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The Psalm 119 Alphabet Book (Verses:1-24)

Psalm 119 is a unique psalm for a couple of different reasons:

1)      It is the longest Psalm in the Bible

2)      It is like an Alphabet Book of Sorts (It is the most developed instance of an acrostic poem in the Old Testament)[1]

 

For Christmas or for Susan’s birthday a year ago we made her an ABC recipe book. Psalm 119 is like an ABC Psalm book. Each of the different sections is based on another letter of the Hebrew alphabet, i.e.: 

·        A is for Apple and Alligator,

·        B is for Bear and Barium,

·        C is for Canada and confetti, and so on.

 

The ABC Psalm has 8 lines dedicated to each letter of the Alphabet. And – this is really neat – each line starts with the same letter (in Hebrew, not in English). So for example if this was a contemporary English language ABC book it may start out something like this:

 

Aa

An alligator ate a lot of apples, apricots, and acorns

Apples were green and red

Apricots were orange

Acorns were hard and seemed angry

Angry like a wasp

After August when his time is coming to an end

And we are all like this alligator

Always answering to angry acorns

 

Psalm 119, of course, isn’t as much about angry acorns as it is about how we engage with God and the world and how He engages with us. It wrestles with the question of how we remain steadfast in the purity and blameless ways of the Lord. Today we will look at –time depending - the first 2 or 3 letters of this Alphabet book.

 

The first stanza, the ‘A’ page of the Psalm 119 Alphabet Book says this:

א Aleph

1 Blessed are those whose ways are blameless,

who walk according to the law of the Lord.

2 Blessed are those who keep his statutes

and seek him with all their heart—

3 they do no wrong

but follow his ways.

4 You have laid down precepts

that are to be fully obeyed.

5 Oh, that my ways were steadfast

in obeying your decrees!

6 Then I would not be put to shame

when I consider all your commands.

7 I will praise you with an upright heart

as I learn your righteous laws.

8 I will obey your decrees;

do not utterly forsake me.

 

Aleph speaks about those who are blessed. (Blessed here means one who is happy, one who is content.)[2]  People whose ways are blameless are blessed and people who keep the statutes, the Law of the Lord and seek Him with all of their heart are blessed. The Psalmist says that people don’t do wrong but instead follow the Lord’s way, obeying all His decrees, are blessed.

 

This is quite a tall order though, isn’t it: doing no wrong! Fully obeying the Law! Being absolutely blameless! Who can possibly do this? Who can possibly be blessed? This is what the psalmist notes about himself, he says “Oh that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees! Then I would not be put to shame…”

 

Realizing the challenges of all this and realizing the importance of blamelessness and blessing in one’s life, the psalmist resolves to praise the Lord with an upright heart, he resolves to learn the Lord’s laws, he resolves to being a law-abiding citizen and implores the Lord to not utterly forsake him.

 

Leading Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann writes,

“Obedience to Law is not a rule for rewards….It is not a cause of fidelity [faithfulness]; it is not a consequence of fidelity. It is itself the enactment of fidelity. It is the joy of being in sync with the Lord of the covenant, the sense of companionship in doing the things in which the partner delights. The delight in such obedience is not in its outcome but in its performance…obedience to the Law is not a work but a habit, a habit of the heart that becomes a way of life.”[3]

 

Obedience to the Law is not a requirement for salvation; it is not a result of salvation; it is a way of life. In today’s world of identity politics probably the best way to explain God’s Law, blessing and our blamelessness in relationship to it is as our identity. We who love God are those who identify as walking in His ways and so receive the blessings inherent to that.

 

It is like when I quit smoking a million years ago. I became a non-smoker and I self-identified as a non-smoker. It did not matter that for quite a long time I still occasionally did slip up and have a cigarette or a drag from a cigarette. Sometimes I would have a cigarette –or part thereof - alone in the car. Sometimes I would have a cigarette –or part thereof -  out with friends at night or over a cup of coffee in the day. What mattered was that after I had a cigarette or part thereof,  I did not identify as a smoker again. I maintained my identity as a non-smoker. I did not quit quitting. I did not give up on being a non-smoker. Even though I may have had a drag of a cigarette, my identity was still intact as that of a non-smoker and God helped me live up to that so I am a very much a non-smoker to this day. It has been decades now since I last had my last puff.

