The Greatness And Glory Of God’s Word Series

• General Introduction of the Psalm 119

a. This is the longest psalm in the Bible which is in the longest book in the Bible, and just before this Psalm 117 is the shortest chapter/psalm in the Bible.

b. Many times because of its length we avoid, escape to read this or read it very fast without pausing or meditating in it.

c. But the centre chapter and verse of the Bible is just before this Psalm 118:8 and this psalm is also the word of God

d. And next few weeks we will study and meditate on the longest psalm of the Bible 119

• Five Important observations of this Psalm 119

a. Acrostic Psalm (Hebrew poetry which start the every stanzas with Hebrew alphabets)

i. In Hebrew Alphabets there are 22 letter

ii. Psalm 119 we can see 22 stanzas and every stanza is starting with Hebrew alphabets.

iii. And in every stanza there are 8 verses

iv. This is the way to memorize the Psalm easily, so they could sing.

- Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Dalet, He, Waw/Vav, Zayin, Chet, Tet, Yod, Ka, Lamed, Mem, Nun, Samech, Ayin, Pay Tsade, Qof, Resh, Shin, Tav

b. The author of this Psalm

i. Ezra - Many Bible teachers believed that this Psalm is written by priest Ezra, when he came to Jerusalem from the 70 years of slavery in Babylon, God sent him to restore the worship and the word of God in the lives of Israelites Ezra 7:10 is important verse

ii. David – Many Bible teachers believed that this Psalm is written by David who experienced affliction in life and he learned that time to depend on God and His word

iii. So we don’t sure exactly who wrote this psalm, but we know this for sure that this is the word of God, so we don’t need to bother about the human author.

c. The Importance of the word of God - Almost every verse of this Psalm mention about the word of God and there are 176 verses in this Psalm, if whole psalm is talking about the word of God we can understand that how important is the word of God, for you and me.

d. The Focus of Psalm 119 is on the Truth of God’s word. –

i. It encourages us through every generation to stay close and focused on His Word no matter what is going on around us in this world.

ii. Living in the freedom and knowledge of God’s ways

iii. Obeying His law above all else, and keeping in step with His commandments is the only way to truly live wise, strong lives.

iv. It helps us to live above reproach or live a life which pleases God in our day to day life

v. This Psalm is God’s word centric – it means the word of God is sufficient for every area, season, time, need, situations, trials, pain, struggle, guidance, of your life, etc.

e. In this Psalm there are 8 basic words used to describe the Scriptures, synonyms of the word of God

1. Law - God’s written instruction or Torah first 5 books of the O.T.

2. Instruction

3. His ways

4. Precepts

5. Statutes

6. Commandments

7. Righteous rules, judgments

8. Your words

A. Aleph – Blessedness of a person – v. 1-8

1. Blessing declared – 1-3in first lines of verses 1-2 is declared the blessedness of a person

a. Opening line – is with blessedness, it means God wants us to be bless

i. Opening lines in the Bible – In the beginning God, in Gen. 1:3 God spoke his words and he created the universe with his words. Which is blessing for us

ii. Opening lines of N. T. – it is about the Jesus (the word) which is long waited Messiah a blessing for the world.

iii. A closed Bible will not declare the blessing for you, but when we open it.

b. What blessedness or blessing is? We need to define what blessing/blessedness is?

i. What blessedness is not - In general/worldly understanding - Money, power, position, the whole world, but Jesus says it is very difficult for rich to enter in the kingdom of God (who thinks that this is the blessedness) e.g. it’s like entering camel into the hole of a needle. So to have the world in hand is not the real blessedness

ii. What blessedness is – V. 1-3

- Whose walk is blameless – v. 1a. Ps. 1:1 – walk represents the whole life or lifestyle, whose life is transparent, nothing to hide, clean, no mixture or compromising life, same inside and out. It can be possible only when we walk according to the law of the Lord (Pentateuch)

- Who keep his Instruction – v. 2 - keep means obeying or doing according to the instruction of the word of God