In this message we come to Psalm 119. This psalm does not have a title telling us who wrote it, but it is commonly understood by Bible teachers that this psalm was written by David.
Psalm 119 is one of the alphabetical, or acrostic, psalms. The first letters of each group of eight verses in this psalm follow the order of the Hebrew alphabet. The twenty-two sections of this psalm thus correspond to the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Furthermore, all the verses in a particular section begin with the same Hebrew letter. For example, in the Aleph section (vv. 1-8) every verse starts with the Hebrew letter Aleph.
The title of this message is "Christ—the Reality of the Law as the Testimony and the Word of God." In both the Old Testament and the New Testament there is a strong basis for saying that the law in its reality is Christ. If we would see that Christ is the reality of the law, we need to regard the law, as Psalm 119 does, as the testimony of God and as the word of God. This psalm does not contain the word "Christ," but it does contain a number of synonyms of Christ, such as "testimony" and "word," which are also synonyms of "law." We should not consider the law merely as commandments, regulations, and ordinances. Rather, we should consider the law as God's testimony. The law was given on Mount Sinai, but it was put into a little ark called "the ark of the testimony" (Exo. 25:16). The ark was then placed into "the tabernacle of testimony" (38:21). Thus, the law was in the ark of the testimony, and the ark of the testimony was in the tabernacle of testimony.
At this point we need to ask a very particular question: In typology, who is the law? This is a question not about what the law is but about who the law is. We cannot answer the question concerning who the law is by saying that the law is the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are not a person, but they are a portrait of a person. A law is always a picture of the person who makes it. The laws passed by today's legislators are pictures of the legislators. The principle is the same with the law of God. The law of God—the Ten Commandments with the many statutes, ordinances, and judgments—is a portrait of the person of God.