Exposition
of Psalm 119
ט
Teth
God’s Word Brings Good
Psalm 119:65-72
Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O LORD, according unto thy word.
Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for I have believed thy commandments.
Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.
Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes.
The proud have forged a lie against me: but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart.
Their heart is as fat as grease; but I delight in thy law.
It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.
The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold
and silver.
The most prominent word in this section is “good.” “Teth” is the first letter of the Hebrew word tov (“good”), which occurs six times and means good, pleasant, beneficial, precious, delightful, and right. It appears at the beginning of verses 65, 66, 68, 71, and 72. We see here seven good things that the Word of God brings.
Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O LORD, according unto thy word.
Here we get another glimpse of Who God is and what He is doing. The word well is the Hebrew tōbâh, another word that means good. Other meanings include: well-pleasing, fruitful, morally correct, proper, and convenient. The creation narrative of Genesis 1 best expresses all these aspects of meaning when God declares each facet of His handiwork to be “good.”[1]
How good God has been to us! Is that not an understatement? Theologians generally speak of God’s goodness in five ways.[2]
Elsewhere the Psalmist declares: “The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works. . . . The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing? (Ps. 145: 9, 15-16). Also called “common grace,” this aspect of God’s goodness simply means that He deals kindly and bountifully with every one of His creatures. He cares for His creature’s welfare, as in Matthew 5:45: “He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” He also “preservest man and beast” (Ps. 36:6). This is true of animals, as in Psalm 104:21: “The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.” And He does that for man: “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?” (Matt. 6:26). He is even “kind unto the unthankful and to the evil” (Lk. 6:35).
When God exercises His goodness toward men, it takes on the higher quality of love. This love can be defined as: the perfection of God by which He is eternally moved to self-communication. While the world’s view of love is that it is all “feeling” and “warm fuzzies,” God’s love is not based upon emotional impulse; rather it is a rational and voluntary affection for His own sake and purpose. While He cannot love lost men to the fullest because their sin is an abomination to Him, He still has affection for them because He made man His own image. This leads to a third aspect of God’s goodness.
A simple definition of “mercy” is “the withholding of deserved punishment and relieving distress.” The Hebrew word most generally used is hesed, which with mercy, also pictures kindness, lovingkindness, goodness, faithfulness, love, and acts of kindness. As one authority points out, “The classic text for understanding the significance of this word is Psalm 136 where it is used twenty-six times to proclaim that God’s kindness and love are eternal.”[3]
The Greek eleos speaks of “compassion, pity.” One Greek lexicon tells us, “Kindness or good will towards the miserable and afflicted, joined with a desire to relieve them.”[4] So mercy is obviously always to the helpless. Moreover, in light of Ephesians 2:1‑3, we deserve the affliction, but God relieves it. We deserve all the affliction, misery, distress, depression, and heartache that come our way; we deserve the domination of the world, Satan, and the flesh; we deserve God’s wrath. But God is merciful. He relieves us. Indeed, it is also God’s mercy that allows the lost person to live another moment in this world and put off an eternity in hell just one more day.
To go deeper, God’s mercy is often coupled with the fourth aspect of His goodness.
The New Testament truly took charis to new levels of meaning, transforming it into something much deeper. While it primarily meant that men merely need a little help from the gods in the form of kindness and pleasure, it was in the New Testament that the new and unique idea of “unmerited favor” was added. Why? What transformed this word? The reason for this transformation is that New Testament grace is coupled with the person and work of Jesus Christ. One example, of course, is John 1:17: “Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” John is not saying that simply thankfulness, delight, kindness, or gratitude came by Christ, as was the meaning of charis in secular Greek, but rather something far deeper. Throughout the New Testament grace is coupled with Christ, for He is the ultimate manifestation of God’s grace. God gave His Son to the Word to save men from their sins, given to an undeserving race that hated Him and ultimately crucified Him.
Again, God’s mercy and grace are often mentioned together. What is the contrast?
· Mercy – the withholding of what is deserved (e.g. death and hell).
· Grace – the bestowing of what is not deserved (e.g. life and heaven).
In several Old Testament references, God is described as being longsuffering (Num. 14:18; Ps. 86:15; Jer. 15:15). In each of those verses we find an interesting expression in the Hebrew, ‘arek ‘aph, which literally means “long of face,” an idiom indicating “slow to anger.” The Greek uses the word makrothumia, a compound word from makro, meaning “long,” and thumos, meaning “temper.” God is, indeed, long-tempered in contrast to short-tempered, as was always the case with the gods of the pagans. Part of God’s love is to bear with sinful men in spite of their continual rebellion. Through the millennia God has been “long of face,” He has allowed men’s sin and delayed the judgment that is to come. Again, what mercy!
