Love the Law, Love the Lord
It seems fair to say that Psalm 119 is a bit off-putting! You probably know that it is the longest psalm, and the longest chapter in the Bible. You may also know that it is very cleverly written, with each 8-verse section beginning with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And all 8 verses in each section also begin with that same Hebrew letter. All this alliteration is intended to help the hearers to learn the psalm in an age when people couldn’t afford their own copy of the Scriptures – but it doesn’t help us when we read it in English!
Almost every verse in this long psalm (22 letter-sections x 8 verses = 176 verses altogether) mentions the law of God. In English a variety of synonyms such as statutes, precepts, words, commands, and decrees are used. The writer is unknown, but may have been Ezra the priest: whoever it was they really loved the law!
Repetition is used partly to aid the memory, but it is also used for emphasis, to underline the importance of the teaching. For the psalmist, the Lord and the law are to be pursued wholeheartedly (v80), or “with all my heart” (v10). He is aware of his failings (vv 5, 6, 176), but is yet determined to delight in, meditate on, obey, recount, consider, hold fast to, long for, seek, remember, trust, and love the law and the word of His God.
Knowing that Jesus is “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6) adds an extra layer of meaning to the writer’s desire to “follow His ways” (v3), “hate every wrong path” (v104), “stay on the path of purity” (v9), and have the word as “a lamp for my feet, a light on my path” (v105). Following the way, and following the law, is following the Lord.
The frequent notes of delight and wonder in this psalm make it clear that this is not about a Pharisaical adherence to minute details (“tithing of mint, dill and cumin” as Jesus puts it in Matthew 23:23). The psalmist says: “I delight in Your decrees” (v16), “Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in Your law” (v18). “there I find delight” (v35), “How sweet are Your words” (v103), and “Your commands give me delight” (v143). There is nothing boring, dull, routine or slavish in his study of the word of God, but rather life and light and joy.
What is the law of God for us as Christians today? Jesus sums this up neatly when He says that the whole of the Law and the Prophets hangs on two laws, which can be simply stated as “love God” and “love your neighbour” (Matthew 22:37-40). This is simple enough for the least educated to understand, yet hard enough and challenging enough to be our lifetime’s work. The cry of our heart, and the object of our worship, is to go deeper into the way of the Lord, to love the Lord with everything in us (and our neighbour as ourselves), and perhaps the final stanza of the psalm expresses this best:
May my cry come before You, Lord:
Psalm 119: 169-176
give me understanding according to Your word.
May my supplication come before You;
deliver me according to Your promise.
May my lips overflow with praise,
for You teach me Your decrees.
May my tongue sing of Your word,
for all Your commands are righteous.
May Your hand be ready to help me,
for I have chosen Your precepts.
I long for Your salvation, Lord
and Your law gives me delight.
Let me live that I may praise You,
and may Your laws sustain me.
I have strayed like a lost sheep.
Seek Your servant,
for I have not forgotten Your commands.
