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Bible
Reading Notes from Christ Church Greenbank Day 2 Read: Psalm 119:1-8 For the rest
of the week we’re going to spend a little time looking at some of the Psalms.
As we look at this first section of Psalm 119, notice that this is a long
Psalm - 176 verses split into 22 sections.
As a whole, it is an extended reflection on what it means to be blessed
and blameless, to walk after the Lord. Notice in this
first section how often the Psalmist refers to God’s law – his statutes,
ways, precepts, decrees, commands and righteous laws. The Psalmist earnestly desires to do God’s will, and to
follow God’s way. He refers to
the law; as we read this passage we recognise that our desire should be to
follow God’s way revealed in the whole of scripture. In the first
three verses of the Psalm, those who are blessed are those who follow the Lord,
and are blameless; the Psalmist desires to be like that, but recognises that he
isn’t in verses 5 and 6 – and resolves to praise the Lord and obey him in
verses 7 and 8. We too need to
recognise that we should be blameless in following the Lord – but that we are
not, and that we are not put to shame (v6), not because we achieve perfect
obedience, but because Jesus Christ achieves perfect obedience for us, by dying
on the cross. And
our response to what Christ has done for us should be like that of the
Psalmist – praising God, and seeking to obey his word.
Not because we earn our own salvation because of our obedience – the
Psalmist couldn’t, and neither can we. But
because it is our response to what God has done in Christ – we want to praise
Christ, and we want to become more like him. So we see here
that this extended reflection on being blessed and blameless is, for the
Psalmist, an exhortation to himself and others to follow after the Lord – to
obey him. As we saw yesterday, all
scripture is God-breathed, and useful for teaching and training us.
This is God’s word – we need to seek to be obedient to it So today Ask God to show you the areas of
your life where you need to be obedient Ask God to work in you through
the Holy Spirit to enable you to be odedient Give thanks to God that Christ
died on the cross and has made us right with God Activity for Families with
Children A few ideas on how to share what you have learned
about God’s word with your children. Starter: talk about favourite songs and favourite activities.
What do we like to do with our songs?
What do we like to sing about? In this part
of the bible, the Psalmist tells us what he likes to sing about (or say) and do: Read Psalm 119:7-8 What does the
Psalmist like to sing about? What does he
want to do? Read:
We saw yesterday that the Bible is
God’s word, and that we need to read it because it comes from God.
Today we see that we don’t just read it – we also do what it says. How can we
follow the Psalmist example – how can we do what he does? Prayer:
Dear Jesus, help me to understand what the bible says and help me to do
what is says. Amen. |
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Last updated: September 27, 2007. We aim to update this site weekly.
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