Psalm 119:1, 11, 16, 30, 45, 71, 93, 105 (NIV)

Blessed are those who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. I delight n your decrees; I will not neglect your word. I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I have set my heart on your laws. Turn my heart toward your statutes and not towards selfish gain. I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts. It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees. I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have preserved my life. Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

This psalm is the longest in the Book of Psalms as well as the longest chapter in the entire bible—and those two facts alone should tell you something. The Psalm is arranged in an acrostic pattern. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, and this Psalm contains 22 units of 8 verses each. Each of the 22 sections is given to a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and each line in that section begins with that letter. Its content is a rich as its design is brilliant and it is entirely focused on one subject: The Word of God. Charles Spurgeon likened it to a kaleidoscope saying, “In the kaleidoscope you look once, and there is a strangely beautiful form. You shift the glass a very little, and another shape, equally delicate and beautiful, is before your eyes. So it is here.”

Scholars have argued over the authorship of Psalm 119, but that is of secondary importance, at best. Perhaps it is better that we do not know decisively, for it keeps our focus on the subject rather than the penman. There have been many lengthy works written on this Psalm; one of them is by Thomas Manton, a Puritan preacher and writer, who wrote a three-volume work on Psalm 119. Each volume is between 500 and 600 pages, with a total of 1,677 pages. There are 190 chapters in his work, more than one chapter for each verse. Does that seem over-the-top? Did this Puritan preacher make too much of this psalm? Too much of the Word of God? Too much of its importance? Too much of its power? Too much of its promises?

Reading through it takes less than 10-minutes. Listening to it takes a little more. Applying its wisdom takes a lifetime, but oh what a lifetime it could be! The author of Psalm 119 was inspired by God to write verse after verse about the central point of our faith and its impact on his life. Is the Bible the central point of our faith? John 1:1-4 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.” When you think of the Bible as the written manifestation of the character and voice of God, you must also apply that to the Son of God as well as the Spirit of God. The world provides what theologians call General Revelation, but only the Bible reveals Special Revelation.

So, what makes it so special? That should be obvious, but do we live out that understanding? Do we have a Psalm 119 approach to the Word of God? I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t. There are few things in my life that capture my heart to the extent that the Word captured the author’s heart. Did the author live it out as well as he proclaimed its goodness and worth and power? Not perfectly, but most likely, better than most. He had obviously come to know its practical value in both temporal and eternal things, and to think—he only had about one third of what we have in our pockets and at our split-second disposal today!

I would encourage you, as well as myself, to put the time into reading through all 176 verses of this remarkable and convicting psalm. Ponder how the Word of God could have had such an impact on the author’s life and be willing to wrestle with how your love of the Bible compares. Most assuredly, the more we fall in love with—and study and apply—this Word of God, the more the benefits listed throughout those 172 verses will come to fruition in our own lives.