme is a recurring melody, something distinctive that causes us to remember it. The writer of Psalm 119 wanted his life to have a theme . . . and it did. Comparing life to a song, he declared, “Your statutes are the theme of my song.” As people observe your life and […]

God revealed in His Word what He wanted us to know about Him. As a result, we love Him based on His revelation, not on ideas about God we made up. The Christian life is the long process of replacing our ideas about God with the truth about God. One of the reasons the psalmist […]