Introduction
There were two notable men in Scottish ecclesiastical history with the same name: George Wishart.
The first George Wishart (1513 - 1546) was a Scottish Protestant Reformer and one of the early Protestant martyrs who was burned at the stake on March 1, 1546.
The second George Wishart was born in 1599 and became a Scottish Episcopalian bishop and author.
He died on July 26, 1671, and was buried at Holyrood Abbey (in Edinburgh).
In 1644, this second George Wishart played a key part in the Siege of Newcastle during the English Civil War.
Eventually, the garrison surrendered to the English on a promise of mercy.
While most of the garrison were allowed to depart, Wishart was imprisoned in the “Thieves’ Holy” at the Edinburgh Tolbooth.
Wishart was hoping to be released, as he was among those who had been promised mercy.
Nevertheless, he was condemned to death by hanging.
Wishart was led up to the scaffold, and he was prepared for his execution.
Now, there was a custom at that time that a condemned person could choose a psalm to be sung before his execution.
George Wishart chose Psalm 119.
As you know, Psalm 119 is the longest psalm and also the longest chapter, by far, in the entire Bible.
I don’t know which tune was used to sing Psalm 119, but the tune we use will take us almost 30 minutes to sing the entire psalm.
Before the singing of the psalm was concluded, however, a pardon arrived, and George Wishart’s life was spared.
He lived another twenty-seven years and died at the age of seventy-two.
Some people have told this story as an illustration of God’s salvation of one of his saints.
The truth is different.
According to James Montgomery Boice, “Wishart was more renowned for shrewdness than for sanctity. He was expecting a pardon, requested the psalm to gain time, and, happily for him, succeeded in delaying the execution until his pardon came” (James Montgomery Boice, Psalms 107–150: An Expositional Commentary [Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005], 970).
Today, we are going to examine Psalm 119, although not all of it. I plan to explore the first eight verses of Psalm 119.
Before we examine Psalm 119:1-8, I want to make some introductory comments about the entire psalm that will help us understand it better.
Psalm 119 is considered a wisdom psalm. It teaches us about relating to God and understanding him better.
Psalm 119 is an acrostic psalm. It is the most elaborate acrostic psalm in the Bible.
Other acrostic psalms are Psalms 9, 10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, and 145.
There are twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet, and so Psalm 119 is divided into twenty-two stanzas, one stanza for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
Some of your Bibles probably have subheadings with each letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
Psalm 119 has 176 verses. Thus, each of the twenty-two stanzas has eight verses each.
Within each stanza, every verse begins with the same letter of the alphabet.
So, for example, verses 1 through 8 each begin with the Hebrew letter aleph, verses 9-16 each start with the letter beth, and so on.
The theme of Psalm 119 is the word of God.
One of the most striking features of Psalm 119 is that almost every one of the 176 verses refers to the word of God, with only a handful of exceptions.
According to one commentator, “At least 171 of the Psalm’s 176 verses refer to the precepts, word, laws, commandments, or decrees of God explicitly” (James Montgomery Boice, Psalms 107–150: An Expositional Commentary [Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005], 971).
The author of Psalm 119—who is anonymous—used eight synonyms for the word of God throughout the psalm. These words are:
1. “law” (torah), which occurs 25 times;
2. “word” (dabar), which occurs 24 times;
3. “rules” (mishpatim), which occurs 23 times;
4. “testimonies” (edoth), which occurs 23 times;
5. “commandments” (mitswoth), which occurs 22 times;
6. “statutes” (chuqqim), which occurs 21 times;
7. “precepts” (piqqudim), which occurs 21 times; and
8. “promise” (imrah), which occurs 19 times.
At first glance, one may think that the psalmist is using an incredible amount of repetition.
But on further study, one realizes that the psalmist is holding a large, beautiful, eight-sided jewel.
Each word presents a different picture of the one central jewel.
“And this jewel,” according to Christopher Ash, “is the covenant.”
Ash continues by saying, “Although the word covenant never appears in the psalm, it dominates it from verse 1 to verse 176, because these words are covenant words” (Christopher Ash, Bible Delight: Heartbeat of the Word of God: Psalm 119 for the Bible Teacher and Hearer, ed. David Jackman and Robin Sydserff, Teach the Bible [Ross-shire, Scotland; London: Christian Focus; PTMEDIA, 2008], 34–35).
Throughout the Scriptures, but especially the Old Testament, these eight words are associated with the LORD, which is the covenant name of God.
The LORD gives his law, word, rules, testimonies, commandments, statutes, precepts, and promises to his covenant people.
