Psalm 119:129-136
Pe
129 Your testimonies are wonderful;
therefore my soul keeps them.
130 The unfolding of your words gives light;
it imparts understanding to the simple.
131 I open my mouth and pant,
because I long for your commandments.
132 Turn to me and be gracious to me,
as is your way with those who love your name.
133 Keep steady my steps according to your promise,
and let no iniquity get dominion over me.
134 Redeem me from man’s oppression,
that I may keep your precepts.
135 Make your face shine upon your servant,
and teach me your statutes.
136 My eyes shed streams of tears,
because people do not keep your law. (ESV)
133 Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.
Unfortunately in these days, it is so easy to sin without any effort. We need to have the same attitude the Psalmist does here in having our ways be led by the Lord! Everything we do is in the Lord’s will, and we need to trust in Him and want to walk in His ways, keeping us out of the sin that He hates.
135 Make your face shine upon your servant and teach me your decrees.
When we do the right hting it makes God happy. When we do what He commands us to do, He will be pleased with us. Just read some of the other verses in this chapter, He will have mercy on those who obey His commands, He will punish those who oppress us. God is so good to us, we need to obey Him in return.
Ps 119:136 Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.
God shows us that He hates sin and our attitude should be the same – grieving for the world that rejects His commands. It’s so terrible that He had to send His only Son, Jesus Messiah, to pay with His very human life. Now what is our response to His graciousness and unmerited mercy? Let’s do what He says and share the gospel with others today.
133 Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.
We are all sinners…sorry but it is true. However, we can turn to the Lord, ask for forgiveness, follow his word and follow His footsteps so that no sin will rule over us. God is always with us, leading us and watching over us. We should want to spread the Gospel, so that when we open our mouths and pants, longing for His commands. (131) Let’s obey His commands and walk in His footsteps.
132 Turn to me and have mercy on me, as you always do to those who love your name.
Acts of humbling yourself, and admitting you’re a sinner is one of the fundamentals of Christianity. Dan talked about humility this weekend and for a good reason. Pride before the fall, we can’t do this on our own, we NEED God’s Forgiveness, His Mercy. Unless we admit our faults, we’re not getting it.
132 Turn to me and have mercy on me, as you always do to those who love your name.
133 Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.
Both of these verses shed some light on God’s incredible mercy and love. As the first one states, for everyone who calls on his name and turns to him instead of sin will recieve his mercy and grace. All we have to do is repent and put our faith in him. The second verse demonstrates how if we turn to him and repent, he will give us strength to overcome temptation and focus on Him. But repentance is not the only way that we can recieve extra grace and strength, we can also get it through prayer, Bible reading, and good choices.All of these combined will amount to God giving us extra love, grace, mercy and strength
136 Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.
This verse reminds me of the second Beatitude, which says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” It’s pretty clear from Scripture that we should be sorrowful not only for our own sin, but also for the sin around us in our culture.
What is our response to sin around us? Does it make us sad? Do we willingly go along with it? Do we just not care? Do we laugh at it because we think it’s funny even though we know it’s wrong? If we really prize and treasure God’s word, then we will respond-like the Psalmist-to the sin around us with sadness.
130 The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.
What a beautiful thought that God’s Word brings light. After reading this verse it’s almost like you can see the light bulb go off over someone’s head. Maybe they are reading the Bible here on a place like SOTD. Or maybe they are sitting their listening to a sermon. And BAM! It’s like the finally get something that God has said in the Bible through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is so exciting! Sometimes I can even see it happen on people’s faces as they are listening to a sermon. It makes me excited to preach at True North this weekend and to get into God’s Word myself each and every morning so that I can know his will for my life and let him light my path!
Don’t forget this is the last weekend to sign up for Revival 09 before the price goes up!
136 Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.
I am humbled by this verse because I wish that tears would always flow from my eyes when I sin and stumble, I pray that I would always be so contrite and truly broken in spirit over EVERY sin in my life whether it is small or big! Do we respond in brokenness to sin both in our lives and the lives around us? The culture around us goes against everything God’s Word teaches and should grieve us as it grieves the Father. Psalm 51:17 says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
131 I open my mouth and pant, longing for your commands.
This verse is hardcore! The psalmist loves God’s Word and His commands so much that he PANTS for them?! Wow, can we say that we love God’s word and need it that much? I was thinking about the only time in my life that I have ever panted for anything…it was several years ago when I went on an eight mile run in 100 degree heat. I had heat stroke and my body craved and needed water so badly that I was literally panting for it. I was not going to live without water. We must long for God’s Word so much and realize our total need for it so that we pant for it. Thank you God, for your unchanging Word. Please help me to pant for it daily!
