Have you ever read something that made perfect sense to you and got you excited, and then
tried to explain it to someone else, only to realize that because they haven’t read the rest of
your book, they don’t really get what you’re saying? I’ll do my best to not make this blog post
like that, however if you want some clarification on this, please contact me!!!
I just finished reading one of the books for my upcoming Masters class on Psalms – “The
Flow of the Psalms” by O. Palmer Robertson. This book helped me to understand the overall arrangement of the Psalms and how it tells the redemptive story of the entire Bible within its 150 chapters. While there is a lot more I could say here, I want to focus on one thing that stood out to me as I read the section on Psalm 119.
Psalm 119 is the longest Psalm in the book and it’s noteworthy for its focus on the Word of
God. All but three of the verses mention the Word of God in some way, even though many
different titles for the Word of God are used (promises, laws, statutes, etc). This book
explained that Psalm 119 was most likely written during The Exile. The Exile was a period of
time in Israel’s history where they were sent into captivity by God because of their sin and their wandering from God. Being away from the land meant that worship in the temple was no longer possible. The sacrifices and rituals that they were so accustomed to doing were
removed from them for this time. How would they worship God now?
The answer seems to be a renewed focus on the law of God, the Torah. This foundation of the
Jewish faith became what they used to worship God in this time when they couldn’t go to the
temple or use the other methods they had for so long. They came back to Scripture and
Psalm 119 reflects that in its 173 verses that mention the Law of God in such positive ways.
God’s Word is longed for (119:20), it is valued (119:9), it is delighted in (119:14,16), and it is clung to (119:31). There is a real desire reflected here to learn what God’s Word says in a deeper way
(119:33-34). The list goes on. It is clear that the Psalmist values God’s Word immensely, and
assuming that this was written during the period of Exile, it’s interesting that being forced out of their routine allowed Israel to value and appreciate the Word of God in a new way.
The COVID Pandemic may not be an exile for us as believers, but a lot of the ways that we
worship God, at least corporately speaking, have been changed significantly if not removed
altogether. We pray that this is only temporary and given the ways some provinces are starting to open up it seems as though we are starting to see a dim light at the end of the tunnel. But for now, as we wait, I think we can take a good lesson from the Psalmist in Psalm 119. As our routine has been taken away we have been given a chance to come to the Word of God with a new focus. We’ve been given more time to get into the Word on our own. We’ve been forced to find ways to worship God apart from the ways and routines we’ve used for so long.
That’s not to say that how we did church before all this hit was all bad. When the day comes
and we can gather again we rightfully look forward to singing, to sharing meals together, and to worshiping corporately in the ways we’ve done before- those are all good things! But I hope and pray we don’t overlook the benefit of this time spent relying more heavily on the Word of
God in our own time for our spiritual nourishment and that we can continue to develop a
hunger for the Word in our own lives.
I am excited for the day when we can gather again and I trust that this time we’ve been given
to dig into the Word more on our own will make our corporate worship much more sweet and meaningful.