Exposition of Psalm
119
?
Lamed
The
Greatness of the Word of God
Psalm
119:89-96
For
ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in
heaven.
Thy
faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast
established the earth, and it
abideth.
They
continue this day according to thine ordinances: for all
are thy servants.
Unless
thy law had been my delights, I should then have
perished in mine affliction.
I
will never forget thy precepts: for with them thou hast
quickened me.
I
am thine, save me; for I have sought thy
precepts.
The
wicked have waited for me to destroy me: but I will
consider thy testimonies.
I
have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment
is exceeding broad.
There is an interesting
and most encouraging development at this point in Psalm
119. In the last three stanzas, the psalmist’s struggles
are vividly apparent. There is an increasing emphasis
upon his afflictions until, as we saw in our last study,
he comes to almost utter despondency. He says, “My soul
fainteth” (v. 81), “Mine eyes fail” (v. 82), “I am
become like a [wineskin] in the smoke” (v. 83), “The
proud have digged pits for me” (v. 85) and “persecute me
wrongfully” (v. 86). He then ends with the plea,
“[Revive] me after thy lovingkindness” (v.
88).
As we now come to this
twelfth stanza, we see a turning point. While not all
the affliction ends, the overall tone changes and the
Psalmist begins to move on in a more positive way. He
begins again building on the Word of God alone by
writing about its stability, security, strength, and
sufficiency.
I. Its
Stability (vs. 89-91)
For
ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in
heaven.
Thy
faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast
established the earth, and it
abideth.
They
continue this day according to thine ordinances: for all
are thy servants.
In these three
verses, the Psalmist emphasizes the same truth three
times, that the Word of God lasts [forever].
It is
Permanent (v. 89)
For
ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in
heaven.
Here is a verse that
should rule the Christian’s life. The old Christian
cliché that goes, “God said it, I believe, and that
settles it,” is one that has grieved me for many years.
While it is certainly stated with the deepest sincerity
and the purest of motives, is it true? No, it is not.
What settles a matter forever is what
God says about it, regardless of what we believe. Some
argue in defense, “Well, my believing it settles the
matter for
me.” Again, not so. The matter is settled in
heaven for you, not here on earth when you
believe it. Realizing the truth of this principle is
essential to the doctrine of Biblical authority. If a
matter is settled when we believe it, then what God says
is not actually in effect until we put our stamp of
approval upon it. We could greatly improve this cliché
simply by saying, “God said it, that settles it, and I believe it.”
If there is one
thing that is true of this world is that it and
everything in it is unsettled; everything is in
turmoil and nothing is sure. In stark contrast, God’s
word is
settled in heaven. The Hebrew verb behind
settled
(natsab) means “to station,
to appoint, to erect, to take a stand.” Jacob, for
example, set up a stone pillar where God spoke to him
and renamed him “Israel”; Jacob in turn named that place
“Bethel,” which means “house of God” (Gen. 35:14-15).
Jacob set up another pillar on Rachel’s grave (Gen.
35:20). This word is also used for when God established
the boundaries for Israel (Deut. 32:8). The idea in all
these is the setting up of something intended to be
permanent.
That is, indeed, what God
has done with His Word. The clearest statement in
Scripture of its own permanence is Matthew 5:17-18:
Think not that I am come to
destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to
destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till
heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no
wise pass from the law, till all be
fulfilled.
So permanent is
God’s Word that not even the smallest letter
(yod) or the smallest part of a letter (tittle) will be lost. Every last
word will be fulfilled, either by Christ’s first advent
or future prophecy, and will be carried out no matter
who tries to prevent it.
