[This talk was quite dependent on PowerPoint slides. I’ve indicated where I used slides with ***]
INTRODUCTION
Today we’re looking at Psalm 119. One of Psalm 119’s claims to fame is the fact that it’s the longest chapter in the Bible. It’s 176 verses long! It’s way in the lead. In second place is a chapter in Numbers, with 89 verses.
Because the chapter is so long it’s a bit tricky to know how to approach it. I clearly can’t look at all of it in detail! Should I just pick one section? Should I try to give a general overview? I think the main theme of the psalm is the psalmist’s attitude towards God’s word, and I’ve decided to try to pick out a few things in the psalm which indicate his (or maybe her?) attitude.
But before we do that, I’d like to give you a bit of an introduction, and also tell you some ‘fun facts’ about the psalm. I’m not sure that these ‘fun facts’ are very relevant to us understanding the psalm, but it seems a shame not to include them.
Who wrote it? No-one knows. Scholars think it was written by David, Ezra, or Daniel.
When was it written? We don’t know. But if it was written by David, that would have been about 1000 B.C.
What is it mainly about? Delight in God’s law.
Now onto some ‘fun facts.’ The first ‘fact’ actually seems rather dodgy to me…
The famous Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon, in a commentary on the psalms, related the account of a certain George Wishart who, sometime after 1650, was sentenced to death by hanging. It was the custom at the time to permit the condemned person to choose a psalm to be sung. Wishart clearly knew that the 119th Psalm is the longest chapter in the Bible and he asked for that psalm to be sung. Spurgeon tells us that ‘before two-thirds of the psalm had been sung, a pardon arrived, and his life was preserved.’ Whether the story of the hanging is true or not I don’t know. But Psalm 119 definitely IS the longest chapter in the Bible, and the story IS in Spurgeon’s commentary.
A second fact, which is definitely true, is that the poem is written as an acrostic poem. It has 22 stanzas of eight lines each, and each verse of each stanza starts with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet, in order. I tried to create a poem along the same lines:
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At school
Before the bell rings,
Children scurry.
Discussing everything.
Every day.
For ten months.
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The psalm is like that, except that there are blocks of eight verses starting with the same letter.
There is an Orthodox tradition that King David used this psalm to teach his son Solomon the alphabet, but not just the alphabet for writing letters: the alphabet of the spiritual life.
Another interesting fact is the eminent people in history have memorised this psalm.
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Pictures of the people below.
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They include William Wilberforce, who campaigned for the abolition of slavery; Henry Martyn, a missionary to India; David Livingstone, the missionary and explorer in Africa; Frenchman Blaise Pascal, who was a famous philosopher and mathematician; and John Ruskin, a 19th century British writer. I like this psalm a lot, but I have no plans to memorise it! As a family we memorised Psalm 91 recently. That’s just 16 verses long and I found it very difficult. I just can’t imagine memorising 176 verses! But it’s interesting that these eminent and no doubt busy people were willing to commit the time needed to learn it. It makes us wonder, what’s so special about this psalm? What’s it about?
I said I would look at the psalmist's attitude towards God's word. In any kind of reading, if you want to get a clue as to what the material is about, a good plan is to look at the beginning and at the ending. We'll do that, and also look at some verses in the middle.
THE GOAL
Here are verses 1 and 2:
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Blessed are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the Lord!
Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,
who seek him with their whole heart…
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The psalm starts with the word ‘blessed’ in verse 1, ‘Blessed are those...’ This is repeated in verse 2, ‘Blessed are those...’ After that, the word ‘blessed’ comes once more in the psalm, in verse 12. The psalmist says ‘Blessed are you, O Lord.’ ‘Blessed are you, O Lord’ is a different sense of the word blessed, and it’s a different Hebrew word.
So, from the opening two verses we understand that the theme of the psalm is being blessed, and we may expect that the psalm will unpack that theme.
We don’t use the word ‘blessed’ very much today so we may not be very clear what the word means.
