Today's Psalm is Psalm 119, the longest "chapter" in the Bible. Normally, I break this Psalm into two readings, and in my 24-day plan, it takes up two days. The theme of the Psalm is the same for both readings however, so I'm going to just write about this Psalm once. That means I'll actually cover the entire book of Psalms in 23 days, and I'll probably cover an out-of-order Psalm on Christmas Eve.
Psalm 119 consists of twenty-two stanzas of eight verses each, arranged in an alphabetic acrostic, where each stanza, in Hebrew, begins with a consecutive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The Hebrew letters are actually printed in my study Bible above each stanza along with their English spelling.
This is a wisdom Psalm containing a similar theme to that found in Psalms 1 and 37, but is most like the middle section of Psalm 19 in that the Psalmist stresses the importance of God's word, also called His law, testimony, statutes, commandments, and judgments.
The first stanza sets the theme for everything that follows:
Blessed are the undefiled in the way,
Who walk in the law of the LORD!
Blessed are those who keep His testimonies,
Who seek Him with the whole heart!
They also do no iniquity;
They walk in His ways.
You have commanded us
To keep Your precepts diligently.
Oh, that my ways were directed
To keep Your statutes!
Then I would not be ashamed,
When I look into all Your commandments.
I will praise You with uprightness of heart,
When I learn Your righteous judgments.
I will keep Your statutes;
Oh, do not forsake me utterly!
Those are blessed whose way is blameless, who seek God with all their heart, who do no unrighteousness, and walk in His ways. The Psalmist pleads that his ways may be established to keep God's statutes. Then he will not be ashamed and will give thanks to God.
This Psalm is full of references to God's word, calling it by several synonyms: law, testimony, way, precepts, statutes, commandments, judgments, and those are all used in the first eight verses! All these terms are used all through the Psalm in a similar manner as this first stanza.
Worshipping God is more than just offering praise and thanksgiving to Him. It also involves listening to His voice, and being obedient to what He wants us to do. How do we do that? The first and most important way is to know His word. That is the foundation of everything else we can know about God. In Old Testament times prophets were tested by whether their prophecies were true to the First Commandment. If a prophet ever entreated the people to worship other Gods, they were told that that would be a sign that the prophet was not sent by God. The Law of God, as revealed to Moses, was the standard for testing every prophet who ever claimed to speak for God.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.