{Disclaimer: these are my rough teaching notes I use in my Mishkan Katan weekly broadcasts. There will be "typos". Proceed at your own risk, lol.You can find all my Mishkan Katan video teachings on my YouTube channel: genahood2818 . Look on the playlist called Messianic LAMB TV Network.}
Boker tov! Rosh Chodesh Tammuz! This past Sunday night we began this biblical month, which is my birth month. NO, I was not born on the 17th, that inauspicious day. If you are not familiar with the ignominy of the 17th of Tammuz, I’ll speak more about that in a moment.
The name Tammuz is Sumerian in origin, and represents the pagan sun god. There was an ancient pagan custom that, on the summer solstice a 6-day funeral would be held for Tammuz, because at that point the days would begin to become shorter, less sunshine, you see. Unfortunately, the Jews got caught up in this and other pagan practices, prompting the prophet Ezekiel in 8:14 to prophesy that unless God’s chosen people abandoned those pagan rituals, tainting their worship of Hashem, the Temple would be destroyed. They did not listen.
There are four different fast days in the Jewish calendar, which commemorate the events surrounding Israel’s national exile.
The first one, if you start from the month of Nisan, is Shiva Asar B’Tammuz (17th of Tammuz) - - This so-called “Fast of the Fourth Month” commemorates some very awful events in Jewish history. The first one concerns Moses descending Mt. Sinai, bearing the first set of the 10 Commandments. When he arrived at the camp, he discovered the people worshipping the golden calf. He smashed both the tablets and then he destroyed the golden calf. It is said that this occurred on the 17th of Tammuz. Then, there was another very tragic day when the Babylonians broke through the walls of Jerusalem, thereby conquering the city. This, happened on the 9th of Tammuz, and on the 17th Temple sacrifices ceased because there were no animals available to be offered. 3 weeks later, the Temple was destroyed. In fact, the destruction of both the first AND the second temples took place during this period, as the Romans destroyed the 2nd Temple on this date in 70 CE. It is also said that a dude named Apostomos or perhaps the very evil King Manasseh of Judea sacrificed an unclean animal on the Temple altar on this date.
The Fast of the 17th of Tammuz begins a 3-week, 21-day, period of national mourning, called the Three Weeks of Sorrow. It is a time of somber reflection, repentance and mourning over the loss of the Temple. According to the H4C website: “Typically marriages are not held during this period, and many Jews deliberately refrain from ostensibly pleasurable activities, such as listening to music, dancing, taking vacations, and sometimes even shaving! In fact, most Orthodox Jews will refrain from any activity that might require the recitation of the Shehecheyanu blessing.”
I WAS born during the Three Weeks of Sorrow, a fact I cannot change, yet one I am not happy with. At any rate, enough about the month of Tammuz, during which time there are no joyful holidays or celebrations in the biblical calendar.
This morning, we are going to be exploring one of the greatest psalms in the Tanakh, Psalm 119. As many of you already know, Psalm 119 is massive. At 176 verses, it is the longest psalm in the book of Tehillim. Go ahead and turn there in your copy of the Scriptures, if you will.
The Jewish sages say that Psalm 119 is one personal handbook of halacha. In Hebrew, the word “halacha” means “the walk”. In other words, this psalm reflects David’s personal relationship with God, because it details his devotion to seeking personal holiness through the study and application of Torah in his daily dealings. In these verses, David does not sugar-coat living according to God’s Word. It is often a way peppered with hardships and challenges. Still David refused to be swayed from God’s path of righteousness or to become mired in discouragement. His antidote to that was to praise God ecstatically for His way of salvation, while ever seeking His face.
The psalm is written in a highly-organized fashion. It follows the sequence of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Eight verses begin with the first letter, aleph. The next 8 verses begin with the second letter, bet and so forth. For this reason, the Talmud, in Bereshit 4b, calls this psalm “teh-mahn-yah ah-PEEN”, which means “the repetition of eight”. While the number 7 in Scripture signifies wholeness or completion, as in the universe was created/completed in 7 days, the number 8 represents the release of the person from the carnal desires of this present world, those desires which distract the righteous person from the pursuit of holiness.