Oh, how good God is toward men!
Teach me good judgment . . . for I have believed thy commandments.
As we have seen, the term judgment is the Hebrew mishpāt, which indicates a binding judicial decision that establishes a precedent, a binding law. Unlike many of the precedents, laws, and judicial decisions of men that are far from good, God’s judgments are always good, so the Psalmist wants God to teach him good judgment.
But what brings about such good judgment? It comes by believing God’s a clear, definite, and authoritative commandments. The Hebrew behind believed (‘āman) means to be firm, to build up, to support, to nurture, or to establish. The primary thrust of the word is the idea of providing stability and confidence, as a baby finds in the arms of a parent. Appearances of this word include the support that a pillar provides for a building (II Kings 18:16), the nurturing of a nurse for a child (II Sam. 4:4), and a house built on a firm foundation (I Sam. 2:35).
I was reminded here of the American judicial system that has degenerated so far that in 1973 it established the unthinkable precedent and binding law that it was now legal to murder the unborn. From where does such unimaginable decadence come? By the destruction of the firm foundation and stability that God’s commandments provide. Once America, or any nation or people, rejects God’s absolute and authoritative commands, its fall is inevitable. Sad to say, we cannot help but wonder if there is truly any hope for America, for look how far she has fallen.
Teach me good . . . knowledge
As the Psalmist asked God to teach him “good judgment,” he also asks for good . . . knowledge. Oh, what a word we have here! Knowledge is the Hebrew da’ath, meaning knowledge, knowing, learning, discernment, insight, and notion.
Let us consider a crucial question: From where does all knowledge originate? Answer: God. Think about it. Even the simple “how to” things of life come from God. We read in Exodus 31, for example, that after giving directions for the construction of the sanctuary and all the things required for proper worship, God pointed out the builders who would do the work. He then called Bezaleel by name to be the master-builder and “filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship” (v. 3).
So from where does the carpenter get his skill? From where does the singer receive his talent? From where does the chef obtain his culinary flair? All these, and all others, come from God. As Paul asked the Corinthians, “what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” (I Cor. 4:7). While man wants to take credit for what he is and does, it is in truth God alone who gives man everything he has.
Isn’t it interesting (and troubling) to examine our modern education system? We have built an enormous and complex structure on a feeble foundation. We’ve built the whole thing on the foundation of “knowing man.” And look at the result. We have a system devoid of truth and morality.
Scripture clearly shows us that to know God is to know ourselves. Only when we start with the presupposition of God, do we have a solid foundation on which to build everything else.
Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.
The word astray is extremely important. The Hebrew behind it (shagag) means “to stray, to be deceived, to err, to go astray, to sin ignorantly.” It’s primary meaning, in fact, is “to sin inadvertently” and is used in Leviticus to refer to “the unintentional sin atoned for by the sacrifice of a ram,” which was called the “guilt [or trespass] offering (Lev. 5:18).”[5]
This is what happens when we forget who we are, when we fail to keep God’s Word ever before us, when we neglect the things of God. It is so easy to stray away! An idle thought, an unguarded moment, a neglected duty, a worldly attitude, and so many other things lure us away from the path of God.
The only thing that will protect us is to be keep God’s Word. As I shared from the pulpit here, I pray that if you don’t get anything else out of this series of studies that you will at least realize that the only protection you will ever have in your Christian living is God’s Word. While there are several pieces of God’s armor, as Paul writes in Ephesians 6:12-20, it is the Sword of the Spirit that is ultimate weapon, our very life.
The Word kept (shamar) means “to watch, to keep, to preserve, to guard, to be careful, to watch over, to watch carefully over, to be on one’s guard.” It appears in Genesis 2:15, for example, where Adam and Eve were to watch over and care for the Garden of Eden. Likewise, through Moses, God said, “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them” (Deut. 5:1). That counsel still applies today. If we do not, we will stray and be devoured by the many predators that are just waiting for a wandering lamb. As Peter warned: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”
Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes.
This verse reiterates what the Psalmist has been saying about the underlying goodness of God’s nature. He does good because He is good. The clear implication, then, is that the Psalmist wanted to be good as God is good. And how could he do that? The answer, of course, is in the words teach me thy statutes. It is the statutes and decrees of God engraved in stone that teach us how to be good and do good. While many today look to other things as a source of good, such as the ever-popular field of modern psychology and counseling, such things are futile.
