Psalm 119 is wisdom psalm. The date is around 625-600 BC. A contrary dating places it in post-exilic time when the law had begun to replace the Temple as the focal point of Israelite religion, with a concomitant rise in the influence of wisdom schools on biblical thinking and literature. The psalm is acrostic in form. Each eight verses begin with the same letter of the letter Hebrew alphabet, continuing in such form for 22 segments. The Babylonian Theodicy, composed about 1000 BC, is an acrostic poem that has twenty-seven stanzas of eleven lines each. In that case, the acrostic reads, “I, Saggil-kinam-ubbib, the incantation priest, am an adorer of the god and the king.” Several psalms are structurally acrostic (e.g., Psalms 9-10 [a single psalm originally], 25, 34, 37, 111, 112 and others). Acrostics are elsewhere in the OT (e.g., the opening chapters of the book of Lamentations), and the form appears to have been used as a mnemonic device to assist student scribes in memorizing the poems. Such compositions may have originated in wisdom circles in Israel or ancient scholars may have redacted (edited) them in those circles from earlier sources. It is as though the psalmist is giving his readers the basic ABCs of human life and how to best live from beginning to end. The psalm is the longest in the Hebrew Psalter. While Weiser thinks the psalm repeats similar thoughts in a wearisome way, Dahood sees a richness of expression. The central theme is that the word and law of God are decisive in every sphere of life. Weiser sees this psalm making a shift toward what we know later as Pharisaism. In any case, the psalm is a remarkable example of Israelite devotion to the law. It becomes a hymn in praise of God’s law and a sustained meditation on the role of that law in the life of the person of faith. Reading this long psalm, one gets the impression that it is very repetitive. It has 167 lines and says the same thing 167 ways. At least eight different words appear throughout that refer to the Torah or law of God: law, decrees, statutes, commandments, ordinances, word, precepts, and promise. It also refers to the words of God. All of these are that upon which we are to meditate so that the words of God come readily to mind. According to Old Testament scholar James L. Mays, the use of the Hebrew alphabet as the form of the psalm signals completeness, while the vocabulary represents comprehensiveness. In other words, the repetition in the psalm is really the whole point. The more one engages the repetition of words and concepts, the more they have a chance to influence the imagination. In its exaltation of the law, Psalm 119 is similar in theme to Psalms 1 because of its description of those who “delight” in the law of the Lord and “meditate” upon it day and night (v. 2) and 19 because of its assertion that obedience to the law of God is the key to a successful life. This psalm is an assertion of steadfast devotion to God’s law in the face of affliction. No matter what happens, the psalmist asserts, he will remain devoted to doing what God has instructed. The entire psalm is a paean to God’s law — torah, instruction or teaching — and bears many marks of having influence by the wisdom tradition in Israel. In this psalm, the law is glorious because it gives Israel a direction it is to gladly hear and obey because in it God has revealed divine mercy.[1] If we approach the psalm from the standpoint of what Paul says about the Law, we will miss the point in a profound way. We need to carefully consider its guidance.[2] The psalmist will say that he studies and meditates upon the command, word, and promise of the Lord. His urging of both intellectual understand and prayerful reflection is good guidance in reading the Bible for pastors and laity, but theologians and scholars as well.
Psalm 119:1-8 is the first segment. there is nothing negative about keeping the law. Far from being a burden, the law was the source of life, prosperity, security, dignity and happiness.