133 Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.
DB-great comment. One thing though is that it’s so easy to sin because hardly anyone knows God’s word. Even professing Christians don’t read the Bible regularly. Even knowing his word, we still need help in directing us because there are so many distractions around us. You can’t just read the Word and then not rely on God, and you can’t just rely on God and not read his Word. They go hand in hand. We need to rely on his strength and desire his guidance as we recall what he’s written for us.
Ben-great point! what a bunch of great questions to think about daily as we live out what we profess to be!
133 Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.
As Christians our hearts long to please God; we strive to keep our distance from the subtle sin’s that lurk around every corner. What we must understand, is that without time spent in God’s word, we become spiritual weaklings and are easy prey for our enemy. If we don’t want to get lost, we must follow the directions found in the word of God.
The psalmist desires to live a life according to God’s word. He is fully aware of his total dependence on God for guidance and victory over sin. His prayer reveals a heart that hungers for righteousness. Do we have that same kind of heart? Are we truly considering God’s word to be our life support, to guide us through each day? Today it is my prayer, that the psalmist’s prayer, would become our own.
136 Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.
I agree with Vanessa…too often I do not respond to my sin as I should. I need to respond with tears and repentance instead of carelessness and justification. My sin grieves God, it should grieve me as well.
131 I open my mouth and pant, longing for your commands.
Beth, I loved your comment on this verse! It is definitely hardcore!
I remember back at Revival ’07 it was sooooo hot. After games down by the water, everybody would walk straight to the water to fill their canteens and quench their thirst… we were all definitely panting for water! This is the same analogy we need to apply to this verse. Are we craving and thirsting for God’s Word SO MUCH that we’re panting for it? The next time I’m panting for water, I’m going to remember this verse and make sure that I am panting the same for my quiet time with the Lord.
136 Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.
This verse is so sad but so true. When other people sin against God, it should make us want to cry. This is how our response to sin should be.
130 The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.
God’s words are so important, he makes sure you understand what he’s trying to say! For some the bible may be difficult to understand, maybe for others a lot easier, but God gives us understanding when we seek his instructions! Just another example of God’s incredible love!! Therefore, we need to be earnestly seeking out his commands, and looking for more ways to please him each day!
133 Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.
great point db! we can’t take sin lightly or it will inevitably rule our lives. our desire should be to remove every hint of sin from our lives.
136 Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.
I am reading this book right now called “Respectable Sins” and it talks about all the “little” sins that we tolerate in our lives. This verse reminded me of that book because the first several chapters focus on the fact that we need to hate our sin and get rid of it at all costs. Similarly this verse shows that we need to mourn our sin because it separates us from God who cannot have anything to do with sin.
133 Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.
I love this verse! I pray everyday that i follow in Christ footsteps and that i do everything to glorify him. This is a great verse to remember and use as a reminder:)
129 Your statutes are wonderful; therefore I obey them.
Wonderful indeed! This is the way we are to look at God’s word. We need to get excited! We serve a holy, sovereign, perfect God and we should WANT to follow his commands and be obedient children. Sometimes it can be hard, but we need to remember that when we obey God, we are honoring Him and He is pleased by it. Let’s get excited about his truths.
133 “Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.”
This is a great prayer for me personally and for all Christians collectively as well. We as Christians desire for God’s will to be done in our lives, and we should express that, just like the Psalmist is doing here. I pray that this will happen, that God would direct us according to the Bible and that we would not be ruled by any sin!
134 “Redeem me from the oppression of men, that I may obey your precepts.”
The oppression of men… sounds like the Psalmist (I think it’s David, right?) is going through some tough times here, as a result of following the Lord. Yet what is his prayer? That God would deliver him from oppression SO THAT he can get back to obeying God! I hope that I would have this kind of perseverance.
136 Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.
This just reminds me at how sin is all over this world and how sad it is. I just pray that we will try even harder to not sin and be close to God.
135 Make your face shine upon your servant and teach me your decrees.
This just encourages me and reminds me that I need to shine to others with Christ through me.
133 Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.
134 Redeem me from the oppression of men, that I may obey your precepts.
136 Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.
