Making 'Psense' of Psalms--Psalm 119:57-112: Ruts and Bumps

Another picture of "tracks" or trodden ruts,
taken at an Idaho tree preserve

“See those lines in our lane?” my friend said, pointing to parallel ruts in the asphalt of a rural country road. “Those were worn down by the wheels of Amish buggies.” In this section of Psalm 119 comes a similar picture of “ruts” and “road” from the meanings of the original Hebrew.
I have considered my ways and have turned my steps to your statutes (v. 59)
The word “ways” comes from Hebrew for a “trodden road.”  A related Hebrew word is used earlier in the psalm, in this famous line:
How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word (v. 8)
“Way” means track or rut, like made by a cart or chariot’s wheels. When we choose God’s “tracks,” we’re headed the right way, even when “the way” seems like a detour. Hebrews 12:10 explains it better: “Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.”

Afflictions—ruts and bumps—seem to run through the second third of Psalm 119. Some highlight verses:

8. Heth (57-64): You are my portion, O LORD. I have promised to obey your words (v. 57). This verse seems to echo Psalm 16:5: “LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure.” Both share “portion” (heleq), which refers to lands inherited after the Israelite tribes conquered Canaan. All the tribes except the Levites got expanses of land, but because the Levites were priests to be scattered throughout all tribal areas for spiritual service, they had a special heleq: “The LORD, the God of Israel, is their inheritance” (Joshua 13:33). Their special gifts from God would be better than pastures and croplands. Perhaps the use of “portion” here is a reminder that God’s gifts aren’t always what the world sees as “success,” like wealth or influence. Rather, having Him is the greatest gift of all.

9. Teth (65-72): Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word…It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees. (vv. 67, 71).

For more than a decade, as a victim of a drinking driver, I have addressed convicted drunk drivers in a court-ordered “educational session,” urging them to choose life (theirs and others) over alcohol- or drug-impairment on the highways. Afterwards, a few sometimes tell me they’re convicted and ready to make changes. On a bigger scale of life, when troubles resulting from our poor choices come our way, we can kick at them, or be grateful God disciplines those He loves (Hebrews 12:5-13).

10. Yodh (73-80): May they who fear you rejoice when they see me, for I have put my hope in your word (v. 74). If you’re part of the human race, there are probably people in your life who drag you down. You weary of spending spend time with them because they’re not interested in God’s solutions for their issues or problems. Yet seeing them through Christ’s eyes means coming alongside and nudging them closer to God. “Carry each other’s burdens,” Paul wrote the Galatians (6:2), “and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”  How much better the opposite, when others can rejoice in spiritual progress.

11. Kaph (81-88): They almost wiped me from the earth, but I have not forsaken your precepts (v. 87). The psalmist is “down, but not out.” Jesus reminded us of that truth in some of His last teaching words to His disciples: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

12. Lamedh (89-96): If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction (v. 92). Sometimes, in talking with believing friends about difficult situations, we agree on this tried-but-true conclusion: “What would we do without the Lord?” Paul reminded us of the same principle: “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).

13. Mem (97-104): Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long (v. 97). Posting scripture around the house is one way to do this. Memorization is another. But more important that being able to repeat words is this: “Let the word of Christ dwell in your richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom” (Colossians 3:16). The second half of that verse describes a song service! Indeed, what encouragement singing scriptural truths can bring!

14. Nun (105-112): Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path (v. 105). When I was new in the faith, someone explained verse 105 to me this way: “God gives us just enough light for where we are now. We couldn’t bear to see the whole way.” Peter encouraged believers to pay attention to what had already been revealed in scripture, “as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (1 Peter 1:19).

God offers just enough light to navigate the bumps and ruts, and His hand to hold us steady!

Next: stanzas 15-22

Making 'Psense' of Psalms--Psalm 119: A-B-C

These days I’m reading A-B-C books to my year-old grandson. As he sits in my lap and hears the alphabet sounds, I sometimes think of children hundreds of years ago using “hornbooks” to learn the essentials of reading. Dating to the Middle Ages, when paper was scarce and expensive, they consisted of a paper attached to a paddle and covered with a semi-transparent animal horn that had been boiled and scraped. The hornbooks typically contained the alphabet and vowel combinations, the benediction, the Lord’s Prayer and Roman numerals. With improvements in making paper, hornbooks faded from use in the early 1800s

In some ways, Psalm 119, known as an acrostic psalm (based on the 22-letter Hebrew alphabet), is like a “hornbook.” Although not brief like hornbooks—the psalm is the Bible’s longest chapter with 176 verses—it does proclaim essentials of faith as it praises God for His Word.

