Delight in God's Word (Psalm 119:1-16)

What brings you delight in life? God wants to speak to you and fill you with his delights.  He invites you to come and feast on his rich food and grow strong on his truth. You are in for a treat!

If you are getting started in a relationship with God, trying to have a quiet time or seeking guidance at this point in your life, you're in the right place.

Spend your first fifteen minutes of the day listening to God and responding in a personal way.  This podcast will show you how and teach you in an easy to follow process.

In fifteen minutes (or less) you will listen to God's word for you, reflect on it and learn to pray to God as well as carry that word with you through the rest of your day.  What a perfect way to get started!

We are listening to Psalm 119, the longest psalm of the Bible.  We aren't going to pray the whole psalm in this episode!  Psalm 119 is divided into 22 parts or stanzas, each one 8 verses long, and we'll be listening to one or two stanzas at a time.  Psalm 119 is a wisdom psalm that praises God for his word or law (torah).  It uses the entire Hebrew alphabet for that, like saying "God's word has everything, from A to Z".  

The first stanza focuses on the blessing of walking in God’s ways and setting a firm intention to embrace all of God’s law or teaching.  The first three verses set the tone for all the psalm with a double blessing on those who walk in God's ways.  

The second stanza    (vv. 9-16) brings up what happens as soon as we commit to walking in God's Word:  we have to face our sin, our tendency to wander, and get serious about purifying our hearts. It’s not all serious and grim, though.  When we do this, there is joy, focus (meditation) and delight in this path (vv. 14-16).  

The language of delight, joy and longing is unmistakable in Psalm 119.  It leads us to move beyond the head and to embrace God and his word with our full heart. 

I invite you to join me in writing out one stanza (8 verses) of Psalm 119 for the next few weeks until you finish it.  After you've done that you can pick one verse to meditate on throughout the day.    

If you want to get more daily encouragement you can follow me on Twitter @WordofPrayer15.  Go ahead and get started listening and follow/subscribe to this podcast to hear more from God's word.  

As we progress in season three get a copy of the book God Help Me Grow: Learning to Pray through the Psalms on Amazon (or the ebook) so you can pray all of the first 30 psalms in the book of Psalms.

You can download the helpsheet that details and demonstrates the four step process we use on First Fifteen using Psalm 1.

Additional resources at the Word of Prayer website https://word-of-prayer.com