Hindsight

Compressed into one message that was focused on the 6 memory verses of our “40 Days in the Word” series, I noticed three of those memory verses came from Psalm 119. This chapter is a witness to the complex supernatural origination of the Word of God.  Let me give you some information concerning it:

Only Psalm 119 is composed of 176 verses and therefore is the longest chapter in the Bible.  We don’t think of that as very significant.  You have to put yourself back in the time of David when paper was extremely expensive and copying was laborious. So you had to have a really important reason to write something that long.  The theme of this Psalm is the value and vital importance of the Word of God.  The longest chapter of the Bible has the most important theme of the Bible written in thankfulness to God! 

Many have noted that Psalm 119 is an acrostic poem that follows all 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.  So, the first Hebrew letter of the first Hebrew word in all of the first 8 verses (119:1-8) of Psalm 119 is an Aleph.  Then in Psalm 119:9-16 the first letter in all of the first words in each line is Beth and so forth all the way through the entire Psalm!  22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, 8 verses each equals 176 verses. It is a very complicated Psalm!

People might say, “That doesn’t sound that complicated?!”  You need to remember Psalm 119 is written totally in poetry.  It took great skill to write Hebrew poetry.  The goal was not the rhythming of words like Americans attempt in little poems like Mary had a little lamb.  Hebrew writers felt the most important skill in writing poetry was “syllable” usage and economy.  Hebrew poetry is a lot like Japanese Haiku.  The Hebrews used every literary device in their arsenal to create poems that were 8 syllables per line or 16 syllables per verse. In analyzing Psalm 119 there are 355 lines (2 lines per verse) and 2,861 syllables, their division yields an average of 8.05 syllables per line or 16.10 per verse!!! 

Lame students of the Bible say, “That still doesn’t sound that complicated?!”  So, let’s add in the fact that the writer used 10 different words for the Word of God through these 176 verses: precept, decree, law, word, statute, utterance and saying, path, way, ordinance.  Two of these words, in Hebrew, have 1 syllable, two have 2 syllables and the other six have 3 syllables. The poet took these 10 words, used each one between 19 and 25 times, and interspersed them 203 times with such a masterful touch that children would memorize and sing Psalm 119. 

Even some continue to say, “That just doesn’t sound that complicated?!” So the author, to make sure the reader understood his devotion, used the name for God 22 times, exactly the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. 

Xanthic coloring in this article stands out if your still saying, “That doesn’t sound that complicated?!”  REALLY?!!! Even when Psalm 119 has been called the greatest poem of the Near Eastern World! (Come see me on Sunday morning and I’ll give a GateWay coffee coupon on to the first 25 who catch it!)