“Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the Law of the Lord!” Psalm 119:1
Everyone wants to be happy, but not everyone seeks happiness in the right place. Psalm 119:1 tells us the kind of people God blesses. If we follow His way—even though it is narrow—we can be certain it leads to true and eternal happiness. [2]
The undefiled keepers of the Law of the Lord observe the boundaries God has set. They rely on God’s power to keep them in the path He has marked out. In Psalm 37:23, it is written, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way.”
What does it mean to “walk in the Law of the Lord?” It means to obey the Law.
In James 1:22-25, the Lord says, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”
The blessing of the “undefiled in the way” is to have no hidden deceit. Their outward life matches their inward character. They are genuinely what they appear to be. [3]
“Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart!” Psalm 119:2
Blessed are those who treasure God’s testimonies. The word for testimonies in Hebrew is עֵדָה (`edah). It can also be translated as witnesses. [4] The Bible contains God’s Law. It also contains His testimonies. Testimonies are eyewitness accounts of the mighty miracles which God did.
In Luke 24:48, Jesus said to His disciples, “You are witnesses of these things.” In Acts 5:32, Peter stood in a Jewish court of law and declared, “We are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.” In Revelation 1:9, the apostle John wrote that he “was on the island that is called Patmos for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
The idea here is that God is on trial. You are God’s reliable witness testifying of what you have seen and heard. In 1 John 1:3-4, John wrote, “That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.” The goal of your testimony is to bring people to God.
“They also do no iniquity. They walk in His ways.” Psalm 119:3
This verse means that they desire to be with God not in sin. When they do sin, they ask God to forgive their sin. They strive to keep a clear conscience before God. In Acts 23:1, Paul testified in a Jewish court of law, “I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.”
“You have commanded us to keep Your mandates diligently.” Psalm 119:4
In the beginning, in Genesis 2:17, God gave Adam one command. He told Adam, “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall NOT eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” God also informed Adam of the consequence for disobedience.
In Genesis 3:6, Adam and Eve both failed to keep God’s commandment diligently.
In Psalm 119:4, David repeated God’s mandate (פִּקּוּד) back to Him. David understood that he and his people were not to be lackadaisical or negligent about keeping God’s mandate.
In Deuteronomy 6:24, Moses wrote, “The Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day.”
In Joshua 1:7-8, the Lord said to Joshua, “Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the Law which Moses My servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
“O, that my ways were directed to keep Your statutes!” Psalm 119:5
We need God’s help to obey Him. In John 14:15, Jesus told His disciples, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” Then, He added in John 14:16-17, “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you.” Thus, our obedience to God derives from reliance on His power and His love for us.
“Then I would not be ashamed, when I look into all Your commandments.” Psalm 119:6
Disobedience to the known will of God yields shame. In Genesis 3:8-10, after Adam and Eve sinned, they “hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” When the Lord asked Adam, “Where are you?” Adam replied, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
In Isaiah 59:2, it is written, “Your iniquities have separated you from your God.” Ephesians 2:16 states that Jesus reconciled us to God. He put to death the enmity that existed between us.
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” Jesus ties loving Him to loving His ways. The two are inseparable. In Matthew 7:21, Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”
Obeying God is better than feeling condemned. In 1 John 3:21, it is written, “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.”
“I will praise You with uprightness of heart when I learn Your righteous judgments.” Psalm 119:7
These verses show David’s desire to grow in his relationship with God. He already knew much about God, but wanted to learn more, especially about God’s righteous judgments. David praised the Lord for continuously helping him to grow into God’s likeness.
In Hebrews 5:12-13, Paul wrote, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God. And you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.”
We should diligently pursue being skilled in “the word of righteousness” just as David and Paul did. God is a Law giver and a Law keeper. Therefore, to walk with God, we need to understand His Law and how to interpret it and apply it faithfully.
David praised God “with uprightness of heart.” It is good when praise flows from our heart to God. In Matthew 15:8, Jesus rebuked those who drew near to Him with their mouth, and honored Him with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him.
God accepts the praise that comes from an upright heart. In John 4:23-24, Jesus said that “true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
“I will keep Your statutes. O, do not forsake me utterly!” Psalm 119:8
David understood that his sinful nature wanted to sin. In Romans 7:20, Paul wrote, “It is no longer I myself who commits evil, but it is sin [the sinful nature] living in me.”
The key to overcoming the sinful nature is to feed our spiritual nature. The nature we feed grows stronger. The nature we starve dies.
Thus, David prayed in Psalm 51:8-13, “Create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then, I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will be converted to You.”
David prayed, “O forsake me not utterly,” with desperation of the tax-collector in Luke 18:13. The tax collector beat his chest in anguish and prayed, “God, be merciful to me a sinner.” David prayed desperate prayers because He desperately wanted to walk with God.
Our new life in Christ needs God’s Spirit just as our physical body needs oxygen to live.
[1] From Googles sources and Bible Gateway: “Psalm 119 is an acrostic poem. It contains 176 verses divided into 22 sections, with each section named after one of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Instead of just one line per letter, all eight verses in a given section begin with that specific letter. For example, the first eight verses (1–8) all start with the letter Aleph (א), and this exact pattern continues sequentially all the way through the final letter, Tau (ת).
אַגְׁרֵ֥י תְמִֽימֵי־דָ֑רֶךְ הַֽ֝הֹלְכִ֗ים בְּתוֹרַ֥ת יְהוָֽה׃
אַ֭שְׁיח נֹצְרֵ֥י עֵדֹתָ֗יו בְּכָל־לֵ֥ב יִדְרְשֽׁוּהוּ׃
אַ֭ף לֹֽא־פָעֲל֣וּ עַוְלָ֑ה בִּדְרָכָ֥יו הָלָֽכוּ׃
אַ֭תָּה צִוִּ֥יתָה פִקֻּדֶ֗יךָ לִשְׁמֹ֥ר מְאֹֽד׃
אַ֭חֲלַי יִכֹּ֥נוּ דְרָכָ֗י לִשְׁמֹ֥ר חֻקֶּֽיךָ׃
אָ֥ז לֹא־אֵב֑וֹשׁ בְּ֝הַבִּיטִ֗י אֶל־כָּל־מִצְוֺתֶֽיךָ׃
א֭וֹדְךָ בְּיֹ֣שֶׁר לֵבָ֑ב בְּ֝לָמְדִ֗י מִשְׁפְּטֵ֥י צִדְקֶֽךָ׃
אֶת־חֻקֶּ֥יךָ אֶשְׁמֹ֑ר אַֽל־תַּעַזְבֵ֥נִי עַד־מְאֹֽד׃
Historically, each letter name corresponds to a concrete object. Over time, these pictures evolved into the letters used today. For example, א ALEPH was originally the symbol for ox or bull and had the meaning of strength or leader.”
[2-3] Material developed, added to and edited from Matthew Henry’s Commentary
[4] Brown-Driver-Briggs Old Testament Hebrew-English Lexicon
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