ALEPH. Blessed are the perfect in the way, who walk in the law of Jehovah.
Psalm 119 opens with a verdict, not a request: God calls one way of life blessed. The psalm states that as plain fact before the writer says anything about himself, and the rest of it is the longing of a heart that wants to live that way.
Verses 1–3 work as a headline for everything that follows:
The opening verses present the theme of the whole psalm — the blessedness of those who walk through this world in "the way" marked out by the Lord in His law, who "keep" His testimonies, and seek Him with the whole heart.
The psalm before this one asks God to open the gates of righteousness. Psalm 119 answers who goes through them:
We have read in Psalm 118:19–20, "Open to me the gates of righteousness… This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it." But who are the righteous? Psalm 119 answers that question. It shows what will be true of Israel when God writes the law on their hearts (Jer. 31:33)… Psalms 1, 32, 41, 112 and 128 all begin with this same word blessed… In the first Psalm we read of someone delighting in the law of the LORD. Here we see how completely that can be true.
The Hebrew word that opens the verse is not a single blessing but a heap of them:
The word for "Blessed" in the Hebrew is plural. So it describes the "abundant blessings" that belong to all true believers in Christ: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" (Eph. 1:3).
Older translations read "undefiled" or "perfect" here. The word does not describe people who were always like that:
They were not always "perfect". Once they were sinners, every one going his own way, dead in trespasses and sins. But Christ gave Himself as a sacrifice for sin, to redeem sinners from both the guilt and the power of sin… The word "perfect" has the meaning of "blameless, complete, whole, entire, sound".
The verse ties this blessing to a way — a road to walk in. In a world full of dirt, only one road stays clean:
God pronounces this blessedness on "the undefiled in the way." The world is full of defilement. There is only one path in the world… which can be undefiled; that is, God's law… It is the way wholly formed of God's expressed will for man's walk in this world. They "walk in the law of the LORD." There is a delight in what is right, in what is not defiled by sin or the world; but that which is right is found in walking in the law. It is a perfect rule, according to God, in this world for a living man.
(Where older translations print "Jehovah," the ESV reads "the LORD.")
Between Sinai and this psalm the law has not changed. The person has:
At Sinai the law came to men in the flesh, and they loathed it, rebelled against it; in Psalm 119 the writer delights in the law of God. Clearly he has been born again. He tastes ahead of time the blessing Israel will have in a future day, when the Lord will say, "I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds" (Heb. 10:16).
Christians today can share that delight without going back under law:
Though we are not "under law but under grace," we still delight in it; and we fulfil its righteous requirements as we walk according to the Spirit. The believer can even now sing, "Oh how I love your law!" — for he has been brought to rejoice in the One who has magnified that law, and who has borne its curse for him upon the tree.
Verse 1 speaks about other people. Then the psalm turns inward:
Notice that the whole Psalm, except the first five verses, is in the singular. The writer first says that the undefiled in the way are blessed, setting out that certain fact as his theme. Then he exclaims: "Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes!"—his personal ways.
- Blessing first. The psalm's opening word is plural in Hebrew — abundant blessings, not just one, resting on all who walk this way.
- Blameless by redemption. Those called blameless were once sinners, each going his own way. Christ's sacrifice makes them whole and sound.
- One clean road. In a dirty world, only God's expressed will marks out a path that stays clean — and the blessed are those who walk it.
- Law inside, not over. At Sinai men met the law from outside and loathed it. Here God writes it inside the heart, and the heart delights in it.
- Verdict becomes prayer. Verse 1 states the blessing as a fact about others. Within a few verses it turns personal — "Oh that my ways may be steadfast."
Blessed are they that observe his testimonies, that seek him with the whole heart;
This verse is the second of the two blessings that open Psalm 119. It ties keeping God's testimonies to seeking God Himself. One writer reads the whole psalm as the answer to a single question: who are the righteous?
But who are the righteous? Psalm 119 answers this question. It shows what will be true of Israel when God writes His law on their hearts (Jeremiah 31:33)… Psalms 1, 32, 41, 112 and 128 open with this same word blessed. In other psalms the title describes the saint in one way or another. This is because God's estimate of people here is very different from the world's. And now in Psalm 119 we learn some of the marks of anyone truly entitled to such a name.
One study looks at the two Hebrew words behind "testimonies" in this psalm:
Verse 2: EDUTH = Testimonies. It is a revelation, or a revealed psalm… The word EDAH = Precept and occurs 14 times, in the plural. It means a testimony, or a repetition, an attestation or witness, a constant witness to Jehovah's will.
One writer draws out what this witness does, and what has to come before keeping:
Remember what we said about this word "testimonies"? It testifies what God is, and it also shows me what I ought to be. Before we can "keep" His testimonies, we must first have received them, accepted them, and be willing to obey.
The verse joins keeping His testimonies to seeking Him. One writer explains why the two cannot be pulled apart:
To have the law written on the heart is not a natural state but a supernatural one, a work of divine grace. And this law is not merely arbitrary, a bare expression of authority. It is also a "testimony," and the awakened conscience responds to it. In it God declares Himself. So to "keep His testimonies" is to "seek Him with their whole heart." For such people everything matches the real nature of things: they do not twist them.
The object of the search is a Person, and that keeps this verse from describing a study habit:
Notice that they seek "Him"; they seek to please Him, to be more like Him. This is not a merely "intellectual" activity, but it is a question of the whole heart being engaged. My heart yearning after Him day by day, all day long. "You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart," is the wonderful promise (Jeremiah 29:13).
The phrase "whole heart" returns again and again through the psalm. One writer makes that repetition his point:
You should earnestly seek to be whole-hearted in your Christian life and testimony. Notice how many times the phrase "whole heart" occurs in Psalm 119. It carries the thought that thoroughness must mark all who have to do with God. This was true above all in the Man, Christ Jesus. He could say, in the fullest sense of the words, "Zeal for your house has consumed me." He was consumed with the desire to do the will of the Father Who sent Him.
Seeking Him with the whole heart shows itself in what a person does:
This connects itself with the desire after Himself. They seek Him with the whole heart. This is the general character of the effect of the law written in the heart. The practical effect is plain: they "do no iniquity." The heart is set right in purity, and they also do no evil, no wrong towards others. Instead of their own will and defiance towards God, "they walk in His ways." The heart recognises God's authority and accepts it with diligence, and the heart's desires go out towards it.
One writer traces this whole-hearted state back to the new birth:
They walk in the way of the Lord's law — not the ten commandments, but as the New Testament tells us, "the law of liberty" (James 2:12), which involves the new birth. Only those born again will keep His testimonies, seeking the Lord with their whole heart (v. 2). They respond willingly to His commandment to keep His precepts diligently, not giving in to iniquity, but choosing God's ways (vv. 3-4).
- Whole word. "Testimonies" means a constant witness to God's will — a revelation that shows what God is and what I ought to be.
- Whole reception. We must first receive God's testimonies and accept them, ready to obey, before we can keep them.
- Whole Person. Because God declares Himself in His testimonies, keeping them and seeking Him are one act, not two.
- Whole heart. The phrase "whole heart" runs through the psalm as its measure. Thoroughness marks everyone who has to do with God.
- Whole life. The heart set on Him does no iniquity and walks in His ways — a condition that comes not by nature but by new birth.