In the passage from verses 9 to 16, each line begins with the Hebrew letter Beth. This section is very much about true joy.

Psalm 119.9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. 

This verse has followed me since I was a young Christian. I am so grateful for the Norwegian prayer house movement I grew up in, because there we learned to highly value God's Word high and let it control our lives. The psalmist asks a very important question and gave us the right answer: How can a young man live clean? By living in the Word of God and walking in the truths of the Word.

Of course, this truth does not only apply to young people. But young people in their youth for the first time meet all the lusts and desires that can make life impure. In our childhood we were unfamiliar with much of these impure impulses, but in youth we encounter this with full force. Childhood is a time of innocence, but in youth we meet all the temptations that belong to adult human life.

The first truth we must take into account in this verse is that there is a pure and impure way to live. Something is right and something is wrong. Something is good and something is bad. Something is holy and something is unholy. Something is beautiful and nice, but unfortunately also something is ugly. In our postmodern age, there are many voices who will explain this away and say that everything is just as good. What is true for you need not be true for me, they say, for everything is relative. This postmodern lie we must take proper distance from. The Bible makes it clear that there are absolute truths and unchanging laws for what is right and wrong. The ten commandments together with Jesus' sermon on the mountain give us safe and sound guidance in living pure lives.

"Your words" is the eighth term the psalmist uses for the word of God. Here he uses the Hebrew word "dabar" which is often used in GT and is translated in many different ways, depending on the context. When translated into words, the basic and simple interpretation is what God has said or says. The ten commandments are also called the ten words (Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 4.13; 10.4), the ten sayings. Those ten words are what God said, they are ten commandments because of the way they were said. They are God's commands.

The prophets often use the phrase: The word of the Lord came to me. Here,is also "dabar" used. The word of God is a word of revelation that gives us knowledge of God and His will. The Lord's word is pure (Psalm 33: 4) and shows us how we can live pure lives. As we read the Bible with a praying heart, we will constantly experience that the word of the Lord comes to us, it comes alive to us and touches us. As we live in this fresh revelation of the Word of the Holy Spirit, we find great pleasure in keeping our path pure. To heed the Word is to trust it and obey it, so that we live it out in everyday life.

“How can a young man stay pure? Only by living in the word of God and walking in its truths.” (TPT)