The sage, Radak, points out that there are 10 words that recur in this Psalm. Those words are: Torah, way, statute, commandment, judgment, testimony, precepts, righteousness, word and saying. Look for them as we go along. You may want to find 10 colored, erasable pens or pencils and choose a color for each word, then color-code each word as you encounter it. Or, that would be a good exercise for you to do after we finish our time together today.
I am not sure how many sessions it will take for us to thoroughly explore this mammoth psalm. One thing is for sure: we will not finish it today! But, let’s begin with the first 8 verses, the ones that begin with the letter aleph. Here is what they say, in English.
א (Alef)
119 How happy are those whose way of life is blameless,
who live by the Torah of Adonai!
2 How happy are those who observe his instruction,
who seek him wholeheartedly!
3 They do nothing wrong
but live by his ways.
4 You laid down your precepts
for us to observe with care.
5 May my ways be steady
in observing your laws.
6 Then I will not be put to shame,
since I will have fixed my sight on all your mitzvot.
7 I thank you with a sincere heart
as I learn your righteous rulings.
8 I will observe your laws;
don’t completely abandon me!
The first word in Psalm 119 is “ashrei”, a Hebrew word with which David chose to begin the entire book of Psalms, in Psalm 1. It means “happy are those” or “praiseworthy are those”. The rabbis say that David chose to begin this psalm with “aleph verses” because the letter aleph symbolizes the head, the source of human intellect. They go on to say that the study of God’s Word is the highest priority of Jewish life, because we learn to draw near to God when we study His Word. As followers of Yeshua, we recognize the wisdom in that, while also thanking God for His Spirit which He poured into us, melded with our spirit, at the moment of our salvation/justification, at the beginning of our faith walk. His Spirit, we know, produces holiness in our lives, the fruit of the Spirit, as it is called in the writings of Paul. The Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit, empowers us, through the reading of God’s Word, to emulate our Messiah who, of course, walked out Torah perfectly.
The Hebrew verb for “walk” is halach, from which we get the noun, halacha. The word for “way” or “road” is “derech”. In verse 1, David is praising followers of God whose way is wholesome, or as CJB says, “blameless”, because they walk according to Torah. Followers of Yeshua know that they are reckoned as positionally “blameless” because of the finished work of our Messiah, and because we trust in that for our justification. But, as far as our daily walk is concerned, that very love we have for what our Messiah did for us will cause us to seek earnestly to walk as He walked, shunning wickedness and seeking that personal holiness which is revealed in Scripture.
Verse 2 speaks of Hashem’s testimonies. What is meant by a testimony, in this context? It is one of those recurring 10 words I mentioned earlier, isn’t it? Well, the sages say that Hashem’s testimonies are visible holy objects or commemorations which bear witness to God has chosen Israel to be His “am segulah” or “holy people”, AND to bear witness to the fact that those people (in today’s case both the ancient olive tree and the wild olive tree grafted in) have chosen Him. Can you think of what some of these holy objects might be? Here are some. The Ark of the Covenant, which contained the tablets of the law and the manna and Aaron‘s rod that budded. Another would be the tent of meeting, also known as the Tabernacle. Another would be the pillar of Cloud, which guided the children of Israel in the wilderness by day, as well as the pillar of fire, which led them by night. The rock that moved, the so-called Miriam‘s well, which provided water for the Hebrew people in the wilderness. This was a miraculous object, which, even today we don’t fully understand. In more modern times, we have things like Tefilllin, that is phylacteries, and tzittzit, or the fringes which Torah-observant men wear on their person on a daily basis. These signs and symbols are just a few of the testimonies of HaShem. In the Brit Chadasha, the new Testament, we have the symbol of the cross. We have the symbol of the empty tomb. We have the symbols of the bread and the wine of communion. All of these are mighty testimonies of God’s omnipotence, of his incredibly mighty power. They remind us of our mission, which is to cherish our relationship with our Messiah and our God, to walk humbly and obediently with Him, always remembering that our actions reflect on Him, for good or for bad.