I LOVE THIS NEW SOTD WE GOT GOIN ON! Its short, yet there is so much purpose and meaning in Psalms. We have been having an interesting discussion on the Romantics (crazy folks by the way) in English class about whether man is born evil or corrupted by society, obviously the latter since after the Fall, Adam and Eve created Earth’s society. This ties into Psalms because “134 Redeem me from the oppression of men, that I may obey your precepts.” We are all capable of evil, but God will protect and redeem our unworthy souls when we turn our faces to Him, open our eyes and accept Him as our Creator and Savior.”133 Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.” The Lord will guides on the path that is straight and narrow, the path that is good and light. When we recognize the Good Lord is our Shepard, he will not let evil prey upon us; that said, he may test our love and faith every now and then, so we need to be able to decide on our own to take the right path. And lastly, “136 Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.” I become so sad when I see those around me who have recognized Him, and I become angry with myself when I stand by, doing nothing but crying a river. Let us take our sadness and turn it into a tool with which we help save others. See you all next Tuesday.
And as we say in the recently formed Click-Click Bang-Bang San Juan Scooter Gang: “Amen!”
133 Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.
What a great a verse for everyone. We all have fallen short of God’s glory… we’re sinners and we need His guidance. I pray for God’s will to be done and for obedience from both Christians and non-Christians alike–that we may allow God to lead our lives and keep our paths straight.
136 Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.
:[ how true is that. I too am ashamed to say that I too don't always obey God's decrees and I truelly want too and try everyday but falter :[ But with Jesus Christ we are forgiven so that God may see no impurefection(don't know if that is a word but you get it). He loves us and sent His son to die for us so we need to remember to thank Him every day. :]
***REMEMBER THAT JESUS IS THE ONLY WAY TO HEAVEN!***
136 Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.
Great comments on this verse! We should be convicted of how lightly we take sin in the world. We are surrounded by it so much, it is easy to become callous to it – and then to fall into it ourselves. But if we view sin the way that God does – direct opposition to and willful disobedience of Him – then we will see it for what it is, in light of its eternal consequences, and will be much less eager to sin ourselves.
135 Make your face shine upon your servant and teach me your decrees.
God may you shine before others teach us your laws.
This reminds me of a song from the newsboys called shine.
132 Turn to me and have mercy on me, as you always do to those who love your name.
133 Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.
What amazing verses. God always shows mercy on those who call upon his name. What an awesome creator!!!!! Never failing love and compassion!!!!! Vs. 133 says to direct my footsteps according to your word. In other words, guide my heart and mind away from sin and follow the commandments that you set out for us to follow. God gives us never-ending chances, we need to return the favor and follow Gods word so that we may not fall into the same traps of darkness that we had fallen in before.
136 Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.
It is so sad to think that everyone goes on sinning every day without feeling much guilt. We should be torn at the heart because we let sin overcome us, even just for a moment. Guilt should bring repentance. And we need repentance.
131 I open my mouth and pant, longing for your commands.
136 Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.
This psalmist is so intense! He’s definitely serious about obey God and seeing God obeyed. I’m going to pray for ferver like that- where God’s Word is all-consuming and ALWAYS on my mind!
131 I open my mouth and pant, longing for your commands.
When I read this, I instantly imagined someone so thirsty and panting for water. This is an illustration on how important Gods commands should be to us. We need water to survive. And more importantly we need God to survive.
133 Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.
134 Redeem me from the oppression of men, that I may obey your precepts
We need to always be on our guard to follow the path of the rightous because it is so easy to stumble and sin in our world like DB said! If we let our guard down for even a minute sin can come in so easily! the path of the Lord is not an easy one to follow but like other things in life the easy things are never the best!
Also like verse 134 says we can ask God free us of the temptation and he will! there is always a way to get out of temptation and to follow the right path
just like 1 corinthians 10:13 says
1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
129 Your statutes are wonderful; therefore I obey them.
I love this verse! It is so straight forward and logical. His laws are great THEREFORE I obey them. It’s a statement of fact, and then the obvious response. We need to respond to the fact that His laws are wonderful and obey them completely.
133 Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.
This verse is so good! I like the Psalmist want to be like this. Guide me, lead me O Lord away from the temptation I endure each day of my life. Let Your Word O Lord live in me, guide my heart and guide my feet to bring you the Glory that you deserve O God. May you guide me feet so that sin can’t entangle me and I can be set apart from the sin I’m struggling with. I can’t O Lord conquer sin by myself, I need you O Lord to be my helper, I need you to guide me.
136 Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.
Do we care about sin this much, that when we realize our sin we cry over it? Personally this is not me, although I would like to be like this. We can’t lie to ourselves that sin is okay and everyone does it. God calls us to be Holy as He is holy and we need to be doing that, even though it’s humanly impossible. That still can’t be an excuse cause we are humans though.
