Psalm 119 – Tav

Let my cry come before You, Lord;
Give me understanding according to Your word.
Let my pleading come before You;
Save me according to Your word.
Let my lips pour out praise,
For You teach me Your statutes.
Let my tongue sing about Your word,
For all Your commandments are righteousness.
Let Your hand be ready to help me,
For I have chosen Your precepts.
I long for Your salvation, Lord,
And Your Law is my delight.
Let my soul live that it may praise You,
And let Your ordinances help me.
I have wandered about like a lost sheep; search for Your servant,
For I do not forget Your commandments.
Psalm 119:169-176 (NASB)

Word! More and more I hear young people saying “word” to mean I agree. The Word in Psalm 119 – Tav is so much more powerful because it is the Word of God! Tav is the 22nd letter of the Hebrew alphabet making this blog the last in this series. The meaning of tav means truth, sign and life or death (Raskin 2003). Just as many of the Hebrew letters point to the Messiah, tav, completing the alphabet, shows the perfection of one who has followed God’s law and is not arrogant, but rather humble. Is this not the description of Jesus Christ?

It is amazing to me to see how the letter tav’s design has developed. I believe it is significant that the early Hebrew and middle Hebrew script of tav is the shape of a cross. This shows the plan of salvation was always part of God’s plan.

I really don’t know if God inspired the Psalmist who wrote this section of Psalm 119 – Tav, to write specifically concerning the Word or not. However, we know that God spoke the world into being. We also know that the trinity – God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit have always been together in community. In other words, the Word was from the beginning with God. Therefore, God’s Word is holy, living, and tells of His plan of eternal life.

John writes in John 1:1-4,
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race.

Jesus is whom John is referring to when he is writing Word. Jesus came to show us in person the Word of God. He is the tav, life, truth and the living Messiah who is the sign leading to eternal life. Furthermore, God told us about His Son, the Messiah throughout the entire Bible. He is with Him during creation and prophesied by the prophets of the Old Testament. Even Jesus explains how He has fulfilled the Old Testament Law.

“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished (Matthew 5:17, 18).”

Not only was Jesus with God from the beginning of time, He is with Him until the end of this earth and always in eternity. He is the only way to eternal life and just as God is consistent and faithful, so is Jesus. How blessed we are to be able to personally know Jesus as our Savior, the one who has always been and will always be.