Though it’s tempting to skim through Psalm 119, it’s also worth noting that its depths have gripped history’s great Bible teachers. Puritan Thomas Manton (1620-1677) wrote a 1,677-page book on Psalm 119, devoting a chapter to each verse. The Church of England’s Charles Bridges (1794-1869) at age 33 published a 481-page book on Psalm 119. Famed preacher Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) devoted 349 pages in his massive Treasury of David just to Psalm 119. Obviously, they highly valued the scriptures. I wonder what they’d think of contemporary churches whose lost-and-found closets are full of forgotten Bibles.

No author is cited for Psalm 119, and perhaps it’s best we don’t know, for then its lessons come across for all of us. Psalm 119’s literary excellence includes its outline off the Hebrew alphabet, with each stanza’s eight lines also beginning with that letter. The subject matter speaks across centuries to issues we still face. We are “aliens” among the ungodly (2 Peter 1:11-12). Life is a struggle (1 Peter 4:12). Yet, with the Lord’s help, we are to press on (Romans 12:1-3).

Scholars say Psalm 119 uses eight different Hebrew words for scripture. All of its verses except perhaps seven directly mention God’s Word. Of those seven, four use strong synonyms (translated in KJV “thy ways,” twice; “thy Name,” “thy faithfulness”) and only three have no expression for God’s Word.  In subject matter, it has a connection to Psalm 19, in which David used six names for scripture, five found in Psalm 119.  Both compare the “Word of God” to gold (19:10, 119:72, 127) and honey (19:10, 119:103). Both emphasize keeping or obeying God’s Word, express a hunger for holiness, and reveal a passion to understand scripture.

The end of Psalm 119 comes back to this essential truth: God is holy, and people are in need of salvation. “I have strayed like a lost sheep,” the psalm says in the very last verse.  “Seek your servant, for I have not forgotten your commandments. There’s an echo of this in Isaiah 53:6: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray.” Yet God is ready to help those “sheep” prone to wander, and Psalm 119 patiently rehearses the ways the scriptures help us live for Him. We need to keep in mind that the author of this psalm had only early scriptures to inspire him, mostly likely just the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) and perhaps a few more historical books.

I’d be hard-pressed to pick one key verse from all 176 of Psalm 119. Even the first one has a significant message:

Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD.
With the introductory word “blessed” (‘esher), it echoes the first verse of Psalm 1:
Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers, but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he mediates day and night.

Over the next three blogs, I’ll highlight significant verses from Psalm 119. My treatment will be like bugs touching a pond surface, but maybe it will encourage you to return on your own to this amazing alphabetical praise of God’s Word.

Making 'Psense' of Psalms-- Psalm 19: Two Revelations

Our local foothills aren't the alps, but the clouds above are
a daytime reminder of the  heavens declaring the glory of God

It’s a classic film with an iconic opening that reminds me of Psalm 19. “The hills are alive,” sings Julie Andrews, playing the part of would-be nun Maria, “with the sounds of music.” As cameras pan magnificent mountain scenery behind her, she twirls trying to embrace it all.

That’s close to the impression I get of David’s opening words to Psalm 19: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (v. 1). I grew up memorizing that last part as the King James’ “the firmament sheweth his handywork.” For years I mistakenly thought “firmament” referred to the wonders of the earth. But it doesn’t. “Firmament” is the vault or arch of the sky, thus all that’s above the “terra firma” (earth). It’s like David is taking us back to his shepherding days, inviting us to lay on the ground beside him.  As his sheep bleat nearby, we watch meteors skim across the blackness, seek out familiar constellations, perceive faint stars beyond the most obvious, and wonder about the moon.  After all that, in hushed tones, David says, “The skies proclaim the work of his hands.” Yet in all his observations, David had no clue what we’re still learning: that the stars are beyond number and our planet, solar system and our Milky Way galaxy, are mere dots in a universe. The only credible explanation of all this is God.

