With a new year comes a new memorization goal. For this year, I want to memorize all of Psalm 119. This week, we will begin with an overview, and the first four verses. Take a look at them for yourself.

Psalm 119 is the longest of all the psalms, at 176 verses long. It is also the most complex of all the psalms, being written as an acrostic, with eight verses for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. There are twenty-two strophes to this psalm, corresponding to each letter, with eight verses in each, possibly as a connection to the eight different words used to convey God’s Word that are used within.

If you memorized the letters that break up the sections of this psalm, you would have the entire Hebrew alphabet memorized, and this could have been a literary device to help teach the written language in Old Testament times.

The key concept to Psalm 119 is God’s Word. There are eight different terms used to communicate this found in these verses. Let’s look at each briefly. Many of them overlap in English, and so it may be a bit confusing. But each term stands on its own in the original language.

• Law – Also translated as “direction” or “instruction,” this is the word “torah.” It is found twenty-five times.
• Promise – Also translated as “word,” this term carries the idea of a spoken word specifically. It is used nineteen times.
• Word – Used twenty-two times, this term is more inclusive, and refers to the whole of God’s truth.
• Decrees – Also translated as “statutes” or “regulations,” this word is used twenty-two times, and carries the weight of the law of the land, to be observed by all.
• Commands – This term is also used twenty-two times, and is an expression of God’s will, as the one who has the right to commend his creation.
• Laws – Also translated as “ordinances” or “judgments,” this term is used twenty-three times. It applies to the relationship between two parties, such as the law giver, and those who are receiving it.
• Statutes – Can be translated as “decrees” or “testimonies,” and is more of a legal term, which can carry the idea of a warning. It is used twenty-three times.
• Precepts – Also translated as “instructions” or “regulations,” this term is found twenty-one times. This term can carry the force of a command.

Every single verse of Psalm 119, except for five, contains one of these words, and five different verses contain two terms, giving a total of 177 times God’s Word is referenced. Several strophes contain all eight of the terms, and in every line, the skill of the psalmist is evident. He has taken a key concept, and something very near and dear to his heart, and written a powerful and moving piece of literature.

In the first stanza of eight verses, we will look at the first four. This strophe is descriptive of the joy and happiness that can be found when one walks in the ways of God. In order to find this joy or happiness, not “blessed” as the NIV terms it, one must be fully committed to God and his ways and his Word.

As you look at this passage, note that the first three verses refer to the reader. Beginning in verse four, we see the pronoun,”You,” which refers to God. This indicates that the first three verses serve as the introduction to the entire psalm, and is addressed to the reader, explaining that there is a joy to be found. But beginning in the fourth verse, that joy becomes evident as a connection to the Giver of the Word, and he expects it to be obeyed.

It could be stated that this entire psalm is centered around seeking God and his ways, as is stated in verse two. If we want to find the joy that only God can give, we need to seek him with all our heart as well. So how are we to do that? That’s what the rest of this psalm is about.To seek God means to look for his guidance, to heed his instructions, to obey his commands. In order to follow God’s ways, we must walk in them.

That’s the message that the psalmist gives to us as he begins this massive literary accomplishment: if we want to find true happiness, we can only do so by conforming to God’s Word. Nothing else can bring that about.

As we begin this memorization journey this year, I encourage you to sit down and read through this psalm a few times. Yes. It is a long one. Yes, it seem to repeat itself a lot. But it is evident that the psalmist loved the Word of God, and he had a passion for keeping it in a place of primacy in his life. So sit down and read it a few times. And then come back to it next week and read it a few times again. Allow it to soak into you and permeate you with the love for God’s Word that the author held.

It’s not enough to simply know the Word, though. We must live by it.

That’s what Psalm 119 is all about.

Question: What is your favorite passage from Psalm 119? You can leave a comment by clicking here.