Monday, July 25, 2016

Psalm 19 Great Reward In Keeping God's Word


Daily Bible Study for Monday July 25 2016

By: Hanny Lynn Stearns



Fish N Loaves Ministries, Inc.

“Multiplying God’s Word Around The Globe”

Chapter Reading for Today: Please read in your Bible before proceeding. Note that most translations are considered paraphrases. The Young’s Literal Translation provides a more accurate translation since he is the one who authored a concordance. Others are helpful for seeing a different perspective, but we cannot depend on their wording. I hope this is helpful to you. If you are studying in another version, that is fine. I am studying from the KJV, but for the purpose of this study, I will keep it with the New King James Version.

One final note: I will put the scripture in italics to differentiate from my own writing. I am adding red to the letters when it is Jesus talking – just like the Bible. Thank you.

Bible Gateway Verse of the Day

Psalm 119:60
I made haste, and did not delay
To keep Your commandments.
Psalm 100:4
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
and into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

Song: Thy Word is a Lamp Unto My Feet   By: Amy Grant & Michael W. Smith

Psalm 19
Great Reward In Keeping God’s Word
Today’s Psalm starts off with absolute proof that there really is a great and awesome God! The heavens declare His glory to the ends of the earth! In everything we see when we look up or around us, we can see His handiwork – His handcrafted artwork that He skillfully designed for us. And as far as the sun reaches with its heat, so much further does the glory of God reach – hallelujah! Today, we get the blessing of discovering the great rewards that come with keeping God’s word. Let’s pray…
Heavenly Father:
How great are the works of Your hands! How beautiful is the sum of them! Thank You for giving us all the proof we could ever need that You are here with us – and everywhere present! Father, as we look into the great promises that are attached to keeping Your word in our lives, I ask You to reveal to us today and in the future, anything that we need to see in our hearts precious Father. Lord, I ask You to speak through my mind, my heart and these clay hands. Bring Your message for Your children unhindered and unchecked by any outside force or my flesh. Cause Your word to be planted deep in our spirit’s, and water it with Your Holy Spirit so that it brings forth the desired fruit of righteousness in our lives. Thank You Father for always watching over Your word to perform it in our lives when we obey Your perfect word. May You be honored as we purpose to be doers of Your word and not hearers only in Jesus name. Amen.
There are four main things we will look at in detail today. This Psalm is a wonderful lesson on the rewards that God’s people realize by keeping His word. In addition, we learn about the great value of His words. And, we will also see the promises that come attached to His perfect and pure word. Finally, we will look at prayer – the Old Testament way, and prayer, the New Testament way. Be prepared to be highly encouraged. There are numerous scriptures included in this lesson. You may want to print them out to keep in your home or workplace so that you can meditate on them regularly. Be blessed as you study in Jesus name!

God’s Law Is Perfect – It converts the soul

Psalm 119:92
Unless Your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction.

Proverbs 13:14
The law of the wise is a fountain of life, to turn one away from the snares of death.
Now let’s look at some scriptures about the benefits of keeping the law of the Lord. The scriptures are rich with wonderful promises that we can grab onto…

Psalm 1:2
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.

Psalm 37:31
The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide.

Psalm 40:8
I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart.”

Psalm 94:12
Blessed is the man whom You instruct, O Lord, and teach out of Your law,

Psalm 119:1
Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord!

Psalm 119:44
So shall I keep Your law continually, forever and ever.

Psalm 119:77
Let Your tender mercies come to me, that I may live; for Your law is my delight.

Psalm 119:97
Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.

Psalm 119:165
Great peace have those who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble.

Psalm 119:74
I long for Your salvation, O Lord, and Your law is my delight.

Hebrews 10:16
“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,”

James 1:25
But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

God’s Word Is Sure – It makes wise the simple

Psalm 93:5
Your testimonies are very sure; holiness adorns Your house, O Lord, forever.

Psalm 111:7
The works of His hands are verity and justice; all His precepts are sure.

Deuteronomy 4:5-6
“Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’

2 Chronicles 1:8-12
And Solomon said to God: “You have shown great mercy to David my father, and have made me king in his place. Now, O Lord God, let Your promise to David my father be established, for You have made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in multitude. 10 Now give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people; for who can judge this great people of Yours?”
11 Then God said to Solomon: “Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked riches or wealth or honor or the life of your enemies, nor have you asked long life—but have asked wisdom and knowledge for yourself, that you may judge My people over whom I have made you king— 12 wisdom and knowledge are granted to you; and I will give you riches and wealth and honor, such as none of the kings have had who were before you, nor shall any after you have the like.”
Psalm 49:3
My mouth shall speak wisdom, and the meditation of my heart shall give understanding.