Many men have tried
to destroy the Word of God. In the second century A.D.,
the famous pagan philosopher Celsus wrote against the
Bible, calling Jesus’ birth the result of adultery, His
incarnation as God as being absurd, the idea of
resurrection as being foolishness, and many other
attacks. But God’s Word lives on. Emperor Diocletian
made a decree in 303 A.D. to extinguish the Bible and
slaughter all Christians, but God’s Word endured. The
story has been told often of how the French philosopher,
Voltaire (1694-1778), held up a Bible and said, “In 50
years I’ll have this book in the morgue.” Well, in 50
years he was in the morgue and the Geneva Bible Society
owned his house and used it as a place to store Bibles
that they first printed on his press. Countless others
have tried to destroy it, but as Isaiah declared, “The
grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our
God shall stand for ever” (Is. 40:8).
The application is
clear. God has set up His Word permanently in heaven
and wants it to be permanently set up in the hearts of
men. Dear Christian Friend, as it is in heaven,
is God’s Word permanently settled
in your heart and mind?
This leads us to the Psalmist’s next
statement.
It is
Perpetual (v. 90)
Thy
faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast
established the earth, and it
abideth.
The Hebrew
translated faithfulness
(‘emuwnah) comes from the same word for “truth”
(’emûnâ), as mentioned, in fact, back in verse
30, where David writes, “I have chosen the way of
truth.” Why is God’s Word perpetual? Because it is true,
and that “truth endureth to all generations” (Ps. 100:5)
and it “endureth for ever” (117:2). As mentioned back in
verse 43, Truth speaks of certainty; Truth is always
true and never changes. While Truth has “gone out of
style” in our day, being distorted,
diluted, and denied at every
turn, it is still stands as absolute.
David goes on to
illustrate: thou hast established
the earth, and it abideth. How did God
establish the earth
and all else of creation? By His Word. Genesis
1:3 declares: “And God said, Let there be light:
and there was light” (emphasis added). Then in verse 6
we read: “And God said, Let
there be a firmament in the midst of the waters”
(emphasis added). We read the same words for each day of
creation (vs. 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26). As the Psalmist
again declares in Psalm 148:4-6:
Praise him, ye heavens of
heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let
them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and
they were created. He hath also stablished them for ever
and ever: he hath made a decree which shall not
pass.
Is there any doubt
as to the importance of what God says? Much of
Christianity today ignores what God’s Word actually
says. But His Word brought the universe into
existence. Should it not rule our
lives?
It is
Persistent (v. 91)
They
continue this day according to thine ordinances: for all
are thy servants.
They
refers back to “heaven” and “earth.” They,
therefore, and all that is in them, continue
('amad; stand, last, endure)
simply because God says so.
What a truth that
is! Do you get it? Our Lord “upholds all things by the
word of his power” (Heb. 1:3). “Word” here is not the
usual logos, “to speak intelligently, to
articulate a message, to give a discourse,” rather
rhema, which usually relates to
individual words and
utterances. Jesus came, for example, to “[speak] the
[individual] words of God” (Jn. 3:34). Paul declared
“faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the
[individual] word[s] of God,” and he said that part of
the Christian’s spiritual armor is the Sword of the
Spirit, which “is the [individual] word[s] of God” (Eph.
6:17).
What, then, will
enable us to stand against the world, the flesh, and the
devil? The individual words of God. This point is
crucial in our day. Words mean things. While
evangelicals say, “Oh, yes, we believe in the Word of
God,” the real question is, do we believe the
words of God, every one them, every jot and
tittle? I lovingly submit that if the words of
God really mattered to us, we wouldn’t have near as many
problems as we do today, such as the diluted Gospel, the
seeker-sensitive movement, and various other methods of
ministry. Further, the words of Scripture demand
that our preaching be based solely on those words, that
we begin with a text, a
principle that is denied by many today,[i] and that all that
we say flows out of the text.
I
would also dare to interject that an emphasis on the
words of Scripture makes the whole concept of
“Dynamic Equivalence” (the basis of the NIV and other
translations) very troubling. This approach to Bible
translation replaces the concept of a
word-for-word translation with a thought-for-thought
translation. In other words, as long as we get across
the thought of the author, then the exact
words aren’t really important. While that
approach is popular, it should deeply trouble those who
cherish the words of
Scripture.
