What God Really Wants

What God Really Wants Psalm 119 is the longest psalm in the Book of Psalms and also the longest chapter in the Bible. And sadly, for these reasons many say it is also the most neglected. Yet a few things about Psalm 119 suggest that God really wants us to pay special attention to it. First, it is considered to be a wisdom psalm, meaning that its focus is on the wisdom of God, something every Christian should desire. Second, all but a few of its 176 verses tell us something about the importance of God’s Word in our lives. Third, it is written in the highly structured acrostic format that was used by Hebrew writers to make memorization easier. In other words, it’s as though God is saying, “If you want My wisdom in your life, make the message of this psalm a part of your life.” Even though it uses 10 different words to describe God’s Word, Psalm 119 is much more than simply a catalog of informative statements about various aspects of God’s Word. Almost every verse contains a personal, specific and very practical application of God’s Word to the writer’s life. Is this just the writer’s way of making his psalm more interesting reading? I think it’s much more than that. God does not just want us to be hearing, reading and studying His Word (Jas. 1:22-25). He really wants us to be loving it, living it, and looking for opportunities to share it every hour of every day – or 24/7 as we say today. So how do we get started on this path? The psalmist himself tells us that it comes by considering our own ways (v. 59), by meditating on God’s Word (v. 97), and by coming to the realization that it truly is “a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (v. 105). Hopefully, this month’s features will help you do just that. By Larry Ondrejack