Psalm 119 is considered by many to be the chief of the Psalms, because of the high regard it shows for the word of God.

It is the longest Chapter in the Bible, containing 176 verses. The Psalm is divided into 22 sections, each representative of one of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet and each section divided into 8 verses. It is also the longest Psalm in the book of Psalms. Being a Psalm, it had originally been sung to and by the Jewish worshippers from the day it was penned.

People believe that the Psalm could have been written by David, Ezra or Daniel. Each of these people from the Bible experienced surpassing highs and extreme lows in their lives, and therefore although the Psalm doesn’t mention its author specifically, each of them could have penned it. Parenthetically, I believe it was King David… it seems to have much of his voice when you compare it with the other Psalms. Some have speculated that King David wrote the Psalm over the course of his life, and taught it to King Solomon as a way of remembering the value of God’s Law by way of using the Alphabet as a means of memorization. If King David was indeed the author of the Psalm, the Psalm would have been written 1011-971 B.C.

Speaking of which, if you memorize Psalm 119, you are in the company of some of the greatest people in the age of the church, including:

• John Ruskin
• William Wilberforce
• Henry Martyn
• David Livingstone

The Psalm is used during the course of celebration the Jewish New Year, also known as Rosh Hashanah, as an expression of awe and thanks to God for giving His law.

All of these things being true, why would the average Joe or Jane Christian want to memorize Psalm 119? I think that one of the reasons is that it is a true expression of the heart of the person who is motivated by the things that God wants people to be motivated by… a high regard for His word, His law, His precepts, His statutes. When we are behaving how God wants us to behave, our thoughts will reflect the thoughts of this Psalm. Memorizing it gives you a ‘jump start’ or an initiation into thinking God’s thoughts after Him, from the viewpoint of a person who is devoted to God. Psalm 119 is living in the ‘now’ of what it means to be spiritually alive and abiding in the center of the vine of God’s Word.