Reading The Psalms Daily

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TSADDE

Ps 119:137 ¶ Righteous are You, O LORD, And upright are Your judgments.

Ps 119:138 Your testimonies, which You have commanded, Are righteous and very faithful.

Ps 119:139 ¶ My zeal has consumed me, Because my enemies have forgotten Your words.

Ps 119:140 ¶ Your word is very pure; Therefore Your servant loves it.

Ps 119:141 ¶ I am small and despised, Yet I do not forget Your precepts.

Ps 119:142 ¶ Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And Your law is truth.

Ps 119:143 ¶ Trouble and anguish have overtaken me, Yet Your commandments are my delights.

Ps 119:144 The righteousness of Your testimonies is everlasting; Give me understanding, and I shall live.

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MHCC


137-144 God never did, and never can do wrong to any. The promises are faithfully performed by Him that made them. Zeal against sin should constrain us to do what we can against it, at least to do more in religion ourselves. Our love to the word of God is evidence of our love to God, because it is designed to make us partake his holiness. Men's real excellency always makes them low in their own eyes. When we are small and despised, we have the more need to remember God's precepts, that we may have them to support us. The law of God is the truth, the standard of holiness, the rule of happiness; but the obedience of Christ alone justifies the believer. Sorrows are often the lot of saints in this vale of tears; they are in heaviness through manifold temptations. There are delights in the word of God, which the saints often most sweetly enjoy when in trouble and anguish. This is life eternal, to know God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent, Joh 17:3. May we live the life of faith and grace here, and be removed to the life of glory hereafter.

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QOPH

Ps 119:145 ¶ I cry out with my whole heart; Hear me, O LORD! I will keep Your statutes.

Ps 119:146 I cry out to You; Save me, and I will keep Your testimonies.

Ps 119:147 ¶ I rise before the dawning of the morning, And cry for help; I hope in Your word.

Ps 119:148 My eyes are awake through the night watches, That I may meditate on Your word.

Ps 119:149 ¶ Hear my voice according to Your lovingkindness; O LORD, revive me according to Your justice.

Ps 119:150 ¶ They draw near who follow after wickedness; They are far from Your law.

Ps 119:151 You are near, O LORD, And all Your commandments are truth.

Ps 119:152 ¶ Concerning Your testimonies, I have known of old that You have founded them forever.

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MHCC

45-152 Supplications with the whole heart are presented only by those who desire God's salvation, and who love his commandments. Whither should the child go but to his father? Save me from my sins, my corruptions, my temptations, all the hindrances in my way, that I may keep thy testimonies. Christians who enjoy health, should not suffer the early hours of the morning to glide away unimproved. Hope in God's word encourages us to continue in prayer. It is better to take time from sleep, than not to find time for prayer. We have access to God at all hours; and if our first thoughts in the morning are of God, they will help to keep us in his fear all the day long. Make me lively and cheerful. God knows what we need and what is good for us, and will quicken us. If we are employed in God's service, we need not fear those who try to set themselves as far as they can out of the reach of the convictions and commands of his law. When trouble is near, God is near. He is never far to seek. All his commandments are truth. And God's promises will be performed. All that ever trusted in God have found him faithful.

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RESH

Ps 119:153 ¶ Consider my affliction and deliver me, For I do not forget Your law.

Ps 119:154 Plead my cause and redeem me; Revive me according to Your word.

Ps 119:155 ¶ Salvation is far from the wicked, For they do not seek Your statutes.

Ps 119:156 ¶ Great are Your tender mercies, O LORD; Revive me according to Your judgments.

Ps 119:157 ¶ Many are my persecutors and my enemies, Yet I do not turn from Your testimonies.

Ps 119:158 ¶ I see the treacherous, and am disgusted, Because they do not keep Your word.

Ps 119:159 ¶ Consider how I love Your precepts; Revive me, O LORD, according to Your lovingkindness.

Ps 119:160 ¶ The entirety of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.

