What is the purpose of this Website, practically speaking?  (See Welcome I and Welcome II.)

First, I invite you to read Psalm 119!  Plain and simple.  Take up and read!  

Second, I invite you to pray these psalms along with me.

The Writing of the Prayers.  Along with each stanza of 8 verses, headed by its Hebrew title, I have written a carefully researched devotional prayer.  Why the extra prayer?  The psalms are prayers:  joint prayers with other believers as well as private prayers to God.  This psalm is not to be read like a book, but said privately, publically, and acted upon in faith.

Sometimes it’s hard to understand the archaic language of the Bible. It can also be easy to gloss over the familiar in scripture and lose its meaning and application.  In relative comfort, we grow lazy; but in time of need, we are too pressed to study and “soak” in the depth of the riches of God’s Word.

Therefore, I wanted to study now and write out the results of the study in more accessible terms.  I want to pray His Word accurately, not prone to moods, emotions or lazy scholarship.  I want to mean the words as I pray them, which will of course mean a “turning” of my will toward God’s own will.  This “turning” is called repentence and heart-change.  I need this (as Psalm 119 so often reminds me!).

This desire is not unique to me; it is for all who desire to know God and follow Him more. I write these prayers with the hope that by hearing these stanzas re-phrased (according to good, available scholarship), they will open our hearts to fresh application, heart transformation, and renewed joy in the worship of our Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Resources used for the prayers.  The prayers are researched using standard Biblical references. They follow the scripture passage itself and are a kind of paraphrase. A few central commentaries were used to ensure a stable understanding of each passage; but other commentaries, language studies, and historical helps have also provided a wide lens. I am thankful for Biblehub.com and BibleGateway.com as free resources that I link to often.

I encourage you to continue your own study with maps, commentaries, word studies, and more.  I also hope that you will post your comments, whether you have a correction or discussion, or want to relate a personal experience with the psalms.  I would enjoy hearing from you!

Blog Posts.  Finally, and honestly, blog posts were a feature I had not at first planned. As a DIY blogger, not exactly technically savvy, I was not sure what to do with this feature. At first, I proposed to discuss the intersection of life with each stanza of Psalm 119 as I continued to work through this psalm myself. I still do that, but along the way, other thoughts about the intersection of God’s Word and my life, primarily the intersection of the work of Jesus Christ for me in daily life, has interjected.  These thoughts range from holidays or world events, to word studies, or just things that happen in my own daily life or conversations with people that I have found intriguing or challenging.

At the end of many posts, I have added FURTHER RESOURCES for deeper study, beautiful opportunities for worship (song, video or audio, poetry), and prayer for a greater application of the truths studied.  This is where you can sit back and have a Bible Study moment, including prayer worship.

Psalm 119.  This psalm, God’s own inspired Word, teaches me how to express myself before God in all honesty and in all of life–during the best and the worst of times. The prayers help me move past the circumstantial self-talk that always gets in the way of godly conversation with God. Because this psalm is about God’s Word, this website is also about the application of the entire Word of God.

My goal is for us to read together, study together, live together, pray together, cry together, rejoice together, memorize together, and encourage one another in light of the beauty, power, and holiness of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  Thank you for visiting!  

© 2018 by http://www.readpsalm119.com; Last update: 17 September 2024.