Psalm 119 is one of the most famous chapters in Scripture—mainly because it’s so long. Christians have found it fascinating, edifying, and beautiful. But one challenge of studying and understanding Psalm 119 is that it doesn’t appear to go anywhere.

It has structure; it’s organized into 22 stanzas corresponding to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. But it doesn’t seem to follow a coherent train of thought. It lacks anything like the plotlines we find in historical narratives such as Samuel and Kings, or the logical arguments we find in epistles such as Hebrews and Romans. Many readers have resigned themselves to interpreting each verse of Psalm 119 as if it’s an independent statement with no connection to what comes before and after.

While doing so can still be edifying, I suggest there’s a coherent train of thought in Psalm 119. If readers keep the broader movement in mind, they’ll study the psalm with new eyes, grow in appreciation for it, and find it more enriching.

Ideal Picture of Obedience and Blessing

Psalm 119 has a grand opening, as we’d expect. In stanzas Aleph and Beth, the psalmist describes how God’s law requires perfect obedience and holistic devotion. The blessed person is “blameless” (v. 1), does “no wrong” (v. 3), and obeys from the “heart” (vv. 2, 7, 10, 11).

The psalmist portrays himself as devoted to God’s law in these opening stanzas. Christian readers also think of the Lord Jesus, the one Israelite who fulfilled all righteousness (Matt. 3:15) and was without sin (Heb. 4:15).

This grand opening presents an ideal picture of obedience and blessing. But the psalmist quickly alerts us that something is very wrong.

Sojourn and Suffering

In the third stanza (Gimel), the psalmist calls himself a “sojourner” (v. 19). Righteous Israelites weren’t supposed to be sojourners, so this should get our attention. Abraham was a sojourner, as Genesis frequently notes, for he had no real home and moved from place to place. But God brought Israel into the promised land under Joshua and gave tribes and families their own permanent property they were to pass down from generation to generation.

If readers keep the broader movement in mind, they’ll study the psalm with new eyes, grow in appreciation for it, and find it more enriching.

Our psalmist, then, should be settled, not a sojourner. It’s true that God, in the Mosaic law, threatened to exile the people from their land if they rebelled against him. But our psalmist portrayed himself as a law-keeping man in the opening stanzas, so why would he suffer such a punishment? Something puzzling is going on, so we keep reading.

Through the rest of Gimel and then Daleth, the psalmist describes his terrible suffering as a sojourner. Princes are persecuting him (v. 23) and his soul “clings to the dust” (v. 25). Nevertheless, in Daleth he also begins to express confidence in the Lord’s deliverance, and this confidence grows through the next four stanzas (He, Waw, Zayin, Heth), even while he repeatedly mentions how great his affliction is. He reiterates that he’s a sojourner (v. 54).

But he still hasn’t explained why he, a righteous man, has apparently been exiled from the promised land.

Turn to Repentance and Hope

The psalmist finally provides that explanation in the next two stanzas (Teth and Yodh): He formerly rebelled against God, and God punished him, but now he had repented and come to value God’s law. He was even an encouragement to other Israelites who saw his repentance.

This is a theological breakthrough in the psalm, but the psalmist doesn’t let us enjoy it for long, for the next stanza (Kaph) is the psalm’s darkest point. The psalmist reminds us that though he’s right with God again, he still languishes as a sojourner.

Yet the end of this stanza marks the psalm’s halfway point, and it does a 180-degree turn. The first two stanzas of the second half (Lamedh and Mem), continuing into Nun, are the most positive. God’s law is fixed, true, and profound. It instills wisdom and illumination.

Perhaps the psalmist emphasizes these truths here because he comes to realize, through his experience of sin and repentance, that the law (in this case, the books of Genesis through Deuteronomy) reveals not only God’s judgment against his sin but also his hope of salvation.

The psalmist is now secure and confident before God, but he’s still a suffering sojourner. The next stanzas reflect on what that means for his spiritual life. Samekh and Ayin call for God to judge his enemies, which is necessary for his full deliverance. Pe and Tsadhe describe how suffering sojourners should experience several passions—longing, sorrow, and zeal. In Qoph, the psalmist reflects on prayer; then in Resh, he prays.

The penultimate stanza (Sin and Shin) perhaps shows the psalmist at his most spiritually mature—an unjustly persecuted man but full of joy, praise, and hope. Then the final stanza (Taw) builds toward a majestic finale through repeated praise of God.

Fitting Cry of Faith

We’d like the psalm to end on that note, but instead the psalmist concludes by lamenting that he has “gone astray like a lost sheep” and asking God to seek him (v. 176). Initially, it seems anticlimactic, but it’s a fitting cry of faith. On several occasions, the Old Testament speaks of Israelite exiles, in need of restoration, as sheep in dire need of God himself to be their Shepherd (e.g., Ps. 80; Isa. 40:9–11; Ezek. 34). This is the psalmist’s condition and thus where he ends.

The psalm’s beautiful ending invites us, new-covenant Christians, to keep reading our Bibles and marvel at how God answered the psalmist’s last petition. God sent Christ as the “good shepherd” (John 10:14), the “great shepherd of the sheep” (Heb. 13:20).

The psalm’s beautiful ending invites new-covenant Christians to keep reading our Bibles and marvel at how God answered the psalmist’s last petition.

He has gathered not only lost sheep of Israel into his sheepfold but also a harvest of Gentiles (John 10:16). Hence, the apostle Peter tells new-covenant believers, “You were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (1 Pet. 2:25).

Psalm 119 isn’t 176 independent statements. It takes us through the psalmist’s experience of sin and suffering, faith and repentance, and eager expectation for the coming of the Good Shepherd. We do well to read it that way.

News Source : https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/psalm-119-not-independent-statements/