This is an incredible prayer request to the God who never sleeps, Whose eyes are always roving throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are perfect towards Him. He is asking: God, are you awake? God, are you there? God, are you ready? Have you stretched and limbered up? Do you have the proper gear to do the job? Is your ‘head in the game’?
The Psalmist is saying, “I am doing something risky… Or, I am going into battle… Or, life is a little hard for me…. Or, I am over my head… Or, this person is going to drive me crazy… Or, I think I may be walking into an ambush…” Whatever the situation, the Psalmist is preparing for the worst-case eventuality, he prays. “Let Thy hand be ready to help me…”
What is your situation today? For what do you need divine help? Where do you need for God to show up in a big way? Where do you need a ‘touch from God’s hand’; a spiritual infusion of wisdom, grace or strength? This is the appropriate prayer.
Call out to God. Tell Him your situation. Humbly ask for help. God doesn’t need to be reminded to ‘get ready’. He is always ready, willing and able to assist those who call upon Him. Psalms 34 says, “The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cries…” Also, “The angel of the Lord ENCAMPS around those who fear Him and delivers him from trouble…”

“…All Thy commandments are RIGHT…” Psa. 119:172
“…All Thy commandments are SURE…” Psa. 119;86
“…All Thy commandments are TRUE…” Psa. 119:151
In today’s world, the headlines scream of things that are dishonest, false or deceptive. Today, one of the headlines was: “Obama born in Kenya…” The ‘publicist’ who wrote this says it was false. Other ‘birthers’ insist that it is true. What is truth?
A former presidential candidate, John Edwards, is accused of illegally funneling campaign funds to pay off a mistress and to keep his ‘love child’ a secret from the public. That he committed adultery while his wife was dying of cancer is not in question; the issue was the legality of the money payments…
The financial world has been rocked by pyramid or ponzi schemes, ripping off thousands of people of BILLIONS of dollars. The baseball world continues to reel from steroids and the question: “Did he or did he not juice up?” The football world is reeling from accusations of bounties to intentionally hurt opposing players. The issue is RIGHTNESS… Are these things RIGHT?
The comforting thing about today’s verse is the RIGHTNESS of God’s Word. Not only is it morally upright and always virtuous, but it is and has been and will always be constant and unshifting. God’s Word is SURE.
God’s Word is also TRUE! There is never any shade or shadow of falseness. It can always be relied on. What it says, it means. God’s commandments are always RIGHT, SURE and TRUE.
We NEED to stay in the WORD. We need to commit to become masters of the Word. We need to be immersed and saturated in the Word of God.

Over the last week, life has been crowding me, buffeting me with all kinds of emotional extremes. My doctor found a lump in my prostate, requiring a biopsy. This week I went to see him for the results… negative, no cancer! Other health concerns with my family… The Spirit West Coast music festival planning and preparations are in full gear… The normal load of ministry is happening…. Three more airplane trips are scheduled over the next 3 weeks and all the planning that goes with it is happening; hotels, rental cars, coordinating various family members to arrive at the same time/ place, etc… It’s just the normal stuff of a blessed life. I have a job, health, wife, children, yet life can get BUSY…. So busy in fact, that today’s verse pulls me up short and recalibrates my soul.
“My tongue will SING of Thy word…” The question that slaps me up the side of my head is, ‘When was the last time I sang to God?’ I am not talking about corporate worship on a Sunday morning, but individual, personal, heart-felt devotion. Worshiping like the shepherd boy David did–playing to God alone–out in a field– composing love songs to the Creator and Great Shepherd of his soul—kind of worship. It’s been a while.
David so challenges me in my own worship. Over and again he says things like, “I sing a NEW SONG to Thee O Lord… Upon a ten stringed harp I will sing…O magnify the Lord with me, let us worship Him together…” and other such statements. God bragged on David and said he is ‘a man after my own heart’. I think God’s commendation of David was directly tied into David’s worship.
Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, ‘Those who worship God must worship in spirit and in truth’. Heartfelt singing, the worship of God with a song involves our minds, our wills and our emotions. It’s a HEART thing. Even when I don’t ‘feel’ full of worship, when I intentionally remember a song or a chorus or a hymn and start to sing it, something happens within my being. My spirit and my soul are uplifted. I receive spiritual power. Then I am reminded that, “The Lord inhabits the praises of His people.”

“…For Thou dost teach me Thy statutes…”
Jesus is a teacher. In John 1, after John the Baptist saw Jesus and exclaimed, “Look, there goes the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world…” Two of John’s disciples followed Jesus and said, “Rabbi (which means teacher), where are you staying”… In John 3, Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, came to Jesus by night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher, come from God…” In John 8, after the Scribes and Pharisees caught a woman who had been committing adultery, they brought her to Jesus and said, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery…” In John 13, after Lazarus had died, Jesus came and first saw Martha. Then she went and found her sister Mary and said, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you…” At the last supper, Jesus said, “You call me Teacher and Lord and you are right, for so I am…”
In Luke 6:40, Jesus said, “A disciple is NOT above his teacher, and when he is fully taught will be like his teacher…” Clearly, Jesus was and is a TEACHER.
All throughout the Psalms, David cries out to God, the great Teacher, to “Teach me Thy ways O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.”
In the description of the coming Holy Spirit, Jesus said, “He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you…”
All three members of the Trinity are described as teachers. They long to teach us, lead us, guide us and to pour their thoughts and worlds out to us. Prov. 1: 18ff speak of the longing of God to instruct and teach us.
The problem is not a lack of knowledge or a lack of willingness of God to give us guidance. We are simply not willing to take the time to be attentive to the instruction that is being offered to us.
In today’s verse, the Psalmist is rejoicing that he availed himself of the opportunity to learn from God. “My lips will pour forth praise that THOU DOST TEACH ME…”

