Scriptural Delights: Exploring Psalm 119

The author of this majestic Psalm 119 builds up within it metaphors about his relationship with God - treasures of delight. The Psalmist takes great delight explaining his relationship with God. A relationship which is sweetly intimate and dynamic.Have you ever noticed how the curiosity of birdshas them exploring and then singing with delight upon finding what to their minds is treasure! We can do the same with Scripture. Psalm 119, which is the delightful colossus of the Psalms, lends itself to much discovery and exploration. Alas, because of its length, a lot of people are put off reading it, let alone studying it. However Psalm 119 has a vibrant beauty and depth all of it’s own. It offers many pearls of wisdom to Christians living in the 21st century.Come! Let us explore together, the treasures of this magnificent piece of Scripture - Psalm 119.

I was born in a small country town about 300 miles north east of Sydney in Australia. I was raised to be a sceptic cum agnostic cum atheist with the words ＂Churches are dangerous places＂ and this is like 30 years before Dawkins and his ilk uttered the words! So coming into my teenage years in the eighties, I decided if they are so dangerous let’s go for a bit of danger! So I rebelled, became a Christian and started attending a local Christian youth group. After a bit, it was thought by my family that I was being brainwashed, so I was stopped from going for a couple of years, until I met somebody who I used to go to school with who invited me to her church, and I restarted from there... As to how I came to the UK! Well, I came here from Australia for 6 months travel around Europe! Or so I thought! That was in 1990! I view it as God having a sense of humour. He knows I don’t like rain, cold and in particular - together! He has even given me the most beautiful of women as a wife but she doesn’t like hot weather! God sure has a sense of humour! In 2003, I had a minor stroke and I view that as God giving me a clip round the ear to stop being stubborn and to listen to Him for direction. So instead of moving north with my job at Royal Mail, I took redundancy and went off to Moorlands college where I graduated in 2007. I set up Partakers in 2007. I had recorded some audio files as part of a block placement during my 3rd year at Moorlands. 6 months later I looked back on the site and discovered that the 16 audio files had been downloaded several thousand times, mainly in a country where evangelical Christians are persecuted. It was also part of my dissertation investigating if a Virtual Church could be part of the universal church. I based my study on the old maxim: one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. I still took the normal route post-bible college and applied for pastor jobs around the UK. I often was interviewed but the 2 main reasons given for not being successful was that I was too radical (as in application and use of internet/digital space etc), too much of a teacher or both! So, I continued doing the Podcasts etc. The Partakers Podcasting site has had about 1,500,000 unique visitors so far and about 4,000,000 downloads. The Partakers YouTube site has had over 250,000 viewings. I currently reside in Bournemouth, travel frequently to speak in about places including the UK, USA and Australia.