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FACTS ABOUT PSALM 119- Authorship is unknown…might be several

- Longest chapter in Scripture (176vv)

- 22 stanzas, 8 verses each

- Massive acrostic; each section starts with the next progressive letter in the Hebrew alphabet; each line in that section starts w/that specific letter

Hebrew alphabet

FACTS ABOUT PSALM 119- Eight different words re: “God’s Word”

1. Dabar (24x) God’s spoken/revealed word

2. Imrah (19x) Anything God spoke/promised, etc.

3. Chuqqim (21x) God’s laws for Israel

4. Mishpatim (23x) Statutes, judgments, rulings

5. Torah (25x) Law, teaching, revelation

6. Misvah/Misvot (22x) Commands w/Gods’ authority

7. Piqqudim (21x) Helpful guidelines/instructions

8. Eduth (23x) Loyalty to God’s covenant promises

PSALM 119:1-3Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk

in the law of the Lord!Blessed are those who keep His testimonies,who seek Him with their whole heart,who also do no wrong,but walk in His ways!

The

INTRODUCTION

The only versesin this Psalm that

aren’t spoken directlyto the LORD

PSALM 119:11I have stored up Your word in my heart,that I might not sin against You.

PSALM 119:33-34Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes; and I will keep it to the end.Give me understanding, that I may keep Your law and observe it with my whole heart.

PSALM 119:72The law of Your mouth is better to methan thousands of gold and silver pieces.

PSALM 119:103How sweet are Your words to my taste,sweeter than honey to my mouth!

PSALM 119:105Your word is a lamp to my feetand a light to my path.

JOHN 8:12I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness,

but will have the light of life.

PSALM 119:130The unfolding of Your words gives light;it imparts understanding to the simple.

PSALM 119:156Great is Your mercy, O Lord;give me life according to Your rules.

MATTHEW 7:24-27Everyone then who hears these words of Mine and

does them will be like a wise man who built his house on

the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that

house, but it did not fall, because it

had been founded on the rock.

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JOHN 5:39-40You search the Scriptures

because you think that in them you have eternal life;

and it is they that bear witness about Me,yet you refuse to come

to Me that you may have life.

DANGER of RELIGIOUS IDOLATRYThere’s a demonic self-reinforcing quality about idolatry that can be discerned in (the Pharisees). By trying to derive false life from their confident knowledge of Scripture instead of the One Scripture points to, these leaders had made an idol of their knowledge of Scripture. But the river also flowed in the other direction. Precisely because these leaders had made an idol of their knowledge of Scripture, they would not come to the true source of life to which Scripture points.

DANGER of RELIGIOUS IDOLATRY…These leaders were not hungry for the true bread of life…because they had already stuffed themselves with the false life of their idol. And they had to stuff themselves with this false life of their idol because they would not come to the true bread of life. It’s a vicious, idolatrous, self-reinforcing cycle…

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