 

 It is the same with blamelessness and holiness in our world today. We don’t throw away our holiness just because we do something not holy one day. We don’t throw away our salvation just because we do something unsaved one day. God will never leave nor forsake us (Dt 31:6; Hb 13:5) and we will live up to what we have already obtained (Phil 3:16). Thus the psalmist declares he will praise the Lord with an upright heart as he continues as God’s blessed, law-abiding, blameless citizen. As we continue in the Lord’s blessing, we will continue to experience the Lord’s blessing both now and forever.

 

This brings us to the second letter in our Psalm 119 Alphabet Book today.

ב Beth

9 How can a young person stay on the path of purity?

By living according to your word.

10 I seek you with all my heart;

do not let me stray from your commands.

11 I have hidden your word in my heart

that I might not sin against you.

12 Praise be to you, Lord;

teach me your decrees.

13 With my lips I recount

all the laws that come from your mouth.

14 I rejoice in following your statutes

as one rejoices in great riches.

15 I meditate on your precepts

and consider your ways.

16 I delight in your decrees;

I will not neglect your word.

 

Beth, the second letter and page in the Alphabet Book, further addresses the question of how can one remain faithful to the Lord? How can one remained blessed? How can one remain blameless? In our vernacular today, how can one remain saved? How can a young person stay on the path of purity (given that life is long and there will be many thoughts, actions, people, and problems trying to pull us away from the blessings of purity). The psalmist answers this again with eight lines all beginning with the same letter, Beth.

 

This is neat. It is like a child or a young adult going to the fair. It is too bad that we don’t have a fall fair in town this year due to Covid-19 pandemic. I remember last year at the fair there was this one ride, the Himalaya that Heather wanted to go on again and again and again. I am glad she ran into a friend who would go with her because when you are my age those rides are quite as fun to go on quite as many times as they are when you are Heather’s age. Though it was really fun to see how much enjoyment she was getting from ride.

 

Here, in our Alphabet Psalm, we have a young person experiencing the ride of uprightness, the ride of holiness, the ride of salvation, the ride of blessing, blamelessness, and purity. The concerned parent or the young person themselves ask, how can we stay on this ride of purity? The rest of this stanza answers this question with each of the eight lines beginning with Beth, the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

 

How can young people remain pure and blessed throughout their lives?

 

We can do this by living according to God’s Word, not neglecting His Word, reciting His Word, keeping His Word hidden in our hearts and rejoicing in it.[4] How can we remain pure, blameless and blessed in our life? We can do this by reading our Bible and praying continually.

 

When we lived in Saskatchewan, there was a column in the Nipawin Journal entitled ‘Questions of Faith’ to which various pastors were asked to contribute regularly. One question to which I was asked to respond was, ‘As a Christian why should I read my Bible?’ I opened my response this way:

‘My five year-old asks us every night if we can read the Bible to her since at Sunday school, not too long ago, the teacher sang with the children, “read your Bible, pray every day and you’ll grow, grow, grow …” Sarah-Grace took this truth to heart and has been faithful in reminding us to read her Bible.’[5]

Sarah-Grace, even as young as 5, and her sisters too, have been very faithful in reading their Bibles every day and encouraging us to do the same for that really is key to purity, blamelessness and blessing.

 

The psalmist tells us on page 2 of this Psalm 119 Alphabet Book, we can be pure, blessed and blameless as we memorize God’s Word and keep God’s Word in our hearts so we can draw on it and experience the Lord’s blessing, peace and strength. We can experience purity, blessing, and blamelessness by letting the Lord teach us His ways.

 

We can experience purity, blessing, and blamelessness, as our scripture today says, by seeking God with all of our hearts. This, I think, is so important. One of the Bible verses that I had memorized as a child is Matthew 6:33 ‘seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you’. I have drawn on that many times in my life as many things have threatened my purity and my experience of the Lord’s blessing in my life. Psalm 1:2 and Joshua 1:8 encourage us to meditate on the Word of the Lord day and night. As we do this, as we keep His Word in our heart and seek Him with all our heart, He promises we will find Him and we will experience His purity, blessing, and blamelessness for now and forever.

