Psalm 119 is the longest psalm. Its 22 strophes each beginning with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and every one of its 176 verses names God’s Law with one of eight terms (law, word, witness, judgment, saying, decree, precept, order).
Saturday morning prayer begins by praying the 19th strophe (vv. 145-152, the letter qoph), and in pondering this psalm, Pope St. John Paul II points out that the psalm’s repetition is not tedious padding but a form of prayer. This circling around one reality, love for God’s Word, draws the whole person into prayer and builds “inner attachment and confident abandonment into the arms of God.”
The particular strophe is a scene of night turning to dawn. The believer has kept a prayerful vigil hoping in God’s word, and as morning comes, he is certain the Lord has heard him. Strengthened by that, he faces the day without fear. Thus the pope highlights the strophe’s confident conclusion: “we are not alone because God listens and intervenes.”
Some helps for prayer from the meditation on Psalm 119:
- Slow down and let repetition work. Bonhoeffer, quoted below, says the psalm must be prayed “very slowly and patiently word by word, phrase by phrase,” because the apparent repetitions are “aspects of one and the same reality: love for the Word of God.” Pascal reportedly prayed this psalm daily, and thus St. John Paul II says the repetition (and singing) of the psalm leads us to trust God, who is invoked and loved.
- Give God the first fruits of the day. Citing St. Ambrose, the pope encourages offering God the first fruits of your heart and voice each morning, rising at dawn to bring your devotion to Church. Pairing this with the cry in verse 147, “I rise before the dawn and cry for help; I hope in your word,” this psalm is a model for morning prayer.
- Pray honestly, even from distress. The strophe is an intense cry (“I call with all my heart, Lord; answer me” v. 145), echoing Lamentations 2:19: “pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord.”
- Rest in God’s nearness. The prayer culminates in “Lord, you are near” (v. 151), confirmed by Psalm 33:19: “The Lord is near to the broken-hearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.”
You are invited to meditate on Psalm 119
Read the Catechesis of John Paul II on Psalm 119:145-152
The theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was assassinated by the Nazis in 1945, he wrote: “Undoubtedly, Psalm 118 [119] is tedious on account of its length and monotony, but we must proceed very slowly and patiently word by word, phrase by phrase. Then we will discover that the apparent repetitions in reality are new aspects of one and the same reality: love for the Word of God. Since this love is never ending, so are the words that profess it. They can accompany us all our life, and in their simplicity they become the prayer of the youth, the mature man and the venerable old man” (Pregare i Salmi con Cristo, Brescia, 1978, 3a edizione, p. 48).