Day 292: Psalm 119 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango

Welcome to the Bible Department podcast powered by Arma. We are walking through the entire Bible in a year. You can go to the description or thebaldapartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. (upbeat music) - Hey Hymnley, welcome to a day I've been waiting for, for a very, very, very, very, very long time here on the Bible Department podcast. If there was one chapter of the Bible that I would say was the poster child for this entire podcast, it's Psalm 119. So welcome today, 292. Today's a holiday here at the Bible Department studios because we get to study our favorite, favorite, favorite Psalm today. If you were wondering what pastor, doctor, Manny Orango's favorite Psalm is, it is Psalm 119. I love this Psalm. I tear up when I read the Psalm, I cry, when I read the Psalm, the Psalm is freaking awesome. It's like a love letter to the Bible. Like man, I wish I wrote Psalm 119, all right? So good, good, good, good, good Psalm. So if you have not done the reading for the day, please stop the video, pause the audio, go read Psalm 119. Now, this is the longest Psalm that we've got reported out of all 150 Psalms. So I think it was yesterday, Psalm 117,

the shortest Psalm of all the Psalms. Today we've got the longest Psalm of all the Psalms. And in my opinion, the best Psalm of all the Psalms. A love letter to the Torah. Like every day, we're gonna get context clues, nerdy nuggets, and then a timeless truth. Let me for warn you, I've got multiple timeless truths today. The whole dang thing is a timeless truth, okay? And so we're gonna go light on the context clues today, heavy on the timeless truths. Gonna give you as many nerdy nuggets as I can. If you've done the reading, let's dive in. All right, first things first. We have no context for the Psalm, and which then we have to try to figure out, okay, who wrote this thing, okay? Who's the hero that wrote this thing? Now, there are four options that scholars typically put forth. Daniel and Jeremiah are some of the suspects, some people in question, you know? But probably unlikely that it was Daniel or Jeremiah, to be honest. The two likely suspects are David, a boy David or Ezra, okay? Now, the context of David's life and the context of Ezra's life both fit for just the content of this Psalm, okay? But we don't really know for sure. Like, there's no guarantee, we don't know.

Now, when I read Psalm 119, I don't know, I guess I can hear David's heart. I can hear David's writing style. I can hear David's voice. And so it wouldn't shock me if it was David, but it also wouldn't shock me if it was Ezra just because of the context in which Ezra is compiling the Torah really, but the Tanakh as a whole. And so let me kind of read the arguments for why it could be David, why it could be Ezra, and then we'll get into some nerdy nuggets, okay? If David is the author, then the context is the beginning of Israel as a kingdom. When the Promised Land is completely conquered, the people are settled in prosperous, the king follows Yahweh, the tabernacle has been rebuilt in Yahweh and throwned in it, and Yahweh is enthroned in it once more. It is a time of triumph where the Torah in its earliest forms was still at the heart of Israel and at the heart of its leadership. The Psalm makes much more sense in that context rather than the years that followed when Israel essentially forgot the Torah. It also fits Ezra's context as it can be seen as supporting what Ezra is doing and putting the Torah back at the heart of Israel's life as a nation as they now return from exile, right? By the time we get to Jesus' life,

Judaism is a Torah-based religion as opposed to a temple-based religion. And then post 70 AD when the temple gets destroyed permanently, Judaism today is a Torah-based religion, not a temple-based religion. So you can say that this shift towards Torah-centeredness starts with Ezra, okay? The desire was that the exile would never happen again and the former prophets had clearly shown that it was the forgetting, would be centered around the Torah. And so this Psalm fits that mission. So it's either David's context or Ezra's context. Both make sense. I think we can make arguments for both. Both are reasonable. And so that's all the context clues that we got. All right. I wish we had more. But those are the two contexts that we got. And you'll have to decide for yourself. Do you think this was written by David? Do you think this was written by Ezra? Does David's context fit better? Does Ezra's context fit better? Totally up to you. All right. Let's get into some nerdy nuggets. Now this is going to frame the entirety of this Psalm. Okay. To be honest, this is probably one of the most important days of nerdy nuggets on the calendar. All right. Now this Psalm is generally understood to be a wisdom Psalm. So that's the first nerdy nugget. We just got to knock out that the Torah makes you wise that you should listen to it long for it, desire it that your heart should be after it, that you should find it more valuable than gold. Okay. All that language is found in Psalm 119. So this is a wisdom Psalm. It is also a full acrostic, but like the most complex form of an acrostic. This isn't acrostic on steroids. Okay. So the Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters. So we've got 22 eight line stanzas with each individual line in the stanza beginning with the same letter. So I want to say that one more time. It's a full acrostic. All right. So the Hebrew alphabet, 22 letters starting with LF. Okay. Now if you look in your Bibles at Psalm 119, you'll see that first stanza starts with LF. Okay. And then it's got eight lines. And then you'll see bet. Okay, which is the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And then you'll see

