I will share one section at a time of Psalm 119
to emphasize the importance of God's Word until
we go through the whole Psalm.
*******************************************************************
PSALM 119 Introduction
ACROSTIC
A literary device by which sets of letters
(such as the first or last letters of a line)
are taken in order to form a word, phrase,
or a regular sequence of letters of the alphabet.
The ancient Hebrews realized the importance of words
and various literary devices such as puns, allusions,
and acrostics.
The best example of an acrostic in the Bible is9,10,25,37, 111, 112
Psalm 119 and Psalm 34,
both based on the Hebrew alphabet of 22 letters,
from Aleph to Tau ("A" to "Z").
This Psalm has 176 verses--
eight verses for each of the 22 Hebrew letters.
In the original Hebrew
(Psalm 119 verses 1-6) begin with ALEPH; (verses 9-16) begin with BETH; (verses17-24) begin with GIMEL; and so forth.
Parts of Psalms, Psalm 119:1-8 and 145
and Lamentations 1-4are also acrostic --
as are the last 22 verses of the book of Proverbs,
which contain a description of a virtuous wife.
(from Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary)
(Copyright (C) 1986, Thomas Nelson Publishers)
***********************************************************
Examples of Acrostics are:
1. God's
Riches
At
Christ's
Expense
2. Jesus
Others
Yourself
In #1 the first letter of each word spells out Grace.
In #2 the first letter of each word spells out Joy.
Psalm 119 is an Acrostic using the Hebrew
alphabet as earlier stated on this page.
********************************************************************
Part 1
ALEPH
[AH lef]-- the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet,
used as a heading over.
In the original Hebrew language,
each line of these eight verses
began with the letter aleph.
Also see ACROSTIC.
(from Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary)
(Copyright (C) 1986, Thomas Nelson Publishers)
************************************************
Psalm 119:1-8
Blessed are the undefiled in the way,
who walk in the law of the LORD.
Blessed are they that keep His testimonies,
and that seek him with the whole heart.
They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways.
Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.
O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!
Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect
unto all thy commandments.
I will praise thee with uprightness of heart,
when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.
I will keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly.
(KJV)
*********************************************************
The way, the law of the Lord, His ways, precepts,
statutes, commandments and righteous judgements are
all synonyms for God's Word, and God's Ways of the
Holy Scriptures found in this section of Psalm 119.
With so many synonyms for God's word found in this
Psalm, in my opinion, no other Psalm or
other chapter in the whole Bible emphasizes
God's Word as strongly as Psalm 119.
Added thought:
It has been correctly pointed out that this Psalm
is talking about the Commandments under the law.
Though that is the primasry reason
when we talk about God's Ways,
God's righteousness, God's judgements etc.
can also be applied to God's Word in general
including the teachings of Jesus Christ
and the instructions the Apostles gave us
in the Epistles. So in that way Psalm 119
does have modern day application for us
Christians under the age of grace.
Sincerely in Christ,
internet Pastor Bill
Ezekiel 37 Bible Watch
http://www.Ezekiel37BibleWatch.faithweb.com
Ezekiel's Prayer Warriors
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EzekielsPrayerWarriors
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Psalm 119 - Intro & Part 1
Thursday, June 7, 2007
More Pre-introduction (significance of 8)
There are 8 verses in each section of Psalm 119 and my friend Brother Ray had shared the significance of 8.
Yes, I would have expected you as a Pastor to have more insight into the Preaching part of this Psalm. Very good!! I like that acrostic you made of the word JOY, and then that Simple Sermon of the 1. 2. 3. You brought meaning and purpose to the acrostic! I'm glad LeeAnna enjoyed this as well.
A couple morenotes on this, is the number "8", which is the number of verses included foreach letter. As we all know, 8 in music is an octave. Each note has the exact tone of the previous and post octaves notes, but only at different pitches. (David was known as 'The Sweet Psalmist of Israel'). So, this being a 'Psalm', it is based as you said Bro Bill on music and poetry. But additionally, each number in scripture has some spiritual significance. Eight is the number for Resurrection or New Life. It's a new beginning. In Hebrew and Greek, the ancients used the letters of their alphabet as numbers also. EW Bullinger wrote the book, "Number in Scripture" and talks about the numbers there. One easy example is God making the world in 7 days, and the 8th day was a new beginning, or a new week. Jesus rose from the dead on that day. What was it that God created on the first day of creation? "LIGHT"! Jesus is the Octave of that first Light! Also, in Israel, the day begins with evening and then day, not as we do with midnight and sandwich the day between two nights. At the end of each creation day, it says that there was "Evening and Morning". I think that the reason for this is that the misery and sorrow of the night of this world comes first, and then the morning brings the Joy of Eternal Bliss. We are still in that nighttime of the world, spiritually speaking. If we calculate Jesus name in Greek it works out to the number 888, whereas the antichrist comes to 666, just short of perfection of "7". Thus I believe God used each letter 8 times in this Psalm. In Dispensationalism, we believe that God used the first week of Creation as a type for the history ofmankind, since he spoke through Moses that to God a "Day is as a thousandyears".
So, there will be 7,000 years to human history, but, after that begins the new octave Morning of Eternity. Morning of Eternity, not Day of Eternity. God called the "LIGHT" Day and the Darkness Night, but "There was Evening and there was Morning, Day One". I think the reason for this is that it has no end and will be morning eternally, and will no longer progress to nighttime.
JESUS Himself is The Day!
Oh the unsearchable riches of the wisdom and knowledge of GOD! This God is our God!!! Maranatha!
RayG
Yes, I would have expected you as a Pastor to have more insight into the Preaching part of this Psalm. Very good!! I like that acrostic you made of the word JOY, and then that Simple Sermon of the 1. 2. 3. You brought meaning and purpose to the acrostic! I'm glad LeeAnna enjoyed this as well.
A couple morenotes on this, is the number "8", which is the number of verses included foreach letter. As we all know, 8 in music is an octave. Each note has the exact tone of the previous and post octaves notes, but only at different pitches. (David was known as 'The Sweet Psalmist of Israel'). So, this being a 'Psalm', it is based as you said Bro Bill on music and poetry. But additionally, each number in scripture has some spiritual significance. Eight is the number for Resurrection or New Life. It's a new beginning. In Hebrew and Greek, the ancients used the letters of their alphabet as numbers also. EW Bullinger wrote the book, "Number in Scripture" and talks about the numbers there. One easy example is God making the world in 7 days, and the 8th day was a new beginning, or a new week. Jesus rose from the dead on that day. What was it that God created on the first day of creation? "LIGHT"! Jesus is the Octave of that first Light! Also, in Israel, the day begins with evening and then day, not as we do with midnight and sandwich the day between two nights. At the end of each creation day, it says that there was "Evening and Morning". I think that the reason for this is that the misery and sorrow of the night of this world comes first, and then the morning brings the Joy of Eternal Bliss. We are still in that nighttime of the world, spiritually speaking. If we calculate Jesus name in Greek it works out to the number 888, whereas the antichrist comes to 666, just short of perfection of "7". Thus I believe God used each letter 8 times in this Psalm. In Dispensationalism, we believe that God used the first week of Creation as a type for the history ofmankind, since he spoke through Moses that to God a "Day is as a thousandyears".
So, there will be 7,000 years to human history, but, after that begins the new octave Morning of Eternity. Morning of Eternity, not Day of Eternity. God called the "LIGHT" Day and the Darkness Night, but "There was Evening and there was Morning, Day One". I think the reason for this is that it has no end and will be morning eternally, and will no longer progress to nighttime.
JESUS Himself is The Day!
Oh the unsearchable riches of the wisdom and knowledge of GOD! This God is our God!!! Maranatha!
RayG
Pre-introduction
In the Teach us Your Word Lord goup I am teaching On Psalm 119 currently.
You may join that group if you would like to participate or just study everybody's comments on the Bible study.
When I announced that I was going to do a study on Psalm 119 comments about the psalm were already being posted.
Here is one of them and then my reply is afterwards.
- In TeachusYourWordLord@yahoogroups.com, Ray Gunn
wrote:
>
> A great Psalm Pastor Bill. In case you didn't know, Psalm 119 is
built on the 22 letters of the alphabet, or aleph-bet to the Hebrews.
In other words, every verse begins with a different letter of the
Hebrew aleph-bet beginning with Aleph the first letter through Tav the
last letter. There are 176 verses in Psalm 119 and every 8 verses
begins with that letter of the aleph-bet. The first 8 verses all begin
with the letter aleph, the next 8 verses 9-16 begin with bet, the next
8 verses begin with gimel etc until the last 8 verses all begin with
tav. This isn't the only book of the Bible that does this either.
Lamentations is built on much the same principle. Other portions of
scripture do this to some extent also. I think God is trying to show
us that The Word is everything to life, and Jesus is The WORD.
Communication in other words, is foundational to existence. What kind
of life would it be if noone could communicate? Women are better at
this than men too, and that is> another subject worth exploring.
Should be a good study!
RayG
My reply:
Yes, I knew that about every 8 letters being another letter of the
Hebrew alphabet starting with aleph.
That will be somewhere in my intorductory lessons.
In fact since Psalms are poetic, they have a form of poetry and
acrostics/acronyms are one form of poetry.
An acronym is where a word also forms another thought like:
Joy =
Jesus
Others
Yourself
That is an acrostic for a simple sermon about
1. putting Jesus first,
2. then serving Others in ministry and
3. finally taking care of Yourself in relationship with Jesus.
So Psalm 119 is like an alphabetic acronym.
But thanks for posting that.
It is an excellent pre-introduction to our series on Psalm 119.
Brother Ray, that was an excellent added thought about communication.
Jesus is the Word as you said.
Communication is key for all societies to develop and succeed
including God's Kingdom.
Anybody else like to comment about God's Word being a blessing to you?
Sincerely in Christ,
Pastor Bill
TeachusYourWordLord
You may join that group if you would like to participate or just study everybody's comments on the Bible study.
When I announced that I was going to do a study on Psalm 119 comments about the psalm were already being posted.
Here is one of them and then my reply is afterwards.
- In TeachusYourWordLord@yahoogroups.com, Ray Gunn
>
> A great Psalm Pastor Bill. In case you didn't know, Psalm 119 is
built on the 22 letters of the alphabet, or aleph-bet to the Hebrews.
In other words, every verse begins with a different letter of the
Hebrew aleph-bet beginning with Aleph the first letter through Tav the
last letter. There are 176 verses in Psalm 119 and every 8 verses
begins with that letter of the aleph-bet. The first 8 verses all begin
with the letter aleph, the next 8 verses 9-16 begin with bet, the next
8 verses begin with gimel etc until the last 8 verses all begin with
tav. This isn't the only book of the Bible that does this either.
Lamentations is built on much the same principle. Other portions of
scripture do this to some extent also. I think God is trying to show
us that The Word is everything to life, and Jesus is The WORD.
Communication in other words, is foundational to existence. What kind
of life would it be if noone could communicate? Women are better at
this than men too, and that is> another subject worth exploring.
Should be a good study!
RayG
My reply:
Yes, I knew that about every 8 letters being another letter of the
Hebrew alphabet starting with aleph.
That will be somewhere in my intorductory lessons.
In fact since Psalms are poetic, they have a form of poetry and
acrostics/acronyms are one form of poetry.
An acronym is where a word also forms another thought like:
Joy =
Jesus
Others
Yourself
That is an acrostic for a simple sermon about
1. putting Jesus first,
2. then serving Others in ministry and
3. finally taking care of Yourself in relationship with Jesus.
So Psalm 119 is like an alphabetic acronym.
But thanks for posting that.
It is an excellent pre-introduction to our series on Psalm 119.
Brother Ray, that was an excellent added thought about communication.
Jesus is the Word as you said.
Communication is key for all societies to develop and succeed
including God's Kingdom.
Anybody else like to comment about God's Word being a blessing to you?
Sincerely in Christ,
Pastor Bill
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