Week 19 Psalm 119
I read the first 8 verses of 119 yesterday…and the other 168 verses today.
I wouldn’t normally use a day-to-day reading-ratio of 1:22 because I like to keep readings roughly equal. But today I noticed in verse thirteen the writer used the phrase: recite out loud – which sounded like Advice for a Reader. I wanted to see if there were other usable bible-reading tips so I kept reading from 9 to 176.
What I ended up with was a list of Down-to-Earth Bible Reading Practices…
Recite out loud
Study the words
Try to understand the meaning
Be honest
Concentrate
Keep your mind on the reading
Think about what you’re reading
Don’t forget what you read.
I checked another version. It used the word meditate in place of study and concentrate. It also liked the phrase diligently consider more than mental focus or think about the content.
So then out of those eight I boiled down a short-list of four good reminders for myself:
Study what I’m reading. Try to understand what I read. Concentrate-meditate-focus. Don’t forget about what I just read.
Note: the tips are from Psalm 119:13, 15, 27, 29, 78, 95, 97 & 99, 141 & 153 (NLT; the other version was NASB). Added: I thought about adding a fifth reminder – be honest (NLT says: keep me from lying to myself (29)). In the end I didn’t. Figured it’d be difficult since dishonesty is one of my strengths. Honest bible-reading is a Big Snag.