gimbal. It's third letter of the Hebrew alphabet all the way. Okay. It's going to work through every single letter of the Hebrew alphabet all the way down till we get to TA. Okay. So we're going to get our last eight lines for the last stanza. 22 stanzas for the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Each stanza has eight lines, eight lines, 22 stanzas, eight lines apiece. Now, why are there eight lines? I'm so glad you asked. Okay. So I want you to think about it. If this was English, okay, the first stanza would have eight lines and it would be like the first words, A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A and then it would go B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B. It would go C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-D-D-D-D-D-D-D, okay, all the way from A to Z, okay? That's an acrostic using the alphabet to actually create a format for your poetry. Now, why eight lines for each stanza? Well, this, these are eight synonyms for Torah that are used throughout the Psalm. Just like in Hebrew poetry in general, these are not to be viewed as eight aspects of scripture that is that they are not talking about eight different things, okay? They are talking about eight different words that almost provide eight different viewpoints on how to see Torah. So these are not eight differing things. These are eight different angles for how to understand Torah. Angles is a great word. Perspectives, eight perspectives on Torah and you can see these synonyms repeated all the way through Psalm 118. Here we go. Let's tell you what the eight words are, okay? Law, testimonies, precepts, statutes, commandments, ordinances, word, promise, okay? These are the eight synonyms that are going to get used for Torah over and over and over and over and over and over throughout Psalm 119. I'll say those eight words again, okay? So these eight words are the heart of this Psalm. If you don't understand these eight words, you're not going to really understand the Psalm. You're going to think you understand the Psalm. You could even appreciate the Psalm. The Psalm could make you cry, but the interpretive key to understanding this Psalm is understanding that we've got 22 stanzas made up of eight lines of peace. So the way that the Psalm is organized actually is communicating something. Because that's the amount of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Why is the number eight important? Well, it's because there are eight angles to see the scripture, eight words that describe what Torah does, what Torah is. And 22 times eight is 176.

And guess what? There's 176 verses in Psalm 119, okay? So the math is math. Then, all right, let's begin to break down what these eight words are. Okay, first, law. This is of course the most common term in the Psalm and in the scriptures as a whole. It can mean teaching, directing, instructing, or law. Or as it comes from God, revelation. It is sometimes used for a single instruction, but it is mostly used to speak of all Yahweh's revealed teaching to Israel in the Torah, which is Genesis through Deuteronomy. It is however, not law in the modern sense of a legal system or consultation, okay? So law, law. And we'll get to this in the time of truth that for whatever reason, when Christians think law, we think legalism, but Psalm 119 makes it clear that the law is fantastic, that God gives teaching, direction, instruction. He gives revelation, that the Torah is not seen as a legalistic system, but it is seen as something that we should have an affectionate relationship with, because it is God's teaching, directing, instructing, and vehicle for revelation, okay? Number two, Edote, okay, Edote. This is testimonies. The Torah functioned as a witness to Israel.

