Psalm 119:1-8

The Christian's Golden ABC of the Praise, Power, and Value of God's Word

This beautiful psalm, whose writer is not known, is divided into twenty-two sections of eight verses each. All the verses in the same paragraph open with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet, all twenty-two letters of the Hebrew language thus being used. The outstanding characteristic of this wonderful psalm is the fact that in all but two verses (122 and 132) the Word of God is designated by some expression, such as commandments, judgments, statutes, precepts, testimonies, law, and others, all these terms being used here as synonyms, a fact which makes the psalm of direct value to all believers of all times, a manual of pious thought, especially for all teachers of the Word.

Aleph. OF THE BELIEVER'S CONDUCT IN ACCORDANCE WITH GOD'S WORD. — V. 1. Blessed are the undefiled, the blessed, sincere, irreproachable, in the way, in their entire conduct of life, who walk in the Law of the Lord, being guided by His Word in their entire life.

V. 2. Blessed are they that keep His testimonies, the Word in which He testifies of Himself, for the truth and against sin, and that seek Him with the whole heart, desiring to have such a perfect knowledge of Him and His holy will that they will readily conform to it in all their actions.

V. 3. They also do no iniquity, no deliberate wickedness; they walk in His ways, arrange their entire life in agreement with the manner prescribed in His Word.

V. 4. Thou hast commanded us to keep Thy precepts, the directions which relate to the conduct of men in every circumstance of life, diligently, to observe them most carefully.

V. 5. O that my ways, the behavior of the believer in every condition in which he finds himself, were directed to keep Thy statutes, the express laws relating to the various relations in life!

V. 6. Then shall I not be ashamed, be brought to shame, heaped with disgrace, when I have respect unto all Thy commandments, those enjoining the good and forbidding the evil, to guard against both sins of commission and of omission.

V. 7. I will praise Thee with uprightness of heart, without a trace of hypocrisy, when I shall have learned Thy righteous judgments, the decisions based upon God's justice, of approval as well as of condemnation.

V. 8. I will keep Thy statutes, the commands of God's Word which are of permanent value for all men. O forsake me not utterly, for he who is forsaken of God is condemned to a life of unhappiness and to an eternity of woe.

The prayer for faithfulness in making one's conduct agree with the Word of God must ever be in the mouth of every Christian.