Psalm 119 is a poem that dedicates eight paired lines of poetry to each succeeding letter of the Hebrew Alphabet, all celebrating the power of divine Torah for promoting human thriving. The Beth section, (like our B, Greek’s Beta) verses 9-16 has particular value for our discussion at this point. David[1] asks a question up front in verse 9, “How can a young man keep his way pure?” The rest of the section unpacks the question and the answer focusing on the importance of learning and loving Scripture.
We might unpack the fundamental goal in the question. What is the “pure way” here, to David? Though it contains sexual propriety, it is plain that his vision is bigger. We find several other hopes attached to it. In verse 10 he asks God’s help so that he might not wander from God’s commands. As later, God’s Word is perceived to have laid out a path of blessing and David wishes to keep his life and his heart on it. In verse 11, the word is meant to help keep him from sin… missing the mark, being off target in life with God and God’s moral and ethical requirements between men. He knows, in verse 16, that it is easy for his heart to forget, but in verse 15 he longs to keep his eyes on God’s ways. Again, he’s looking for the path of life laid out before man by the Creator and Scripture both reveals it and helps keep him on it. Indeed, in verse 12, David cries, “Blessed are you, O LORD!” Blessing is life, true life, abundant life. To bless Yahweh is not to impart life to Him, but a cry of recognition that He, as Creator, is the source of life. He has made the world, made man in His image, empowered man to rule as divine regent, and crafted creation to bless and punish. There is a path of life, a path of blessing, and man must wake up to the Creator and both discover and walk on the path of life that Yahweh has laid before man.
David knows himself, and knows the heart of man in general. Even though called a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14), he knows he can forget. Power over others in any context easily corrupts, and he let it get him. His wayward desires overwhelmed his moral and ethical commitments. He shirked his kingly duties and sent underlings to fill his role on the battlefield. He found himself sleeping all day and rising at evening to pace on his roof which overlooks the homes of his people stretching out beneath him down the hillside. One of you once referenced this as David “creeping out on the roof” like a peeping Tom. One can almost taste the anxiety, so uneasy in his own skin, edgy and ready to act out… looking for anything to distract from the way he felt inside himself. He saw a woman taking her monthly ritual bath associated with her period… She was not indecent in it,[2] but she was ripe for pregnancy. He cared not. He asked about her and his people told him that she was the wife of a military friend, the daughter of another, and the granddaughter of his closest counselor. He sent men to get her for him anyway. I am not reluctant to call it rape, for that level of power difference leaves it in no other category, regardless of David’s depressive-and-lust-warped perception at the time. When a pregnancy threatened to expose him, David went through waves of deceit bringing her husband home from war, trying to lure him to violate the codes of brotherhood so that he could blame the pregnancy on him. When her husband proved more honorable than David in this affair, David murdered him with the stroke of a quill, sending the husband’s own death sentence in his hands as he returned to the general of the battle. David knew that he would not peek at it. David, a good man until these dark days, when finally exposed, did repent and seek forgiveness. He received mercy from the Lord, but the damage had been done. He broke his family. He broke trust with the people. He embarrassed Israel’s witness before the nations, discrediting Yahweh in their eyes. Many were destroyed, others died as a consequence, including four of his sons. Yes, David knew that it is easy for the human heart to forget.
We are not morally-autonomous self-creators empowered to declare how the world will work for us. We don’t get to choose what will lead to blessing and what will lead to cursing. Man’s heart is not pure; the pure way needs to be discovered. We do not have these beautiful butterflies inside us waiting to break free from the Chrysalis of society and religion with all its rules and expectations. The only thing waiting for us in the unchaining of our hearts, in unbinding our deepest selves from moral and ethical restraint is the seven deadly sins. Man is selfish, full of anger, lust, greed, envy, sloth, gluttony, and pride. Man is wolf to man.
Wisdom does not come from within, it comes from without; it comes from hard won discoveries of how God made the world to function and how we can function best within it. People seeking wisdom are wise to listen and study those who have gone before them, listening to find the path of the life. Others will be there competing with their voices promoting the path of death with just as much vigor, seducing others by playing upon their natural corrupt desires. The wise one must discern, and discernment takes a great deal of learning.
