Dear Friends,
Today, I invite you to read a small section of Psalm 119, the longest in our collection of 150 psalms. In the original Hebrew, this lovely, jubilant wisdom psalm is a very elaborate acrostic, in which the first letter of each line or section spells out a word or follows a distinct pattern. Here, with great poetic imagination, the psalmist follows a pattern, beginning each of the psalm’s twenty-two stanzas with one of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, in order. Each stanza is made up of eight lines, and each begins with the same letter. In our reading, each of the eight lines begins with the Hebrew letter Pe ( פ ). In an age with precious few scrupulously transcribed copies of Scripture, and with no printed documents at all, one can only imagine how an alphabetic prompt like this would make it easier to memorize this lovely psalm and share it with the community of faith. Sadly, our English translations of the Hebrew lack the sight, sound, and rhythm of the poetic artistry of this psalm. I hope knowing about it will enhance the beauty and intentionality of the psalmist for you, as it does for me.
Before we explore this portion of Psalm 119, let’s join together in this prayer for illumination:
Enlightening God, the unfolding of your Word gives light and provides wisdom to all who seek your truth. Open our minds and hearts by the presence of your Holy Spirit, that the mystery of your heavenly realm might become evident here on earth. Amen.
For the Jewish people from antiquity through today, the notion of Torah encompasses all of the peoples’ history with God, from creation to their covenant with God to follow a way of life grounded in moral and religious obligations in addition to civil law. Torah was fundamental to Jesus’s understanding of the world, and it is fundamental to our Christian faith as well.
Psalm 119 is an exultant devotion to and appreciation of Torah. The Torah is generally recognized as the first five books of the Old Testament, sometimes called the Pentateuch. The word “Torah” is also often used to symbolize the law of the Jewish faith as expressed in the entirety of the Hebrew Bible. That, however, can lead to a misunderstanding of Torah as referring only or primarily to the specific rigid laws that make up the Holiness Code, found in chapters 17-26 of Leviticus. The Holiness Code is indeed part of Torah, but it’s only part of it. Torah is so much more: it is a melding of spirituality and ethics, which is significantly more than law. As James Luther Mays writes in his commentary on the Book of Psalms, Torah “is valued beyond all else because in all its form Torah is the medium of the Lord.”
How deeply Torah is treasured is wonderfully reflected in Psalm 119, which is an ode, a joyful song, to Torah. “Your decrees are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them.” (119:129) It is through keeping the decrees of God – the Torah – that the psalmist experiences the wonder of being in community with God. Ethical obedience to God and spiritual relationship with God become one in this psalm.
That Torah encompasses more than simply the law is evident from the eight short verses of this stanza of the psalm, which celebrate God’s decrees (119:129), words (119:130), commandments (119:131), promise (119:133), precepts (119:134), statutes (119:135), and law (119:136). Savor those words, read them and the eight brief verses of this part of the psalm aloud, and see if you can feel the underlying joyfulness that the psalmist seeks to share.
These are not words that complain of the demands of obedience; they are words that celebrate our covenant with God. They can too easily be misunderstood by people like us, taught from an early age to be independent, which we equate with freedom. We don’t want to be limited by regulations, rules, and invasive laws. We live in a society that worships the idol of radical independence. The text from the psalm invites us to a more complete kind of freedom: to worship instead in radical dependence with and on God.
When we hear Torah inaccurately equated with rigorous law alone or demanding blind obedience, we might back away, turning to the love of Jesus, as though those were mutually exclusive concepts. Yet it is Jesus who says to his disciples, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” (Matthew 5:17) From our Christian understanding, Jesus is the fulfillment of Torah, and Torah is foundational to our faith in God. Understanding the covenant of love and responsibility that God offers us frees us to live more fully in the vast realm of God.
Thanks be to God for gifts of grace and love, including, as the psalmist shares, Torah.
Let us pray together:
Holy God, you have blessed humanity with understanding and the ability to choose the good; give to all leaders and people a vision of your world made whole, the wisdom to pursue it, and the will to accomplish it.
We know that this task is so much more complex in the midst of this global pandemic. Hundreds of millions of our sisters and brothers are hungry or ill with life threatening diseases; people want, need, and search for viable work that would provide a livelihood; the injustices that have plagued us for centuries continue; the reality of death constantly stares at us from our television and phone screens.
Give us wisdom to seek ways to heal the physical and moral pain we suffer and wittingly or unwittingly inflict upon one another. Give us the courage and understanding to work for a global community that is sustainable. Grant us the strength to join in that work within our local environs.
We pray for the ability to more fully understand and appreciate our covenant with you, O God, and for patience as we find our way to the beloved community that you wish us to be part of.
In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.