 

I am not going to go through all of the stanzas of this, the Bible’s longest Psalm, but I will take a quick look at the third letter of the Psalm 119 Alphabet Book. The third letter – with which every line of this stanza begins – is Gimel. This page in the Alphabet book reads:

 

ג Gimel

17 Be good to your servant while I live,

that I may obey your word.

18 Open my eyes that I may see

wonderful things in your law.

19 I am a stranger on earth;

do not hide your commands from me.

20 My soul is consumed with longing

for your laws at all times.

21 You rebuke the arrogant, who are accursed,

those who stray from your commands.

22 Remove from me their scorn and contempt,

for I keep your statutes.

23 Though rulers sit together and slander me,

your servant will meditate on your decrees.

24 Your statutes are my delight;

they are my counselors.

 

This stanza does not offer as much new information as the first to stanzas which is understandable – they formed the opening argument from which the rest of this book arguably flows and there is much to be said after Gimel as well.[6]

 

Gimel does offer us this encouragement. Gimel states that we are strangers on this earth (Philippians 3:20: For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, cf.1 Peter 2:11). We are God’s servants. As God’s citizens we long to follow His laws and decrees over and above all else. Gimel offers us this comfort: there will be people who choose not to experience the blessing that comes from following the Lord and His Word. There are those who, because of this, will scorn those who do follow the Lord. There will be leaders of various countries – maybe even our own now (I don’t know) or at some time in the future – who will slander believers in the Word of the Lord. Gimel offers us an encouragement to perseverance: even if the most powerful people in this country slander us, even if most of the people scorn us, even if it seems as if the whole world is against us, the Lord will be our delight and He will be our salvation.

 

Friends, sometimes life is hard. Sometimes life is tragic. This week alone I can’t tell you how many people have come to me with stories of addiction and illness and injury coming upon them and/or their loved ones. Here is the encouragement of Gimel: as bad as things get we can delight in the Lord. His Word can counsel us to what is right, what will get us through it and He will be with us through everything.[7] He will be with us in all our trials and tribulations.

·        Gimel expresses lament but we can be encouraged for as we turn to Him, in even our most difficult times, we will see that He is indeed with us.

·        Beth contains Divine teaching on Wisdom: as we do seek Him with all our heart, we will experience His purity, blessing, and blamelessness and…

·        Aleph gives us a full appreciation of the Law of the Lord[8]: As we continue in the Lord’s blessing, we will continue to experience the Lord’s blessing both now and forever.

 

Let us pray

 


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[1] Leslie C. Allen, 'Psalms 101-150', 2nd ed., (WBC 21: Word Books: Dallas, Texas, 2002),180

[2] Strong's Concordance, H835, eh'sher, Blessed. Cited from Blue Letter Bible. https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?t=kjv&strongs=h835

[3] Walter Brueggemann, God Neighbour, Empire: The Excess of Divine Fidelity and the Command of Common Good (Waco, Texas, Baylor University Press: 2016), p.137

[4] This relates to God’s conveying His covenant to Israel(to us). It can refer to God’s prophetic utterance, a collection thereof and/or all wisdom texts or Torah. Cf. Leslie C. Allen, 'Psalms 101-150', 2nd ed., (WBC 21: Word Books: Dallas, Texas, 2002), 186.

[5] Captain Michael Ramsay, 'Why Should I Read the Bible?' Nipawin Journal, (February 2008). Available on-line: http://www.sheepspeak.com/sasknews.htm#Bible

[6] Charles H. Spurgeon, ‘The Treasury of David Vol. 3: Psalms 101-150’, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers,139: the whole Psalm develops from Verse 1.

[7] Willem A. VanGemeren The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Psalms/Exposition of Psalms/BOOK V: Psalms 107-150/Psalm 119: The Joy of God's Law in Distress/II. The Beth Strophe (119:9-16), Book Version: 4.0.2: Contentment is a true expression of inner godliness. The psalmist declares repeatedly that his inner delight and joy is in God and his revelation:

[8] Leslie C. Allen, 'Psalms 101-150', 2nd ed., (WBC 21: Word Books: Dallas, Texas, 2002), 184

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