Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Hebrew is the language that most of the Old Testament was written in. What does this have to do with Bible study? Well, the longest Psalm in the Bible is an acrostic poem. That means that in each section of the Psalm, all of the lines in the original Hebrew start with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet. We don't see that in the English translation. But, if we read the first part of Psalm 119 (we don't want to read the whole thing it's 176 verses long). But the aleph section (and all of the letters for that matter) is only 8 verses long.
1 Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD.
2 Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart.
3 They do nothing wrong; they walk in his ways.
4 You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed.
5 Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees!
6 Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands.
7 I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws.
8 I will obey your decrees; do not utterly forsake me.
Psalm 119:1-8
We see some themes here that we've seen in other places that we've studied. There's similarities to Psalm 1, Psalm 19, the Beatitudes which we read from Matthew 5, and other places. There's also (like Psalm 19) several different ways of referring to God's law.
- the law of the Lord
- his statutes
- precepts
- decrees
- commands
- righteous laws
Discussion Questions
- Who are the blessed in this Psalm?
- what do they do
- their ways are blameless
- walk according to the law of the Lord
- keep his statutes
- seek him with all their heart
- do nothing wrong
- walk in his ways
- based on what we studied yesterday, would you say they fear the lord?
- does the Psalmist (whoever wrote this Psalm, it's not labeled like some of the other Psalms) want to be like those "whose ways are blameless"?
- do you think the Psalmist thought he was like that?
- how does the Psalmist think he will get that way?
- Do you want to learn God's righteous laws like the Psalmist did?
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