Hi Pastor John,
I really enjoyed doing the exercise with Psalm 119, for the Old Testament class. The one where you filled out the paper and you count how many times the words are use as synonyms for the law, such as “testimony”, “statutes”, “word”, “way”, etc. It was really good to slow down and put myself in David’s spot as I read the verses, and ask myself a question, “Do I feel about God’s law as David did — with joy, happiness, and peace?”
There were only 2 or 3 verses that didn’t use one of those words as a word of the law in them. Every time David spoke in a different verse, he used one of those variations.
I remember about 12 years ago, I was at a seminar for work in Richmond, VA, and preparing for a presentation the next day. I heard all of my coworkers at the lounge from my room, drinking and getting louder by the hour as I practised my presentation the next morning. I went to bed and either had a dream or a vision. I saw “Psalm 119” written on the ceiling. I had never read that Psalm before, since I had received the holy Ghost.
The next morning, I opened up my bible and briefly read through it. I told myself that when I returned home, I would take the time to read it slowly (I did), but I still fully didn’t understand it until you taught us the OT in 2001. I remember crying for joy (at home) after that particular class, at last with the understanding of Psalm 119, after I filled that exercise out for the first time.
Those commandments, laws, statutes, ways, words, etc., are now written by the finger of God in our hearts. Wow — I wonder what David would have felt like if those laws had been written in his heart by the holy ghost?
By the way, I was the only one that received a perfect score on my presentation in Richmond.
Billy M.