Daily Double: Psalm SeriesSample

WHY PSALM 139?

Psalm 139 opens up our hearts to God’s omniscience. Omniscience is a fancy word to describe a quality only God has – he knows everything. But while the thought of someone knowing everything about is feels a bit scary, when you know that the character of God is loving and gracious, it brings a lot of comfort.

When we’re open to God, he opens us up and helps us know ourselves better too.

VITAL VERSE

Verse 1 - O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.

This verse is the response God desires towards his omniscience.

SUB SKILL: FIND THE SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM

The Bible presents a lot of problems and a lot of solutions to problems. Anger is a problem that is solved by the act of forgiveness. Sin is a problem that is solved by Jesus death and resurrection.

The psalms usually present the problems and solutions in one chapter – so finding the problems and then finding the solutions as written in the passage helps us to understand the passage in much more detail.

SOLO GO: HIGHLIGHT THE PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

The people who love highlighters are going to love this one. Grab two colours: one for problems and one for solutions.

Highlight the problems in one colour and highlight the solutions in another colour.

Once you do this, you’ll be able to see patterns more easily, see the structure of the poem, and maybe even uncover new understanding that you didn’t see before!

For example (in Psalm 139),

PROBLEM

“Oh God, if only you would destroy the wicked" (Verse 19)

SOLUTION

“Point out anything in me that offends you” (Verse 24)

ASK GOD FOR WISDOM

Wisdom is a God-given gift that helps us to make the best decision possible at all times. Wisdom comes through experiences, but Godly wisdom comes from God’s Word and God’s Spirit.

We are called to ask God whenever we need wisdom in our lives (James 1:5). Whenever we’re faced with situations that we’re not sure what to do… or we THINK we know what to do but want to check that it aligns with God’s ideas – we can pray and ask for wisdom.

Asking for wisdom can be a short and regular prayer throughout the day or a longer time where you lay out the whole scenario to God and allow His wisdom to highlight the best choice.

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And just like that... 10 out of the 150 psalms have been covered.

We pray you have been helped by these devotionals to experience joy everyday with Jesus by getting the most out of your daily double.

Read. Pray. Everyday!