Verse 3 is convicting, isn’t it? Doing nothing wrong is a high standard, to be sure! Just ask my husband and children. They will tell you that I fall short! This refers to the heart attitude of being wise and careful to avoid sin. One of the chief ways we can do this is to take care where we go, what we allow our eyes to see and our ears to hear. The pursuit of holiness involves being proactive, going to war, so to speak. Putting on the whole armor of God, as Paul describes it in Ephesians 6. This is not only defensive armor; it is offensive weapons as well! To even have a chance to “do no wrong”, we must go on the offensive, sallying forth like mighty men of God or like warrior princesses, ready to do battle against the evil one. As the Talmudic sages say, “Turn from evil, and do good!”
In verse 4, we encounter another of those 10 words, the word precept. In studying the Jewish meaning of this word, peeKOOD, or precept, (plural; pikkudim) it is often used interchangeably with mitzvot, or commandment. But, a precept is broader than each single commandment. For example, lovingkindness is a precept. You might say that the fruits of the Ruach HaKodesh are precepts. (Gal. 5: 22-23). In Mark 7:13, Yeshua, in speaking with the teachers of the law said this: “thus nullifying God's precept by your tradition which you have handed down. And many things of that kind you do." Yeshua was warning them that the “rabbinical fences” they had erected around God’s precepts and commandments were in actuality working against God’s intent.
Verse 5 speaks of statutes, which auto-correct wants to transform into the word “statues”. What are Hashem’s statutes? The Hebrew word here is “khooKHEEM”. The sage Malbim explains that a statute, a chukkim, is a divine imperative that seemingly has no rational explanation or motive. A good example of this is the commanded Red Heifer Sacrifice. Even King Solomon was unable to understand why Hashem commanded it. David is saying here, “I fervently hope and pray that I won’t yield to the ridicule of the heathens and thereby fail to keep your statues."
In verse 6, David says that it follows that a devout follower who keeps the seemingly senseless chukkim will then not be ashamed to keep the 613 commandments. Here is another of the 10 words. The English word, “commandment”, is a translation of the Hebrew “mitzvah” (plural: mitzvot). This one is pretty straightforward, as it refers to the 613 commandments given in the Torah. However, in light of Yeshua’s ministry, we are taught that these are to be understood and practiced under the umbrella of what He referred to as the first and second greatest commandments. I taught on that toward the end of last week’s session, and don’t have any desire to plow that row over today. Too much to do here.
The sage Alsich commented that the practice of wearing TzitTzit is derived from this verse as well as from Numbers 15:39, where the wearing of them is more explicitly commanded. The construction of tzittzit is such that each fringe is composed of 8 strands and 5 knots, which add up to 13. The word tzittzit has a numerical value of 600. These added together yields 613, the number of mitzvot in the Torah. Therefore, seeing the tzittzit is like gazing at all of Hashem’s commandments. Usually, men wear the tzittzit, if you are not familiar with Messianic practice. There are some women who wear them also, but very few that I’ve encountered. Some men believe the tzittzit should be worn inside the clothes, but others wear them so that they can be seen by others.
In verse 7, we have yet another of the 10 words that appear over and over in this psalm, and that is the Hebrew word “mishpat”, or judgment. Here, it is “meesh-p’Tay Tseed-KEH-kah”, or righteous judgments. As we read the Torah, we see over and over Hashem’s judgments. Each commandment is a type of judgment, because He is judging that we should live this certain way, and then declaring to us that it is the way to live. Also, throughout Torah, we see Hashem judging people according to their works and the attitudes of their heart, and He is always right. You may not agree with the judgments that were poured out as plagues on the Hebrew people, or as leprosy on Miriam, or with the ground swallowing up Korach, or with the death of David’s infant son conceived with Bathsheba in adultery. However, it does not matter whether we agree or not. We can be sure that all of Hashem’s judgments are righteous, and completely fair. We should be thankful that our God is not capricious, nor does He act out of a selfish motive. His desires are always for our good and His glory. How blessed are we!