To give you just one of literally scores of examples, let me point you to 2 Kings 17. There, God warns Israel that they are facing judgment because they have rejected his covenant. So, we read in 2 Kings 17:34-38:
34 To this day they [that is, the Israelites] do according to the former manner. They do not fear the LORD, and they do not follow the statutes or the rules or the law or the commandment that the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel. 35 The LORD made a covenant with them and commanded them, “You shall not fear other gods or bow yourselves to them or serve them or sacrifice to them, 36 but you shall fear the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm. You shall bow yourselves to him, and to him you shall sacrifice. 37 And the statutes and the rules and the law and the commandment that he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to do. You shall not fear other gods, 38 and you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not fear other gods….”
Christopher Ash is invaluable here. He says, “It is important to remember that these are covenantal ‘grace words’ before they are ‘law words.’ Their first direction is grace” (Christopher Ash, Psalms 101–150, vol. 4, The Psalms: A Christ-Centered Commentary [Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2024], 277).
Now, what does he mean?
When God established his covenant, it was based on his grace.
He chose a people for himself.
They did nothing to earn God’s favor or merit.
He set his love upon them and made them his people.
Having been brought into fellowship with God—through no merit of their own—people said, “So, what is my role in this relationship? How do I live in a covenant relationship with God?”
God said, “Follow my law. Keep my commandments. Obey my precepts.”
The child of God delights to please his covenant God.
That is why the psalmist says more than twenty-five times in Psalm 119 that he delights in the word of God, or loves and longs for the word of God.
So, the psalmist who wrote Psalm 119 was a redeemed man of God.
He was in covenant union with God.
Psalm 119 is the song of the believer. God has brought him to himself in a covenant relationship, and he thrills to know more about his covenant God.
Psalm 119 is a song that teaches us that God’s covenant blessing is found in God’s word.
Scripture
Let’s read Psalm 119:1-8:
1 Blessed are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the LORD!
2 Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,
who seek him with their whole heart,
3 who also do no wrong,
but walk in his ways!
4 You have commanded your precepts
to be kept diligently.
5 Oh that my ways may be steadfast
in keeping your statutes!
6 Then I shall not be put to shame,
having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.
7 I will praise you with an upright heart,
when I learn your righteous rules.
8 I will keep your statutes;
do not utterly forsake me!
Lesson
Psalm 119:1-8 teaches us that God’s covenant blessing is found in God’s word.
Let’s use the following outline:
1. Pursue Blessing (119:1-4)
2. Pray for Obedience (119:5-8)
I. Pursue Blessing (119:1-4)
First, since God’s covenant blessing is found in God’s word, pursue blessing.
The word “blessed” occurs once in verse 1 and again in verse 2. Those are the only two times the word “blessed”appears in the entire psalm.
Listen carefully to verse 1: “Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord!”
And listen again carefully to verses 2-3: “Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways!”
The psalmist begins by announcing, “There is a way to be blessed. Pay attention! Learn how you can be blessed.”
I want you to notice two truths.
First, there is only one kind of person who will be blessed.
Blessing is not given to all kinds of people.
Blessing is not given to all people.
No, there is only one kind of person who will be blessed.
And that brings me to the second truth: God’s blessing comes not to those who rest in a status, but to those who walk in a way.
Now, what do I mean by that?
If I were to ask you, “How do you know that you are blessed?” some would say, “I am blessed because I am justified by faith alone in Christ alone by grace alone. I am a new creation in Christ. My sin has been paid for by Jesus and his blood on the cross. I have my ticket that will give me access to heaven. That is how I know that I am blessed.”
Well, that is true—but it is only the beginning.
The psalmist here in verses 1-3 teaches us that there is an excellent way to be blessed—now!
Notice how the psalmist stressed in verses 1-3 that the person who is blessed has a way (1a), a walk (1b), a keeping (2a), a seeing (2b), a doing (3a), and a walking again (3b).
In verse 4, the psalmist tells the Lord, “You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently.”
The psalmist realized that the way to pursue blessing is to walk in the way of the Lord with diligence.
Or, as James Montgomery Boice puts it, “Here it is enough to say that what is being commended to us at the start of Psalm 119 is getting to know and live by the whole of God’s revelation, which is what we call the Bible” (James Montgomery Boice, Psalms 107–150: An Expositional Commentary [Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005], 972).
Practically, what does this mean for you and me?
It means that you and I must spend time in God’s word.
Do you read God’s word daily? Do you have daily devotions?
You will grow as a Christian by being involved in a Bible study with other Christians.
So, attend an Adult Bible Fellowship, a Youth Sunday school, a Children’s Sunday school, a Men’s Bible Study, or a Women’s Bible Study.
But more than just attending and participating in a Bible study, memorize God’s word.
Consider memorizing Psalm 119.
