TEACHINGS FROM PSALM 119

"Oh, how I love thy law! It is my meditation all day...Consider how I love thy precepts...I love them exceedingly" (Psalm 119:97,159,167).

In Holy Scripture, there is one portion devoted to teaching us the place which God's Word should have in our lives. It is the longest chapter in the Bible, and in almost every one of its 176 verses, the Word is mentioned, using different names. Anyone who really wants to know how to study his Bible according to God's will should make a careful study of this psalm.

There should come a time in your life when you resolve to study its teaching and carry it out into practice. It is no wonder that our Bible study does not bring us more spiritual profit and strength if we neglect the divine direction given to us in this psalm. It is possible you have never read it once through as a whole. Take time to read it through and understand its main ideas. If you find it difficult to do this by reading it once, read it more than once. This will make you feel the need to give it more careful thought.

Studying Psalm 119

The following hints may help you in studying this Psalm.

Take note of all the different names which refer to God's Word. Then take note of all the different verbs expressing how we should feel and what we should do in regard to the Word. Let this lead you to consider carefully the place God's Word claims in your heart and life. Consider how every faculty of your being —desire, love, joy, trust, obedience, and action—is summoned by God's Word.

Count how many times the writer speaks in the past tense of his having kept, observed, and delighted in God's testimonies. Notice how many times he expresses in the present tense how he rejoices in, loves, and esteems God's law. Consider how, in the future tense, he promises and vows to observe God's precepts to the end. Put all these together and see how more than a hundred times he presents himself before God as one who honors and keeps His law. Study this, especially as these expressions are connected with his prayers to God, until you have a clear image of the righteous man whose fervent, effectual prayer avails much.

Study the prayers themselves and note the different requests he makes with regard to the Word. The psalmist asks for understanding and the power to observe it. He prays to receive the blessing promised in the Word and to be found actually doing it. Note especially prayers like "teach me Thy statutes, " and "give me understanding." Also study those where the plea is "according to Thy Word."

Count the verses in which there is any reference to affection from his own sinful condition, from his enemies, from the sins of the wicked, or God delaying "to help him." Learn how it is in the time of trouble that we need God's Word especially, and that this alone can bring comfort to us.

The Word And Fellowship With God

Notice how often the little pronouns Thou, Thine, Thee occur and how often they are understood in every petition: "teach Thou me," "quicken Thou me." Then you will see how the whole psalm is a prayer spoken to God. All the psalmist has to say about the Word of God, with regard to his own attachment to it and his need for God's teaching, is spoken into the face of God. He believes that it is pleasing to God and good for his own soul to connect his meditation on the Word by prayer with the living God Himself. Every thought of God's Word, instead of drawing him away from God, leads him to fellowship with God.

The Word of God becomes to him the rich and inexhaustible material for having communion with God. As we gradually get an insight into these truths, we will get new meaning from the individual verses. When we take a whole paragraph with its eight verses, we will find how they help to lift us into God's presence. We will be lifted into that life of obedience and joy which says, "I have sworn, and will perform it, that I will keep Thy righteous judgments" (Psalm 119:106). "Oh, too I love Thy law; it is my meditation all the day."

Let us seek, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, to have the kind of devotional life which this psalm reveals. Let God's Word every day, and before everything else, lead us to God. Let every blessing in it be a matter of prayer, especially our need for divine teaching. Let our intense attachment to it be our childlike plea and confidence that the Father will help us. Let our prayers be followed by the vow that as God quickens and blesses us, we will obey His commandments. Let all that God's Word brings to us make us more earnest in longing to carry that Word to others.