Psalm 119:164

Psalm 119:164

Seven times a day

It is unusual, to say the least, to find a number being used so significantly in this Psalm. The fact that the author found time, and was so organised, that he could divide his day up into 7 sections is, in itself, impressive.  At 7 given points during 24 hours, he would halt what he was doing and praise the Lord for His righteous laws. This was probably not a long-drawn-out process, just a halt to his routine and a moment to remember the Lord and all that He had written in the Torah. 

The significance of the number 7 is important here, it always signifies completeness, perfection, fulness. When 7 comes up, the job is done, nothing more can be added, it is finished. We tend to use numbers mathematically rather than symbolically. If there are 7 things then our minds need to know what numbers 1-6 are all about, so that we can calculate how 7 was arrived at! The Bible treats this number rather differently. There were days 1-6 in creation but day 7 was separate, it was the day of completion and fulfilment, all was done, and nothing could be added. As God pointed out, everything was very good. 7 was a non-active number, totally different to all the factors that preceded it. It cannot be compared to them, neither is it a progression on what went before. There is no human, workable calculation that can achieve 7, it stands alone but it is the ultimate fulfilment of all that has occurred. It is God’s number, a number from heaven. In fact, I would go one step further, 7 is not so much a number as a spiritual Law. God uses it to show us what we cannot understand numerically. It is beyond numeracy; it is spiritual perfection and completeness. That is why we are to remember the 7th day to keep it holy – for God – Shabbat. There are so many examples of this in the Bible and the number 7 occurs nearly 60 times in Revelation. So, there will be times when we need to stop our mathematically trained minds from calculating and analysing and just learn to accept that 7 defines God’s fulness and perfect wholeness. 

 

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