Happy Are Those Whose Way Is Blameless
Devotional
Companion to the Psalter
A Devotional Guide to the Psalms
Object:
Happy are those ...
who seek him with their whole heart ...
Open my eyes, so that I may behold
wondrous things out of your law ...
My soul clings to the dust;
revive me according to your word ...
Turn my eyes from looking at vanities;
give me life in your ways ...
Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path ...
Your decrees are my heritage forever;
they are the joy of my heart.
-- Psalm 119:2b, 18, 25, 37, 105, 116
Theme: The ABC's of the praise, power, love, and use of God's word
Notes
• Acrostic or Alphabetical
• This is the longest chapter in the Bible. Its 22 stanzas or strophes (each eight verses long) uses one of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Each verse of each stanza begins with the same letter. This is carefully crafted so as to be easily memorized and recited.
• Its theme is not the commandments but the entire word of God. Law (Torah) came to be the word for "all divine revelation as the guide of life." It came to designate the first five books of our Bible (Genesis-Deuteronomy, the Pentateuch), with its teaching of sin and judgment, election, redemption, covenant and grace, God's creative purpose and redeeming, loving plan. (For Lutherans, this includes in embryo the law and the gospel.)
• Synonyms for "law": word, sayings, commandments, statutes, judgments, ordinances, precepts, testimony, ways, path.
• The author is "a man ravished by moral beauty" (C. S. Lewis). Who was he? One sorely tried, but he recognized God's loving discipline in his afflictions, and he suffered ill-treatment and contempt for his devotion to God: he was persecuted by powerful wicked persons and also by faithless Israelites; he was in danger of his life at times; he got indignant; he felt sorrow; he was tempted by bad examples but resisted them, experienced humiliation. Who most fits this description? Jesus!
For Reflection
• In each stanza look for
a. the purpose of God's word;
b. what God's word has done for him (and can do for you);
c. where God's word has led and taken him;
d. his pressing need for the word; and
e. the correction, the comfort, and the blessings of the word.
• God's word in the scriptures is spoken of as
a. first and foremost, the Incarnate Word, Jesus (John 1:1-4);
b. the recorded or written word (holy scripture), "the manger in which the Christ lays" (Luther), which exists to make Christ known and loved; and
c. the proclaimed word of the apostles, preachers, teachers, and the faithful witnesses of the gospel of Christ and his grace.
Prayer
Lord God, we praise and thank you that you gather and guide your people through your word: the Incarnate Word that is Jesus, the written word that reveals him, and the spoken word that proclaims him. For Jesus' sake, may your Holy Spirit awaken our hearts to behold your glory that we may be led to faithfulness and enabled to love you with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
who seek him with their whole heart ...
Open my eyes, so that I may behold
wondrous things out of your law ...
My soul clings to the dust;
revive me according to your word ...
Turn my eyes from looking at vanities;
give me life in your ways ...
Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path ...
Your decrees are my heritage forever;
they are the joy of my heart.
-- Psalm 119:2b, 18, 25, 37, 105, 116
Theme: The ABC's of the praise, power, love, and use of God's word
Notes
• Acrostic or Alphabetical
• This is the longest chapter in the Bible. Its 22 stanzas or strophes (each eight verses long) uses one of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Each verse of each stanza begins with the same letter. This is carefully crafted so as to be easily memorized and recited.
• Its theme is not the commandments but the entire word of God. Law (Torah) came to be the word for "all divine revelation as the guide of life." It came to designate the first five books of our Bible (Genesis-Deuteronomy, the Pentateuch), with its teaching of sin and judgment, election, redemption, covenant and grace, God's creative purpose and redeeming, loving plan. (For Lutherans, this includes in embryo the law and the gospel.)
• Synonyms for "law": word, sayings, commandments, statutes, judgments, ordinances, precepts, testimony, ways, path.
• The author is "a man ravished by moral beauty" (C. S. Lewis). Who was he? One sorely tried, but he recognized God's loving discipline in his afflictions, and he suffered ill-treatment and contempt for his devotion to God: he was persecuted by powerful wicked persons and also by faithless Israelites; he was in danger of his life at times; he got indignant; he felt sorrow; he was tempted by bad examples but resisted them, experienced humiliation. Who most fits this description? Jesus!
For Reflection
• In each stanza look for
a. the purpose of God's word;
b. what God's word has done for him (and can do for you);
c. where God's word has led and taken him;
d. his pressing need for the word; and
e. the correction, the comfort, and the blessings of the word.
• God's word in the scriptures is spoken of as
a. first and foremost, the Incarnate Word, Jesus (John 1:1-4);
b. the recorded or written word (holy scripture), "the manger in which the Christ lays" (Luther), which exists to make Christ known and loved; and
c. the proclaimed word of the apostles, preachers, teachers, and the faithful witnesses of the gospel of Christ and his grace.
Prayer
Lord God, we praise and thank you that you gather and guide your people through your word: the Incarnate Word that is Jesus, the written word that reveals him, and the spoken word that proclaims him. For Jesus' sake, may your Holy Spirit awaken our hearts to behold your glory that we may be led to faithfulness and enabled to love you with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
