Psalm 119

Psalm 119 is an acrostic poem intentionally built by the author. This is an ancient Hebrew literary form which is not evident in translation.  The poem is built on the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, in alphabetical order.



Verses 1 - 8 all begin with the letter Aleph.

Verses 9 - 16 all begin with the letter Beth.

Verses 17 - 24 all begin with the letter Gimel.

Verses 25 - 32 all begin with the letter Daleth.

Verses 33 -40 all begin with the letter He.

Verses 41 - 48 all begin with the letter Waw.

Verses 49 - 56 all begin with the letter Zayin.

Verses 57 - 64 all begin with the letter Heth.

Verses 65 - 72 all begin with the letter Teth.

Verses 73 - 80 all begin with the letter Yodh.

Verses 81 - 88 all begin with the letter Kaph.

Verses 89 - 96 all begin with the letter Lamedh.

Verses 97 - 104 all begin with the letter Mem.

Verses 105 - 112 all begin with the letter Nun.

Verses 113 - 120 all begin with the letter Samekh.

Verses 121 - 128 all begin with the letter Ayin.

Verses 129 - 136 all begin with the letter Pe.

Verses 137 - 144 all begin with the letter Tsadhe.

Verses 145 - 152 all begin with the letter Qoph.

Verses 153 - 160 all begin with the letter Resh.

Verses 161 - 168 all begin with the letter Sin/Shin.

Verses 169 - 176 all begin with the letter Taw.

Chapter and Verse

Early Christians remembered the Bible by the first few words of a passage or by the name of the book or letter.  They knew their Bibles very well, with many memorizing large portions.

To facilitate the ease of study of the Bible, the system of the division of the text into chapters was devised in 1238 by Cardinal Hugo de Caro.   The numbering of the text within the chapters into verses was introduced in 1551 by a Protestant, Robert I. Estienne, who was a printer and classical scholar.

Chapter and Verse

Stephen Langton (b. ca, 1150, England - d. 1228), the Archbishop of Canterbury, was the first person to divide the Bible into the chapters which it carries to this day.  Before that, there were no breaks or subdivisions in the text, which, originally in the Greek and Hebrew/Aramaic, also had no punctuation or spaces between words or letters.

The printer and classical scholar, Robert Estienne (b. 1503, France - d. 1559) was the first to print a Bible with numbered verses.

The innovations of Langton and Estienne made the Bible more accessible for study, reference, and memorization by the general population. 

The Chart Man

Gary B. Smith, on the Fox News Channel, is The Chart Man. The other financial commentators speak from their experience and intuitions; Smith does also, but he adds intense study of financial charts and graphs of seemingly every conceivable financial angle.

Some Christians are like Gary B. Smith, with charts and graphs and the ability to instantly recognize a Bible quotation and state its location in the BIble by book, chapter, and verse. Most of us aren't like that. We can talk intelligently about a certain passage in the Bible but don't ask us exactly where to find it. Ain't gonna happen.

Luckily for us, there are now thousands of commentaries, dictionaries, lexicons, concordances, devotionals, and sermon collections in printed form, and available on the internet are powerful search engines and translation programs. And the most important study aid of all, listening to the Holy Spirit as we read the Bible.