Psalm 119: A Deep Dive into Different Aspects of the Word of God, which the Psalmist praises

Psalm 119 talks about the word of God in different ways. It talks about God's law, precepts, testimonies, judgments, commandments, statutes, or simply the "word" of the Lord. There are even more Hebrew words behind those translations. The differences can seem technical or elusive. A closer look shows some differences which can help deepen our own understanding. First a quick note on that "deep dive" into the underlying words, and then some comments on the different aspects of the Word of God. 

Tools for the "Deep Dive"

First, I determined which original Hebrew word(s) are in each verse. Next, I ran a most-common-words analysis of just the verses using each word (or pair of closely-related words), again using TagCrowd as an analysis tool. I looked for words that are associated with the other at least 3 times, to establish a pattern. Here are the basic findings, with the parenthetical numbers showing how often a certain association is found: 

• Law (Hebrew: Torah): Lord (4), delight (4), love (4), keep (3)
• precepts (Hebrew: piqqud): Keep (5), quicken (3), understand (3)
• testimonies (Hebrew: edah and eduth): Keep (4), kept (3), understanding (3), heart (3)
• word (Hebrew: imrah) According (6), comfort (3), eyes (3), merciful (3), servant (3)
• judgments (Hebrew: mishpat): Lord (6), righteous (6), according (4), mouth (3), praise (3)
• commandments (Hebrew: mitsvah): Delight (3), loved (3)
• statutes (Hebrew: choq and chuqqah): Teach (7), Lord (4), keep (4), heart (4), servant (3)
• word (Hebrew: dabar): According (6), hope (6), Lord (5), keep (3), servant (3), soul (3), live/quicken (3)

Take-aways from that review

The Law is is seen as worthy of love and delight, not merely obedience. Walking in the Law (Torah) is a way that is pure and undefiled. Loving the Law carries abundant peace, and guards against stumbling.. 

The judgments of God are associated with justice: they are not mere acts of power but of empowered righteousness, and so they inspire praise. As wickedness is a cause of grief, its redress through justice is a cause for celebration. 

One aspect of "word" is sometimes used almost like "promise": he gave his word. In this sense, the word of God is associated strongly with hope. Another aspect of "word" is often associated mercy and (possibly therefore) with comfort. 

Other aspects of the word of God consider aspects of teaching and understanding, or how the Lord quickens us / brings life. The Word of the Lord is also thought of as expanding our ability to love: it "enlarges the heart". 

Why the fate of "Roe" is not the most important milestone: The more meaningful victory is not about law

I have mentioned previously that my brother and I grew up as unwanted children, born in a pre-Roe-v-Wade era. Before Roe, each state had its own laws governing when a developing human life was recognized as legally human and therefore worthy of legal protection. The Supreme Court has returned that decision to the states once again, and each state is in a position to consider or reconsider its own laws. The laws will likely range the whole spectrum -- protected from conception, or from the detection of the child's heartbeat, or from quickening, or from the age of viability, or from birth. (From time to time, a handful of people have advocated for "from some days after birth", though that has not gained serious traction at this point). There may even be room to build consensus around heartbeat laws, quickening laws, or viability laws.

I have seen celebration among those who believe a developing human life is worthy of legal protection. I find myself unable to join the celebration just yet because of this: Those who argue that an unwanted child's life can be miserable -- they aren't wrong. Over the upcoming years, I would expect to see many state legislatures take up the question of what laws are good and right. Even when the law protects the child from a reasonably early age (for example, heartbeat laws), the law does nothing to promote good parenting. Neither is it the law's place to promote good parenting; that's a question of culture rather than law.

For those who have prayed for the day when human life is better protected, I think we do those lives a disservice by focusing only on the legality or illegality of abortion. Until it becomes normal to expect mothers to love their children, until it becomes normal to expect fathers to stand by their children and the mother -- until that happens, protecting the child from abortion is an incomplete victory.

