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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.
Introduction (Pt 1)
Series An Exposition of Psalm 119
| Sermon ID | 1911130471 |
| Duration | 51:40 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Bible Text | Psalm 119 |
| Language | English |
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