Psalms 119:164 · World English Bible
Psalms 119:164 Meaning Seven Times a Day
Seven times a day, I praise you, because of your righteous ordinances.
What does Psalms 119:164 mean?
Dhikr: Remembrance Dhikr means keeping God in mind and on the tongue. A person can be certain of something at breakfast and have it slip away by noon, buried under work and worry.
From the Sufism reading below.
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The same verse, read by one tradition.
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Dhikr: Remembrance Dhikr means keeping God in mind and on the tongue. A person can be certain of something at breakfast and have it slip away by noon, buried under work and worry. Turning back on purpose, many times in one day, keeps that certainty warm instead of filed away and forgotten.
Hearts rust like iron, and remembrance polishes them: why the returning is frequent Al-Ghazali repeats this saying of the Prophet often. The heart dulls quietly, with no disaster involved: a rushed morning, a small grudge, and the sense of God goes flat. Frequent returns match the speed at which that film gathers, so it never gets time to harden.
Wird: A fixed daily portion of prayer or recitation A wird is the portion a person assigns to set hours and keeps. Praise that waits for the mood shows up only on good days, and the flat ones pass in silence. The set hour comes whether the feeling comes or not, and the heart often catches up partway through.
Forgetting to praise is worse than praising while distracted: dryness is no reason to stop Ibn Ata Allah put it that way. Anyone who keeps a daily round hits stretches where the words leave the mouth and nothing stirs, and continuing feels dishonest. Showing up empty keeps the habit alive, and warmth usually comes back to the person who kept showing up.
Shukr: Gratitude Al-Ghazali describes gratitude as seeing the gift and the giver together. Rules usually feel like fences, and thanking anyone for them seems odd until you have watched a life fall apart with nothing holding it. Gratitude counts clear instruction as care, so praise rises from the guidance itself and not only from good fortune.
Tajdīd al-khalq: Creation made new at every instant Ibn Arabi taught that God remakes the world moment by moment, and no two moments are ever the same. Repeated praise can start to feel like reading the same line off a card, which is where most daily habits die. In that light each hour brings something that never existed before, and the words meet a new gift every time.
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Live Psalms 119:164 today
- Pick a few ordinary hooks already in your day, the kettle, the commute, locking up at night, and at each one say thank you for one specific thing. Set times, not the right mood.
- Tell one person today what you are grateful for about them, in words, not a thumbs up. Out loud it costs something, which is what makes it land.
- On the flat day when the words come out and nothing stirs inside, say them anyway. Showing up empty keeps the thing alive, and the warmth usually comes back to whoever kept showing up.
What good thing in my life have I stopped seeing because it shows up every day?
The same truth in other traditions
Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius
He wrote the same handful of truths to himself over and over, keeping them at hand, because he knew how quickly a person loses hold of what they were sure of at breakfast.
Buddhism · Zen
You sit whether the morning feels clear or flat. The sitting was never meant to depend on the mood you brought to it.
Buddhism
Nothing repeats. Each moment arises new and passes, so the same words spoken again never actually meet the same hour twice.
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