II. Its
Security (v. 92)
Unless
thy law had been my delights, I should then have
perished in mine affliction.
Returning to the
theme of affliction,
David tells us that only one thing rescued him from
being totally overwhelmed. What exactly was it that
rescued him? Was it God’s law? Well,
not exactly. You could read your Bible all day long but
not be rescued from trouble because the words are not
truly received. More specifically, it was David’s
[delight]
for God’s law that
rescued him. This is, in fact, the seventh time he has
referred to God’s Word as his delight, and has now
mentioned four of the eight synonyms for Scripture in
this dlight. His delight is in God’s statutes (v.
16), testimonies (v. 24), commandments
(vs. 35, 47, 143), and law
(vs. 70, 77, 92, 174).
Once again we marvel at
such joy and pleasure in God’s Word. It’s really not a
mystery, however, when we see the reason. The world
looks to everything under the sun for security: money,
success, popularity, insurance policies, retirement
accounts, investments, and more. When affliction,
misfortune, heartaches, and pain come, it again looks to
those things and others, such as: self-help books,
therapists, gurus, mysticism, drugs, and the like. The
Psalmist, however, knew where to find real security. It
healed whatever ailed his soul as quickly as a mother’s
kiss heals her little boy’s scraped knee. While the
physical wound is still there for a while, and might
even leave a little scar, but the inner healing is
immediate.
We appreciate this comment
by Warren Wiersbe: “We do not go to the Bible to escape
the realities of life but to be strengthened to face
life and effectively serve God.”[ii] Indeed, the Bible
isn’t an escape; rather it is our
refuge.
III. Its
Strength (vs. 93-95)
I
will never forget thy precepts: for with them thou hast
quickened me.
I
am thine, save me; for I have sought thy
precepts.
The
wicked have waited for me to destroy me: but I will
consider thy testimonies.
The Psalmist now turns to
the strength that he derives from God’s Word. We see
here three progressive principles.
Don’t Forget
the Source of Strength (v. 93)
I
will never forget thy precepts: for with them thou hast
quickened me.
Here is a principle
the Psalmist has mentioned before. In verse 16 he says
he won’t forget God’s word, and in verse 83 he
adds that he won’t forget God’s statutes. It is
now God’s precepts
that he vows never to
forget. As
we’ve noted, the Hebrew (piqqud) speaks of
instructions, injunctions, and moral obligations. Here,
then, is the source of our strength—the moral
obligations and instructions of God’s
Word.
Oh, how young people of
our day need to realize this! Tragically, many of our
youth are weak because they are not being taught even
the most basic morals in school or even in the home.
Even many adults fail miserably, as is seen in those who
commit adultery because they disobey something so basic
as the moral obligation demanded in marriage.
Is it surprising that
America is crumbling around us? Certainly not! As was
true of the Roman Empire, our society is disintegrating
because of immorality and lack of even the most basic
values. When people will not tolerate the Ten
Commandments being posted in the yard of a courthouse or
on the wall inside a courtroom, our ruin is
inevitable.
If I may impose upon the
reader a moment, I would share an illustration of an
especially personal nature. It is a great understatement
to say that God works in amazing way. On the very
morning I was studying this principle and working on
this sermon, I was speaking to a dear Christian friend
on the telephone who shared a burden with me. The
specific trial in his life was that his outwardly
beautifully house was virtually falling down around him
and his wife. The contractor who built it failed to put
any steel reinforcing rebar in the concrete foundation
and also did not do continuous concrete pours where
required. It was now necessary to do major repairs on
the foundation by drilling and installing several deep
pylons around it to strengthen it. I thought my
illustration would end there, in that here was a picture
of America in needed of some foundation work.
