“Blessed.” The Hebrew text of Psalm 119 begins with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, aleph.

Psalm 119 is an acrostic psalm. An acrostic psalm or poem in the Bible occurs when the first letter in a line or stanza in the psalm begins with the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet (aleph), the second line or stanza begins with the second letter (beth), the third line or stanza beings with the third letter (gimel), and so forth (there are some “broken acrostics” (or “imperfect acrostics) that follow the general pattern but may have a missing letter or letters, reversed letters, or other abnormality). God has a small number of acrostic writings in the Bible, and they catch the attention of the reader and are also a mnemonic device to aid in memorization. When an acrostic uses the letters of the alphabet in order, grammarians refer to it as an abecedarius.

The Bible has a number of acrostics, including Psalm 25, 34, 37, 111, 113, 119, and Ps. 145, Proverbs 31:10-31, and the book of Lamentations.

Psalm 119 is unique in that it has all 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet with each letter starting a section of eight verses, making Psalm 119 to be 176 verses. As for imperfect acrostics, Psalm 9 seems to make a single acrostic, but with imperfections. For example, five letters of the Hebrew alphabet are missing and two letters that are there are in reverse order. Psalm 25 is missing one letter but the “R” (resh) occurs twice. Psalm 37 is missing the letter “D” (daleth). Psalm 145 is missing the letter “N” (nun), but that may be a copyist’s error because the Septuagint and the Qumran manuscript of Psalm 145 contain it.

“law.” The Hebrew word is “Torah.” In this case, the “Torah” refers to the law and instructions given by God.

[For more on the meaning of “law,” Torah, see commentary on Proverbs 1:8.]