Another case in point is philosophy, a study that is, indeed, an exercise in futility. One of the greatest controversies in philosophy has always involved the problem of “good” or “value.” One writer puts it this way:
Does “good” have an objective, absolute existence? Is there “Good” with a capital “G” so to speak, or is it always relative to the preference or satisfaction of some individual? Are there value judgments which are universal, valid for all men everywhere? Is there anything which all human beings regardless of time, place, race, or culture unite to call “good”? Or does each person, in the final analysis, have an individual and perhaps unique system of values? Each person appears to decide, consciously or unconsciously, what he considers of value in the world and what he will spend his life trying to attain. Are there any objective standards by which we can judge this system of values that his actions imply? Or is his bald statement, “I find X to be good,” the last word that can be said on the matter?[6]
This presents two views: absolutism, and relativism. The absolutist believes that there is only one standard or code for morality that is valid for all mankind and for all time. Now, while that sounds right, absolutism does not imply moral conservatism; in other words, the absolutist can be either a moral conservative or a moral radical. He is not required to either praise or condemn any specific moral act. All absolutism means is that whatever is right or wrong holds true for all men.
On the other hand, relativism is a revolt against absolutism, and is the prevailing view of our day in every area of human endeavor: science, politics, morals, and religion. Instead of one “Good,” there are many “goods.” What might be good or right for one group might not be good or right for another. All value is relative to the time, place, and civilization in which one finds himself.
Worse, this discussion has inevitably led to the philosophic enquiry: “But what is ‘the highest good,’ what philosophers call summum bonum?” The most common and most popular answer to this question has been: pleasure, or in more modern terms, “pleasant consciousness” or “pleasant feeling.”[7] And the name most typically given to this philosophy is “hedonism,” from the Greek hēdonē, pleasure. To the hedonist “Good” is identified with pleasant, and “evil” is identified with unpleasant. But not only is such a philosophy anti-biblical, but it can be (and has been) used for unthinkable immortality. As one writer points out, in fact, under the disguise of “utilitarianism,” that is, the greatest good for the greatest number, Hitler murdered six million Jews for the greater good of Europe.
Worse still is the fact that relativism has spilled over into the church. Long established Christian doctrines are being challenged and “rethought” so they conform to modern thought, church ministry now involves what appeals to each person’s wants and desires, and what people now call “Bible study” is nothing but people sharing what they think the Bible says or how it makes them feel.
Where, then, will man find good? Answer: There are no ethics apart from revelation.
It is Christ alone Who brings
true knowledge, morality, and ethics to any society. A secular book written on
“ethics” is an oxymoron, because apart from God’s Truth and standards, ethics
are relative at best and impossible at worst. God is the only One Who is good and only He reveals good through His statutes.
The proud have forged a lie against me: but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart.
Their heart is as fat as grease; but I delight in thy law.
It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.
The Psalmist here turns to the common problem of suffering and why God allows his people to suffer. He says first that his enemies have lied about him. The Hebrew behind forged (tāpal) means to smear or plaster over. Indeed, the enemies of God will smear us and try to plaster over the truth to hide it from view. David then adds that their heart is as fat as grease, an idiom meaning that sensual indulgence has made them not only physically obese but spiritually insensitive. In light of our earlier discussion, that is where hedonism leads.
Verse 71 especially flies in the face of hedonism. The hedonist would never say: It is good for me that I have been afflicted. Why? Because he does not learn from God’s statutes. His desire is for titillation, not Truth; he wants gratification, not growth. Sadly, this again characterizes many in the church today. In contrast, as the Apostle Paul exulted, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” What is the greatest good here? The greatest good is not lack of affliction, rather it’s the power of Christ in our life.
The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold
and silver.
Spurgeon makes a profound observation here:
If a poor man had said this, the world’s witlings would have hinted that the grapes are sour, and that men who have no wealth are the first to despise it; but this is the verdict of a man who owned his thousands, and could judge by actual experience of the value of money and the value of truth.
Indeed, while the hedonist desires more money so that he can buy more pleasure, to the godly person the greatest good, the greatest value, is God’s Word.
Dear Christian, where do you seek good?
[1] Baker and Carpenter, #2896.
[2] Based on the discussion in Louis Berkof, Systematic Theology, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993 reprint), pp. 71-72.
[3] Baker and Carpenter, #2617.
[4] Thayer, p. 203.
[5] Baker and Carpenter, #7683.
[6] Hunter Mead, Types and Problems of Philosophy (New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1946, 1953, 1959), p. 256.
[7] Ibid, p. 274.