Those who have been following my blog this calendar year, we’ve used Psalm 119 as a guide for daily prayer. The daily scriptures have led by both example and encouragement with how to use God’s word to prepare, point, and aid in daily prayer.

I’ve included commentary from various giants of the faith, including my favorites (it was obvious, wasn’t it)–Charles H. Spurgeon and the puritan pastor—Thomas Manton, as well as John Calvin, William Cowper, and other faithful men of prayer and scripture. The objective was to grow while learning to pray, while communing with the Triune God. We can stand on the shoulders of these giants of the faith and gaze out towards the celestial home, knowing that He who has called us, calls us, and He also keeps us.

Who doesn’t need help with prayer and the disciple of prayer time?  I mean, really, who??

The child of God has a natural desire to pray, but too often we don’t know what to say or do when we get alone before our Lord. The scriptures are the perfect tutor. Is there any purer source to lead and teach us how to pray? The word which is given by the Spirit of God can breathe life into our souls while putting truth on our lips. The scriptures can humble us while inspiring us because they remind us of the Gospel of the Savior as well as the character and will of our God.

My next post will share another way to use Psalm 119 as a guide in daily prayer and devotions. It is a secondary way that has been my aid for many years. If you’re as human as I am, and I bettcha you are, finding something to help guide and inspire during your devotional time is … is … priceless. “There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else there is …”  Using Psalm 119 for your prayer time is priceless.

It is like the celestial city which lieth four-square, and the height and the breadth of it are equal. Many superficial readers have imagined that it harps upon one string, and abounds in pious repetitions and redundancies; but this arises from the shallowness of the reader’s own mind: those who have studied this divine hymn, and carefully noted each line of it, are amazed at the variety and profundity of the thought. Using only a few words, the writer has produced permutations and combinations of meaning which display his holy familiarity with his subject, and the sanctified ingenuity of his mind. He never repeats himself; for if the same sentiment recurs it is placed in a fresh connection, and so exhibits another interesting shade of meaning. The more one studies it the fresher it becomes. As those who drink the Nile water like it better every time they take a draught, so does this Psalm become the more full and fascinating the oftener you turn to it. It contains no idle word; the grapes of this cluster are almost to bursting full with the new wine of the kingdom. The more you look into this mirror of a gracious heart the more you will see in it. Placid on the surface as the sea of glass before the eternal throne, it yet contains within its depths an ocean of fire, and those who devoutly gaze into it shall not only see the brightness, but feel the glow of the sacred flame. It is loaded with holy sense, and is as weighty as it is bulky. Again and again have we cried while studying it, “Oh the depths!” Yet these depths are hidden beneath an apparent simplicity, as Augustine has well and wisely said, and this makes the exposition all the more difficult. Its obscurity is hidden beneath a veil of light, and hence only those discover it who are in thorough earnest, not only to look on the word, but, like the angels, to look into it. (Spurgeon, C. H. (2009). The treasury of David: Psalms 111-119 (Vol. 5, p. 130). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.)