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MHCC


153-160 The closer we cleave to the word of God, both as our rule and as our stay, the more assurance we have of deliverance. Christ is the Advocate of his people, their Redeemer. Those who were quickened by his Spirit and grace, when they were dead in trespasses and sins, often need to have the work of grace revived in them, according to the word of promise. The wicked not only do not God's statutes, but they do not even seek them. They flatter themselves that they are going to heaven; but the longer they persist in sin, the further it is from them. God's mercies are tender; they are a fountain that can never be exhausted. The psalmist begs for God's reviving, quickening grace. A man, steady in the way of his duty, though he may have many enemies, needs to fear none. Those that hate sin truly, hate it as sin, as a transgression of the law of God, and a breaking of his word. Our obedience is only pleasing to God, and pleasant to ourselves, when it comes from a principle of love. All, in every age, who receive God's word in faith and love, find every saying in it faithful.

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SHIN

Ps 119:161 ¶ Princes persecute me without a cause, But my heart stands in awe of Your word.

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

Ps 119:163 ¶ I hate and abhor lying, But I love Your law.

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

Ps 119:165 ¶ Great peace have those who love Your law, And nothing causes them to stumble.

Ps 119:166 ¶ LORD, I hope for Your salvation, And I do Your commandments.

Ps 119:167 ¶ My soul keeps Your testimonies, And I love them exceedingly.

Ps 119:168 I keep Your precepts and Your testimonies, For all my ways are before You.

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MHCC

161-168 Those whose hearts stand in awe of God's word, will rather endure the wrath of man, than break the law of God. By the word of God we are unspeakable gainers. Every man hates to have a lie told him, but we should more hate telling a lie; by the latter we give an affront to God. The more we see the beauty of truth, the more we shall see the hateful deformity of a lie. We are to praise God even for afflictions; through grace we get good from them. Those that love the world have great vexation, for it does not answer what they expect; those that love God's word have great peace, for it outdoes what they expect. Those in whom this holy love reigns, will not perplex themselves with needless scruples, or take offence at their brethren. A good hope of salvation will engage the heart in doing the commandments. And our love to the word of God must subdue our lusts, and root out carnal affections: we must make heart work of it, or we make nothing of it. We must keep the commandments of God by obedience to them, and his promises by reliance on them. God's eye is on us at all times; this should make us very careful to keep his commandments.

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TAU

Ps 119:169 ¶ Let my cry come before You, O LORD; Give me understanding according to Your word.

Ps 119:170 Let my supplication come before You; Deliver me according to Your word.

Ps 119:171 ¶ My lips shall utter praise, For You teach me Your statutes.

Ps 119:172 ¶ My tongue shall speak of Your word, For all Your commandments are righteousness.

Ps 119:173 ¶ Let Your hand become my help, For I have chosen Your precepts.

Ps 119:174 I long for Your salvation, O LORD, And Your law is my delight.

Ps 119:175 ¶ Let my soul live, and it shall praise You; And let Your judgments help me.

Ps 119:176 ¶ I have gone astray like a lost sheep; Seek Your servant, For I do not forget Your commandments.

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MHCC


169-176 The psalmist desired grace and strength to lift up his prayers, and that the Lord would receive and notice them. He desired to know more of God in Christ; to know more of the doctrines of the word, and the duties of religion. He had a deep sense of unworthiness, and holy fear that his prayer should not come before God; Lord, what I pray for is, what thou hast promised. We have learned nothing to purpose, if we have not learned to praise God. We should always make the word of God the rule of our discourse, so as never to transgress it by sinful speaking, or sinful silence. His own hands are not sufficient, nor can any creature lend him help; therefore he looks up to God, that the hand that had made him may help him. He had made religion his deliberate choice. There is an eternal salvation all the saints long for, and therefore they pray that God would help their way to it. Let thy judgments help me; let all ordinances and all providences, (both are God's judgments,) further me in glorifying God; let them help me for that work. He often looks back with shame and gratitude to his lost estate. He still prays for the tender care of Him who purchased his flock with his own blood, that he may receive from him the gift of eternal life. Seek me, that is, Find me; for God never seeks in vain. Turn me, and I shall be turned. Let this psalm be a touchstone by which to try our hearts, and our lives. Do our hearts, cleansed in Christ's blood, make these prayers, resolutions and confessions our own? Is God's word the standard of our faith, and the law of our practice? Do we use it as pleas with Christ for what we need? Happy those who live in such delightful exercises.

