How many different ways can God tell us we ought to read and value His Book? At least 176!
When I think of contemplating Psalm 119, why does the chorus by Oscar Eliason come to mind, including the words, “Got any mountains you can’t tunnel through?”? I’m so glad the next line reminds us, “God specializes in things thought impossible; He does the things that no other can do.” We’ll certainly need heaven’s help for this. This psalm, the Mount Everest of the Bible, the longest psalm by far, is an acrostic masterpiece. There are 22 sections, matching the 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. The first word in each line of a section begins with one of these letters in succession. For example, in verses 1-8, the first word in each verse begins with aleph, the Hebrew A. Verses 9-16 has the first word in each line beginning with the letter bet, and so on. Previously we looked at the psalms with a statement beginning, “Blessed is the man” or something similar, but left Psalm 119 until now. It begins, “Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord!” (v 1). Who in the whole human race doesn’t want to be happy? Here is the answer to this universal longing. The antidote to the things that rob us of our happiness is found in a book! Not just any book, but one sent from the heart and mind of God. As we cross life’s minefield, full of confusion, corruption, and contradictions, there is “the way.” That way is marked out for us in “the law of the Lord.” His law is not designed to limit our happiness, obviously, but to limit the damage that sin does to the soul. So let’s explore this amazing Book. Susanna Wesley told her children that if they fell in love with Psalm 119, they would fall in love with the whole Bible— because obviously the theme in every verse is the inestimable value of the Word of God.