This study will take a few weeks as the Hebrew alphabetical order numbers 22 sections in this Psalm.
This week we start with the letter A or Aleph as it is known in Hebrew. The Aleph is not just the first letter, but it also represents priority, a beginning, singleness, and strength. In the ancient writings, it also expressed or represented an ox. An Ox represented strength and prosperity.
I love how David starts this Psalm. He uses the word “Blessed.” He repeats the Word in the first two verses, which signifies that it is essential and established. The whole of Psalm 119 will deal with the blessing that comes when we read, meditate, and obey His Word.
Psa. 119:1 Blessed are the undefiled in the way, Who walk in the law of the LORD!
Psa. 119:2 Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, Who seek Him with the whole heart!
I wonder if David meditated on what God told Abraham. Abraham was 99 years old when God told him:
Gen. 17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless.
Abraham did not have the Law as David did. He walked by faith. God spoke to him directly, and God called Abraham a friend.
James 2:23 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled that says: Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness,” and he was called a friend of God.
Next, David tells us what possibility lies ahead for those that stay in the Word of God and keep His precepts.
Psa. 119:3 They also do no iniquity; They walk in His ways.
Psa. 119:4 You have commanded us, To keep Your precepts diligently.
The truth of the matter is – the more of the Word you have in you, the less you will want to sin or sin. The reason is that the Word of God helps us to discern between what brings life and what brings death. Every temptation Jesus faced, he overcame with: “It is written.”
David prays a very personal prayer here!
Psa. 119:5 Oh, that my ways were directed to keep Your statutes!
Psa. 119:6 Then I would not be ashamed when I look into all Your commandments.
I believe David understood that our natural tendency is to do our own thing and have our own way. That has always led to us missing what God has for us. From the moment that Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, we have the desire and the motivation to follow our own heart and not the heart of God. Our ways have been tainted with the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.
Lord, give us strength to walk in your way. There is the broad way and the narrow way. Jesus said that many will walk on the broad way that only leads to destruction – Matt 7:13-14.
Lastly, we see David address the real issue we all have. Our heart. Jesus said that we honor him with our lips, but our hearts are far from Him – Matt 15:8. Lipservice is all we give. What changes our hearts is His righteous judgments.
Psa. 119:7 I will praise You with uprightness of heart when I learn Your righteous judgments.
Psa. 119:8 I will keep Your statutes; Oh, do not forsake me utterly!
At the beginning of these eight verses, David says: Blessed are those that seek Him with their whole heart. Here he concludes that we can walk in the uprightness of our heart and when we learn His righteous judgments. To end, David asks again: Do not forsake me.
The Word of God, His Law, Testimonies, Precepts, Statutes, Commandments, and His Judgments are all the things that David mentions. It is what God’s Word is.
You can never go wrong if you meditate on this day and night.