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Ps 120:1 ¶ <<A Song of Ascents.>> In my distress I cried to the LORD, And He heard me.

Ps 120:2 Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips And from a deceitful tongue.

Ps 120:3 What shall be given to you, Or what shall be done to you, You false tongue?

Ps 120:4 Sharp arrows of the warrior, With coals of the broom tree!

Ps 120:5 ¶ Woe is me, that I dwell in Meshech, That I dwell among the tents of Kedar!

Ps 120:6 My soul has dwelt too long With one who hates peace.

Ps 120:7 I am for peace; But when I speak, they are for war.

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MHCC

The psalmist prays to God to deliver him from false and malicious tongues. (1-4)

  1-4 The psalmist was brought into great distress by a deceitful tongue. May every good man be delivered from lying lips. They forged false charges against him. In this distress, he sought God by fervent prayer. God can bridle their tongues. He obtained a gracious answer to this prayer. Surely sinners durst not act as they do, if they knew, and would be persuaded to think, what will be in the end thereof. The terrors of the Lord are his arrows; and his wrath is compared to burning coals of juniper, which have a fierce heat, and keep fire very long. This is the portion of the false tongue; for all that love and make a lie, shall have their portion in the lake that burns eternally.


He complains of wicked neighbours. (5-7)

5-7 It is very grievous to a good man, to be cast into, and kept in the company of the wicked, from whom he hopes to be for ever separated. See here the character of a good man; he is for living peaceably with all men. And let us follow David as he prefigured Christ; in our distress let us cry unto the Lord, and he will hear us. Let us follow after peace and holiness, striving to overcome evil with good.

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Ps 121:1 ¶ <<A Song of Ascents.>> I will lift up my eyes to the hills-From whence comes my help?

Ps 121:2 My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.

Ps 121:3 He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber.

Ps 121:4 Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep.

Ps 121:5 The LORD is your keeper; The LORD is your shade at your right hand.

Ps 121:6 The sun shall not strike you by day, Nor the moon by night.

Ps 121:7 The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul.

Ps 121:8 The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in From this time forth, and even forevermore.

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MHCC

The safety of the godly.
 
- We must not rely upon men and means, instruments and second causes. Shall I depend upon the strength of the hills? upon princes and great men? No; my confidence is in God only. Or, we must lift up our eyes above the hills; we must look to God who makes all earthly things to us what they are. We must see all our help in God; from him we must expect it, in his own way and time. This psalm teaches us to comfort ourselves in the Lord, when difficulties and dangers are greatest. It is almighty wisdom that contrives, and almighty power that works the safety of those that put themselves under God's protection. He is a wakeful, watchful Keeper; he is never weary; he not only does not sleep, but he does not so much as slumber. Under this shade they may sit with delight and assurance. He is always near his people for their protection and refreshment. The right hand is the working hand; let them but turn to their duty, and they shall find God ready to give them success. He will take care that his people shall not fall. Thou shalt not be hurt, neither by the open assaults, nor by the secret attempts of thine enemies. The Lord shall prevent the evil thou fearest, and sanctify, remove, or lighten the evil thou feelest. He will preserve the soul, that it be not defiled by sin, and disturbed by affliction; he will preserve it from perishing eternally. He will keep thee in life and death; going out to thy labour in the morning of thy days, and coming home to thy rest when the evening of old age calls thee in. It is a protection for life. The Spirit, who is their Preserver and Comforter, shall abide with them for ever. Let us be found in our work, assured that the blessings promised in this psalm are ours.

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Ps 122:1 ¶ <<A Song of Ascents. Of David.>> I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go into the house of the LORD."

Ps 122:2 Our feet have been standing Within your gates, O Jerusalem!

Ps 122:3 Jerusalem is built As a city that is compact together,

Ps 122:4 Where the tribes go up, The tribes of the LORD, To the Testimony of Israel, To give thanks to the name of the LORD.

Ps 122:5 For thrones are set there for judgment, The thrones of the house of David.

Ps 122:6 ¶ Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: "May they prosper who love you.

Ps 122:7 Peace be within your walls, Prosperity within your palaces."

Ps 122:8 For the sake of my brethren and companions, I will now say, "Peace be within you."

Ps 122:9 Because of the house of the LORD our God I will seek your good.