Your word Pt 1

Let me give a quick intro to what the Psalms are and are not. The psalms are not a series of small catchy phrases that make great illustrations for coffee mugs. They are intense cries from the heart of their writers. They are a song book full of praises to God and reflections on His character. They give us intense insight into the heart of a man after the heart of God. In these 150 poems/songs we see pain, joy, love, fear, and an intense longing to know God. They, of course, are inspired by God in all that they contain but it is a great mistake to think of them outside of their human authors element.

Psalm 119 is long...really long. It is the longest chapter in the Bible and is longer than many books. It is a deep look at a great attitude toward the Word of God (herein called the law, testimonies, precepts, statutes, commandments, etc). It nearly seems to be a deep exposition of the first Psalm.

Psalm 119:1 opens the song with the same word that Psalm 1 opens up: Blessed. The word translated into Latin is where we get the term Beatitude which are as well "Blessed" statements that Jesus makes. Blessed are those who walk in the law of the Lord, who keep His testimonies, who walk in His ways...etc. What do these things all draw us to? To the Bible as the Word of God. We are called to not only know the Word (intellectually) but to become deeply acquainted with what it says and then to follow it. What does this look like for us? For a Pastor it means preaching everything that is in the Bible and not just the fun, easy to swallow things. For the layman it means reading things like Obadiah and Lamentations. If we are to be faithful to Gods Word we even have to take some time to get into the long "And ___ begat ____" passages and to see their importance. It means that we look at the books of the Law and see their implications. It means looking at the Gospels to see a pattern of a true Christ-like life pattern (who better than Himself to show you). Reading the letters of the NT with their context as the filter for what they are saying. It means knowing the whole counsel of God and then applying it to our lives so that we don't simply become people who gaze into a mirror and wander away unchanged. What are we promised when we take serious the commands of God? Blessing. I am not saying that if you live for Christ your life will be easy and your bank account running over like the cup from the 23rd Psalm. I am not a scholar by any means but I tend to think that these blessings come in the form of the action. My blessing is to walk in the way of God and to keep His commandments. My blessing comes in being faithful to what He desires for and commands me to.