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.
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