2019 Sep 07 Sept 07 Psalm 119 Preview, Galatians 1, Leviticus 7
2019 Sep 07 Sept 07 Psalm 119 Preview, Galatians 1, Leviticus 7
Welcome, with God's blessing, wishing a fine day come your way! Let's begin our consideration of Psalm 119, with some preliminary info, consider portions of Galatians 1, and continue with God's law to Israel in Leviticus 7.
As mentioned previously, Psalm 119 is an acrostic, or an alphabetic song, with each succeeding 8-verse section beginning with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet, evidently done so primarily for assistance with memorization. This makes 8 x 22 letters = 176 total verses. The 22 sections can break down to 2 sets of 11, and I wish beginning with the next blog post to offer an overview of the first 4 sections, then consider each section day by day, and perhaps a review summary as well. Then proceed with the next 4 the same way, with a preview and day by day consideration, and review, then the next 3 to complete the first 11 sections. Then this could be repeated for the final 11 sections. Thus 4-4-3, and 4-4-3 with previews and perhaps reviews. The review after each final set of 3 may include all 11 sections of the set. In this way much can be gained from this valuable psalm.
Within it there are so many things to appreciate! God reveals through the psalmist the importance of having deep love for Him and His word, and for those who could benefit from it!
The psalmist clearly spring-boarded from Psalm 19, which highlights various aspects of God's word such as His (1)"law", (2)"reminders", (3)"orders", (4)"commandments", and (5)"judgments." These five aspects are introduced in Psalm 119 in the same order, although with two others inserted in between them!
Let's notice the reading of Psalm 19:7-14, which likely helped form the basis of Psalm 119:
"The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring strength. The reminder of Jehovah is trustworthy, making the inexperienced one wise.
8 The orders from Jehovah are righteous, causing the heart to rejoice; The commandment of Jehovah is clean, making the eyes shine[or, "enlightening the eyes", AMP].
9 The fear of Jehovah is pure, lasting forever. The judgments of Jehovah are true, altogether righteous.
10 They are more desirable than gold, Than much fine gold, And sweeter than honey, the honey that drips from the combs.
11 By them your servant has been warned; In keeping them, there is a large reward.
12 Who can discern mistakes? Pronounce me innocent from sins I am unaware of.
13 And hold your servant back from presumptuous acts; Do not let them dominate me. Then I will be complete, And innocent of blatant sins.
14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be pleasing to you, O Jehovah, my Rock and my Redeemer."
Altogether there are about 10 aspects of God's word or law highlighted in Psalm 119, with possibly two or more significant related values mentioned. The 5 aspects highlighted above appear in successive order in Psalm 119, with two others inserted among the first 7, those being Gods "ways" and "regulations." The remaining terms are God's "word," His "saying" and His "statutes." The two related values mentioned, perhaps among others, are the "fear of" Jehovah and His "works." We want to come to understand each of these terms, so we can better comprehend their value in relation to God's wisdom. In the next blog post, let's have a preview of the first 4 alphabetic segments of Psalm 119, verses 1-32, beginning with a key truth, as highlighted in the first verse, that true happiness depends on walking in God's law! Verse 1 reads: "Happy are those who are blameless in their way, Who walk in the law of Jehovah." Is it reasonable to do so? How can we? Let's give this more attention.
Galatians 1:6-8 encourages caution regarding our association. Gala 1:6-8 shows the Scriptures are what we should hold to regarding our faith, our trust and our belief system, not being persuaded by unrighteous ones: "I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from the One who called you with Christ’s undeserved kindness to another sort of good news. 7 Not that there is another good news; but there are certain ones who are causing you trouble and wanting to distort the good news about the Christ. 8 However, even if we or an angel out of heaven were to declare to you as good news something beyond the good news we declared to you, let him be accursed." May we continue to grow in our understanding of God's word of truth, trusting and clinging to God as our refuge in a world still promoting unrighteousness.
Galatians 1:9-12 Verse 6-9 reveals that there should not be more than one "good news" of Jesus, which was accepted by the early Christian congregation as "the truth," or the "one faith" of Ephesians 4:5. Let us consider 1Corinthians 1:10 again, as Paul writes under divine inspiration: "Now I urge you, brothers, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you should all speak in agreement and that there should be no divisions among you, but that you may be completely united in the same mind and in the same line of thought." It is indeed possible to be truly united in an understanding of God's word in harmony with the teaching of the united early Christians, with extensions of the truth into our modern era. If this message of truth were of human origin, it could never bring true unity and harmony as it did the early Christians, and has been proven to be able to do so as well in modern times. As Paul's inspired words continue in Galatians 1:10-12: "Is it, in fact, men I am now trying to persuade or God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still pleasing men, I would not be Christ’s slave.11 For I want you to know, brothers, that the good news I declared to you is not of human origin; 12 for neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it was through a revelation by Jesus Christ." Paul was unique, in not being taught the truth directly, yet he did teach it to others from then on. He also had a sound basis of truth to build on, being instructed in all the Mosaic Law of God by a prominent teacher of Judaism, Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). But he acknowledges that Christian truth is not of human origin, but rather by God through his Son, Jesus. The truth of Jesus and his message was in no way invented by humans later, as a way to subjugate or control humans, but as many records testify and bear out, Jesus was truthfully born and raised as a human, and faithfully taught the truth of God to mankind, a truth which we have record of to this day. May we rejoice at the privilege of studying the teachings of Jesus and the rest of God's word, eager to apply them to our life, bringing our life into harmony with God's word of truth and His divine law in faith, for the everlasting benefit of ourselves and others. (Matth 7:24-28).
Let's now consider more of Leviticus 7, with verses 28-33: "Jehovah went on to speak to Moses, saying: 29 “Tell the Israelites, ‘Whoever presents his communion sacrifice to Jehovah will bring part of the offering from his communion sacrifice to Jehovah. 30 He will bring in his own hands the fat along with the breast as an offering made by fire to Jehovah, and he will wave it back and forth as a wave offering before Jehovah. 31 The priest will make the fat smoke on the altar, but the breast will belong to Aaron and his sons. “‘32 You will give the right leg as a sacred portion to the priest from your communion sacrifices. 33 The son of Aaron who presents the blood of the communion sacrifices and the fat will have the right leg as his portion."
Thus we see the portions of the communion sacrifices (or "peace offerings") which were given to the priests, the officiating priest being given the right leg, and the priests in general receiving a breast piece. The mention of a "wave offering before Jehovah" signifies this waving as a way of presenting the offering to Jehovah himself, as the communion sacrifice was especially for Jehovah, signifying peace between the offerer, the priest, and Jehovah together. Recall it was vital for the offerer to be in a ceremonially clean state before offering or sharing in the communion sacrifice. While the fat appendages were offered to Jehovah on the altar, it is clear that some portions of meat do contain some fat--some portions more than others. So while portions of pure fat were evidently to be avoided, juicy meat did not necessarily have to be "lean" to be eaten! The same went for small amounts of blood that may have remained in the meat after an animal was properly bled. Thus, we may be reminded of Jehovah's reasonableness in His commands given to Israel and to Christians today. As 1John 5:3 says, "For this is what the love of God means, that we observe his commandments; and yet his commandments are not burdensome." And Christians are instructed, at Philippians 4:5, "Let your reasonableness become known to all men. The Lord is near." May we help others to see that God's standards are indeed reasonable for people today, and are in everyone's best interests in harmony with His deep love for mankind!


2025 5C/8C (7Hul-8Lsg2) Find Life and See (7-9) Proverbs B (8) CTC Corner and WGA-B (9) Godlove Home




