Psalm 119:89-96 Lamedh

This is a story about a man named Harold Crick and his wristwatch. Harold Crick was a man of infinite numbers, endless calculations, and remarkably few words. And his wristwatch said even less. Every weekday, for twelve years, Harold would brush each of his thirty-two teeth seventy-six times. Thirty-eight times back and forth, thirty-eight times up and down. Every weekday, for twelve years, Harold would tie his tie in a single Windsor knot instead of the double, thereby saving up to forty-three seconds. His wristwatch thought the single Windsor made his neck look fat, but said nothing.

Those are the opening lines from the 2006 film StrangerThan Fiction.

The lines are spoken by Emma Thompson, who is playing an author, Karen Eiffel. She’s writing a novel about a man named Harold Crick, and in the opening scene we see Harold, played by Will Ferrell, brushing his teeth while she narrates the action.

Then we see Harold Crick, pause and begin listening to the narration. He shakes his head, looks behind the bathroom mirror, and is obviously confused. Soon he is talking back to the voice, asking who is talking.

As the plot develops, we realize Harold is a real person, and he is hearing someone narrate his life…as she writes the story. This is merely annoying and disturbing until he’s standing at the bus stop and hears the narrator say “little did he know that events had been set in motion that would lead to his imminent death.”

Harold has to deal with the idea that someone is writing a script, the plot line of his life…and death. Perhaps there’s a bigger meaning to his life than what he once thought, something outside himself.


The Greek philosophers – Socrates, Aristotle, and the like – believed there must be a greater overall meaning and purpose, a driving plot line for life and the universe. They called this ultimate purpose, this ultimate story, the Logos. The Greek logos is usually translated in English as Word. It could also be translated as Story.

When the apostle John wrote the gospel account that bears his name, he took that well known philosophical idea and turned it around. He says the Logos, the Word, is not just some big hypothetical Story.

It is, in fact, a Storyteller.


Repetition is a key element in the Hebrew poetry tradition David uses throughout the Psalms. The 119th Psalm is especially repetitive, due to his single-minded focus on God’s Word.

One way David tries to alleviate the repetition is by using several different Hebrew terms to describe the scriptures. I suppose, like any good writer, he wanted to inject some variety to improve the reading experience.

He makes use of seven different terms for God’s words, and sprinkles them through the verses. The usual English translations for those seven words are law, statutes, precepts, testimony/covenant, commands, law/judgment, and word

Sometimes David will use a precise term to express a specific idea to best make his point. Often, though, it appears he uses the terms randomly.

I think that's because all of them express different aspects of the central concept: The over-arching story and purpose as defined by the divine Storyteller.

I tend to use Word most often in my writing, because the way John develops the Greek version (logos) of the Hebrew davar is so evocative of the bigger picture of God revealing himself to man “in many portions and many ways” (Hebrews 1:1).

In Psalm 119:89-96, David makes use of most of the different terms for God's Word to describe importance of the storyteller and His story in David's life.

Your word, Lord, is eternal;
 it stands firm in the heavens.
Your faithfulness continues through all generations;
 you established the earth, and it endures.
Your laws endure to this day,
 for all things serve you.
If your law had not been my delight,
 I would have perished in my affliction.
I will never forget your precepts,
 for by them you have preserved my life.
Save me, for I am yours;
 I have sought out your precepts.
The wicked are waiting to destroy me,
 but I will ponder your statutes.
To all perfection I see a limit,
 but your commands are boundless.

Psalm 119:89-96