S5: Day 178: Psalm 116–120

Summary

Episode Overview

Podcast: A Year in the Bible with Daily Grace
Episode: S5: Day 178 — Psalm 116–120
Hosts: Shelby and Scott
Date: June 27, 2026

In this episode, Shelby and Scott guide listeners through Psalms 116 to 120, focusing particularly on the length and depth of Psalm 119. The discussion centers on themes of gratitude, the beauty and challenge of God’s Word, and practical encouragement for personal engagement with Scripture. The hosts reflect on personal takeaways, relatable struggles, and the richness of approaching the Bible—even the hard-to-understand parts—with persistence and prayer.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Structure and Themes of the Day’s Reading

• Psalm 116–120 Overview
  • Total Verses Covered: “Today, 233 verses—Psalm 119 itself is 176 verses!” (Scott, 00:43)
  • Emphasis on the significant length and content of Psalm 119 in contrast with shorter psalms like Psalm 117.

2. Psalm 116: Gratitude and God’s Deliverance

• Scott’s personal connection:
  • “Psalm 116 is one I've always loved reading… it's this just beautiful celebration of how God's delivered the Psalms from death and how he responds to this deliverance.” (01:05)
• Notable Verses Highlighted:
  • Psalm 116:7: Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.
  • Psalm 116:12: How can I repay the Lord for all the good he has done to me?
• Spiritual application: Focusing on God’s goodness leads to rest and gratitude, even during trial.
  • “These verses have always kind of recalibrated my heart… when I meditate on how God has been good to me, my soul does come to a place of rest…” (Scott, 01:41)
  • Connection to Romans 8:18 on present sufferings vs. future glory: “That reminds me that my benefits far outweigh my trials.” (Scott, 02:08)

Memorable Quote

“When I just truly take the time to meditate on how God has been good to me, my soul does come to a place of rest, like, even in trying circumstances.” — Scott (01:41)

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3. Psalm 119: The Centrality of God’s Word

• Acrostic Structure Explained:

  • “It’s an acrostic… goes through the Hebrew Alphabet… each line starts with that same letter… this huge celebration of God’s Word.” (Scott, 02:52)

• Key Themes:

  • Treasuring and seeking God's Word above all
  • Scripture as a source of joy, guidance, and peace

• Scott’s Favorite Verses:

  • Verse 14: Finds as much pleasure in following God’s instruction as others do in gaining riches
  • Verse 80 & 97: Devotion and delight in God’s law (“he meditates on the law day and night”)
  • Verse 103: God’s Word is “sweeter than honey”
  • Verse 165: “Those who follow God’s instructions have great peace.” (Scott, 03:39)

Key Reflection

“It’s hard to read it and not be encouraged and challenged to make Scripture a priority in my life.” — Scott (02:59)

• Contextual Insight on the Law:
  • Often misunderstood, the “law” was a gracious gift to help Israel live as God’s adopted children.
  • “The law was a gift of God’s grace … And look, sometimes we have to do a little more digging … but, I think Psalm 119 is a reminder that when we do that digging, we will come to gold eventually.” (Scott, 04:41)

Memorable Quote

“But I think Psalm 119 is a reminder that when we do that digging, we will come to gold eventually.” — Scott (04:54)

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4. Relating to the Psalmist’s Struggle and Pursuit

• Shelby shares her evolving perspective:
  • Initially assumed the psalmist had perfect understanding, feeling disconnected from her own confusion.
  • Noticed frequent pleas like “teach me your ways” and “make me understand” throughout the psalm.
• Key Realization: The psalmist loved God’s Word but also struggled to understand and apply it, which makes the psalm deeply relatable.
  • “This is not someone who has like supernatural understanding that the rest of us can't have. This is someone who's… asking the Lord… I love your Word, but it doesn’t always make sense to me.” (Shelby, 05:19)
  • Encourages listeners: It’s normal to love Scripture and still find it challenging.
  • “We see both this gratitude and treasuring of the Word in this prayer for God to continue to help us understand it. And I think that that is such a cool thing to see in scripture because I find myself there so often.” (Shelby, 05:57)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |-----------|---------|-------| | 00:43 | Scott | “Today, 233 verses—Psalm 119 itself is 176 verses!” | | 01:41 | Scott | “When I just truly take the time to meditate on how God has been good to me, my soul does come to a place of rest, like, even in trying circumstances.” | | 02:52 | Scott | “It’s an acrostic… this huge celebration of God’s Word.” | | 03:39 | Scott | “Those who follow God’s instructions have great peace. Like, all just such great, great reminders and just highly motivating…” | | 04:54 | Scott | “But I think Psalm 119 is a reminder that when we do that digging, we will come to gold eventually.” | | 05:19 | Shelby | “This is not someone who has like supernatural understanding that the rest of us can't have. This is someone who's… asking the Lord… I love your Word, but it doesn’t always make sense to me.” | | 05:57 | Shelby | “We see both this gratitude and treasuring of the Word in this prayer for God to continue to help us understand it.” |

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:05 — Introduction and scope of today’s reading
• 01:05 — Reflection on Psalm 116: gratitude and rest in God’s goodness
• 02:29 — Shelby on recalibrating the heart through the Psalms
• 02:52 — Scott explains Psalm 119’s structure and highlights
• 04:41 — The law as a gift, and the benefit of “digging” in less-read sections
• 05:19 — Shelby on the relatable struggle to understand Scripture
• 05:57 — Takeaways: treasuring Scripture while seeking deeper understanding

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Conclusion

Shelby and Scott’s discussion offers encouragement for those working through long or challenging passages of the Bible, emphasizing gratitude, consistency, and humility before God’s Word. Their honest reflections provide reassurance for listeners who find themselves both loving Scripture and struggling to understand it—reminding everyone that this ongoing pursuit is part of the journey.

