Psalm 119-Lessons Learned, Part 1
During the 2010 calendar year I decided to devote my studies in the Word to Psalm 119. I had read a book by David Powlison that covered the psalm from a counseling perspective. I was very intrigued by his use of the psalm and how he wove it together as a whole, so I decided to do the same. I wanted to know why the psalmist was so consumed with the Scriptures. Over the course of the year I studied my way through each stanza of the psalm and came up with application questions for each. (You can read through those studies on the blog.) At the beginning of 2011, I sat down and went back through my notes and tried to sum it all up. In that study and review I was able to bottom line my study to three main lessons that we can learn from Psalm 119.
The Bible is called the “Word of God” for a reason, and that reason should be obvious. The words in the Bible are in fact the very words of the world’s Creator. Though we sometimes read the Bible like a volume of nice quotes and inspirational sayings, its true purpose is much greater. God’s intention for the Bible is revelation, and not just revelation for revelation’s sake either. This revelation is meant to incite change. God has revealed Himself to His creation in Scripture with the expressed purpose of bringing Himself glory through the change He causes in our lives. We see this in the psalmist’s life in Psalm 119. That is why I can say that the first lesson this psalm has taught me is: “The value we attribute to the Word of God is directly related to the impact that it has in our lives.” Much change, both in our inner man (the immaterial part of man) and the outer man (the physical part of man), can be seen when a heart is receptive to the Word of God. That is exactly what is seen in the life of the writer of Psalm 119. (I am not calling for the hyper-Calvinistic hatred seen by groups like the Westboro Baptists, rather a righteous hatred of sin that is motivated by holy love.)
The psalmist’s inner man was changed comprehensively, resulting in a visible change to his outer man. This change began in his mind: we see in verses 98, 99, and 104, that the time the psalmist spent studying the Word of God has a tremendous impact on his wisdom and intellect. As the psalmist grew in understanding, there was an obvious change in his emotions and attitude towards the world around him. In verse 104 we see a growing hatred for the things that God hates that it is a direct result of understanding the Words of God. “Through your precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way,” – the Word produced change. In verses 118 and 119, we see that God has a hatred and contempt for those who reject His Word and the way he ”discards them like dross.” The psalmist picks up on this godly response and reports in numerous verses (50, 104, 113, 128, and 163) that he too hates the wicked and the evil they do. But as a result of this godly hatred, anger, and contempt, there is a love that also grows in the psalmist’s life. Amongst numerous verses (14, 16, 20, 31, 47, 70, 97, 159, 174) there is one that puts the psalmist’s love in direct contrast to the hatred. Verse 163 says, “I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your law.” Our love for one thing generally demonstrates our functional hatred for another. In this case, a love for God and His Word results in a hatred for disobedience and evil.
Not only was the psalmist’s inner man changed in his affections, but also growth in his joy. We see his responses to adversity, obedience, sorrow, and persecution in this psalm. Each time, those situations are met with joy and praise in God and His Word (1-2, 28, 50, 83, 86, 111). These changes are evidence of inner man growth that is consistent with the psalmist’s spiritual growth in general. We see him desiring more growth and more learning from God (33, 37, 81, 97, 102, 168). His desire is to learn from God so that his faithfulness will increase even more (12).
As with all spiritual sanctification, change in the inner man results in change to the “outer man.” In verse 59, the psalmist changes his actions upon consideration of the Word. In verses 62 and 148, the psalmist is studying and meditating on the Word in the middle of the night. The inner man change to his desires resulted in a physical change of his routines. The psalmist also saw a change in his activities as well; numerous verses indicate that he used his body to praise God (120, 172, 164, 131, 123, 45, 148).
These observations of the psalmist’s life should drive home the thought that the Word of God has direct impact on all areas of our life. The psalmist declares in verse 10 that his whole heart is seeking after God and is motivated to obey. This is the impact that the Word has on our lives when we employ it properly. The extent to which our lives our changed by the Word of God is directly related to the amount we value it.