I was stunned,
however, to say the least, when only a few days later,
my dear friend, Mr. Otto Shults (to whom this book is
dedicated), was outside inspecting the work late one
night and fell into one of the twelve-foot trenches
around the house. Hitting his head and lying unconscious
in that trench all night caused irreversible brain
damage, and he passed away as a result. While it is most
certainly true that God in His sovereignty took my
friend home, I could not escape just how this even more
vividly illustrates the crumbling foundations of
America. Is not the greatest example, in fact, that some
4,000 babies a day legally die by the hands of
murdering physicians, whose original Hippocratic Oath
was to “first do no harm.” A society is only as strong
as its moral foundation, and
ours needs major repairs, repairs that only the Word of
God can supply. Only It will be the “pylons” that will
sink deep into the “Bedrock” of Christ and bring back
strength to our nation.
Seek that
Strength (v. 94)
I
am thine, save me; for I have sought thy
precepts.
Once we recognize
the source of our strength, it is essential that
we actively seek that strength. The Hebrew behind
sought
(darash) means “to seek with care, to inquire of, to
examine.” It’s used in the literal sense, for example,
to speak of seeking out property, such as a lost ox or
cattle (Deut. 22:1-2). It is then used in a theological
sense for studying or inquiring into the Law of the
Lord, as in Ezra 7:10: “For Ezra had prepared his heart
to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach
in Israel statutes and judgments.” Such seeking, in
fact, will be greatly rewarded, as David writes in Psalm
34:10: “The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but
they that seek the LORD shall not want any good
thing.”
Seeking God’s Word
should be the number one priority of the Christian.
Nothing is more important.
Dear Christian Friend, are you seeking the Word? Is it
first in your life? Do you start your day with it? Is
the preaching and teaching of it at every opportunity
the most important time of the week for you? Is that the
priority, or do you allow anything to keep you from
it?
Trust in the
Safeguard of that Strength (v. 95)
The
wicked have waited for me to destroy me: but I will
consider thy testimonies.
Once we recognize
the source of our strength, and actively
seek that strength, we must then trust that
strength as our safeguard
from our adversaries. Returning briefly to the
affliction that dominated the previous three stanzas,
David reemphasizes that God’s Word is his only
safeguard, the only thing that delivers him from the
attacks of the enemy.
What exactly gives
us this safeguard? The key is in the word consider.
The Hebrew here (bîn) is the same word translated
“understand” in verse 27 and “understanding” in verse 35
and means “to perceive, to observe, to pay attention to,
to be intelligent, to be discreet, to understand and to
discern.” What, then, is the key?
Discernment. Mark it down: only through the
discernment of truth from error do we have a safeguard
from destruction. In a day that
discernment is virtually nonexistent in most Christian
circles, its emphasis has never been more critical.
This leads us right to one
final principle.
IV. Its
Sufficiency (v. 96)
I
have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment
is exceeding broad.
The amazing, poetic
words, I
have seen an end of all perfection, picture
the idea that David had seen the limitation of what the
men call perfection. He’d examined everything that man calls
“perfect” and found it lacking. While men think they
have the answers, those answers are shown to be nothing
in the end, simply “smoke and mirrors.” At best, all the
world can offer is a soap bubble, a pretty little sphere
that floats for a few seconds and then
disintegrates.
In dramatic
contrast, David says but [God’s]
commandment is exceeding broad. Note a
subtlety here. While some modern translations (NIV, NLT)
inaccurately read “commandments” (plural), the proper
reading is commandment
(singular), emphasizing one united Book, one unified,
cohesive revelation from God. This is further emphasized
by the description exceeding
broad, that is, abundantly wide, spacious,
and large. The Hebrew behind broad
(rahab) is used, for example, to describe the Promised
Land as “a good land and a large . . . a land flowing
with milk and honey” (Ex. 3:8).
What a wonderfully picture
of the sufficiency of God’s Word! So broad and spacious
is it that it encompasses all issues, all subjects, and
all answers. We need nothing else. Let us love it
passionately, trust it implicitly, and obey it
unconditionally.
[i] “The ground we have
in common with unbelievers is not the Bible, but our
common needs, hurts, and interests as human beings.
You cannot start with a text” (Rick Warren,
The Purpose Driven Church, p.
295, emphasis added). This and many other such clearly
unscriptural trends should trouble us
deeply.
