Psalm 119:1-6 A Wisdom Psalm By Anonymous
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Psalm 119:1-16 The Word is the Word
Psalm 119 is a wisdom psalm. And here is your word for the day: didactic. Didactic means “teaching.” Psalm 119 is a psalm written to teach us something. All the epistles are didactic because they deal with teachings as opposed to stories, history, poetry, or prophecy.
Psalm 119 is the longest psalm and longest chapter in the entire Bible.
As a teaching psalm, it has 22 sections since each section is based on a letter in the Hebrew alphabet. In other words, it is an acrostic in that sense and runs through the alphabet consecutively. Since the OYB has allotted ten days to this psalm, I’m going to try to make things easier by only writing a couple summary sentences for each section each day.
Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Every stanza of this psalm has eight verses. Thus, there are 176 verses in the psalm (8 verses x 22 stanzas). Only three verses, verses 90, 122 and 132, do not mention the Word of God specifically. That means 99.98% of the verses mention the Word of God by some destination.
Each line begins with Aleph in this first grouping. You can learn the Hebrew alphabet by studying this psalm. The next stanza has verses that all begin with the second letter in the Hebrew alphabet, Beth. Beth is like a “B” in English or if it does not have a dot in the middle of it, it sounds like a “V.”
All verses in this psalm are addressed to God of the Word except two are addressed to God in prayer.
Aleph (vv. 1-8)
Those who learn and do the word of God are blessed (vv. 1-8) If you wanna be happy for the rest of your life, you may think you need to make an ugly woman your wife, but really what you need to do is memorize the Word!
Beth (vv. 9-16)
Verses 9 and 11 should be memorized by all Christians . . . immediately! Memorizing the Word is important and it is the standard by which you should measure your entire life! After you memorize it, you should meditate on it (v. 15).
Proverbs 15:29-30 Healthy Fat
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Does the Lord hear the prayer of the unsaved? Generally, He is nowhere near the unsaved (v. 29a). The one prayer I know He would hear is the one asking God to accept their faith in Christ to be their Savior. Then He will hear all their prayers after that (v. 29b, cf. Ps. 66:18-19; 1 Pet. 3:12). Biblically speaking, someone who has trusted Christ is righteous (cf. Rom. 3:26; 4:5).
If you want to be happy, eat honey. Honey brightened the eyes of Jonathan in battle (cf. 1 Sam. 14:29). Bright eyes make someone happy (v. 30a). Therefore, eat honey to be happy. OK, maybe that was a syllogism with an “undistributed middle.” In other words, a piece of logic that isn’t organized right.
More likely, this means that when you are happy, your heart is healthy (v. 30a, cf. Prov. 4:23). Watch what you watch and your heart and the rest of you will be happy. Try not to get stressed!
McGee says that a good way to lose weight is to get bad news. But I think bad news causes me to rush for a gallon of ice cream. Most likely, fat here in verse 30 stands for muscle, in the sense that it meant prosperous and healthy. It didn’t mean obese.
And being happy yields fitness and health. Living a healthy spiritual life leads to happiness and leads to physical health. Check out Proverbs 3:7-8, “Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body And refreshment to your bones.”
I know you think I’m kidding but I’m not. Did you realize that doctors now are saying eat more fat?! But they are not talking about the fat on a T-bone steak. They are talking about good fats like in coconut oil and avocados. Check it out.