Every fresh month, I start reading the psalms again. For years I’ve done this, and I’m amazed at how God teaches me something new. I experience God’s word as “living and active” (Hebrews 4:12) through this process of reading the psalms over and over again. God’s word is alive and will speak to you in new ways each time you approach the Bible.
One thing I’ve been doing is pulling a key verse to meditate on from each psalm. So yesterday, I took the first five psalms and noted some interesting things my soul needed: I thought about what it looks like to “delight” in God’s word (Psalm 1); about how “blessed” we are as we take refuge in Him (Psalm 2); about God as a “shield” around us (Psalm 3); about God putting “gladness” in our hearts (Psalm 4); and how He surrounds us with “favor” (Psalm 5). Then, it’s easy and powerful to recall these words: delight, blessed, shield, gladness, and favor.
We can then form wonderful declarations from the psalms to carry us through the day and night. You can say to God, “I delight in You and Your words. I am blessed today. You are my shield. You fill my heart with gladness. You give me favor.”
Essentially, we build up a vocabulary in our minds to renew us and our thinking. Try it and see what you think. It’s a study strategy I like. Choose key words. Make simple sentences about God from these words. Let the statements generate a new way of thinking.