This section closes with the mention of the statutes again, as they are so very difficult to keep. It is one thing to do something that makes perfect sense to you. For example, if you don’t want to get wet, you don’t stand out in the rain. However, let’s go back to the red heifer sacrifice again. Do you know how much patience it takes to find a fully kosher red heifer calf, and then to scrupulously watch it for months and months, to keep it pure from being ridden, etc. The amount of monitoring and patience that requires? Then, SO many times, the heifer ends up being disqualified for some halahic reason - - several white hairs are discovered….a yoke is accidentally put upon her by mistake, etc. And then, all of that was for nothing. I am sure, 100%, that rabbis who have been in charge of finding a kosher red heifer have prayed out loud verse 8 many times! The temptation is just to say, “Well, this makes no sense. WHY am I doing it?” This is why the psalmist, David, prayed that Hashem NOT forsake him, while he was in the middle of proclaiming that he, David, was determined to keep Hashem’s statutes!
I read recently of a newborn red cow that was born in the Galilee, in Israel. Because the owners and keepers did not realize the tremendous gift they had been given by Hashem, they very unwisely “tagged” her ear very soon after birth. This action, although routine among cattle ranchers, made the young heifer ineligible to be considered for a red heifer offering.
We will move on now to the “Bet” section of verses, verses 9 through 16. According to the Talmud, in section Shabbat 104a, the letter Beit represents binah, which is the Hebrew word for “understanding”. While the focus of the “aleph” section was on the acquisition of knowledge, the “Beit” section is on applying perception and careful analysis, in order to gain a right understanding. Understanding is crucial so that Hashem’s precepts, statutes and commandments can be rightly practiced in everyday life. Let’s read these verses.
ב (Bet)
9 How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
10 I seek you with all my heart;
don’t let me stray from your mitzvot.
11 I treasure your word in my heart,
so that I won’t sin against you.
12 Blessed are you, Adonai!
Teach me your laws.
13 I proclaim with my mouth
all the rulings you have spoken.
14 I rejoice in the way of your instruction
more than in any kind of wealth.
15 I will meditate on your precepts
and keep my eyes on your ways.
16 I will find my delight in your regulations.
I will not forget your word.
The word “path” as we see it here in verse 9, is generally viewed by the rabbis as a side trail off of the main highway of righteousness. While the highway is clearly mapped out, the side paths are undefined, uncharted, unknown. Therefore, they present confusing and puzzling options to the righteous traveler, particularly the inexperienced one whose sense of direction is still in development.
I have precious friends, a middle-aged married couple, whose 21-year old son is ‘right there’. His exasperated father was questioning him about recent life decisions and actions, and the young man’s consistent answer was, “I don’t know.” This, of course, exasperated his concerned, loving father even more. But, the truth of the matter is….the boy probably truly does not know which path to take in some of these areas. The danger in his life, about which both his parents and I am praying about, is that he won’t be led astray down some remote path and never return to the main road of abundant life in Yeshua.
But, we never stop being vulnerable to such “rabbit trails”, as I have heard them called, no matter our age. Middle-age is another time when people can become distracted from living a holy life and they make questionable choices. None of us is immune!
The answer to staying true and on the right path is to meticulously follow the instructions in the Word of God, to do what it says in verse 10, to seek Him with our whole heart. As Proverbs 3:6 says, “Know God on all your highways and He will straighten your paths.” Of course, our carnal hearts do not want to do that. We rebel, we make excuses, we cloak our rebellion in religious fervor, we exchange rule-following for heart’s devotion, etc. David knew that every little “stray” from God’s ways is significant. The ArtScroll commentary uses the example of straying from the observance of Shabbat for financial reasons or other reasons. This may seem to be the right approach, but it is ultimately bad for the soul, even if a temporary financial relief is achieved.
