Prayer on Psalm 119:1-8

O most precious and Holy Father in Heaven, we read the words, “Blessed are the
undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD,” and our tender consciences
are stricken with gloom and misery. You have commanded us to keep thy precepts
diligently. We are to keep Your testimonies and seek You with our whole heart.

But our reality is so different from that, O Father. How can we be blessed if Your
blessing depends upon us doing no iniquity and perfectly walking in Your ways. We
confess with Your beloved Apostle that, “if we say we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves and the truth is not in us.” We would despair if You had not shown us
another, a better way.

You have also said that those are blessed unto whom the Lord does not impute sin.
This is what Your friend Abraham found, for He believed You and it was accounted to
Him for righteousness. We would go in that way, O Lord, the way of faith.

Indeed, We long for You to direct our ways to keep Your statues. Then we will not be
ashamed, for we will have respect unto all Your commandments. But this means that
we must not seek to direct our own ways, to think our own thoughts, to seek our own
righteousness, for this is the way of death.

You sent Your Blessed Son to teach us this better way, the way of faith and trust in His
precious blood which takes away all our sins. Because You have freely loved us when
we were yet in our sins, our Lord Jesus, the Christ, died for the ungodly, ungodly
people like we are, O Lord.

We were lost and undone, but You sent forth Your Son to redeem us, to bring us to
God, when we could not climb the steep way to God. You purchased us to be Your
own, and we no longer belong to ourselves, to walk in our own ways, seek our own
thoughts and live in our own righteousness. We belong to You, body and soul, for the
blood of Christ cleanses us from all sins.
You have given Your children the blessed Spirit of God to teach and lead us in Your
holy way, having forgiven us all our trespasses. None of those who believe in You will
ever be ashamed because we rest in Your perfect and holy righteousness.

Thank You, Lord, for teaching us the way of Your righteous judgments, that our Lord
Jesus bore the fullness of Your wrath against sin, so that we might be freed from its
condemnation and wrath, to enjoy Your love and fellowship forever. You are teaching
us both to will and to do of Your good pleasure, and for this we give You thanks, in the
Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, whose own we are. Amen.

“1 Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD. 2 Blessed
are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart. 3 They also
do no iniquity: they walk in his ways. 4 Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts
diligently. 5 O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes! 6 Then shall I not be
ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments. 7 I will praise thee with
uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments. 8 I will keep
thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly.” (Ps 119:1-8)