Vatican City, Nov 9, 2011 / 10:46 am
Pope Benedict XVI spoke today about Psalm 119 as a wonderful discourse on the breadth and depth of man’s relationship with God.
The psalmist’s song “voices the range of sentiments which fill the hearts of those who pray: praise, thanksgiving, trust, supplication and lament, all within the context of a heartfelt openness to the Lord’s word,” the Pope said.
He explained to the pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the Nov. 9 general audience that the psalm is “an acrostic” – an ancient poetic structure in which each stanza contains eight verses and begins with a different letter from the 22-word Hebrew alphabet. These 22 stanzas also make the psalm the longest in the Bible.
“This is a very challenging and original literary construction, in which the author of
Psalm had to deploy all his skills,” said the Pope, “but what is more important for us is the central theme of this Psalm.”
This theme was the Psalmist’s proclamation of “his love for God’s Law, which brings light, life and salvation,” recounted in his “solemn celebration of the Torah, the Law of the Lord.”