Psalm 119: The meditative, contemplative act of worship

The Book of Psalms contains prayers, laments, songs of praise, and psalms for special occasions. Through  all their variety, they share this: they are all recorded acts of worship. Psalm 119 is distinctive in this: it mentions meditation more than any other chapter of the Bible. In fact that one chapter, by itself, contains a sizeable portion of all the mentions of meditation in the entire Bible.* As I read that Psalm, the author's meditation draws me into an act of meditation which is shared, holding fellowship across a considerable distance in time.

I have heard a distinction that I find helpful: "meditation" can be the kind of meditation in which we still our minds, or it can be a meditation in which we engage our minds -- for example focusing on something blessed, spiritual, holy, or wondrous. The meditation that engages the mind is called "contemplation". Psalm 119 is the most extended contemplation in the Book of Psalms, focusing the mind on whatever is good, whatever is true, whatever is right, whatever is noble, whatever is worthy of praise within the word of God. 

All the Psalms, as poetry and songs, can rightly be counted as art. In that collection, Psalm 119 is a masterpiece. This is not merely for supporting the acrostic 22x8 structure. While some acrostics struggle with quality in order to fill the contractual obligation of the acrostic form, the author of Psalm 119 reached exceptional content in depth, in spiritual beauty, and in engagement with his own human condition. And so the acrostic here does the rare job of fulfilling its promise: giving order and structure while lifting up the idea that every part has its value, and that staying the course is worthwhile. 

As mentioned previously, this one Psalm is the single most instructive chapter in the whole of the Bible on the topic of meditation. It is unlikely that a poem of such length and structure was written in one session. The author leaves us some insight into his private life: "My eyes anticipate the night watches, that I might meditate on your word" (119:148). He prized his hours of meditation, not as an obligation but as refreshment. 

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* I am aware that there are those who assert that the Bible is not the book title of the Bible and so should not be capitalized. While acknowledging some unique situations to be considered, I think they are essentially wrong; it is the title by which I call the book, and there is no other title by which I call the book. And so I continue to capitalize. 

Psalm 119: Word Cloud

Continuing with a contemplation of Psalm 119, here is a word cloud of it: 

according (18) afflicted (7) ashamed (5) comfort (4) commandments (24) continually (4) delight (9) deliver (4) earth (5) eyes (6) faithful (4) fear (6) forget (7) give (6) hand (4) hate (4) heart (15) hope (8) judgments (22) keep (22) kept (7) law (25) live (5) longed (4) lord (24) love (11) meditate (7) mercies (8) mouth (7) praise (4) precepts (21) proud (6) quicken (11) righteous (7) righteousness (6) salvation (6) seek (4) servant (14) soul (8) statutes (22) teach (9) testimonies (23) therefore (6) truth (4) turn (4) understanding (10) ways (6) whole (6) wicked (6) words (4)

created at TagCrowd.com

I like a word cloud for an objective double-check of the main focus. Since the text I used was King James "Authorized Version" text, I excluded the old-era equivalent of words that would normally have been excluded automatically in modern English (art hast hath mine thee thou thy unto). Since Psalm 119 is well-known for focusing on various aspects of the Word of God, it's no surprise that the word cloud shows a focus on the ways in which we refer to the Word of God: commandments, judgments, law, precepts, statutes, testimonies. We also begin to see the connection to the author: concern with shame, or seeking understanding, with an emphasis on "heart" and "hope", "love" and "mercies", "meditate" and "teach". 

Psalm 119: First encounter

On my first read through the Bible, when I came to Psalm 119 I winced at a quick scan of its length. Then I started reading it and was so caught by the author's passion and reverence that I was finished before I gave another thought to its length. It remains to this day one of my favorite Psalms. (My first read-through was before I learned about some of the artistry that didn't survive translation: it's an acrostic poem in the original Hebrew. I remain impressed that the urgency and pace and devotion did survive the translation.)

Like the Sermon on the Mount, this Psalm begins with a focus on God as the God who blesses: The opening line "Blessed are the undefiled" is much like "Blessed are the pure in heart" from the Sermon on the Mount. And the Psalmist doubles down on beginning with blessings, as the second verse underlines the theme again: "Blessed are they who keep his testimonies." (It's not only this Psalm and the Sermon on the Mount that begin with blessings. God's first words to people, as recorded in Genesis 1:28, are likewise a blessing, as it says "God blessed them and said to them", etc.)

From the start, the Psalmist sees the blessings that come to us through God's word: being undefiled, being unashamed, and gaining an upright heart. Freedom from shame and fault come from respecting and delighting in God's commandments (mitzvah). Since the author uses the word mitzvah at that point (v 6), there's a nod also to delighting in God's righteous works. 

There's is more depth in this Psalm that I hope to explore. While the Psalmist may have been an engaging enough author to write such a lengthy work without trying peoples' patience, for my own part I think I'll pause here.

Why we trust the beauty of nature -- and where it leads me

Some things approach being a human universal: one is an awareness of the beauty of nature. When we perceive it we experience joy or wonder, sometimes awe and reverence. And it brings a deep sense that underlies many spiritual traditions: the certainty that the original order of the universe is good, wholesome, beautiful, and holy. In a similar vein, the Psalmist wrote, "The heavens declare the glory of God, the firmament shows the work of his hands. ... There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard." (Psalm 19:1, 3). Meditation is respected in most spiritual traditions though it can be seen as either a chore or an acquired skill. But the times when we are overtaken by beauty has led many people to unplanned moments of meditation, where duty and skill are irrelevant and we are carried by the realization alone. I have tried sketches of some of those moments, where an experience of wonder can be caught partially in art. The imitation -- or commemoration -- is worthwhile but I have never quite captured the whole feel of the original moment. (I am not quite sure that it can be done, though it can be close enough to validate the effort.)

For me, one of the deeper draws of Christianity -- of the teachings of Christ -- is that I find the same resonance, the same beauty, the same voice in his teachings as I find in those moments in nature. Every now and then another voice in Scripture will also attain that height and depth and feel: some passages in the Psalms or the prophets or in Paul's writings, Mary's Magnificat, Solomon's dream. And some places in Scripture will draw me especially for the insight into the character of God. But nothing draws me so consistently as the words of Jesus. The unplanned meditation overtakes me again with the same sense of peace and connection, the same certainty about the reality that gives rise to our world. That would be enough to ensure my attention, but he keeps going to address the aching gap between that primal good and lived human experience. He brings words and matching actions that the underlying goodness behind the world is deeper than the problems that we see (and cause). And in the words of Jesus, he speaks of healing to come, and justice to come, and mercy to come, and the treasure that is mercy in this world, for this world. I may not have quite captured the whole feel of the unity between the unfiltered beauty of the world and that of the Word of God, but for me it is enough to trust they come from the same source. 

At Pentecost, remembering Peter

"Laying aside all malice, and treachery/guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and slander, as newborns desire the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow from it: if you have tasted that the Lord is gracious." (1 Peter 2:1-3)

Sometimes I have a tendency to think of Peter as the Apostle who was a little too eager to talk, and ended up with his foot in his mouth. I see his journey -- and his public mistakes -- and tend to forget that he spent three years learning from Christ himself. Who could come away from that unchanged? 

Somewhere there is a line between staying humble about our human leaders who all have human faults, and refusing them respect. Even the high priest had to offer sacrifices for his own sins; who among us is without faults? And so it is with some late-remembered humility of my own that I think twice about the layers of depth of what Peter wrote. 

The evils that he mentions are evils that come into the world mostly through words: malice, treachery/guile, hypocrisy, envy, slander. He contrasts the with the Word, and quickly draws a contrast that God's word is logical, healthy, pure, growth-promoting, and gracious. He leaves the listener to work out that the opposite is true of our sinful words: unreasonable, unhealthy, impure, corrupting, and ungracious. And we know the difference by the taste they leave in our mouths. He doesn't focus so much on whether we are consuming words or speaking words or pondering words; he focuses on whether they are words of purity and God's grace. If there is a source of pollution which we can address by our smallest actions, here it is: the words we hear, the words we amplify, the words we use to grow our souls in the direction they grow. 

Thank God for the words of Peter.