Are you a devout [having and showing deep religious commitment, totally committed to a cause or belief] Christian? Comes from the verb “devote,” to give one’s all to something, 16th century, dedicate formally, consecrate. Would others who know you best say this about you? How do you conduct your life differently from moral non-Christians?
You will never attain or maintain this spiritual condition until and unless you appreciate its true desirability and excellence, until you sincerely crave it because you heartily approve it. And in general, the more fervent your desire, the more successful will be your pursuit.
Psa 119.1-3 introduces this unique psalm by praising the religious ideal. These verses are addressed directly to the reader; 119.4 ff. to the Lord as in prayer. It is not as though the psalmist had already attained this, but he was well on his way. This is the image of the perfect Man Christ Jesus, our Example. “Perfect holiness is the aim of the saints on earth, and it is the reward of the saints in Heaven” (Joseph Cap, “Holiness,” The Golden Treasure of Puritan Quotations).
Psa 119 is a series of 22 octets (groups of eight, total of 176 verses), each associated with one of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet in order. In Hebrew, the first eight verses start with aleph, the next eight with beth, etc. This was this a help in memorization. It is a grand literary structure. “The author had a theme that filled his soul, a theme as big as life, that ranged the length and breadth and height and depth of a person’s walk with God. Nothing less than the use of the full power of language would suffice, and of that the alphabet was a most apt symbol” (TNIVSB).
Another distinctive feature is the constant reference to the Word of God, found in almost every verse, under eight terms: torah (law); edah (testimonies); piqqud (precepts); choq (statutes); mitszvah (commandments); mishpat (judgments); dabar (word); imrah (word); and eduwth (testimonies), each with its own connotations. Most of these are found in each octet, and this exhibit’s the psalmist’s very high view of Scripture in his pursuit of fellowship with God. Psalms 119’s main point may very well be that devotion to God and His Word are inextricably linked. Each implies and requires the other. Our generation desperately needs this message, because of the erroneous extremes of mystical piety (God without His Word) and exegetical rationalism (the Word without God). Both amount to antinomianism (lawlessness).
Hebrew poetry often uses parallelism, typically the existence of couplets which are meant to be mutually interpretive. Classic categories of parallelism are synonymous (same thing essentially repeated for emphasis), antithetic (opposite things contrasted), and climactic (second line advances the thought of the first). Paying attention to parallel structures is a great help for sound interpretation and devotional meditation.
Devout Christians Are the Most Blessed of All People (119.1a, 2a)
This is an OT beatitude (pronouncement of blessedness). This goes beyond saying who is the most “blessed” by God. The prophetic Word announces that God’s favor rests and His salvation has and will come for a certain class of peopleà those who have a real, working faith in Him and His Word. This opening beatitude “evokes joy and gratitude, as man may live in fellowship with God” (EBC on Psa 1.1). It is exuberant: “O the blessedness of the perfect ones in the way” (Clarke).
The psalmist here shows that godly people are happy people; they are, and shall be, blessed indeed. Felicity [intense happiness] is the thing we all pretend to aim at and pursue. He does not say here wherein it consists; it is enough for us to know what we must do and be that we may attain to it, and that we are here told. All men would be happy, but few take the right way; God has here laid before us the right way, which we may be sure will end in happiness, though it be strait and narrow. Blessednesses are to the righteous; all manner of blessedness. Now observe the characters of the happy (M. Henry).
The whole Hebrew mindset was that a state of blessedness was the gift of God who controls all things, not some humanistic achievement of the most intelligent or powerful. If you find yourself truly blessed, you have God to thank for it, because it is His grace that bestows this upon you. Sin brings misery; the Lord breaks into man’s misery and by His mercy and might restores true, ultimate happiness and well-being to some by His sovereign pleasure and for the praise of His glory. This is the gospel in the OT: God saves sinners.
Only believers really embrace this beatitude as genuinely true. Unbelievers think they can be most blessed by ignoring God, or worshiping false gods, or consciously resisting God, and that is why they keep doing these things. The acid test of your sincere consent to this beatitude is that it motivates you toward its promise.
Devout Christians Live in Communion with God and His Word (119.1-2)
Next, the most blessed people are described:
the undefiled in the way, / who walk in the law of the Lord.
that keep His testimonies, / and that seek Him with the whole heart.
Undefiled has the sense of perfect, or sincere (KJV mg.). “The way” is the course of one’s life. Everyone’s life takes a certain course, and this is a reflection of his or her character. The people most blessed are those whose manner of life shows wholeness and integrity and consistency.
They “walk” (metaphorical for habitual conduct) in the law (torah, lit., direction; written prophetic instruction, guidance, that comes by divine inspiration) of the Lord (Yahweh, unique name of the God of Scripture).
The Hebrew word torah, translated law, basically means “instruction” or “direction.” Broadly it refers to all God’s instructions from Moses to the prophets. More strictly it refers to the first five books of the Old Testament. The Law was never designed as a means of salvation; no one could be saved by keeping it. The Lord gave His law to a people with whom He had already graciously established a covenantal relationship (Ex. 20:2). Instead, the Law was the means for the Israelites to learn how to live as God’s holy people. The psalmists consistently describe the Law of God as a great blessing, for it was God’s gracious revelation to His people for their own good (Deut 6.1-3). In the Law, God mercifully pointed out the right path to follow. Only mistaken legalistic interpretations of the Law prompted the negative statements concerning it in the New Testament (Nelson Study Bible).
Those are happy who make the will of God the rule of all their actions, and govern themselves, in their whole conversation, by that rule (M. Henry).
Further, these most blessed people “keep [guard, maintain, obey] His testimonies [God’s own verbal witness to what is good and right and true].” These same blessed ones “seek Him with the whole heart,” an expression of all-consuming love to His person and trust to His Word. The half-hearted are doomed to spiritual frustration, for they have missed the essence of true piety, which alone has God’s promise of blessing (Deut 6.4-5; 4.29; Jer 29.13; Luke 11.9-10; Jas 1.5-8).
This both identifies who the blessed are and what is the very essence of their blessedness. Communion with God by faith and obedience to His Word is an end in itself. We do not believe and obey God to get something else more desirable or valuable. The most blessed in the world often are not rich, or healthy, or free from severe suffering and persecution, but truly are the most blessed because they have the best portion a man can have—even God Himself (Psa 73.26; Psa 23.1).
Devout Christians Exemplify Godliness (119.3)
Finally, devout Christians are described both negatively and positively:
They also do no iniquity; / they walk in His ways.
“Iniquity” means wickedness, perverseness, even violent deeds of injustice or injustice generally. It stems from the concept of deviating from a standard; here the standard is God’s righteous law. Those who are most blessed are those whose actual life conforms to God’s revealed will. They “walk in His ways,” live consistently in a manner that pleases God. They are an embodiment of God’s Word, a reflection of Jesus Christ the incarnate, living Word:
And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts (2 Cor 3.3 ESV).
But it may be asked, whether the prophet excludes from the hope of happiness all who do not worship God perfectly? Were this his meaning, it would follow that none except angels alone would be happy, seeing that the perfect observance of the law is to be found in no part, of the earth. The answer is easy: When uprightness is demanded of the children of God, they do not lose the gracious remission of their sins, in which their salvation alone consists. While, then, the servants of God are happy, they still need to take refuge in his mercy, because their uprightness is not complete. In this manner are they who faithfully observe the law of God said to be truly happy; and thus is fulfilled that which is declared in Psa 32.2, “Blessed are they to whom God imputeth not sins” (Calvin).