John Ruskin was not a minister or even a theologian.
He lived in the nineteenth century and was a British writer who specialized in works of art criticism.
He had been raised by a Calvinistic mother who was unsparing both of herself and others and who, in his youth, had made him memorize large portions of the Bible.
He memorized Psalms 23, 32, 90, 91, 103, 112, 119, and 139, to give just some examples.
Later in his life, Ruskin wrote of Psalm 119, “It is strange that of all the pieces of the Bible which my mother taught me, that which cost me most to learn, and which was, to my childish mind, chiefly repulsive—the 119th Psalm—has now become of all the most precious to me in its overflowing and glorious passion of love for the Law of God.”
William Wilberforce, the British statesman who was primarily responsible for the abolition of the slave trade throughout the British Empire, wrote in his diary in the year 1819, “Walked today from Hyde Park Corner, repeating the 119th Psalm in great comfort.”
Does it seem strange that busy Wilberforce should know this psalm by heart?
Henry Martyn, a pioneer missionary to India, memorized Psalm 119 as an adult in 1804.
He had an extremely arduous life, but he confessed that it was the Bible alone that gave him the strength to keep going.
He died of exhaustion in 1812.
David Livingstone, a pioneer missionary to Africa, won a Bible from his Sunday school teacher by repeating Psalm 119 by heart—when he was only nine years old (James Montgomery Boice, Psalms 107–150: An Expositional Commentary [Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005], 972–973).
Each of these people achieved a great deal in their lives for God.
Could it be that their dedicated pursuit of God’s word made a dramatic difference in their lives so that they were able to accomplish great things for God?
II. Pray for Obedience (119:5-8)
Second, since God’s covenant blessing is found in God’s word, pray for obedience.
It is worth noting that verses 1-3 are the only significant portion of Psalm 119 that is not directly addressed to the Lord.
In verse 4, the psalmist begins to respond to the truth of verses 1-3.
From verse 4 all the way to verse 176, the psalmist stays in prayer.
Apart from the occasional aside (such as verse 115), the entire psalm is a prayer.
The psalmist moved from doctrine to prayer, and we must do the same.
In verse 5, then, the psalmist prayed, “Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes!”
Now, I want you to pay attention here.
Sometimes we think that the people mentioned in the Bible were special, godly people, and that they were very unlike you and me today.
We think that their walk with God was effortless.
But that is not true.
They were men and women made of flesh and blood, just like you and me.
They struggled with temptations, desires, and sins just like you and me.
So, we must commend the psalmist who recognized his struggles and yet still prayed, “Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes!”
That should remind us of the Apostle Paul, who echoed the psalmist’s prayer when he wrote to the Christians in Romans 7:15-23:
15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 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. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
Some people say that Paul wrote this about himself when he was not yet a Christian.
That is not true. Paul wrote these words as a mature believer.
It should encourage us, then, that even a mature apostle struggled with sin and prayed for God to help him walk in obedience.
Why does the psalmist pray for God to help him walk in obedience?
He says in verses 6-8, “Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments. I will praise you with an upright heart, when I learn your righteous rules. I will keep your statutes; do not utterly forsake me!”
So, how can you apply this practically in your life?
Start each day with prayer. Pray as the psalmist prayed, “Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes!”
Pray that God will help you to walk in his ways.
Second, after prayer, spend time each day in God’s word.
Read God’s word.
Meditate on God’s word.
Memorize God’s word.
Internalize God’s word.
And, most importantly, obey God’s word.
Some of you are already doing this.
But some of you are struggling in your walk with God.
Please stay for lunch and our meeting afterward.
The Session will share with you a tool that will help us all walk more closely with Jesus.
Conclusion
Jesus prayed Psalm 119.
Jesus memorized Psalm 119.
Jesus saw himself in Psalm 119.
He was blameless. He walked in the law of the LORD. He was indeed blessed.
But you and I are meant to pray Psalm 119 as well.
It is not for us to claim that Jesus is the only one who can genuinely pray Psalm 119;we should not even attempt to do so.
No, that is not true.
We can pray it because Jesus perfectly obeyed all of God’s law.
He obeyed the terms of God’s covenant perfectly and fully.
He and the Father sent the Holy Spirit and gave us new life.
So, every believer is in union with Jesus.
Therefore, our heart’s desire and inclination is to pray Psalm 119.
Because we have God’s blessing, we want to walk in the law of the LORD.
So, Christian, grow in your walk with Jesus by spending time in the word of God.
And, if you are not a Christian today, I urge you to repent of all your sins and put your trust in Jesus alone.
Then, you will discover God’s blessing, and even more of his blessing as you walk in the law of the LORD. Amen.