In Deuteronomy chapter 31 verse 26, a scroll of the Torah was placed beside the ark as a witness against them, or a witness against you if you read it in Deuteronomy 31, 26. The testimony of the Torah let Israel know when they had fallen from the standards of living a covenant life with Yahweh. But at the same time, the testimony of the Torah was a delight, because it showed Israel what covenant life with Yahweh was like. So, two of these eight words we've now just defined, okay? Torah or law, and now Edote, testimonies. Next, pikudim precepts. Pikudim is the Hebrew word, precepts, obviously the English word. This is a more detailed word. It is usually used by someone who was overseen or in a position of authority responsibility when they must give detailed instructions for those under them to take action in a given situation. It shows how the Torah is active. Yahweh is a God who cares about the details in Israel's life. The Torah responds to crisis with detailed action. So, if you think about Torah as a general teaching, directing, instructing, revelation, we wanna think about Edote testimony as the witness that bore witness of Israel's failure to keep Torah. And then we wanna think about the pikudim as a detailed word from Yahweh,

a detailed instruction, a detailed order that is supposed to cause the listeners to take action and not be confused on how to take action, okay? Number four, hukim, hukim. This is statutes. This word implies permanence. Statutes are not just said or written in scrolls. Statutes are engraved inscribed in stone or metal. Examples would be of Assyrian styles that 2,700 years later still tell us the decrees and words of kings like Tiglath, probably some of the third. Statutes are built to last. This word tells us that Yahweh's Torah is everlasting, AKA a timeless truth. It cannot truly be forgotten or lost. It is permanent. Perhaps this is connected more to the possibility of Ezra's authorship, possible. Even though it appeared that the Torah was broken and forgotten and lost, it was not indeed lost. It was back because Yahweh built it to last. Maybe, maybe that was the case. Next, miswilt, okay? Misvote. Commandments, this word highlights us. Although much of the Torah were case studies where the reader is encouraged to consider what Torah life is like and so follow in their own situation, there are also clearly commandments within the Torah. The 10 commandments, for example,

is less about considering and more about obeying commandments. You know, I got to think hard about this. Just do the commandment, okay? Six, I'm running out of time. Six, nis patim, nis patim, ordinances. This is often also translated as judgments. It highlights the Torah's role in making decisions over the lives of Israel. The wisdom contained in the Torah would decide between cases, whether someone is right or wrong, living in covenant life or living outside of it. The Torah set the standards of what life with Yahweh should look like, ordinances, mispatim. And then seven, word, debar, word, in Hebrew, debar. This is a general term based on the fact that the Torah was spoken by Yahweh to Israel and then Moses. The Torah came from the mouth of God. We see this directly in Exodus, chapter 19, verse 25. And Exodus chapter 20, verse one, where Moses went down to the people and then Yahweh spoke the 10 commandments to all Israel. Then throughout the Torah, we get this repeated phrase when God speaks, write this down. The Torah is from Yahweh. It is his words given through his servants, Moses, Ezra, and the unknown authors in between them. This is the word. It is the spoken word from the mouth of God. Recorded by humans, but spoken, nonetheless, okay? And number eight, promise, emra, okay, emra.

This is often simply translated word as well in our English translations. But if the debar is a general term, then emra is more specific. Debar is word, but emra is more like to say that, like to conjugate that, to say. This particular word rather than the general is therefore sometimes related, sorry, translated as promise, okay? I have a promise from the Lord. It doesn't mean I have a general word. No, I have a specific promise. As it highlights the particular words of Yahweh to Israel, words that are always faithful to fulfill what is said, prophesied, and promised. Those are the eight words that are gonna get used synonymously. And if you think they all mean the same thing, you're gonna lose the depth and nuance and richness of this song. So let's move into our timeless truth. I got a lot to say. Family, the weight is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos, is out now and available everywhere books are sold. Literally today, I walked into a Barnes & Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes & Noble or you can go to a book's a million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy.

If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is gonna be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. Number one, in the church, the Torah is often misunderstood. It is either ignored as we are now under grace, not law, or it is overused as a list of rules that must be followed or are the foundation of our society. In truth, neither responses should be made, but rather this psalm gives us a careful loving consideration of what the Torah was and is, we see the Torah through the eyes of this ancient psalmist, rather than our own misconceptions. This psalm can be helpful and inspiring. Therefore, because as Jeremiah said, this Torah is now written on our hearts to the spirit. Perhaps we should read this great psalm and then turn to Romans chapter eight. Paul's incredible thoughts on how the Torah is written within us through the spirit. And as our final kind of timeless truth, I just wanna highlight some of the verses in Psalm 119

