The 'Ivy' League Devotional

I shared with you earlier that I am venturing to memorize Psalm 119. I've learned the first eight verses and I am working on the next eight. I pray that there are many who are joining me and are experiencing the joy of engraving the Word of the Lord on our hearts.



My dear sister Jamie Love is apart of the Ivy League Bible Study Fellowship. It is a group of ladies from Illinois, Indiana, Georgia, Virginia,and New York. They are currently meeting, via the telephone, weekly and are going through the book of I John. Upon completion of I John they will begin studying Psalm 119. Jamie's niece, Michelle, will be writing a weekly devotional on this Psalm and I want to share her insights with you. Lord willing, I'll post it every Monday. Here is the first of her devotions. "Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart." Psalm 119:2

Psalm 119: 1-8

Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways. Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. O that my ways were directed to keep thy statues! Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments. I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments. I will keep thy statues: O forsake me not utterly.

Welcome women of the “Ivy” League Bible Study to the meditations of Psalm 119. I have been blessed with the awesome task of writing weekly devotions over the course of our study of this beautiful poem. I am by no means a Bible scholar. I seriously considered extensive study and research of the scripture before I began the devotions. Considering the “Ivy” League Bible Study consist of minister’s wives, Bible study teachers, deacons and elders. Bishop anyone? I felt I better do my homework. However, after further prayer and leading by the Holy Spirit, I will write straight from the heart and pray God’s blessings over my thoughts.

Some of you already know that Psalm 119 is the longest Psalm and the longest chapter in the Bible. I feel that the Psalms are a collection of poems of praise, poems crying out to God for help and poems of advice. In the first eight verses of Psalm 119 we are being charged with sincere obedience of God’s law. If we are passionate about our search for God and his laws we will not stray from their paths. In this world of negotiations of principles and scruples; God has given us a book of instructions in which there is to be no deviation. As we draw nigh unto God and seek to please Him, we will spend more time honoring God and less time regretting some of our decisions. We can offer God our own psalm of thanks by obeying his laws. God in His awesome endless grace and mercy will always love us and as the writer pleads; the Lord will not give up on us.

Sisters; in the struggle of day to day living and as the wicked pleasures of gossip, nagging, envy and other sins try to over take us, hold fast to the law of the Lord and know that our treasures lie in heaven. Let us seek to be God pleasers.

Be blessed women of God. May the peace of our Lord reign over you until we meet again.

Michelle