Psalm 119:11 is one of the most oft-quoted and memorized verses in all of the Tanakh, the Old Testament. It was taught to me when I was a young child in the Baptist Church. I can remember in summer Bible school, we would have a morning gathering where all the children would sing and pray and recite memorized Scripture. We had to memorize a verse that epitomized the Bible as a whole, and this is the verse we were given to memorize. We would recite that verse as we pledged allegiance to the Bible, in every morning gathering.
Of course, this admonition is for not only memorization. It goes to the deeper level of gathering the Word of God so deeply into our souls that it keeps us from sinning. So, the verb “hid” is better translated as “treasured”. Our Messiah alluded to this when He spoke of the human heart in Matthew 15:19. There, He stated that horrible sins arose out of the depths of the human heart. Scripture MUST be applied at the “heart level” in order for the transformation of the righteous person’s life to be ongoing.
The commentator MacLaren has this to say about the meaning of the human heart in the Bible.
“Now, I have often had occasion to remind you that the Old Testament use of the word ‘heart’ is much wider than our modern one, which limits it to being the seat and organ of love, affection, or emotion; whereas in the Old Testament the ‘heart’ is the very vital centre of the personal self. As the Book of Proverbs has it, ‘out of it are the issues of life,’ all the outgoings of activity of every kind, both that which we ascribe to the head, and that which we ascribe to the heart. These come, according to the Old Testament idea, from this central self. And so, when the Psalmist says, ‘I have hid Thy word within my heart,’ he means ‘I have buried it deep in the very midst of my being, and put it down at the very roots of myself, and there incorporated it with the very substance of my soul.’ “
One of the most carnal and destructive practices we can engage in is putting aside the regular study of the Word of God for more worldly pursuits. If we fail to read it regularly, it does not seep into our souls. Just “getting fed” from the local synagogue or church pulpit once a week is insufficient food for our souls. When we fail to get a steady diet of communion with our God, we become much more susceptible to those “uncharted paths” referred to in verse 9.
One of the things we often say, as Messianics, is “Baruch Hashem”, which means “Bless God!” The psalmist, David, is blessing God at the beginning of verse 12. But, what does that mean? To bless God means to recognize, with submission and humility, that only He is the source of life and all success, all goodness. It is with this attitude that we should accept not only the blessings He bestows upon us, but also accept His statutes (vs. 12), judgments (vs. 13), testimonies (vs. 14), precepts (vs. 15) and paths (vs. 16). All of the verbs in this section are action verbs, telling how David increased his understandings of God and served Him.
The next section of verses start with the Hebrew letter “gimel”, or as my Hebrew teacher calls it, “little girl walking”. My Hebrew name, the one given to me by a rabbi I used to study with, is Ganya, which begins with “gimel”. According to the Talmud in Shabbat 104a, the letter gimel represents “do kindness”. Gimel is followed in the aleph-bet by the letter “dalet”, which represents either “door” or the poor. The gimel, if you look at it, looks like someone walking, and the sages say this means we should walk or run to do kindnesses. Let’s read the next set of verses, the gimel section.
17 Deal generously with your servant;
then I will live and observe your word.
18 Open my eyes, so that I will see
wonders from your Torah.
19 Though I’m just a wanderer on the earth,
don’t hide your mitzvot from me.
20 I am continually consumed
with longing for your rulings.
21 You rebuke the proud, the cursed,
who stray from your mitzvot.
22 Remove scorn and contempt from me,
because I observe your instruction.
23 Even when princes sit and plot against me,
your servant meditates on your laws.
24 Also your instructions are my delight;
they are my counselors.
We were just discussing doing kindness, and verse 17 beseeches God to deal generously (or kindly, depending on your translation) with His servant, David. He is asking God to reward him with long life and vigor so that he may continue to deal kindly with others. He is also asking God, in verse 18, to grant him the ultimate kindness, which was the understanding of His Torah.