Psalm 111:10
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever.

Proverbs 2:1-9
My son, if you receive my words, and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
He is a shield to those who walk uprightly; He guards the paths of justice, and preserves the way of His saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path.

Proverbs 3:13
Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding;

Proverbs 4:5-9
Get wisdom! Get understanding! Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you; love her, and she will keep you. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding. Exalt her, and she will promote you; she will bring you honor, when you embrace her. She will place on your head an ornament of grace; a crown of glory she will deliver to you.”

God’s Statutes Are Right – They make hearts rejoice

Psalm 119:54
Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.

Psalm 119:162
I rejoice at Your word As one who finds great treasure.

Psalm 119:14
I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, as much as in all riches.

God’s Commandment Is Pure – Shows us how to live right

Proverbs 7:2
Keep my commands and live, and my law as the apple of your eye.

Psalm 119:18
Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.

Proverbs 6:23
For the commandment is a lamp, and the law a light; reproofs of instruction are the way of life,

The Fear Of The Lord Is Clean – It brings flawless results (It is everlasting)

Deuteronomy 6:1-3
 “Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you—‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’

Psalm 25:14
The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.

Psalm 33:18
Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy,

Psalm 103:17
But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children’s children,

Psalm 112:1
Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who delights greatly in His commandments.

Proverbs 2:5
Then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.

Proverbs 10:27
The fear of the Lord prolongs days, but the years of the wicked will be shortened.

Proverbs 19:23
The fear of the Lord leads to life, and he who has it will abide in satisfaction; he will not be visited with evil.

God’s Judgments Are True & Righteous – There is nothing false in His judgments

Psalm 119:30
I have chosen the way of truth; Your judgments I have laid before me.

Psalm 119:39
Turn away my reproach which I dread, For Your judgments are good.

Psalm 119:62
At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You, because of Your righteous judgments.

Psalm 119:137
Righteous are You, O Lord, and upright are Your judgments.

Psalm 119:160
The entirety of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.

Psalm 119:164
Seven times a day I praise You, Because of Your righteous judgments.

Isaiah 26:9
With my soul I have desired You in the night, Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early; For when Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

The Value Of God’s Words - Is more desirable than fine gold and sweeter than honey

Psalm 119:103
How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

Psalm 119:72
The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver.

Proverbs 16:24
Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.

The Promise - Keeping His Word Brings Great Reward

Genesis 15:1
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”                (God and His word are one in the same)

Proverbs 13:13
He who despises the word will be destroyed, but he who fears the commandment will be rewarded.

Hebrews 11:6
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

The Prayer – Verses 12 - 14

In essence, (my paraphrase) David’s prayer reveals that even he himself could not understand his own errors. That’s still true with people today – it has not changed. He asked the Lord to help him by cleansing every hidden sin from him. Look at this Psalm…

Psalm 51
Have mercy upon me, O God,
According to Your lovingkindness;
According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,
Blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my transgressions,
And my sin is always before me.
Against You, You only, have I sinned,
And done this evil in Your sight—
That You may be found just when You speak,[a]
And blameless when You judge.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me.
Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts,
And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Make me hear joy and gladness,
That the bones You have broken may rejoice.
Hide Your face from my sins,
And blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from Your presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
And sinners shall be converted to You.
14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
The God of my salvation,
And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
And my mouth shall show forth Your praise.
16 For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise.
18 Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion;
Build the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness,
With burnt offering and whole burnt offering;
Then they shall offer bulls on Your altar.

We still need to seek the Lord humbly and ask Him to reveal to us any sin in our hearts so that we can “fess up”, admit it to Him and agree that it was wrong, ask His forgiveness and be cleansed…

1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Then we have to change our ways. Confession without repentance is useless. What we do shows our hearts. If we are really willing to change, then it will show up in our actions. David asked God to keep him from becoming “cocky” as the current day vernacular states it – or in other words, prideful. Pride is sin and being in a state of pride can produce many sins. We need to stay focused on the presence and the word of the Lord in order to avoid this type of heart. We will look at some more verses in a minute.

We need to ask the Lord to give us the understanding about any wrong attitudes or behaviors we may be walking in so we know what to change. He won’t change us – we have to do the work. But, He will empower us by His Spirit when we do our part – hallelujah! David sincerely wanted the Lord to help him to avoid wrong behaviors. He did not want wrong attitudes and motives to rule in his heart – nor should we. 

Back in David’s time, the only people who had the Holy Spirit’s presence with them were the priests, prophets and kings. And David was a king. But they were not filled with the Holy Spirit because Jesus had not come yet and gone to the cross and ascended into heaven. The day of Pentecost had not yet arrived. That’s why the people had to offer sacrifices of the blood of bulls and goats at that altar. It was a type of Jesus eventual sacrifice.