About a third of English translations of the Bible translate the word as ‘happy’ rather than blessed. The NRSV, for example, has ‘Happy are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord.’ But I think we can still improve on that. You might be very happy if you’re on a yacht in the south of France, having some croissants and strong black coffee for breakfast. But I don’t think that’s what the psalmist has in mind.
The Amplified Version of the Bible translates it as follows: ‘How blessed and FAVOURED BY GOD are those whose way is blameless.’ That’s a definite improvement. ‘Blessed’ has the idea of being favoured by God.
If we go to the Oxford English Dictionary, which is considered the most authoritative dictionary in the world, it tells that blessed means ‘To declare to be SUPERNATURALLY FAVOURED; to pronounce or make happy.’ ‘Supernaturally favoured’ means ‘favoured by God.’ So, the Amplified Version has got it right. ‘How blessed and FAVOURED BY GOD are those whose way is blameless.’
If a person is favoured by God then I imagine he will be happy. But the psalmist is describing the condition to be favoured by God, rather than the condition to be happy. This understanding gives us a goal that is not selfish. We’re pursuing God’s favour, rather than our happiness – although we expect one will lead to the other.
How do we gain God’s favour? ‘Blessed are those whose way is blameless…’
What do you think of that? It’s a tall order, isn’t it? Who is blameless? Isn’t the psalmist asking the impossible? Really, we might as well give up now!
And yet, scripture constantly gives us this goal!
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• ‘that we should be holy and BLAMELESS’ Ephesians 1:4
• ‘and so be pure and BLAMELESS’ Philippians 1:10
• ‘that you may be BLAMELESS and innocent, children of God without blemish’ Philippians 2:15
• ‘in order to present you holy and BLAMELESS and above reproach’ Colossians 1:22
• ‘and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept BLAMELESS’ 1 Thessalonians 5:23
• ‘You therefore must be PERFECT, as your heavenly Father is perfect’ Matthew 5:48
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In four of Paul’s letters, he urges the churches to be blameless. Jesus tells us, ‘You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.’ That’s Matthew 5:48.
When I think of someone achieving perfection my mind goes to elite sports. At the age of 14, Nadia Comaneci was the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10.0 at the Olympic Games. Since then, the scoring system has been changed so a perfect score is probably impossible. But still, elite sport is an area where competitors seriously aim for perfection. And that is what scripture is urging on us.
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Picture, Mo Farah wins the Chicago Marathon, setting a European record, October 2018.
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Paul asks us, ‘Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.’ That’s 1 Corinthians 9:24. To win a race, everything must be close to perfect.
I don’t think Paul had Park Run in mind. He’s urging us to have the attitude of a really competitive runner towards the Christian life. He wants believers to have a deep commitment to getting everything perfect, winning our race, and receiving an imperishable victor’s wreath.
The first verse of Psalm 119 tells us ‘Blessed are those whose way is blameless.’ ‘That’s impossible!’ we moan. But it’s clearly the psalmist’s goal. He sees it as the way to enjoy God’s blessing, his favour.
ATTITUDE
The question is then, how can the psalmist be blameless? Let’s return to the psalm’s opening two verses:
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Blessed are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the Lord!
Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,
who seek him with their whole heart…
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From the second line we can see the psalmist is equating being blameless with walking in the law of the Lord. God’s law determines what blameless is. The third line again emphasises keeping God’s ‘testimonies’ – whatever they are. The fourth line talks about wholehearted commitment. The psalmist’s path to being blameless is totally tied to God’s law.
To go back to our elite sports analogy, to be successful, top athletes have coaches.
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Picture, Mo Farah with his coach, Gary Lough.
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Here is Sir Mo with his coach, Gary Lough. I think it’s self-evident that for the athlete to benefit from his coach, he must RESPECT his coach and know he can RELY on him. Those are very much the attitudes we see in this psalmist. The psalmist clearly RESPECTS the trainer’s word. I was struck by how often the word ‘your’ comes in this psalm.
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Psalm 119:9-16, word ‘your’ highlighted.
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In usual English, ‘your’ is the 64th most common world. In this psalm, ‘your’ is the most common world. The psalmist is focused on God.