Psalm 19 describes God’s natural revelation (1-6) and His written revelation in the Bible (7-10). It concludes with a suggested response: confession and obedience.

 

WHAT YOU SEE (VV. 1-6)

Psalm 19 uses two Hebrew names for God, “El” and “Yahweh.”  In this first section He is “El,” the powerful creator-God. His creation does more than hint about Him. The skies “pour forth speech,” the verb “pour” indicating a strong gushing up like a vibrant spring. Even without human words, their mystery and immensity can only point us to a Creator.

Even the sun testifies to a Creator. In comparing the sun to a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, David could have meant both the “before” and “after” of the Jewish wedding customs. In the midst of celebrations, the groom would come out, claim his bride, and take her into the marriage tent to consummate the union. Also, in contrast to today when all eyes are on the bride’s gown, in those times the Jewish bridegroom was richly attired. In the second image, “like a champion rejoicing to run his course,” imagine yourself at a track competition, watching the face of the victor. Who can forget the exhausted yet ecstatic face of the star who played Olympian and future missionary Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire?

In David’s time, astronomy hadn’t advanced to understanding how the sun and planets were related.  But he knew the cycle of day and night had to be the plan of a Creator.

This testimony of nature is where the early apostles started in leading people to Christ. When Paul came to Athens and saw a city filled with false gods (and even an altar to an “unknown god”), he stood on the famed Areopagus and declared, “What you worship as something unknown, I am going to proclaim to you” (Acts 17:24). The true creator-God, he said, doesn’t live in manmade temples. Instead, from the creation of one man (Adam) came all nations according to His divine design. “God did this,” Paul said, “so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him…For in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:27-28).

Paul made the same appeal in the opening statements of his letter to the Romans: “Since from the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). Later, in Romans 10:18, Paul quoted Psalm 19:4 as evidence that God speaks through His creation.

WHAT YOU READ (VV. 7-11)

Besides creation, God speaks to us through sacred written revelation, the Bible. Thus this section uses the covenant name “Yahweh” (translated as “LORD” and printed in small capitals).  Nothing can hide from the heat of the sun (v. 6), so nothing is exempt from examination via scripture. People who dismiss the Bible as “old Jewish history and poetry” fail to acknowledge its divine assignment. God decided to communicate about Himself through writings that have amazing connections despite being written by 40 different authors over 1,500 years.

In his lifetime, David had the “Torah” or early Jewish history and books of law. Studying those prompted him to search for words to describe scriptures and their effect. C.S. Lewis called Psalm 19 “the greatest poem in the psalms and one of the greatest lyrics in the world.”  This section is a microcosm of Psalm 119, longest in the psalter and a Hebrew acrostic poem that entirely lauds God’s Word.

David’s synonyms for scripture are law, statutes, precepts, commands, fear, ordinances. His scripture adjectives: perfect, trustworthy, right, radiant, pure, sure. The results: reviving the soul, making wise the simple, giving joy to the heart, giving light to the eyes, enduring forever, altogether righteous. They’re more precious than gold, sweeter than honey right off the comb (v. 10). That’s a stop-and-think-about-it analogy! It can grow stale with repetition, but what a claim.

HOW YOU OBEY (VV. 12-14)

The psalm ends with personal application: to heed the warnings of God’s revelations, and thereby enjoy His “reward.”  Then David prays for all of us to listen in:

Who can discern his errors?  Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me.  Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression. (v. 14)

Talk about one size fits all! He’s teaching us to ask God to push back the curtain and show us sins we’re hiding or not aware of.  There’s no other way to build intimacy with God except to let everything be examined.  Then, David concludes with a prayer that’s often mine.  I’ve spoken it when quiet before God. It’s helped me choose wise words in difficult situations. And it’s been my quick prayer when I walk to the front of an audience to speak:

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock, and my Redeemer. (v. 14)

Rock:  echoes of the previous psalm (18:2, 31, 46).  Redeemer: the bigger God-story that would come hundreds of years later, with the arrival of Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah, whose earthly birth Heaven declared with extraordinary glory!

Next: Psalm 22