131.) I open my mouth and pant, longing for your commands.
Wow, what an attitude towards God’s commands!! We should definitely adopt this mind set into our lives!
135 Make your face shine upon your servant and teach me your decrees.
136 Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.
Sin is a major problem. It is the only problem that really matters. No matter what is happening in your life, what your circumstances, sin is the biggest problem that you could never face. Jesus is the only on who can face it for us, and he did, but sin is still in the world. It truly should make us weep that sin still abounds across the earth and around the globe. It is a big problem. It is root of all problems.
132 Turn to me and have mercy on me, as you always do to those who love your name.
I agree with Kyle. We need to be serious about our sin by having a godly sorrow in response. But one thing that many people, including me, fail to remember is that this sin that we have decided to engage in is a rebellious and disobedient action towards God that merits us a painful punishment.
Luckily, we have been redeemed through Christ, but that does not alleviate the severity of our sins. True repentance must take place and the sincere requesting of God’s compassionate “mercy”. In the case of our daily sins, God is refraining to impart upon us our deserved judgement. Many people rely just in the “one time” forgiveness of God, thinking that God no longer is affected by continual sin. Rather, he despises sin. We must daily praise the Lord for his unending “mercy” towards our sinful circumstances.
133 Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.
Guide me Lord away from sin and temptation. For we shall pray to god about ask Him for guidance. God will protect us from sin and everything.
136 Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.
I like this verse because it show the pain of sin. Sin not only affects the person sinning but others around you and who love you. When it say streams of tears flow from my face it shows the pain and sorrow this person is going through because of others sin and because the Lords law is not being obeyed.
133 Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.
This verse is really good! I pray too to serve the Lord and let Him continuously rule in my life and never sin.
130 The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.
I love this verse and the picture of God’s Word as light! God’s Word in addition to the gospel giving salvation, totally illuminates life, the future, who I really am and what my priorities need to be. We need to be praying that God’s Word would be a light to our paths in following him (Psalm 119:105) but also that the light would go off in people’s heads, like Bobby commented, and they would truly understand their need for Christ, would repent and entrust themselves to him for salvation!
136 Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.
We need to share the Word of the Lord with as many people as possible as we have all failed to uphold the law perfectly. We are all sinners and it is so frustrating that some people actually think they are good enough to gain entrance to heaven as is. I’m so thankful christ died for my sins and that we can follow Him as our Savior.
133 Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.
This seems to be the main theme of this Psalm: to always be following God and not letting sin in our lives and that is most likely the best theme of all!
We should always be reading our bible and thinking about it in our heads because without, we wouldn’t be able to do anything productive with our lives (basically living in sin). Just like it says in this verse, we need God to direct us and we need to know his word so that we can stay on the right path to righteousness.
130 The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.
God is all knowing. we are simple minded, we need God’s word to guide us through life. Imagine, the God of everything writing a book just for us to help us, it reminds me how important it is to stick to God’s word.
6 Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.
I have said this in a previous post; imagine if EVERYONE obeyed God’s laws! The world would be a perfect place! Thats part of what heaven will be like .
When I learn of the evil that goes on in the world, and my heart is breaking for innocents that suffer at the hand of evil, I stop and thank God that this world is only temporary. We are citizens of heaven first!!
131 I open my mouth and pant, longing for your commands.
I like what Brett said about this verse. It is so essential that we long for God’s commands. When I read the word “pant” I thought of a dog panting for water and that is how we should be with God’s word….panting for it and needing it!
133 Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.
Throughout this chapter there is a direct parallel between remaining rooted in Scriptures and staying away from sin. Psalm 17:5 says, “My steps have held fast to Your paths. My feet have not slipped.” If our life is firmly built on God’s Word, we will hold fast to the commands, learn to hate our sin- seeing it as God does (vs 136), and will not be let away by our sinful desires. My prayer for True North is that we would all remain (or become) rooted deeply in God’s Word and through God’s power, we would not be led astray by sinful temptations.
136 Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.
we need to repent of our sins and accept jesus into our lives, because of his sacrafice we can be saved and have our sins washed away. the lord our god will have mercy on all those who do: as said in psalm 119:132 “Turn to me and have mercy on me, as you always do to those who love your name.”
I love how excited this guy is about following God’s commands! As christians, we need to show the same desire that is shown in this passage about obeying God. It is amazing how all of God’s commands are meant for our benefit, not just his. It is amazing how much God loves us.
133 Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.
this is a constant battle for Christians, to defeat the temptaion of sin and find the way out of every situation. =)