Hidden Treasures of Psalms 119 - Why Eight Verses

Hidden Treasures of the 119th Psalm.

So, we are going on a treasure hunt, and the gold we are seeking in this treasure hunt is actually the face of God, pure light. And how fun to actually mine this treasure with King David, a man who sought God with his whole heart and his understanding of God's expression of the Hebrew language itself as he goes through the 119th Psalm, letter by letter giving us eight verses, which the Jews teach as eight faces of each letter of expression. So, join us taking this deep dive mining with King David in the 119th Psalm. Well, I am so honored today that you would join me on this dig as we dig into the treasures of the 119th Psalm. So, today let's dig into why eight verses on each of the Hebrew letters. You may know there's 22 Hebrew letters, and so the psalmist wrote eight verses specifically in this psalm on each of the 22 letters. So, why eight? Well, there's many that have studied it.

Of course, we can't ask the author himself yet, but hopefully we will when we get to heaven. But one of the things that I have thought in the research that I've done and heard on shabbat.org many times that the number eight has a real significance biblically. And as you may know, the number seven is the number of completeness and certainly the number of cycles, like you'll have seven days in a week, but there are six days and the seventh is Shabbat. And really cool, if you have seven pennies, you can take one penny, put it in the middle, and you'll find that you can put six pennies around that penny in the middle and they fit exactly.

In fact, anytime you have seven spheres, you can put one in the middle and you can put six around it. Well, that's the cycle like Shabbat in a way is the seventh or the Sabbath of the other six. Well, add to that one and you get the number eight. And you may know that the number eight is also a sign for infinity if you put it on its side. And you may know that in Hebrew, the eighth letter is the Hebrew letter het, which means life and so many other beautiful things as we'll talk about later. So, all these things are leading to this number eight, but it also is a number that kind of raises almost 50,000 feet above the other seven to say, okay, here's an eighth idea that encompasses all the other ideas of the seven. So, it's kind of cool to think about that perhaps the eighth verse and each of these is a way that the person is summarizing what the other seven may be. So, on this concept of eight, I wonder sometimes if Buzz Lightyear doesn't have a better understanding of it than I do.

He said from infinity to beyond. And so, there's an interesting, very interesting, I find more than fascinating that the number eight was obviously the days that they waited before doing a circumcision. And you may know that it was eight days before they consecrated the tabernacle. And so, this number eight is quite a holy number throughout the scripture. And I don't know if you ever put this together, but I'm beginning to put it together that Jesus kind of rose on the eighth day because it was a cycle of seven and then one because he came in on the triumphal entry on a Sunday. And so, the eighth day, so to speak, would be the day that Jesus rose from the dead.

And again, I kind of feel like I got muddy boots walking around in something very holy. But nonetheless, there is a word in Hebrew called Uz, or it might be pronounced Uz, depending on which person you hear from. The word means then. And it is an Aleph and a Zion. And the geometry of that, in other words, all Hebrew letters have numbers. And an Aleph is the number one. And then the Zion letter is number seven.

So, those two put together makes eight. And the Jews very much believe that that word, when you see it in a passage of scripture in the Torah, that it is speaking to the Messiah, because then, then Moses will sing, being the Exodus 15 passage that they usually reference it to. But the word is throughout the scriptures. And here we find it again in the 119 Psalm, with this kind of Mosaic idea. And it's even used there in the first few verses on the Aleph, when King David says, or the Psalmist says, you know, then I will not be ashamed. Well, the beauty of it is, for those of us who know Christ, we won't be ashamed.

We will not be in a position to not be ashamed until Jesus comes. And so that idea of ooze then, that idea of eight, is a part of what's in this picture. And another really cool thing that the Jews teach about the number eight, that you are to try as hard as you possibly can to keep a commandment. In other words, you're going to do everything you possibly can. And then, you know, that that's in a cycle of seven, like seven days a week, you do everything you possibly can. And then on the eighth cycle, or the eighth day, God will push you over the finish line, whether you got it done or not. Oh, again, the eighths of them as a holy number, because it's saying, okay, do everything you can possibly do to, to, you know, seek after God with all your heart. And then on the eighth day, you know, on the eighth cycle, God is going to give you that little nudge to get you that extra distance that you couldn't get yourself, which again, when you think about that is that is Jesus.

But it's really cool when you know that you have that little tidbit when trying to discern the eight that's in the eight verses of the Psalm, like that eighth verse is going to be that little nudge that takes you over the top and that face of that particular letter. And one of the beautiful things I heard on Shabbat.org, that I really like this concept, and that is that these eight verses are the eight faces of each of these expressions. And you may know that God's face is a huge, huge deal, the Aaronic blessing itself, you know, bless us and keep us and let Lord make your face shine upon us and your countenance be raised up. In other words, there's the Lord's face coming.

And when a baby is born, the first thing they look up at is this mother's face that they connect with. And we are looking for God's face. This actually even goes so far that if you had God turn his face from you, you're going to be cursed. But when he's turning his face on you, you're going to be blessed. And it's really cool that he can actually turn his face not just on you, but your entire heritage, your entire lineage.

And so when he puts his face on you, I mean, this is a gigantically huge concept. If you've ever had an experience of looking for God's face or seeking his face, you kind of know what I mean. So as we are looking at these eight verses, what a beautiful thing to think about there. We're going to look at the eight faces of the letter Aleph. And then we're going to look at the eight faces of the letter Baiz, et cetera, et cetera, as we go down through the 22 Hebrew letters. So something to think about. Of course, you may have your own opinion.

Feel free to email me. My email's there in the show notes on what you think the reason is for the eight verses or something cool. We'll show you that on a later podcast. But for today, as we reflect on these ideas that have been taught on why there are eight verses, it's going to be fun when we dig in to the Aleph, which we're going to have several more episodes that get into the words that recur before we begin to actually analyze the Psalm itself. They kind of give us a roadmap, so to speak, of what we're going to find within the 119 Psalms. So the next few episodes are going to be on those words. And wow, what an understanding that will give you. I think it's going to whet all our appetites for what God is going to show us through the 119 Psalm. Strap up your belt because it's going to be a wild ride on this mine train.