The light of the law: Aleph

Dear reader, this post will be the first of a new category on this blog: exposition and commentary focussed closely on a single passage of Scripture. These discoveries are the joyful fruit of this author spending time in one of the most delightful texts in all of Scripture: Psalm 119. One thing must be understood from the outset. This text is delightful and rich, like chocolate mousse. You enjoy it and prize it most if you only have small portions at a time, and you would not be best served by trying to digest the whole batch in one sitting… Thankfully, Psalm 119 is an acrostic poem: it is a set of poems following the Hebrew Alphabet, and each letter starts a poem reflecting on the goodness of God’s law.

Without further ado, let us plunge ourselves headlong into this most refreshing and glorious text.

Blessed are those whose way is blameless,
Who walk in the law of the LORD.

Psalm 119:1

The outset of this text, the statement that sets the theme for all that will come next, is the assertion that righteousness is greatly to be desired, and that obedience to God’s law leads to this righteous and blessed life. Many of us hear that and our angry-comments-section fingers are itching to say ‘that is works based righteousness!’ ‘Whoever said that must have been an old Pharisee!’

Consider for a second how many in our day might have preferred to start this passage: ‘Blessed are those whose life is free / who receive from Jesus the fulfilment of their ambitions’. The Psalmist doesn’t feel the need to hedge his bets, qualify his statements or backpedal. He is passionate about how wonderful it is to live a life that closely adheres to God’s law. His greatest desire is a blameless life, and faithfulness to God’s self-revelation in his word.

Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,
Who seek him with their whole heart,
Who also do no wrong,
But walk in his ways.

v2-3

A major feature of Hebrew poetry is parallelism. The psalmist is able to make the same point richer and more nuanced by addressing it from another angle, the way you might behold a precious stone from multiple angles, or a beautiful Zinger Stacker Burger, with all that Zingy goodness, before you absolutely guzzle it down.

A comparison is drawn between (v1) ‘those whose way is blameless’ and (v2) those who keep his testimonies. Additionally, the parallel compares those ‘who walk in the law of the LORD’ with those ‘who seek him with their whole heart’.

Keeping God’s testimonies is tantamount to a blameless life, and get this, seeking God with your whole heart (by implication) leads to walking in the law of the LORD. Usually we might be drawn to muse, ‘If only I could seek God with my whole heart, then I might get more of my prayers come true’ or ‘If only I sought God fully, then I know I would receive words of knowledge on a regular basis!’ but who thinks ‘If I could but seek the Lord with my whole heart, I would finally be enjoying the bliss of a blameless and upright life, living in full obedience to his laws!’

In passing, any fair reader must acknowledge that any person who accuses faithfulness to God’s law as being the cause of a haughty or self-righteous attitude needs to go to Specsavers, because they are not seeing the same words we are seeing. The Psalmist does not feel the need to apologise for people who are zealous for faithful obedience to God’s law, nor for people who encourage others towards faithfulness. If one is a pharisee, it is not because they are too stringent about following God’s law, it is because they have missed the point of it altogether.

You have commanded your precepts
To be kept diligently.

Oh that my ways may be steadfast
in keeping your statues!

Then I shall not be put to shame
having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.

v4-6

This section follows a logical pattern: (v4) God has commanded that his precepts be kept diligently, (v5) the Psalmist desires to be successful in keeping God’s precepts, so that (v6) he shall not be put to shame.

Does the Psalmist resent the fact that God commands diligent faithfulness to his law? Does he say, ‘O Lord, why must I strive for so tiresome and unreachable a goal? Can’t you lower the bar a little? After all, what is a white lie between friends?’

No. The Psalmist is not embarrassed or embittered that God desires and commands diligent faithfulness to his decrees. Instead, he cries out, ‘Oh, that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes!’

Brothers and sisters, this here is so important. The Scriptures teach clearly that only a regenerate God-loving heart can earnestly desire and accomplish this kind of faithfulness (Rom 8:7). This earnest desire on the part of the Psalmist is evidence that his desire for faithfulness and Godliness is not a pharisaical desire for works based righteousness, but rather the grateful love for God and his words and ways that can only occur in a heart that knows it has been bought by the precious blood of Christ. So, as we read on, and as we go poem by poem through Psalm 119, keep in mind that this is a true worshipper of Yahweh, someone who is in the same boat as you, if indeed you are a Christian.

Let’s return. His desire is not ‘oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes, so that I won’t have to repent or ask forgiveness so much!’ nor is it ‘may I be steadfast, so that I will lead a prosperous and happy life!’ The focus is not on the Psalmist, and the blessings he will experience, but on God, and his worthiness to be obeyed diligently.

He speaks of a single-minded focus, ‘having [his] eyes fixed on all [God’s] commandments’. This, he knows, is a sure buttress and defence against the wayward living that might cause him to be put to shame before the Lord. The Psalmist’s great desire is that before God, he might be pure, blameless and not put to shame.

I will praise you with an upright heart,
When I learn your righteous rules

I will keep your statutes;
Do not utterly forsake me!

v7-8

This first poem ends with a strong resolution, a strong conviction before the Lord. The Psalmist recognises that learning God’s righteous rules will empower him to praise God with an upright heart. Have you ever considered that? Have you ever thought, ‘I need to store up God’s word in my heart, so that when I praise him, my heart will be upright and stirred by the proper motives, not secretly motivated by undisciplined or selfish motivation’? Dear reader, this author will be the first to raise his hand and say ‘oh, how little has my heart yet been schooled by Christ, that this motivation is rarely mine!’

Finally, the psalmist pledges to keep God’s statutes, and then calls on God not to utterly forsake him. The good news, which all we who belong to Christ can today affirm, is that God indeed will never forsake us, not for a moment. We would do well to align our hearts to the heart of the Psalmist, and to desire faithfulness to God and his wonderful law that leads his people by the straight path, with all its subsequent blessing. However, as we drink deeply from this text, we can confess with certainty that if we have trusted in Christ, that the Spirit of the almighty God is ever working to produce this very faithfulness within us, and that he will succeed in his transformation and conformation of us to the image of God’s Son, until the final day when we are presented to God the Father, pure and blameless.

Blessed indeed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord.