I thought I'd start tonight by just taking a quick poll for those of you who know Christ. How many of you in the course of your Christian life have come to Psalm 119 and been revived by reading that Psalm? How many of you? Yeah, quite a few. Psalm 119 stands out as one of the great, one of the memorable psalms in the Psalter. It's the longest psalm. It's not only the longest psalm, it happens to be the longest chapter in the entire Bible. Psalm 119, we could say, is really a feast on and in the Word of God. If you want to have your heart renewed and revived with a passion for God's Word, Psalm 119 is the place to go. It is 176 verses. verses long, and it is one of the most glorious expressions, if not the most glorious expression of delight and joy in God's Word. And as believers, it reminds us of how much love and delight we ought to take in God's Word. It is a psalm of worship. It's a psalm of praise, it is a psalm of thanksgiving, it's a psalm of wisdom, and it all centers in and flows from the Word. One Old Testament scholar says that apart from verses 1 to 3 and 113, the whole psalm is directly addressed to God. And so in all of these verses, the vast majority with the exception of four verses, all of these verses are ultimately directed to God himself. Now, what kind of psalm is it? If you've been around for a while, you know that as we've done studies in the psalms, we talk about different kinds of psalms. There are different categories of psalms and Psalm 119, I think, first of all, is a wisdom psalm. It starts off with a typical wisdom formula, blessed is the man or how blessed is the man. It's proverbial in style. And also, as we're going to see, it is an alphabetic acrostic. We'll explain that more in a few minutes. But the psalm is so big, it's so large that it isn't just one type of psalm. It's actually what we could say is an eclectic kind of psalm. It includes Virtually every type of psalm in the Psalter, there is in the Psalm 119, there's lament, there's thanksgiving, there's praise, there's confidence. All of those different kinds of psalms find a home as it were in Psalm 119. In fact, one commentator said that Psalm 119 may simply be best described as a medley of praise and prayer and wisdom. The structure of the psalm is actually quite straightforward and although not simple, it is easy to see. The psalm consists of 22 stanzas. Each stanza contains eight verses, all right? So 22 stanzas, each comprised of eight verses. Those 22 stanzas correspond to the Hebrew alphabet. And each stanza follows the consecutive order of the Hebrew alphabet. And so, if you're in Psalm 119, you can notice first, in the first eight verses, you see right above that section, Aleph. And then the second section, 9 to 16, Beit. And then the second section, 17 following, Gimel. These are all the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. And what the psalm looks like, there's absolutely no way to actually reproduce this in English. There are a number of acrostic poems in the Bible. Psalms 9 and 10, for instance, would be acrostics. The book of Lamentations is a compilation of five different acrostics. But Psalm 119 is by far the most famous. And like I said, there's no way to reproduce this in English, but in that first stanza, every single line, each of those eight verses begins with a word starting with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph. And the second stanza then, every single line begins with the Hebrew letter Beit. And so it goes on like that all the way through. Now, the question is... Why in the world would somebody put together a poem, which is what the Psalms are, that is an alphabetic acrostic? It's very clever in many ways. But we could say that the alphabetic acrostic, first of all, is a demonstration of incredible artistic literary beauty. When we come to our Bibles, we want to emphasize the fact that the basic message of the Bible is simple, straightforward. Anybody who can basically read can read the Bible and get the fundamental message of the Bible. But that's not to say that the Bible is a simplistic book. In fact, that is simply not true at all. There are books of the Bible, there are passages of the Bible that are literarily complex, have literary or rhetorical complexities and structures to them that scholars look at for years and years and years. And so one of the things that we come to when we start to study God's word in depth is that at times, God inspired certain biblical writers to write in a way that is beautiful, powerful, compelling, and artistic. Charlie and I were talking about the Gospel of John today. Most of us think about the Gospel of John as the simplest of all the Gospels. And there's a sense in which the Gospel of John does have a very simple message, right? But the Gospel of John is also structurally the most complex of all the four Gospels and has certain numeric and structural complexities that baffle scholars even to this day that demonstrate a profound literary ability. So you get to Psalm 119 and here you have this beautiful, artistic, poetic expression. Why? Because we're talking about God's truth. And God's truth is not only true, but it is good and it is beautiful. And so it only seems to make sense that in many places in God's Word, He would take a style that is completely compatible to express the beauty and the power of His Word. And so, although we'll marvel at some of the literary accomplishments of the psalmist in Psalm 119, that literary power and beauty should strike us. It's the way that God not only communicates, but the way that God is. God himself is a beautiful God expressed in the beauty of his creation and in the beauty of his word. There are other reasons why the biblical writers would want to do an alphabetic acrostic. It was also a memory device. You have eight lines. They all start with the same letter. It's kind of easier to get them down that way. And I want you to think about this for a second. Jewish children had the entirety of Psalm 119 memorized. along with massive sections of the Pentateuch and other portions of Holy Scripture. But to them, it was a mnemonic device. It was a memory device. The alphabetic acrostic helped them to commit to memory, Psalm 119. And there's something else about this psalm, the alphabetic acrostic, and that is if you say you have something that is from A to Z or that covers from A to Z, what are you saying? It's complete, it's total, right? And so in this Psalm, you have from the olive to the towel. That is the first Hebrew letter to the last Hebrew letter. You have the A to the Z. You have in this a complete celebration of God's word. As it were, an exhaustive exposition of God's revelation. So what is the purpose of Psalm 119? The overarching purpose of Psalm 119 is to express the devotion and love and obedience to the Word of God and really thus to God Himself. And it is to celebrate the greatness of God's Word as our source of joy and delight and blessing in God. And the word is, or the psalm celebrates the fact that it's the word of God that's the source of delight for us, it renews us, it gives us spiritual light, and it is, as I mentioned earlier, by and large a prayer to God himself. thanking him for his word, asking him to renew us according to his word. So what makes us think that Psalm 119 is actually about the word primarily? Well, it's because the psalmist uses eight different words for the word in this psalm, and he uses most of them more than 20 times. And so as you go through this Psalm, you notice that there are a number of words for the word. that end up expressing various, varying nuances of God's word. Most of these are synonyms, but as with most synonyms, you have not only an overlap in meaning, but then you also have nuance. And so let's just very briefly cover these. The word law or the Hebrew word Torah is used 25 times in Psalm 119. And it is used to express God's revelation. Normally, when we think of Torah, we think of law. And that's because the Hebrew verb from which we get the word Torah means to point. And so the noun came to have the idea, Torah came to have the idea of to teach or to instruct. And so to point out as it were, and so the word Torah is this comprehensive term for all of God's preceptive directions. So everything that God wants to instruct us in is in a sense subsumed under this word Torah. Another word, the word word. is the Hebrew word Devar, and it's used 24 times in Psalm 119. And Devar is just used as God's revelation. It is His word. It's very similar to the New Testament counterpart, Lagos. And then there are the testimonies, the adut, 23 times in Psalm 119. And it's used oftentimes in connection with the idea of the covenant. It can be used with reference to God's faithfulness to the covenant. In other words, that which witnesses to God's faithfulness, or it could be the demands of the covenant, that which witnesses against us, and it is part of God's revelation. His testimonies either give witness to Him or witness against us. All right? Then you have the commands or commandments, misoir, 23 times. Simply use it as an authoritative order. It's like getting a declaration from the judge that says you're going to appear. You know that it carries the authority. because it has the seal of the state on it and the judge's signature. That's the Mishwa. This is the word from the authoritative Lord himself. Then you have judgments, Mishpot, 22 times, and this has reference to anything that God has done or decided. Both of those things, action and decision, come under Mishpot. The idea of if God has actually done something which is recorded in his word, that is a judgment of God. Or if God makes a decision that's recorded for us in his word, that would be a judgment of God. via Hukim, the decrees used 21 times, and this is all in regards to God's divine will, either what he has prescribed, that is what he's told us needs to be done, or what he has himself enacted. The precepts, the Pikidim, 21 times, and the idea is very simple, and that is just an order or a charge by a superior. And then finally, the Imrah, the word or the promise, used 19 times, and this is a broad term, anything that God has spoken, commanded, or promised. And so, you go through and you've got all of these words depicting the word in Psalm 119. And sometimes they're used in exact parallel synonymously, other times they have nuances to them, and so we will note those as we go through. So, I asked earlier how many of you Psalm 119 has ministered to in the course of your Christian life. I want to ask another question. How many of us have just simply assumed that Psalm 119 was written by David? I always thought, I mean, Spurgeon said it. I believe it. That settles it. I mean, that's, you know, I've always thought David wrote Psalm 119. The reality is, is that Psalm 119 is not actually stated. Now, When you talk about authorship of a book of the Bible or a particular psalm, when they are anonymous, we can't be overly dogmatic. For instance, we happen to be studying a book right now which does not have a named author. Anybody remember what it is? Hebrews, good. And so ultimately who wrote Hebrews? Well, origin put it best, only God knows. And so you want to tread carefully when the Bible doesn't say exactly. But trying to figure out the authorship is important for interpreting a number of the passages. I would say it is not ultimately important to understand the psalm or its application or else God would have revealed it to us. But to have some kind of background as to who may have written it gives us some significant insight, I think, in application of the psalm. Now, some of you might remember back around 2005 that I suggested after some research that Daniel wrote the Psalm 119, Daniel. I wrote a paper on it, made it available to you. And what I want to do is I want to probably take way too much time on this and try to convince you that Daniel probably wrote Psalm 119. Now, notice how I said it. I wasn't too dogmatic, right? I said that Daniel probably wrote Psalm 119. Now, if you leave here after this and say, I know for certain Daniel wrote Psalm 119, then you got it. If you say, Daniel probably wrote it, then I'll be happy with that. And so let me just tell you that in Jewish tradition, There's not a unanimity of opinion. In the Psalms, there are these things called superscriptions. That's the little print above the Psalm. It's not what your editors have put in. For instance, if you look at Psalm 119, my Bible says Psalm 119 and then it says meditations and prayers relating to the law of God. The editors of our Bible put that there or if you have a similar kind of heading. But you might notice that it just starts olive. That's actually part of the Hebrew text. But if you look over, for instance, just back to Psalm 117. Yeah, let's see, let's use a better example than that. Psalm 109. In Psalm 109, you see vengeance invoked upon adversaries or something like that. The editors put that in. But right under that, for the choir director, the Psalm of David, it's in smaller print and it's not italicized, at least that's how it is in my Bible. That's called the superscription. The superscription is actually a part of the Hebrew text. That's why when we do psalm readings for calls to worship, we read the superscription, even though it may have words like mictom that we don't even know what they mean, we read that because it's actually a part of the text as we have received it. And so if you look at Psalm 110, the Lord gives dominion to the king, that's the editors, but notice the next line, a Psalm of David, that's the superscription, that's actually a part of the Hebrew text. Well, guess what Psalm 119 does not have? It doesn't have a superscription. It does not say a psalm of David, a psalm of Asaph, a psalm of Daniel. It doesn't have anything to identify it, and so it is an anonymous psalm. Jewish tradition has suggested two candidates predominantly throughout history, one being David, but the more predominant candidate for the authorship of the psalm has been Ezra. Christian tradition has generally assumed David's authorship, but it seems clear, at least to me, from internal evidence that, one, the author was living under conditions which were completely hostile to his faith. One Old Testament scholar, Franz Delitzsch, who thinks, by the way, that this psalm was written in the Maccabean period, which would put it around 160. I think that's too late. He says, it's natural to suppose that the composition of this psalm falls in those times of the Greek domination in which the government was hostile. And a large party from among the Jews themselves that was friendly to the government persecuted all decided confessors of the Torah. And I think his observation is right. I just think his time is wrong. You have somebody who's living under a hostile government who actually is dealing with Jews who are friendly to the hostile government and actually opposed to those Jews who are trying to be faithful. You read Psalm 119 in one setting, and that is the definite sense that you get. Many of the critical commentators argue that the psalm comes during the exilic or post-exilic period, which actually would make Daniel a good candidate. The psalm itself draws not only from the Pentateuch, but it also draws from Isaiah, the Proverbs, and the book of Jeremiah, It also contains a number of late Hebrew words and some Aramaisms which also make Daniel a good candidate. Now, apart from those considerations, I think Daniel is a good candidate for a number of reasons. One, there's no explicit mention of the temple, tabernacle, or sacrifices, which would make sense under what conditions? if you were exiled, if you weren't living in the land, if you were actually a stranger. The psalmist actually says that he's in a strange land, that he is in exile as it were. Now, David, of course, from time to time was on the run, right? Running usually from who? from Saul. And so there are a few episodes in David's life where he writes Psalms where he's on the run. But the hostility that was shown to David was not because of his commitment to God's law, but the hostility shown to David was because he was going to be king. All right. So the hostility that's in Psalm 119 is actually hostility against somebody because of their faith and their commitment to the word of God, not because they are going to be on the throne. So anyway, the Ezra and his disciples, were they actually in exile or had they returned? Maybe we should do Old Testament history next, right? Ezra and his disciples, were they in exile or were they in the land? They were in the land. They were one of the waves of returnees back to the land. And so the situation of Psalm 119, I think, fits far better of the Babylonian exile, which fits the time linguistically and also thematically. Now, this is where you have to really Just, you know, just buck up and follow this, all right? I put it on the screen for your convenience. Okay, internal evidence for Daniel's authorship. What I'd like you to do is look with me at these passages. First of all, Daniel 1, 8 and 9. But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king's choice food, or with the wine which he drank. So he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself. Now God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials. Psalm 119, 1 and 2. How blessed are those... See how this comports with what's said about Daniel. How blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. How blessed are those who observe his testimonies, who seek him with all their heart. How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to your word. Your word I have treasured in my heart that I might not sin against you. I have chosen the faithful way. I have placed your ordinances before me. I have restrained my feet from every evil way that I may keep your word. The psalmist who penned those verses was one who had resolutely determined to be obedient to God in the face of opposition, like Daniel. Next. Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, the king of his officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family and of the nobles, youths in whom was no defect, who were good-looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability for serving in the king's court. and he ordered him to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. So Daniel is one who, by the way, in 605, was deported to the strange land of Babylon. The psalmist here says, I'm a stranger in the earth. Do not hide your commandments from me. For a Jew, there was a special place on this planet and it was Haaretz, the land. the land being the land of promise. When a Jew was in the land of promise, he was at home. The psalmist here says, I'm a stranger in the earth. Don't hide your commandments from me. Daniel 3.8, for this reason at that time certain Chaldeans came forward and brought charges against the Jews. You remember that? This precedes the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. Then in Daniel 6, then the commissioners and the satraps began trying to find a ground of accusation against Daniel in regard to government affairs, but they could find no ground or accusation or evidence of corruption inasmuch as he was faithful and no negligence or corruption was to be found in him. Then, these men said, we will not find any ground of accusation against this Daniel unless we find it against him with regard to the law of his God." Notice, in light of those events in Daniel's life, what the psalmist says. Even though princes sit and talk against me, your servant meditates on your statutes. And by the way, that particular word, princes, that will be used twice, would not actually fit David because princes did not sit and talk against David, nor actually would it fit Ezra. The idea of princes would be leaders or officials, those who had high positions. Next verse, may the arrogant be ashamed for they subvert me with a lie. but I shall meditate on your precepts. The arrogant have dug pits for me, men who are not in accord with your law. All your commandments are faithful. They've persecuted me with a lie. Help me. The wicked wait for me to destroy me. I shall diligently consider your testimonies. The wicked have laid a snare for me, yet I have not gone astray from your precepts. Many are my persecutors and my adversaries, yet I do not turn aside from your testimonies. Princes persecute me without cause, but my heart stands in awe of your words. The psalmist is describing situations in which those in places of leadership were bringing accusations against him, persecuting him, and yet what does he do? He remains resolute in his faithfulness to the law of God. And who does that describe? Describes Daniel. Daniel 2, 27-28, Daniel answered before the king and said, As for the mystery about which the king has inquired, neither wise men, conjurers, magicians, nor diviners are able to declare it to the king. However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the latter days. This was your dream and the visions in your mind while on your bed. You remember, none of the magicians or a cultist basically could interpret Nebuchadnezzar's dream. And Nebuchadnezzar actually does something pretty smart. He doesn't tell anybody what the dream was. Kind of easy if you know what the dream is to maybe make something up that sounds good to save your own neck. Daniel actually comes forward and says, God will give me the interpretation. And notice what he says to the king, most powerful man on the planet, Nebuchadnezzar. There is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. The psalmist can say, I will also speak of your testimonies before kings and shall not be ashamed. Okay, so that's my internal evidence, but I would say that there's something a little more, and that is that there is a tone in Psalm 119 The petitions, the confessions, I think all reflect Daniel and his situation very well. And so, the evidence ends up being more than just linking up these verses, but getting a feel for Daniel's character in the book of Daniel, and then seeing if that character is expressed in the piety and the circumstances of the psalm. And so Psalm 119 verse 17, deal bountifully with your servant that I may live and keep your word. You might remember the first chapter of Daniel, please test your servants for 10 days. Let us be given some vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance be observed in your presence and the appearance of the youths who are eating the king's choice food. You remember this situation, right? Daniel's been chosen, he's going to be educated in the knowledge of Babylon, and they want him to drink the king's wine. and eat the king's food, he would defile himself according to the law of God if he drank the wine and the food. And so he goes to the official and says, basically, look, you give us vegetables and then after 10 days, compare us and see if we're any skinnier or if we're not just as plump and fit as the rest. And so the rest of the story, so he listened to them in this matter, tested them for 10 days. At the end of 10 days, their appearance seemed better and they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king's choice food so the overseer continued to withhold their choice food and the wine they were to drink and kept giving them vegetables. Deal bountifully with your servant that I may live and keep your word. Remove the false way from me and graciously grant me your law." Here's the description. Youths in whom was no defect, who were good-looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and had the ability for serving in the king's court. Notice this last clause. He ordered them to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. So guess what Daniel and his three friends have to do every day? They have to go to the University of Babylon, where they are instructed in the ways of Babylon, the religion, the culture, literature, the whole gamut. And the psalmist prays, remove the false way from me and graciously grant me your law. The psalmist could pray, Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to dishonest gain. Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity and revive me in your ways. So what happens in Daniel chapter 2 is then Daniel, this is after he interprets the dream, then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. But I personally have heard you that this is now Cyrus or Darius that you are able to give interpretations and solve difficult problems. Now, if you're able to read the inscription and make its interpretation known to me, you'll be clothed with purple and wear a necklace of gold around your neck and you will have authority as the third ruler. in the kingdom. This is actually Nebuchadnezzar's grandson, Belshazzar. What is offered to Daniel is all the riches of the kingdom, if he gives the interpretation. You know what Daniel does in that passage? He refuses all the riches and does the interpretation anyway, speaking once again of the testimonies of the Lord to Belshazzar. Incline my heart to your testimonies, not to dishonest gain. I'm a companion of all those who fear you and of those who keep your precepts, who were the psalmist's friends, a companion of those who fear God and kept his word. This is what Daniel's three friends said to Nebuchadnezzar when faced with the bowing down to the idol. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of the blazing fire. And he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if he does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we're not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. Daniel's companions were those who feared God and kept his precepts. Psalm 119, verse 87, they almost destroyed me on the earth, but as for me, I did not forsake your precepts. Now, when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house. Now, in his roof chamber, he had his windows open toward Jerusalem, and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, in other words, in plain sight, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously. Then the king gave orders, and Daniel was brought in and cast into the lion's den. The king spoke and said to Daniel, Your God whom you constantly serve will himself deliver you. They almost destroyed me on earth, but as for me, I did not forsake your precepts. I kept on praying and remained faithful even if it meant going into the lion's den." Here's my favorite and to me one of the most persuasive Psalm 119, 98 to 100. Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever mine. I have more insight than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, because I have observed your precepts. Now, here's something that's always bothered me about David possibly being the writer. David actually could not have said those things. David wasn't educated by Babylonians or pagans. David was educated by the godly in Israel. Could you imagine a faithful Jew adhering to the Old Testament saying, I understand more than the aged in ancient Israel? I understand more than the fathers in Israel. It doesn't make any sense. So here, the psalmist actually celebrates that God's word has made him wiser than his enemies, given him more insight than his teachers, and given him more understanding than even the aged. Notice again, who was Daniel's teacher? Dr. Akbar in the religion department at the University of Babylon. and Dr. Marduk of Babylonian literature. Daniel and his three friends were educated in all of the wisdom and literature and language of the Chaldeans, that is the Babylonians. In other words, I think it's only an exile under these circumstances that can actually make the claims of the psalmist here. This is continued, Psalm 119 continued. We see again, wiser than his enemies, teachers and the aged. As for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom. Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams. Then at the end of the days, which the king had specified for presenting them, the commander of the officials presented them before Nebuchadnezzar. The king talked with them, and out of all of them, all not was... Out of all of them, not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. So they entered the king's personal service. As for the matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all the realm. Sounds like a good match to me. Oh, it's continued. Therefore, Daniel... By the way, how old do you think Daniel was in Daniel chapter 2 when he went to actually interpret Nebuchadnezzar's dream? Nebuchadnezzar is about to destroy all of the wise men, magicians, and conjurers because they can't... He's probably Deseret's age. And here you have all these old guys fearing for their life, and it's the young guy that comes through with the knowledge, the wisdom, the insight. Therefore, Daniel went in to Ariok, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon, He went and spoke to him as follows, do not destroy the wise men of Babylon. Take me into the king's presence. I'll declare the interpretation to the king. It's only Daniel who had the wisdom, the knowledge and the insight to do what he did. Psalm 119, 119, you've removed all the wicked of the earth like dross. Therefore, I love your testimonies. The king then gave orders and they brought those men who had maliciously accused Daniel and they cast them, their children and their wives into the lion's den. and they had not reached the bottom of the den before the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones." My eyes, the psalmist says in verse 136, shed streams of water because they do not keep your law. Daniel prays in Daniel chapter 9, we've sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from your commandments and ordinances. Moreover, we have not listened to your servants, the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers, and all the people of the land. Open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things from your law. Make me understand the way of your precepts so that I will meditate on your wonders. Let my cry come before you, O Lord, give understanding. Give me understanding according to your word." You know what we find Daniel doing in Daniel chapter 9? In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, median descent who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans in the first year of his reign I Daniel observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem namely 70 years so I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek him by prayer and supplications with fasting sackcloth and ashes. The entirety of Daniel chapter 9 is set up by Daniel studying the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah and it is his insight into Jeremiah's prophecy that then leads to the vision of the 70 weeks which then tells how much more time is left for Jerusalem's punishment. And so here he is, God opening up his eyes to see wonderful things from his law. That is the end. Now, I think the internal evidence points most consistently to Daniel. Understand, most consistently. It's synonymous, so we can't be dogmatic. But I think that if we think like this going through Psalm 119, we'll have good insight. If we read and think Daniel, if for no other reason than for illustration, as we go through Psalm 119, I think it will bring a freshness to us in understanding this psalm and its application, right? Okay. I think what I'll do is I think that I'll stop there and because I know that was probably a little tedious for you and not nearly as exciting and exhilarating as usual but I think good for us to consider these things. And so I'm going to take a few minutes for questions and then we'll close in prayer and finish up the introduction next week. That's a great question. When was it written? If Daniel wrote it... And here's the thing, you have sections of the psalm that seem like they come from a young man and you have sections of the psalm that seem like they could come from an old man. So, there's two possibilities the way I see it. And this is not the law of the Medes and the Persians, this is just a guess. It could have either been written by Daniel in middle to later life, okay, or it could have been compiled over a number of years. If it was compiled over a number of years, then the book almost reads like a diary with him making these reflections at different sections of his life. It would be akin to, let's say, Jonathan Edwards' resolutions, where it's over a span of years that those resolutions are made, but they're all compiled in one place. So those are the two possibilities as I see it. Does anybody out there share my view? Yeah, the answer is that there are. They're the ones that I think are right. We always agree with those that agree with us. George Zemeck, who taught for years and years at Grace Seminary in Indiana and then at the Master's Seminary, posits Daniel's authorship. There was another Old Testament scholar by the name of Thrall, T-H-R-A-L-L, back in the 1800s, who argued for Daniel's authorship. And there's a handful of others. And so, it's not as if it is completely unique to me. If it was completely unique to me, I would have been a little less dogmatic. Nothing like Hebrews. You know, Hebrews is a battlefield. And there's a reason why the authorship of Psalm 119 is not a greatly debated issue and that is because most of the people who give attention to that kind of thing are higher critical scholars who most of them see, there are a few exceptions, but most of them see it as a late date, It's anonymous, probably written during the Maccabean period, that kind of thing. And so those that write from a more devotional evangelical perspective, most of them actually assume that David wrote it. And so there's just not a lot of debate and discussion. But I think that actually going through, looking at the comparison of those passages actually sets the psalm up for us quite nicely to see some of the background and the way that the psalm deals with life. Yes, there are two things in Psalm 119 from a scholarly perspective that does put the book in Daniel's time frame. And remember, Hebrew Bible is written over a period of 1,000 years. That's a long time. If you took English literature and compared stuff that was written over the course of a thousand years, how far back do you have to go? What do you have to find that's a thousand years old in English? Plato wasn't in English. In English, think about it, a thousand years. You actually don't have anything that even closely resembles our English. I mean, so you're talking about a huge span of time, right? A thousand years. So how much does language change in that period of time? Well, it changes a lot. It changes a lot. And so you do have very definitive periods in Hebrew language. Psalm 119 uses a number of late Hebrew words and then also uses a number of what are called Aramaisms. That is, Aramaic influences on Hebrew. Okay? And those are late as well. And so there are internal indicators of roughly the period. Now, all that does is it puts us in a period of maybe 600 to 400 BC. Yeah, I don't think that there's a lot of consideration. I mean, Spurgeon just said, you know, David wrote it, and he wrote a lot of the Psalter. You know, the Psalter comes in five books, right? You ever notice that? It's in five books. Book one, book two, book three, book four, book five. What's interesting is that as time goes on, there is roughly a chronology, I said roughly, a chronology to those five books. So that the later Psalms actually are found in the fifth book. The Songs of Ascent, for instance, those would be post-exilic Psalms. Those Psalms all actually fall in Book 5. Guess where Psalm 119 falls? It falls in Book 5. So I think that there are good reasons for us not to just assume that David wrote it, but because he wrote so many of the Psalms, we just kind of do it by default. Now, there are certain times and certain passages in Psalm 119 that stand out as absolutely critical to my spiritual sanity. And in particular, Psalm 119 and verse 68, you are good and you do good. But there have been times where I have felt spiritually dry and I've gone and just sat down and read Psalm 119 in one sitting and then picked up Charles Bridge who's an old Puritan and read some of his comments on some of the Psalms and God's revived my heart through it. So the Psalm is very Very dear to me. All right. Well, next week, we will not be so tedious, but I think that we've laid a good foundation. So read the psalm and do it a variety of ways. This is just suggestive. Take time to read it through in one sitting. You'd be amazed what you get when you actually read a chunk of scripture in one sitting. We usually read, you know, a few verses at a time. Read it one sitting and then take one stanza. and read... There was one year about 10 years ago where I took one stanza, Aleph, and I read that seven days in a row, and then Beit, and then read that seven days in a row, and then Gemel, seven days in a row, Dalet, seven days in a row, did that all the way through, and it was very enriching. So then read it slower and repetitively and look for specifically what the psalmist says God's Word does for us, and then specifically how we are supposed to respond to God's Word. Those are two huge themes that we'll touch on next week. Father, we thank you for your Word, even as Psalm 119 tells us, forever settled in heaven. And Father, we pray that you would bless our time in this Psalm. We pray that it would be rich. Father, I think especially of our young people, who many parallels to Daniel's life and I pray that as we go through this psalm that it would be just a great boost to their faith and to their courage in their own hostile environments. And Father, we pray that you would build us up through this psalm and that we would find ourselves being revived and renewed and refreshed by your word, loving your word, devoted to it, keeping it, asking you to enlarge our hearts and to run in the way of your commandments. Father, we pray that you would use this to help us to be more obedient, joyfully obedient, and we ask it for the praise of our Savior Amen.