Psalm 119: 1-3 are instruction. They are a general declaration of the blessedness of those who adhere to the ways of God, proclaimed by the priest or choir to the worshiping congregation. This segment begins with the first letter of Hebrew alphabet, ‘aleph, as do the subsequent seven lines. 1 Happy (`ashre[3]) are those whose way is blameless (temimeh darek), noting that the way is blameless, not the persons, who walk in the law (torah) of the Lord (Yahweh), referring in the widest sense of all prophetic and priestly instruction. Psalm 119 echoes the sentiment expressed in the opening words of the psalter as a whole: “Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked . . . but their delight is in the law of the Lord” (Psalm 1:1). More than half of the occurrences of the Hebrew word translated “happy” in the OT are found in the book of Psalms (26 occurrences in the psalter, with only 20 occurrences of the word elsewhere), indicating the prominent place the concept of happiness or blessedness has in the Psalter. A prominent feature of the wisdom tradition of Israel is the contrast between the ways of the moral wise and the immoral foolish. It took it as axiomatic that adherence to divine instruction (the best translation of the Hebrew word torah, usually translated “law”) resulted in a happy or blessed life. In wisdom thought, there was a straight, short line leading from morality to happiness. It describes those who adopt this way as happy or blessed. However, human effort could not secure happiness. Yet, one could expect happiness from a life guided by Torah-wisdom. In a sense, following the ways of the Lord has its reward in happiness, even if one should love the Lord without regard to receiving this benefit.[4]One can also find such happiness and blessedness if one takes refuge in God (2:12; 34:8), trusts in Yahweh (40:4; 84:12), dwells in God’s house (84:4), embodies strength from God (84:5), considers the poor (41:1), does justice (106:3) and otherwise live according to Torah. 2 Happy are those who keep his decrees (`edotaw, testimonies, statutes), who seek him with their whole heart,[5] extending the thought of verses 1-2 to refer to those 3 who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways. Verse 3, along with verses 37, 90, and 122, are the only verses in which Psalm 119 does not use some synonym for torah. This dizzying variety of terms for the same basic concept partly reflects the importance adherence to divine instruction plays in the Psalter and also the somewhat artificial nature of Psalm 119, which is a mixture of psalm types (e.g., hymn of praise, prayer of thanksgiving, petition for divine assistance, lament, expression of trust, etc.). It may be that Psalm 119 is an agglomeration of psalms or psalm fragments from a variety of earlier sources, and while the psalm can at times display brilliant poetry and a keen sense of observation about life's trials, joys, and struggles, it can also at times become tedious.
The psalmist says one who lives within the law is “happy.” Finding the proper boundaries within which to live is like finding a delightful home that gives you feeling of contentment. The psalmist has found contentment within the boundaries, walls, and spaces of the torah. If the way of life provided in torah is simply following a rule, we can lose sight of the freedom that is the intent behind the way of life charted by God. Human beings need guidance in discovering the boundaries of a moral life. We do not know such guidance by instinct. We know them because we learn them through what others are willing to teach or through paying attention to life experience. We may well develop habits that lead to a form of slavery. We need a different direction. We need to replace negative habits with positive ones. Thomas Chalmers, 19th century Scottish clergyman called it “the expulsive power of a new affection.” What the psalmist is advocating here is what we might call “freedom through obedience.” The prolific 20th-century Methodist missionary E. Stanley Jones equated it with flying: a pilot is free to fly the plane wherever he wants so long as he obeys the rules of flight. God provides us with the freedom to live our lives in blessedness and happiness so long as we respect the boundaries God provides within his Word. Step outside those boundaries and we are bound to crash.
[1] Barth, Church Dogmatics IV.2 [66.5] 591.
[2] Ibid, I.2 [16.2] 274.
[3] The word 'ashre is based on an ancient Semitic root (found also at Ugarit, 14th-century B.C.) whose basic meaning seems to be “place,” “step” or “fate” and, by extension, “happy,” “blessed” and “fortunate.” The root is also the basis of the name of the Canaanite goddess Asherah (“The Blessed One” or “Her Blessedness”), whose veneration was consistently condemned by Israel’s priests, judges and prophets and occasionally, kings (e.g., Deuteronomy 16:21 [translated as “sacred pole,” as it frequently is, as at Judges 6:25, 26, 28; ]; Judges 3:7; 1 Kings 15:13; 18:19; etc.).
[4] (As Bernard of Clairvaux would put it centuries after Psalm 119 [On Loving God, chapter 7], “God is not loved without a reward, although He should be loved without regard for one.”)
[5] The first two verses of the psalm display classic Hebrew poetic parallelism, although the psalm almost certainly dates from a late period in the composition of the OT (likely post-exilic, when 'Ashre (the A and A' element) is repeated, rather than varied, another indicator of late composition (a pair of synonyms would have been more likely in earlier poetry), followed by the B/B' elements (those whose way is blameless // those who keep his decrees), followed by the C/C' elements (who walk in the law of Yahweh // who seek him with their whole heart). Given the alphabetic constraints within which the poet is working, such classic construction is laudable.
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