Psalm 119:161-168 says...

Our verses today are Psalm 119:161-168, which read,

161 - Princes persecute me without cause, but my heart stands in awe of Your words. 
162 - I rejoice at Your word, as one who finds great spoil. 
163 - I hate and despise falsehood, but I love Your law.
164 - Seven times a day I praise You, because of Your righteous ordinances. 
165 - Those who love Your law have great peace, and nothing causes them to stumble. 
166 - I hope for Your salvation, O LORD, and do Your commandments. 
167 - My soul keeps Your testimonies, and I love them exceedingly. 
168 - I keep Your precepts and Your testimonies, for all my ways are before You.

The words underlined are mine for emphasis but I think I could have underlined the whole passage.  Look at the emphasis of the Word of God. 
  • He stands in awe of it. 
  • He rejoices in it. 
  • He loves it. 
  • He praises God because of it. 
  • He obeys it. 
  • He treasures it.
We are on the brink of that time of the year that people make resolutions.  Most of those resolutions are for physical things like "lose some weight" or "exercise more" or "get my degree or a new job" but how about make all your resolutions about spiritual things?  Maybe this psalm could be put in this form for possible resolutions. 
  • "I will ask the Lord to help me to be in awe of His words so that I will spend more time in the Word of God."
  • "I will ask the Lord to help me to be more vocal in my rejoicing of Him who wrote those words that I am in awe of."
  • "I will ask the Lord to help me to see the Word of God in a way that I love it so much that my sin would cut me to the core as so false in the face of it."
  • "I will ask the Lord to help me to avail myself to more opportunities to praise Him because of His spoken word."
  • "I will ask the Lord to help me to see obedience to the Word of God as a way to live out my salvation."
  • "I will ask the Lord to help me to treasure the Word of God more and more so that at the end of this year my ways would reflect it."
Probably not the typical new year resolutions but I would encourage you to have a good long talk with the Lord about the new year ahead of you.

Pastor Adam
A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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