In the 4380 days that I served in the Navy, there was not a day that went by that I did NOT hear lips that poured out bitterness, resentment, cursing and vindictives against the system, leaders or the schedule of events. Hatred and venom would literally pour out of people’s mouths. There is even an expression, “A sailor is not happy unless they are complaining…” Many of the sailors had journals listing all the wrongs or grievances that they perceived had been committed against them. This ‘bitter journals’ provided the reasons why they would depart the Navy as soon as their enlistments were completed.
In stark contrast with that environment, today’s verse says the opposite. “My lips will POUR FORTH PRAISE…” I have known a couple of people who come close to this some of the time. Later on in this same section, the verse says, “Let me live that I may praise Thee…”
Praise, like complaining, is a choice that we make with our tongues. We can choose to have self-control with our tongues, even with the admonition that ‘no one can tame the tongue’. Through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit we ‘can do all things through Christ who strengthens us…” Yet we also know that ‘out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.’
How do we get such a heart that would be so full of praise that the natural fountain of words from our throats originating in our hearts would overflow with praise? It takes a mind saturated with the truths of God’s word. It takes a disciplined life that makes time to spend time with God, experiencing His beauty and character. It takes brokenness before the Lord, allowing God’s abundant mercy, love and grace into the deepest places of our hearts. It takes a recalibration of our thought processes to turn the focus off self-worship toward God worship. It takes an intentionally effort to learn how to praise God, and then practice of worship. It takes abundant grace by God to transform us from rancid bitterness to resounding, overflowing praise.

Supplication is a humble, earnest plea for help. The focus is on God and His ability to rescue and to meet the need. In today’s verse, the Psalmist is asking for deliverance. He does not say deliverance from who or what; he just simply wanted to be delivered.
From what do you want to be delivered? I would like to be delivered from temptation. Jesus said to ‘watch and pray that you would not fall into temptation’. He can deliver us from it.
Yet, there are times when temptation WILL come. When that occurs, I want to be delivered from weakness. 1 Cor. 10:13 says, “No temptation shall come upon you that is not common to man, but God is faithful and will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it…” When temptation comes, God says it will never be too strong for me. Yet, I sometimes still fall or fail. Deliver me from weakness.
I want to be delivered from lies and self-deception. After I stumble and fall, so many times I want to live in a pity-party, not believing the promises of God for forgiveness. Shame wraps around my neck like a noose, choking the life out of me, leading me to want to hide and dwell in the shadows. Oh, to truly believe the great promises of God and to NOT believe the lies and whispers of the evil one.
I want to be delivered from arrogance. I want to be delivered from my own flesh. I want to be delivered from the lure of the world and from the lusts of the flesh and the lusts of the eyes. I want to be delivered from unbelief. I want to be delivered from fear and timidity.
Father, let our supplications come before Thee, please deliver us according to Thy word!

In the book Anatomy of the Soul, by Curt Thompson, MD, he discusses left-brain and right brain operations in a healthy human. Yesterday, I wrote about today’s verse and ‘right brain’ praying, or using emotion to cry out. The second half of this verse is a request by and for the left-brain. “…Give my understanding according to Thy word…”
Understanding comes from God. Prov. 2 says, “…For His mouth come knowledge and understanding…” We also know that from His mouth comes wisdom and insight. Understanding comes from arranging and organizing facts and insights into a comprehensible whole. It is able to correlate and associate facts, seeing the interconnections, and cause/effect consequences. All these are ‘left-brain’ functions.
I love the Psalmist’s wholeness. He deploys his whole being in this request and in many other prayer requests found in Psalms 119. Our understanding should not come from the world or from the flesh. It should NOT come from the wicked. Our understanding should come from the Word of God.
Today, President Obama said that in his evolving philosophy on gay marriage; that he now believes that gays should be allowed to marry. This ‘evolved’ understanding is NOT based on the Word of God. Our lives and decisions should be made on the laws, principles, testimonies and commandments of God. Jesus said, “Man does NOT live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
Are your decisions founded and grounded on the Scriptures? Can you explain and justify your actions and thinking on a clear explanation of the commands and principles in Scriptures? This should be our goal.
“Let my cry come before Thee O Lord, give me understanding according to Thy Word…”

The Myers-Briggs Type indicator is one of the most used psychometric tools in use today. It measure four different aspects of human personality, each dimension is separate and distinct from the others. One aspect of the tool measures or describes a person’s preference in how they make decisions. This is called your Judging preference. People prefer using either their thinking processes; logic, order, reason, etc. Or, they prefer using their heart: feelings, values, and somewhat emotion. After taking the MBTI, you are given raw scores that help determine the strength of your preference.