There is an old gospel song that I believe was taken from verse 18. The name of the hymn is “Open My Eyes That I May See”, by Clara H. Scott, and published in the last quarter of the 1800s. Some of the lyrics go like this:
Open my eyes that I may see
glimpses of truth thou hast for me.
Place in my hand that wonderful key
that shall unclasp and set me free.
Silently now I wait for Thee
Ready my God Thy will to see
open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit Divine.
Truly, it is God alone who grants revelation to His children, and He does so for His purposes alone. I have often wondered why He chose me to do this ministry, thereby granting to me the revelation He has given. I honestly have no idea. There is no doubt that there are many other more worthy and more talented students of Scripture out there, who are doubtless also more talented at writing/speaking/teaching. But, He has called me to this, and as long as I have the resources to continue to do it, I intend to do it faithfully.
In verse 19 the word translated in the CJB as “wanderer” and elsewhere as “sojourner” is the same word that is used to describe the non-Jew who lives among the Jewish people. It was used to describe the “mixed multitude” who came out of Egypt. It was used by Abraham to describe himself, when seeking to buy from the Hittites a burial place for Sarah. It was used many times to refer to the people who lived in the Promised Land among the Hebrews, those who lived among them peaceably and followed Torah. And, it is used today to refer to a Gentile who has no Jewish heritage or blood, but who adopts the Torah way of life.
Here, David seems to be saying that he is not like the rest of the world. He does not “belong” here, and indeed we followers of Yeshua are told the same throughout the New Testament. The people of God will stand out as different, in a holy way. We will be differentiated from the people of this world, who follow after pagan ways.
Notice here in verse 19 also that David is begging to get to understand and do Hashem’s commandments. The sages say that the true purpose of mitzvot, commandments, is to enhance one’s faith. This is a person, intangible work of the spirit, which cannot be objectively measured. A distinctly secondary reason for keeping the commandments is more tangible and dramatic. Since fulfilling a mitzvah appeals to the emotions and often has tangible, measurable results, unfortunately most people misconstrue this secondary benefit for the prime purpose. The sages say that this is why the psalm begins with “praiseworthy are those whose way is wholesome,” that is, those people who seek no reasons for or benefits from performing a mitzvah other than serving God and demonstrating complete submission to the will of the Almighty Lawgiver.
In verse 20, the phrase in the CJB “continually consumed with longing” is translated in the ArtScroll translation as “shattered with yearning…always”. This bespeaks an intense love for the righteous tzaddik’s will to be aligned with God’s will. The Hebrew word translated as “shattered” is “GAR-sah”, a word that means “something ground into small pieces”. It comes from the Hebrew verb “GEH-res”, which was used to designate grain ground into the finest flour. In Aramaic, the root word “gar-ROSS” means “to study”. David was not a man who studied Torah superficially. Instead, as he studied deeply, he ground the words from God into fine flour, so that the deeper meanings were not hidden. The sages say that David was a man who survived on little sleep, that he would rise in the wee hours of the morning to study Torah. He did this because his heart and soul were that devoted. He was truly “a man after God’s own heart”.
The last four verses of this section contrast the devoted Torah scholar with other groups of people. The first group, in verse 21, are those who willfully spurn the will of God and instead lust after their own pleasure and amusement. The next group, described in verse 22, are the scoffers. These are they who heap ridicule upon the devout student of Torah like rocks are piled upon a well. The phrase “remove … from” literally means, according to the sage Rashi, “roll away”, as when a person rolls away a huge boulder covering a well. Once the well is no longer stifled, the devoted Tzaddik has the potential to be overflowing with good deeds, like a overflowing well.
The third group is the influential ones, those in civil leadership positions. The commentary describes them as carefree and frivolous in their past-times and pleasures.
The psalmist sums up this section by renewing his commitment to Torah study, despite the slings and arrows of all three of these groups, since he knows that his best counsel for success are the testimonies of God.
Well, we are going to stop there for today, as this seems to be a good “stopping place.”
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