Psalm 119 and Exodus

Pastor Minnick has several times suggested prefacing a time of Bible study with the reading (and praying) of a stanza from Psalm 119. Reading these stanzas prior to study in the latter part of Exodus has proved remarkably helpful. This section of Exodus (and much of Leviticus and Numbers which follows) can seem as dry as the wilderness Israel was traversing if it is read superficially.

Yet consider some of the things the Psalmist says in the opening stanzas of this Psalm: “My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times” (119:20). “Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors” (119:24). “In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches” (119:14). “Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart” (119:1-2). Surely when the Psalmist wrote of God’s rules and his law, the Pentateuch was at the forefront of his mind.

For the Psalmist, the law was not dry. It was like a stream of water that causes a tree to prosper with unwithered leaves and abundant fruit. The man who delights in the law so that he meditates on it day and night is a blessed man (Ps. 1:1-4).