When my raw scores were given to me in the way that I make decisions, I was 100% on the THINKING scale, and 0% on the FEELING scale. Over the years, either nature or nurture, I have come to rely totally on logic, facts and reason when I make decisions. It doesn’t mean that I have no feelings, I just consider emotions and feelings of myself and others as simply data points in the decision making process.

In simplistic terms, this also associates with right brain vs. left-brain functioning. My left-brain hemisphere is dominate over my right brain and seemingly has the upper hand…

Today’s verse starts off with a RIGHT BRAIN function. He approaches God with emotion. He was raising his voice, “Let my CRY come before Thee…” In my prayer experience, I haven’t cried out to God very much. It is foreign to me in practice. When I have tried it; departed to a lonely place where no one could hear me; when I have raised my voice to the level of crying out; I FELT awkward and weird. Yet afterwards, I felt calm and relaxed. In the expected, yet weird and other worldly practice we called praying to an unseen God, crying out to God is an act of dependence. It is an act of desperation.

When a grown man is actually crying out to God, he really needs something. When the ten lepers saw Jesus from a distance, they ‘raised their voices’, they ‘cried out’ to Jesus to have pity on them. (Luke 17). When two blind men heard that Jesus was passing, they followed Jesus ‘shouting loudly, have mercy on us, Son of David’. (Mat. 9)

Let me invite you to CRY out to God. Even if it is uncomfortable and outside your normal way of praying, surely something in your life is so important and urgent that it warrants ALL OF YOUR HEART and EMOTION in the intensity of your praying. It’s OK to pray loudly.

Several years ago, I was invited to Ft. Hood, TX to conduct a one-day training session for 90 Chaplains assigned to the III Corps of the Army. The meetings were also open to the local clergy. Chaplains of all stripes and colors attended: Roman Catholic priests, Rabbi’s, Mormons, Protestants, Muslims, males and females. I was pretty intimidated. I had never presented the material in my book to a group of such educated, trained, professional clergy before, so I was keenly sensitive to any feedback that I received.
I found out after the training concluded that one by one, all the Roman Catholic Priests had walked out of the session. The Command Chaplain was very upset with this. He said, “The reason that I brought you here was that I am losing one Chaplain a year, kicking him out of the Army for moral failure. They are either looking at porn on government computers, having an affair or some other type of sexual sin…” He apologized to me even though I had not noticed anyone leaving.
One of the Muslim chaplains came up to me as affirmed my teachings. He wanted me to put greater emphasis on the teaching of today’s verse. He said, “In Islam, we train our children, ‘You can sneak around and do evil things and your Momma and Daddy can be fooled, but you can not sneak around and escape the eyes of Allah. He is always watching you and will judge…’ He said, ‘Train people that God is always watching; train them to FEAR God…”
Today’s verse says this exactly. One of the motives for David’s obedience was “For ALL my ways are before Thee…”
Proverbs 15:3 says, “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.”
2 Chron. 16:9 says, “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are perfect toward Him…
If we would live with this knowledge continually, we would be restrained from a lot of sinning. God, please give us the conviction of your continual presence.

I just finished reading a book called, “The Anatomy of the Soul” by Dr. Curt Thompson. It is a fascinating book written by a psychiatrist. In this book after describing the various components and functions of the brain, he goes into detail of how the brain works. He speaks of the two hemispheres of the brain, left and right and how they are supposed to function when healthy, outlining their various division of labor. He also talks about the theory of the three levels of brain, upper, middle and lower and the theory of how they operate.
My first thought when I read today’s verse came straight from that book. “My soul keeps Thy testimonies…”seems like a left brain function. It recognizes what the law requires and makes effort to engage the will to intentionally order our flesh to obey. It is sequential and requires effort. It also self-judging to determine how well we are doing.
The second part of this verse, “…I love them exceedingly…” refers to the function of the right hemisphere of the brain. This is the seat of emotion and feelings. We don’t hear too much from the pulpit of a Pastor saying, “I LOVE the Bible…With ALL MY HEART I love God’s Word exceedingly.”
I see this verse as a composite and a fulfillment of Psa. 119:10 “With my WHOLE HEART I seek Thee, let me not wander from Thy commandments.” I want both my left side and the right side of my brain, my heart, my strength, my flesh, indeed all my soul to love God and His word. Psa. 86:11 says, “Teach my Thy way, O Lord, that I may walk in Thy truth; unity my heart to fear Thy name…”
YES, we need to have UNDIVIDED hearts and undivided minds; we need to be fully integrated and whole beings to worship God. When Joseph was presented the opportunity to have sexual intercourse with Potiphar’s wife, he declined, He said, “How can I do this great sin against God…” Not only did he know right from wrong, a left-brain function of the law, but it was the emotion of the right brain, “I can’t sin against God” that also helped to restrain him.