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For further reading and deeper study, explore the Daily Grace Co’s resources and reading plans mentioned at the top of the show.

Transcript

[Shelby]

Hey, this is a year in the Bible with daily grace. Shelby and Scott here, we are going to be talking through Psalms 116 through 120. And if you've already completed your Bible reading for today and you weren't prepared for what you were going to read through, then you probably had to take a few extra minutes to get through your reading, because Psalm 119 is a beautiful. And you're. I'm so thankful. Scott's gonna break it down and expl. More for us. It's a beautiful chapter, but it is a very long chapter, so we have more content than usual to cover in these five chapters. Scott, take it away. Walk us through these Psalms.

[Scott]

Yeah. So, okay, just for fun, I look back at the previous three episodes I've recorded to see how many verses we recorded each day. So Psalm 101 to 105, 138 verses 106 to 110, 142 verses 111 to 115, 55 verses today. 233 verses.

[Narrator/Host]

Wow.

[Scott]

That's Psalm 119. And it's 176 verses, which I love. Comes right after Psalm 117 with its two verses. We'll get to that in a minute. But Psalm 116 is one I've always loved reading when going through the Psalms. It's this just beautiful celebration of how God's delivered the Psalms from death and how he responds to this deliverance. And there's two verses in particular that really, really encourage me. One is Psalm 116, verse 7, where he says, return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you. And then verse 12. How can I repay the Lord for all the good he has done to me? These verses have always kind of recalibrated my heart, I feel, whenever I get some. Because when I just truly take the time to meditate on how God has been good to me, my soul does come to a place of rest, like, even in trying circumstances. And I begin to realize, like in verse 12, like, I can't possibly ever repay God for all that he's done to me, which just leads to gratitude. And that reminds me that my benefits far outweigh my trials. They just do. And that makes me think of Romans 8:18, where Paul says, I consider the sufferings of this present time not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed in us. So just very, very encouraging verses for me.

[Shelby]

Yeah, I think that's one of the things that makes me enjoy the Psalms So much is. I just feel like it's a constant recalibration of my heart toward gratitude to the Lord, and that really makes a huge difference. Okay, that brings us to Psalm 119 and all of its 176 verses. What's going on in this psalm, Scott? And what do we take away from it?

[Scott]

So. So, yeah, it's such a cool psalm. And the reason for its length is it's an acrostic which goes through the Hebrew Alphabet and devotes eight lines to each letter, and then each line starts with that same letter. And, man, this psalm is so cool. It's just this huge celebration of God's Word, and it's hard to read it and not be encouraged and challenged to make Scripture a priority in my life. And, you know, I love just. We can't go through all the verses sadly, Shelby, but, like, just a few that really, really stand out to me. I love that. He says he finds as much pleasure in following God's instruction as many would find in finding riches. Verse 14, he prays that his he would be wholeheartedly devoted to God's laws. In verse 80, 97, he meditates on the law day and night, 103 and is sweeter than honey to him. I love that imagery. And then 165, he says that those who follow God's instructions have great peace. Like all just such great, great reminders and just highly motivating for me personally to just be in the Word regularly and treasure it. And I think there's an important reminder here that this should be our attitude to all of God's Word, all of it. And, you know, in context, when you remember, he's speaking about a section of Scripture that we can tend to avoid, he's talking about the law. Right. And in my experience, it's very easy to talk about the law in, like, very negative terms, almost like it's a bad thing. But we have to remember the law was a gift to Israel. We see that in the psalm. We saw it in Psalm 1, Psalm 19. Like, the law was a gift of God's grace that he gave to them, given to show them how to live as his adopted children. And look, sure, sometimes we might need to do a little more digging than in other places to kind of see the beauty of certain sections and how we might apply them. But I think Psalm 119 is a reminder that when we do that digging, we will come to gold eventually.

[Shelby]

Yeah, absolutely. What a great reminder. I think one of my takeaways always, when I read Psalm 119. I think for many years I read this psalm and I thought the person who wrote this must like perfectly understand God's Word. They never had a time of like reading the law where they were like scratching their head a little bit or feeling and confused. I was like, they just must have this supernatural, like connection to understanding God's Word that I don't have. And then one time I was reading through it and I started noticing how many times there were words. These phrases teach me your ways and make me understand in similar phrases. And so this is not someone who has like supernatural understanding that the rest of us can't have. This is someone who's very much like you said, still just digging in. Still just understanding is asking the Lord to say like, hey, I love your Word, but it doesn't always make sense to me. I need help from you to apply it to my life. And in that I was like, wow, that I can totally relate to. I love the Word, yet it also feels difficult, confusing and hard sometimes. And so we see both this gratitude and treasuring of the Word in this prayer for God to continue to help us understand it. And I think that that is such a cool thing to see in scripture because I find myself there so often. So okay, Psalm 119 always feels really good to get through. To get through that one. We're gonna be back with more from the Psalms. Tom

[Narrator/Host]

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