Nation’s Notes on the Bible
THE WORD AND THE WAY
Notes and Meditations on Psalm 119
Introduction
“Here [in this psalm] we have set forth in inexhaustible fullness what the word of God is to a man, and how a man is to behave himself in relation to it.” Franz Delitzch
Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, and is probably the most relentlessly consistent in its adopted style. Most translations show that it is divided into 8-verse stanzas. Something that does not show up in translation is that it is an acrostic poem. Every verse in each respective stanza begins with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and the number of stanzas is determined by the number of letters in that alphabet. (In case you didn’t know, that explains those strange words and symbols you may have in your Bible preceding each stanza.) But this is not unique. Eight other psalms are also acrostic (Psalms 9, 10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 145)--they’re just not nearly as long and elaborate.
Even more remarkable is the fact that all but a few verses contain a specific synonym for the Scriptures. Yet while the psalmist uses and re-uses a a standard set of terms, he never repeats a verse and never repeats a thought. Every verse brings forth a new truth, concept, prayer, or confession.
This psalm is not popular with most contemporary Christians, it seems. First, it is so long, and modern people are more used to the instant and the quick. Our attention span is terrible. When we sing from the psalms today, we extract short verses, stretch them out, and repeat them 20 times. We’ve lost the patience to stop and think about the Word.
Besides, the psalm is all about the law, isn’t it? Isn’t the law opposed to the gospel?
But when Psalm 119 (or any of the psalms) refer to the law, it is not in the specific, limited sense against which the Apostle Paul argues in Galatians, Romans, and Ephesians. Law is Torah, the instruction of God, the declaration of His will and way, and written down by Moses and the prophets. The Law is, in other words, the Bible, the written Word of God. This, then, is a passage of Scripture that should be of great interest to evangelical Christians. We are people of the Book--aren’t we?
Most commentators have a hard time seeing unity in the psalm beyond the stylistic points named above, but the great 19th century scholar Franz Delitzch found a theme and a story line that makes sense without reading in a lot of material that isn’t there.
Delitzch’s outline of the unity and coherence of Ps 119
oAleph: Fidelity to God’s Law, the Virtue of Virtues
oBeth: Dedication/Devotion to God’s Word
oGimel: Prayer for Enlightenment (in the face of scoffers and persecution)
oDaleth: Prayer for Strengthening
oHe: Prayer for Preservation
oWaw: Prayer for Bold Testimony
oZayin: God’s Word is all his thought and pursuit
oHeth: Solidarity and fellowship w/ all those who fear God
oTeth: Benefits of chastening
oYod: Need of comfort
oKaph: How long?
oLamed: God’s Word—the only guard against despair
oMem: God’s Word—wisdom in difficult circumstances
oNun: Maintaining fidelity in the face of persecution
oSamech: Abhorrence of apostates
oAyin: Oppressed, but God will not let him be crushed
oPhe: Plea to be sustained in faithfulness
oTsade: The cost of zeal for the Word
oKoph: A plea to be heard (crying out day and night)
oResh: A plea to be speedily revived
oShin: Faithful, though persecuted by the powerful
oTav: Summary of it all—I love thy word. Help me!
Delitzch believes the author is unquestionably a young man, not an experienced elder. (Cf. 9, 99, 100.) “He is derided, persecuted, and and that by those who despise the divine word (for apostasy encompasses him round about), and more particularly by a government hostile to true religion (23, 466, 161). He is lying in bonds (61; cf. 83), expecting death (109), and recognizes in his affliction, it is true, God’s salutary humbling, and in the midst of it God’s word is his comfort and wisdom, but he also yearns for help and earnestly prays for it. The whole Psalm is a prayer for steadfastness in the midst of an ungodly, degenerate race, and in the midst of great trouble, which is heightened by the pain he feels at the prevailing apostasy, and a prayer for ultimate deliverance which rise in group Kaph to an urgent how long!”
I have my own observations about the story, the progress of the theme, and the conflicts of the writer. You may read my notes on them on the following pages:
