Bible Study - Psalm 119:65-72

This week, we look at Psalm 119:65-72. This is also the assigned psalm for the Second Sunday after Pentecost, this year. Psalm 119 is the longest Psalm in the Scriptures, and the author is not identified. This is also an acrostic psalm, like Psalm 25, that we studies earlier. It is even more complex, though, because there are 22 eight-verse portions and each portion begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The first portion begins with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the second portion begins with the second letter, and so on through all twenty-two letters. In addition, in each portion, each of the eight verses begins with a word with that same letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet is “Aleph.” So, verses 1 to 8 all begin with a word that starts with the letter “Aleph.” Verses 65-72 all begin with the ninth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, “Teth.” (Some translations, including the NIV and the ESV, list these letters at the beginning of each portion. Otherwise, you would not be able to tell that this psalm is so carefully structured.)

The whole psalm is a celebration of the importance and value of God’s Word for the author and for us. Every verse includes a reference to God’s Word. Verses 65-72 use the words: Your Word, Commandments, Statutes, Precepts, and Law. Other verses in the psalm also use the words: Your Righteous Rules, Testimonies, Promise, Ways, and other words. The word “Law” is used at least 25 times, and Dr. Roehrs indicates that it is not always the opposite of the Gospel, but it refers to “all manner of instruction given for our benefit.” Dr. Roehrs also says that the repetition of the words and phrases is like “the language of a lover who does not tire of saying the same ‘I love you’ to the one he loves,” even in a variety of ways. God and His Words are so, so important to the author, and he is reminding us that they are equally important for us, because God loves us.

Psalm 119:65-72 especially teaches us that, as P.E. Kretzmann says, “A course in the school of suffering always works benefits for the children of God.” The author of the psalm says that the Lord had “dealt well” (v. 65) with him, even in times of trouble and difficulty. “It is good for me that I was afflicted,” he says (v.71). And why? He writes, “Before I was afflicted I went astray” (v.67). He had gotten away from the Lord and His will in some way and needed to be re-awakened and drawn back to God and His Word. Affliction, trouble of some kind, can do that. For Christians, affliction is not so much punishment, as it is discipline from the Lord because He cares for us. See again words we have read before from Hebrews12:5-11. The Lord is our loving Heavenly Father who disciplines us because He loves us, or like a good Friend who chastises us and shows us where we are wrong and then helps us go in a better direction.

Look at Psalm 119:75, where the author now realizes that the Lord was acting in “faithfulness” to him as He afflicted him. Maybe he had been doing things that were very wrong and dangerous and needed to be corrected. Now, he says, ”I know, O Lord, that Your rules are righteous.” He says, ”You are good and do good” (v.68), even when the correction hurts. Now the author wants to be “taught” more, through the Lord and His Word (v.68). He “believes” and trusts more that the Lord is working for his good, even in tough times. He wants to have “good judgment” and better “knowledge” in the decisions he makes, for the Lord’s way is the wisest and the best for him and for others (v. 66). He “delights again in the law of the Lord” (v.70).

The author is also learning humility before the Lord. “Those who are insolent,” arrogant people “smear him” (and others) “with lies”(v. 69). “Their hearts are” (literally, in the Hebrew) “fat with grease,” “unfeeling with fat” in the ESV (v.70). We know today how dangerous it is to have build-up of bad things in our heart and arteries. That seems to be the picture image here. It is used in other place: “hearts of the arrogant (literally) closed with fat, with no pity for others” (Psalm 17:10) and people with “pride as their necklace… Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with folly”  (Psalm 73:6-7). In Isaiah 6:9-10, also, Isaiah is to warn of those who “hear but don’t understand and see, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people (literally) greasy and their ears heavy and their eyes sticky” (F.Delitzsch translation). Some people still call others “greasy” today, and that is not good or a compliment.

In contrast, the author of Psalm 119 now has a “whole heart” open to God’s precepts (v.69). He humbly calls himself God’s servant (v.65) and wants to keep His Word in his heart. He know that what comes “from the mouth of the Lord is always better for him than thousands of gold and silver pieces” (v. 72). If you look ahead to v.76-77, the author also finds “comfort in the steadfast love” and “promises” of the Lord, even to “servants, and he prays that the Lord’s mercy would come to him, that he might live.”

That Word of God is prophetic of Christ and His great mercy and forgiveness earned for us, that we may live, too, in and through Him. Truly, as the author discovers and says in Psalm 119, the Word of God is the true treasure for all believers, including us, as Kretzmann also says. May we keep learning from that Word.