Read Psalm 119 at Bible Gateway.
Psa 119 is the longest psalm in the book of Psalms, and it is also the longest chapter, at 176 verses, in the Bible. One researcher has actually mapped the cross references in the Bible and linked them visually, with the result:
Chris Harrison: Visualizing the Bible, 2007
(Map found in Visual Complexity: Mapping Patterns of Information by Manuel Lima, 2011)
Each of 63,779 cross-references found in the Bible was mapped. The bar graph on the bottom represents all of the books of the Bible in order, the length of their lines corresponding to the length of each book. Do you see the very longest line dropping down in the center of the graph? That is Psalm 119. How interesting is it, that Psalm 119 does not fall out at the center of the book of Psalms, nor at the center of the Hebrew Old Testament. But it falls out at the very center and heart of Scripture when both Testaments are combined. Many of the arcs shown above the bar graph of the books represent the lessor and greater chiastic structures formed by Scripture, which I have been mapping in my daily Bible studies and posting here.
Psalm 119 is composed of 22 stanzas of 8 lines each, each stanza ending in a strong paragraph division. There are no weak divisions within Psalm 119 but one, and we will discuss that when we get to it. Each stanza begins with a different Hebrew letter of the alphabet (of which there are 22). So, the first stanza, vs. 1-8, is the aleph stanza, the aleph being the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet:
1 Blessed are the undefiled in the way, Who walk in the law of the Lord!
2 Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, Who seek Him with the whole heart!
3 They also do no iniquity; They walk in His ways.
4 You have commanded us To keep Your precepts diligently.
5 Oh, that my ways were directed To keep Your statutes!
6 Then I would not be ashamed, When I look into all Your commandments.
7 I will praise You with uprightness of heart, When I learn Your righteous judgments.
8 I will keep Your statutes; Oh, do not forsake me utterly! {p}
In the Hebrew, each of the eight lines also begins with the letter of that stanza; so in the aleph stanza, each word beginning each line also begins with an aleph. The second stanza is the beth stanza, the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and each of its eight lines begins in Hebrew with the letter beth, and so on throughout the psalm. It is said among the rabbis that King David composed this psalm to teach his son Solomon the Hebrew alphabet.
However, this psalm is not merely baby’s play. Its elegance and complexity has defied many commentators, who have concluded it is merely a collection (as is Proverbs, they say) of “gold coins in a box,” rather than gold beads on a string. But we can see right away that familiarity of its Hebrew elements is necessary to unlock its structure.
The number eight figures prominently in another way in this psalm. There are eight synonymous Hebrew words used to mean, the Word of the Lord, employed. They are:
Torah, translated “Law,” but meaning, as we saw, the teaching or instruction that bears fruit;
Dabar, translated “word,” a general term meaning a word, a speech, or language in general;
Imrah, translated “word,” meaning something more specific, the content of what was spoken;
Khokim, translated “statutes,” meaning what is appointed and prescribed as proper protocol, and as such is used elsewhere in phrases describing the appointed circuits of the sun or moon, along paths from which they do not deviate;
Edot, translated “testimonies,” meaning legal provisions or contractual (covenant) obligations; that which God has testified to be necessary or required;
Pekudim, translated “precepts,” meaning that which has been entrusted, or that which has been charged as with a responsibility (as a groom is entrusted with his bride on their wedding day), rather than that which has been commanded;
Mishpatim, translated “judgments,” meaning assessments according to wisdom; i.e., it is the judgment of the Lord that thus and so is a righteous act, so that all His judgments are just.
The ninth term, is of course, Mitzvah, translated “commandments,” and meaning just that, a thing commanded.
We are now prepared to unpack what structure we are able.
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