Psalm 119

The longest chapter in the Bible: 176 verses in 22 stanzas of eight, one for each Hebrew letter, nearly every verse naming God's word under some name (law, testimonies, precepts, statutes, commandments, judgments, word, promise). Read straight through, it isn't dry legalism. It's a love poem to God through His word: "Oh, how I love Your law!" It's also full of suffering. The writer is slandered by rulers, dried up "like a wineskin... by smoke," with eyes failing, asking "When will You comfort me?" Affliction is part of how he learned (verses 67, 71, 75). The word gives freedom (verse 45), peace (verse 165), and light (verse 105). After all that devotion, the last verse is humble: "I have strayed like a lost sheep; seek Your servant." He doesn't claim to have arrived; he asks to be found.

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." (Psalm 119:105)

"I have strayed like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for I have not forgotten Your commandments." (Psalm 119:176)

Versions/Hebrew: 119:45 "I will walk in freedom" is literally barechavah [7342], "in a wide, roomy place"; YLT "I walk habitually in a broad place." God's law, as this poet experienced it, opened space rather than confining him. 119:130 "The unfolding of Your words" is petach [6608], a doorway or opening; KJV "The entrance of thy words giveth light," and the "simple" it instructs (peta'im [6612]) comes from a similar-sounding root, the open-minded or naive.