The psalmist clearly also RELIES on the trainer’s word. The theme of oppression or difficulty of some sort comes up in most stanzas. Here are some examples:
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23 Though rulers sit together AND SLANDER ME,
your servant will meditate on your decrees.
25 I AM LAID LOW IN THE DUST;
preserve my life according to your word.
67 Before I WAS AFFLICTED I went astray,
but now I obey your word.
69 Though the arrogant HAVE SMEARED ME WITH LIES, I keep your precepts with all my heart.
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In almost every case, when the psalmist faces difficulty he goes straight back to God’s word. In fact, it’s almost as if he doesn’t do battle with the difficulty; he simply goes to God’s word. Why? God’s word gives him delight and counsel. He is not ashamed even when he stands before kings. He walks about in freedom.
I said that for the athlete to benefit from his coach, he must RESPECT him and know he can RELY on him. But there is another attitude we see in this psalmist towards God’s word which we might not see in an athlete towards his coach’s instruction. The psalmist DELIGHTS in God’s word. He loves it.
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Psalm 119:44-48, words ‘delight’ and ‘love’ highlighted.
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A fourth attitude the psalmist comes with is a teachable heart. Ten times the psalmist asks God, ‘teach me.’
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Psalm 119, verses 12, 26, 29, 33, 64, 68, 108, 124, 135, 171
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So, to recap:
The psalmist RESPECTS the trainer's word...
The psalmist RELIES on the trainer's word...
The psalmist DELIGHTS in the trainer's word...
The psalmist ASKS the trainer to teach him.
THE RESULT
Let’s move on to the ending. We looked at the first two verses of the psalm. Now let’s look at the last two.
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Let my soul live and praise you,
and let your rules help me.
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant,
for I do not forget your commandments.
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‘I have gone astray like a lost sheep.’ Isn’t this a disappointing ending? The psalmist is aiming to be blameless. He’s aiming for perfection. Throughout the psalm we find that he (I suppose it was a ‘he’!) has enormous love for God’s word. And yet, at the end, he says he’s gone astray! It’s strange too. The psalmist says, ‘for I do not forget your commandments.’ How has he strayed if he hasn’t forgotten God’s commands?
What is the psalmist’s own assessment? Has he succeeded in being blameless? We don’t know who wrote the psalm. But David’s assessment of himself is that he was blameless! Not perfect, but blameless. This is Psalm 18:20-23a, which is a psalm of David:
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20 The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me.
21 For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
22 For all his rules were before me,
and his statutes I did not put away from me.
23 I WAS BLAMELESS BEFORE HIM
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Do you see David’s assessment of himself in the first part of verse 23? ‘I was blameless before him.’ Notice also verse 21. David says, ‘I have … not wickedly departed from my God.’ Yes, he has made mistakes. But he has not wickedly departed from God. There’s a big difference. That is why he can say, ‘I was blameless before him.’
The older form of the Anglican morning service says this:
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Almighty and most merciful Father, WE HAVE ERRED, AND STRAYED FROM THY WAYS LIKE LOST SHEEP, We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts, We have offended against thy holy laws, We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, And we have done those things which we ought not to have done, And there is no health in us…
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The prayer acknowledges that we sin. Consciousness of sin and failure is a normal, healthy Christian attitude.
Paul says exactly that, in Romans 7.
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For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
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The reality is that we fail. We have a difficult tension. We must accept that we do fail, but we must not accept this casually as though it's all right. We have to pray the Lord’s Prayer and ask God to forgive our sins. The believer doesn’t reach perfection in this life.
Notice what the psalmist says next. He prays, ‘seek your servant.’ The psalmist – the straying sheep – calls out to the shepherd to seek him. He is NOT abandoning the shepherd, not at all. So we come to the last line: ‘for I do not forget your commandments.’ That’s the basis of his appeal to God. He’s failing. But he’s not forgetting God's commands. That’s all that any of us can claim. But I hope that we can claim that. On that basis, we can be blameless.
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Bournemouth, UK, 20th September 2020
