3. (a) Did the writer of Psalm 119 qualify to enjoy the special happinesses, set forth by Jesus Christ? Explain. (b) Describe the psalmist’s expressed feelings toward the Law covenant mediated by Moses.

³ A man who anciently qualified for enjoying such happinesses as were set forth by the Jewish Messiah, Jesus Christ, was the inspired Jewish writer of Psalm 119, the longest psalm of the Bible. In line with the reasons given by Jesus Christ for being happy, the psalmist was conscious of his spiritual need. Also, he was mournful, he was mild-tempered, he hungered and thirsted for righteousness, he was merciful, he was reproached and persecuted, and he had every sort of wicked thing lyingly said against him. He wrote the psalm hundreds of years before our Common Era, while the nation of Israel was still under the Law covenant that had been mediated by the prophet Moses between Jehovah God and the nation in 1513 B.C.E. at Mount Sinai. Properly the psalmist had no fault to find with the Law of that covenant, for it was God-given. He well knew that the pagan nations all around the land of Israel had nothing to compare with that divine Law.

 5. In opening up Psalm 119, whose experiences did the writer likely have in mind?

⁵ The psalmist doubtless wrote out of his own personal experience when he opened up Psalm 119, saying: “Happy are the ones faultless in their way, the ones walking in the law of Jehovah.

So by “walking in the law of Jehovah,” we, like the psalmist, will be safeguarded from walking in the way of worldly error to our own hurt, bodily and spiritually. This works for our happiness. (Psalm 119:1) It works for our having divine blessing and approval. This affects our hearts, just as Psalm 119:97, 126, 127 indicates. The psalmist was under the Mosaic Law covenant that contained the “Torah,” the body of divine law that embodied many hundreds of distinct laws. Jehovah’s anointed witnesses of today are under the new covenant (of which Jesus Christ is the Mediator) with a “law” written, as it were, “in their heart.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34) By studying the Christian Greek Scriptures, they get acquainted with the new covenant “law” and its commandments.