When it comes to discovering the blessed path of life laid out for us by our loving creator, we may think of our natural heart, our unrestrained heart, like a broken compass. In adventure movies, the main characters know that they are in real trouble when their compass starts spinning in circles or when they discover that for some reason their compass wasn’t pointing north. The compass of our natural hearts don’t point north and often spin unpredictably. Every child is born a barbarian and needs to be enculturated by family before it’s selfish foolishness becomes a threat the community and itself. Enculturation forces the child from without to adapt to the community. True wisdom does more. It too calls the child from without, but it calls the heart to seek and discover the blessed path, which may or may not be touted by the enculturating family and community. The heart needs to use God’s compass because its own is dysfunctional. And where can God’s compass be found? According to David, Scripture.
David uses several terms to describe the divine word of God. Torah. Word. Commandments. Statutes. Rules. Testimonies. Precepts, and others as the whole poem unfolds. These include many things recorded for Israel by their prophets, passed on to them from yet earlier prophets. Stories and wisdom and songs and law codes and sermons all of a variety of sorts. David works two distinct relational elements that turn these books into a useful compass for the one who wants to walk in the way of Yahweh laid out for him—learning & loving divine word.
First one must learn the Word of God. If you don’t learn it, you can’t walk in it, and your natural instincts will not get you onto the path of life. David dedicates himself in verse 10 to seek, and in verse 11 to store up God’s word in his heart. He wants it there ready and guiding him before the day of trouble because in the day of trouble it’s too late to reach for it. In verse 12, David wants the Spirit of God to teach him as he dedicates himself to learning the statutes of God. In verse 14, he speaks of the way of God’s testimony as if a road he wants to travel on. In verse 15, he determines to meditate on the word… no casual reader is he. He makes it a fixation. He memorizes and constantly considers it, so as to not forget again.
The last component that David discusses is his passion for God’s word. It is his only hope and he relishes the challenge of walking in its way, finding the path of life. In verse 9, he promises to guard his heart with the word, and his seeking, in verse 10, is done with his whole heart. In verse 11, he claims to have stored up the word in his heart lest he sin; this entails valuing it, treasuring it. He cries out in the midst of these declarations blessing to Yahweh in verse 12, and in 13 goes about speaking to others about his passion, revealing God’s way from God’s word, the rules of the blessed life. In both 14 and 16 he calls the way of God’s word a delight, and in 15, it is a fixation for him which bespeaks both learning and loving.
The law, the rules, the commandments, the precepts and principles and discipline and warnings and stories prove to be an often unwelcome gift to lost and rebellious hearts. If we do not learn it, we CANNOT walk in it. If we do not love it, we WILL NOT walk in it. We must wake up to Him and discover the path of life that He laid out before us. Our hearts will not lead us there naturally. We need to learn and love God’s word to find it.
[1] Now, Psalm 119 is unassigned in Scripture, but there are many reasons for attaching it to David. First, it was assigned to David by the Talmud and Midrash rabbis. Second, only Davidic Psalms use acrostic in Scripture. Third, only David refers to himself as “Your Servant” in the Psalms. Fourth, the phrase “turn to me and show me favor” is exclusively Davidic in Psalms. Fifth, only Davidic Psalms call Scripture “pekudim” other than Psalm 111 which is also commonly ascribed to David by the Rabbis. Sixth, the Author is clearly a person of high rank and the source of gossip by noblemen. Seventh, many phrases are similar to David’s work in Psalm 19. The phrase “I am a stranger in the land” is uttered only one other time… Davidic Psalm 39. There are many such occurrences between 119 and Davidic Psalms. (Rabbi Joshua Maroof, “Who Wrote Psalm 119,” http://vesomsechel.blogspot.com/2006/11/who-wrote-psalm-119.html) (3/6/2023).
[2] While we usually bathe naked, there is nothing in the text to suggest that she was naked or seeking to entice. I’ve seen a lot of public bathing in India but have never seen a naked form at all. They lived quite different lives from us and had alternate ways of accomplishing many of the same ends.