that I use in my daily prayer life, okay? So the first is Psalm, law." That's simply me acknowledging I can't in my own power understand the scriptures, but God has the ability to open up my eyes so that I could see things in whose law, his law. No one can explain me better than me. No one can explain my writing better than me. No one can explain my penmanship better than me. So when we approach God's book, God's law, God's word, we should ask God to open up our eyes so that we can understand and not just understand average stuff, understand wonderful things. God, I want to be behold the wonderful things when I look in your law. I don't want to just be bored by what I'm reading. I don't want this to just be some stories I've been hearing my whole life. No, I want to behold wonderful things. Okay, that's number one. Number two, I love this verse right here. It says, "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." That's verse 11. And I think there's a natural link between consuming scripture and our fight against sin. Most times people tell me that they are succumbing to sinful habits. And I'll immediately say, "How many Bible verses have you memorized? How often do you read the Bible? How often do you meditate on the scriptures?" Because here's the reality. Sin will keep you from your Bible or the Bible will keep you from sin. Up to you, a lot of times people just want a quick fix on how to sin less. And I always tell them, if you want to sin less, read more. If you want to sin less, memorize the Bible. Because if I say, don't imagine a pink elephant in a Bluetooth tube spinning around with an umbrella over its head. Guess what? If I say, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't. Guess what you're going to do? You're going to imagine a pink elephant. But if I say, do meditate, memorize, consume, read, you know, then if you're actively doing that, then you're going to not do the things that you've been trying to not do. But it's not by not focusing on the things that you were trying to not focus on. It's by actively setting your mind towards the things that you want to focus on. All right. And then one more, it says this, verse 73, your hands made me informed me. Give me understanding to learn your commands. Your hands made me informed me. I love this verse because for me, I essentially can say to the Lord, I can find comfort in the fact, God, you made me, you formed me, which means my ADHD is not a flaw. You made me with ADHD. When you formed me and when you made me, you made me to understand a certain way. So you know how to teach me because you know your student, because you formed in fashion in this

mind, I'm not the one who has the study hacks you do. So God, would you give me understanding to learn your commands? I can't learn it the way everybody else can because I wasn't made the way they were made. You made me, you formed me, which means you got the cheat code on me. So how about you use the cheat code so that I can understand your word, okay? That right there is incredible. So all perfection, I see a limit, but your commands are boundless. There's a limit to everything, but the word, the commandments of God are infinite. That's just good, man. I like that verse because when there are times where it's like, well, is there anything new to be preached? You know, thousands of sermons have been preached by millions of people. There's nothing new. And I go, no, there's a limit to everything except the commands of God. So as long as I'm holding the commands of God, there's an infinite amount of sermons that can be preached. And if I believe that there's an infinite amount of sermons I can get from this Bible, then guess what? I won't approach it from a defeated place. I'll approach it from a place of, of course, there's another message in here. I'll do one last one, one last verse that I love. It says this, "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than the honey to my mouth." Again, understanding from your precepts, therefore I hate every wrong path. And there's one more that I really love. So I like the fact that the word is being likened or equated with sweeter than honey to my mouth. Like, God, this is sweet to my taste. The same way that I crave, you know, I crave a donut, love donuts. Same way I crave a cronut. I love a cronut, my local coffee shop, be having cronuts. Oh, cronut will bless your life. Same way that I crave that, I want to crave the word. Okay? So if you don't crave the word the same way that you crave your favorite sweet treat, something's off. And then last, I love this. It says, "I rejoice in your Can you imagine finding $50,000, finding $100,000, finding $1 million, how you'd respond? I hate in the test falsehood, but I love your law. So in it, I love this one, verse 127, "Because I love your commands more than gold." So not only is it honey, it's gold. It's great spoil more than gold, more than pure gold. And because I consider all your precepts right, I hate every wrong thing.

Man, this ain't just true for David if he wrote it or Ezra if he wrote it. This is true for you and for me. And I have applied this one song to so many scenarios in my personal life. I love Psalm 119. And I hope that after today, you would love Psalm 119 as well. Tomorrow, I'll see you for day 293 on our journey through the entire Bible. Tomorrow, we've got Psalms 120, 121 and 122. I'm so proud of you, especially if you're on a streak. I love you so much. Can't wait to see you tomorrow. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. If this episode was helpful, how about you leave a comment, share with a friend and subscribe so that you never miss an episode. To learn more about the show, head to thebobaldapartment.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.