Psalm 119: Love Of The Law

When you first learned to read, do you remember books like, "A is for Alligator, B is for Ball"?  Imagine that concept applied to the Bible, and you would have Psalm 119!

Psalm 119 is very long - it is the longest Psalm.  In fact, it is the longest book of the Bible.  Here's a fun fact: With its 176 verses, Psalm 119 has more verses than 14 Old Testament books and 17 New Testament books!

The reason why it is so long is that the psalmist writes 22 stanzas, with each stanza beginning with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet.  The psalm thus becomes a wordplay as each letter of the alphabet is given its chance to star in a poem that stands in praise of the law.

The theme of the psalm is the Torah, or God's commandments.  As you read through Psalm 119, you will encounter a veritable thesaurus of terms that signify the law: decrees, statutes, precepts, word, promise, ordinances, etc.  These are repeated over and over again in each stanza, with a synonym for law appearing in almost every verse.

It is from this psalm that we have the well-known line, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path" (vs. 105 KJV).  Psalm 119 is a virtual treasure trove of verses like this that express the psalmist's love of the law!