We think of Psalm 119 as a psalm about the law, and it is that. What we don’t always recognize is that it is more than just an objective celebration of the beauty and value of the law. It is also a psalm about a very personal love for the law.
By far the most prominent figure in the psalm is the psalmist himself. We don’t know who he is, and we don’t much about his life, but he uses the first person singular pronouns (I, me my) everywhere, much more often than he uses third person pronouns (he, him, his). Though the first four verses of the first stanza are an exception to this general rule, the rest of the stanza is not:
O that my ways were directed
To keep thy statutes!
Then shall I not be ashamed,
When I have respect unto all thy commandments.
I will praise thee with uprightness of heart,
When I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.
I will keep thy statutes:
O forsake me not utterly.
After an initial question in the third person—“how can a young man cleanse his way?”—the second stanza is entirely in the first person:
With my whole heart have I sought thee:
O let me not wander from thy commandments…
And this pattern continues throughout.
Furthermore, the psalm uses the term “servant” about 15 times, but in almost every case he is describing himself.
Deal bountifully with thy servant,
That I may live, and keep thy word. (v.17)
Princes also did sit and speak against me:
But thy servant did meditate in thy statutes. (v.23)
The psalmist talks mostly about himself and his own life in relation to the law.
But the psalm is also very personal because it is almost entirely prayer. Every stanza contains prayer, and almost every verse is prayer. The psalmist is pouring out to the Lord his thoughts about the Lord’s wonderful law.
The prayers are of many kinds. Petitionary prayers center on requests that the Lord will teach him his statutes—“Teach me, O LORD, the way of thy statutes, and I shall keep it to the end (v.33)”— and quicken (give him life) him according to his word—“Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live and keep thy word (v.17).” Other prayers are professions of love for the law—“My soul breaks with longing for thy judgments at all times (v.20),”—or strongly worded claims to have kept it: “
I have chosen the way of truth:
Thy judgments have I laid before me.
I have stuck unto thy testimonies:
O LORD, put me not to shame (vv.30–31)
Still others praise the Lord or the law.
For ever, O LORD,
Thy word is settled in heaven.
Thy faithfulness is unto all generations:
Thou hast established the earth, and it abideth.
They continue this day according to thine ordinances:
For all are thy servants. (vv. 89–91)
But one thing that is strikingly absent from the psalm is confession of sin. Though he implies his inadequacy with regard to the law in every petition for teaching and reviving, he does not often mention his own sin directly. In fact, there is no explicit confession of sin until the very last verse: “I have gone astray like a lost sheep (v.176).” That’s more than an afterthought, but it’s clear that the psalmist is not using the law to learn his sinfulness. He is much more interested here in learning how to live in love, gratitude and praise to the Lord. He even makes many claims to righteousness.
The psalm, therefore, is a believer’s prayer of petition and praise to the Lord for his law, and a confession of the Lord’s mercies to him in giving the law. “His commandments are not burdensome (1 Jn 5:3). ”My yoke is easy and my burden is light (Matt 11:30).” Joyful obedience is the underlying motive.
It’s an idea we Christians need to hear. Too many are far more interested in “knowing the Lord’s will for their lives”—meaning that they want to interpret providence or hear God speaking directly to them—than in hearing his will as objectively and unchangeably revealed in the law. “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them (Isa 8:20).”