In the meantime, God would accept those sacrifices, but it was temporary. And because those people did not have the Holy Spirit living in them, they could not stop themselves from sinning, again and again and again. But praise God, today, because of Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit living in us who is our Helper. He can help us to avoid sin completely – that’s right, completely! David knew that he could ask God for His help so he could be in right standing with God, innocent of great sin. 

Now we have the ability to walk in purity, because the Spirit of the living God is living in us. Too many Christians today do not believe the words of the Master, that we can be like Him. If they did, our world would be a different place! David knew God as his strength and his Redeemer – even though Jesus had not come yet. God the Father was his way out of the bondage of sin. That’s what Jesus is for us today – our blessed Redeemer! Hallelujah!
Jesus purchased our lives back from the devil with His precious blood so we could once again be called the sons of God, like Adam and Eve were back in the Garden of Eden before the fall. 

Jesus has redeemed our souls in peace from the battle that was against – the devil, who tried to steal, kill and destroy our lives for all eternity. Thanks be to God for our Lord Jesus Christ! Let’s look at a few more verses, OK? You don’t mind, do you? After all, it isn’t my words that will change your life – it is the word of the Lord that will light our way and cause us to live, think and act uprightly, amen!

Psalm 119:29
Remove from me the way of lying, and grant me Your law graciously.

Psalm 119:80
Let my heart be blameless regarding Your statutes, that I may not be ashamed.

Psalm 119:17
Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live and keep Your word.

Psalm 39:1
I said, “I will guard my ways, lest I sin with my tongue; I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle, while the wicked are before me.”

Psalm 119:108
Accept, I pray, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Lord, and teach me Your judgments.

Psalm 119:175
Let my soul live, and it shall praise You; and let Your judgments help me.
  
Psalm 104:34
May my meditation be sweet to Him; I will be glad in the Lord.

Galatians 3:13
 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”

Psalm 55:18
He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, for there were many against me.

Psalm 71:23
My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing to You, and my soul, which You have redeemed.

Psalm 107:2
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy,

Luke 1:68
“Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people,

David’s prayer at the end of this chapter is quite beautiful, and certainly heartfelt. The last verse should be the desire of every Christian heart on a daily basis indeed…

Psalm 19:14
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.
  
Even though it is a beautiful prayer, it is an Old Testament prayer. It is not a New Covenant prayer. The so called “Lord’s Prayer” in the gospels were a prayer that Jesus gave His disciples to pray while He was on the earth. It is not something we should be reciting verbatim as our prayer each day. While there are good principals we can learn from His prayer that He gave the disciples to pray while He was still on the earth, it is not the model for how we should be praying today. Why? I will give you one reason look at this. In the prayer that Jesus gave, He said…

Matthew 6:9-13
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
10 Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
13 And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen

The kingdom of God has already come. Jesus came, He died and was buried and raised from the dead. Now the kingdom of God dwells in the heart of men. So we do not have to pray for it to come – it already has! There are many New Testament prayer principals that are far too lengthy to get into in this study. I highly recommend that if you want to study more about effective New Testament praying and how to really get answers to them, you can consider buying the book called, “Bible Study Prayer Course” by Kenneth E. Hagin, now in heaven.

In it you will find a rich storehouse of God inspired information that can help you to grow in your prayer life and Christian walk in ways you never dreamed possible – glory to God! For now, let’s feast on what the Lord has given us for today. We have received a great big dose of His word. One thing we know for sure; if we meditate on this all the time, we will not have the problems that others are experiencing in their walks in this life. His word is truly the lamp to our feet.

Questions:

In what ways do the heavens declare the glory of God?

What about these verses today encouraged you the most? Why?

How much time are you spending meditating on the word of God?

How has your prayer life changed in recent days as a result of these studies?

List the ways that you feel you need to grow up more in Christ.  

Which verses from today’s study can help you to do that?

What action will you take in response to today’s study?

John 10:10
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

There are three main points to consider from today’s study…

God’s word produces tremendous results in our lives
We can’t put a price on the value of God’s word
Rewards come when we obey His word




                        Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for giving us Your word to guide our every step in this life. Father, I know that the majority of how my life will turn out depends on my response to Your word. Father, like David, I ask You to show me any sin in my life that I need to repent of. Help me understand what I need to do to make things right in that/those situations. Father, I desire to live according to Your word. It is my “meat”, my daily bread. Your word says that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds from Your mouth. Thank You for lighting my way home to You each step of each wonderful new day with You! In Jesus name. Amen.

Is God’s word your daily delight?

And God Said… You fill in the blanks.   




Psalm 119:105
Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.


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