First of all, I’d like you to know that the theme I have chosen for this series comes from the 54th verse of Psalm 119:
“Your decrees are the theme of my song wherever I lodge” (Psalm 119:54).
This Psalm is one that many of you have read in the past, and I’m pretty sure that some of you have read it several times. It is rich in what it reveals, with its single focus upon the glory and greatness of God revealed through His Word. Your Bibles may have noted that it is acrostic psalm, which connects the entire Psalm to the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In other words, the Psalm is composed of 22 paragraphs of 8 verses each, with the first word of each paragraph beginning with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Taken together, the 22 distinct paragraphs are not like a chain where each segment is dependent on the others, but more like a pearl necklace in which each pearl stands alone in its message, and yet they are strung together into one complete necklace. Each 8-verse segment (22 in total) focuses entirely on the author’s connection with the revealed and written Word of God, and we will be exploring each segment over the next 22 weeks.
At the time of writing, the known Word of God was that which God Himself revealed to Moses in the 5 books attributed to him, namely Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These are the books that contain what is called “The Law,” and includes God’s Moral Law, which we know as the Ten Commandments, as well as the Ceremonial Law connecting God’s people to the Levitical Sacrificial System, and then the Civil Law which connects the people with each other. It is interesting to note that as the Psalm itself is composed of a series of 8-verse segments, so there are 8 basic words used to describe the Scriptures, God’s written revelation to us. I only list them here because we will encounter each of the words in Psalm 119. Don’t worry about details, as I will give a short summary at the end. Here are the words:
- Law (torah, used 25 times) and refers primarily to God’s Law given at Mount Sinai.
- Word (dabar, used 24 times) and refers primarily to God’s spoken word revealed to mankind.
- Judgments (mispatim, used 23 times) and means to judge, determine, order, and discern.
- Testimonies (edut/edot, used 23 times) and means to witness with the thought of obedience.
- Commandments (miswah/miswot, used 22 times) and refers to giving orders or direction.
- Statutes (huqqim, used 21 times) and refers to God’s authority to give us His laws.
- Precepts (piqqudim, used 21 times) points to the specific details included in God’s Word.
- Word (imrah, used 19 times) refer to anything God has spoken, commanded, or promised.
As we work our way through the Psalm, I’d like us to consider the fact that the first word, Law (or Torah) refers God’s revelation in the 5 Books of Moses, and each of the other 7 words simply provide more detailed elements of what is included in the Torah. And so, for our purposes, I don’t want us to get bogged down in the details of each word, but simply to realize that they all point to The Torah, that is, God’s revealed word in the Pentateuch, or the 5 Books of Moses written around 1,350 BC.
Although the author of the Psalm is not named, it may be a Psalm of David, or it may have been compiled over a number of years by several other psalm writers. Regardless, although the Psalm consistently points to the importance of Scripture, it never neglects to bring glory to the One to whom the Scriptures point, that is, God Himself. Our love for God is informed by our study of the Scriptures, and as we study the Scriptures, our love is refreshed and nourished by it.
In my preparation for working through this Psalm, I discovered that William Wilberforce and David Livingstone (and several others) prized this Psalm so highly that they committed all 176 verses to memory. I also discovered that a Puritan preacher by the name of Thomas Manton, wrote a three-volume work on this Psalm, with each volume containing between 500 and 600 pages, with a total of 1,677 pages. Don’t worry, I won’t be using his commentaries for our survey.
And finally, I discovered an interesting tidbit from history that George Wishart (Bishop of Edinburgh in the 17th century) was condemned to death for his faith. But when he was on the scaffold, he made use of a custom that allowed the condemned person to choose one psalm to be sung, and he chose Psalm 119. Before two-thirds of the psalm had been sung, his pardon arrived and his life was spared.
As we prepare to embark on our own survey of this amazing Psalm, I’d like us to consider the words of Charles Spurgeon who said of this Psalm:
“This wonderful psalm, from its great length, helps us to wonder at the immensity of Scripture…Yet, from the many turns it gives to the same thought, it helps you to see the variety of Scripture…Its variety is that of a kaleidoscope in which you look and find a strangely beautiful form, but then you shift the glass a very little, and another shape, equally delicate and beautiful, is before your eyes.”
Next week, we will begin our study of this wonderful Psalm, beginning with the first 8 verses. Although the Psalm was written almost 3,000 years ago, we will explore the Psalm together to see what we can glean for our own lives today. And let’s remember what the Apostle Paul wrote to the young pastor Timothy,
“All Scripture is God-breathed, and is useful for teaching, convicting, correcting, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).
So, that’s where we are headed in this series, that is, to have God’s Word teach us, convict us, correct us, and to train us in righteousness. God bless you. I hope to see you next week.
