"I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me" (Psalm 119:30).

As we Christians examine our weaknesses and failures in the past year (perhaps we could just call them sins!) and resolve to do better in this New Year, it is helpful to note some of the resolutions made by the writer of the longest chapter in the Bible, Psalm 119. Perhaps those should be ours as well.

For example, we should deliberately choose the way of truth, as he did, resolving to be scrupulously honest in all our words and relationships. "Incline my heart . . . not to covetousness," he also prays (verse 36), for that indeed is a sin which easily besets us, and we should make that our prayer as well.

He resolved also never to be ashamed of the Lord and His word. "I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed" (v.46). Then he determined that he must have fellowship with all true believers in the true God who earnestly seek to keep His word. "I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts" (v.63). He will not complain when God is chastising or testing him. "I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me" (v.75).

No matter what happens, he will, like Job, trust God. "Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word" (v.114). He will believe implicitly in all the words of God, fully rejecting any teachings of men that would deny or distort the Scriptures. "Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way" (v.128). He will thus fully trust the Lord, deliberately choosing to believe His word above all. "Let thine hand help me; for I have chosen thy precepts" (v.173). HMM