Exposition of Psalm
119
?
PE
God’s
Word Produces Wonder
Psalm
119:129-136
Thy
testimonies are wonderful: therefore doth my soul keep
them.
The
entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth
understanding unto the simple.
I
opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy
commandments.
Look
thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as thou usest to
do unto those that love thy name.
Order
my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have
dominion over me.
Deliver
me from the oppression of man: so will I keep thy
precepts.
Make
thy face to shine upon thy servant; and teach me thy
statutes.
Rivers
of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy
law.
David mentions again
God’s testimonies,
which refer sober and serious expression of God’s
standards for human behavior. He adds something,
however, that he has not said previously, namely that
God’s testimonies are
wonderful. While he did say back in
verse 18 that he “[beheld] wondrous things out of
[God’s] law” and spoke of God’s “wondrous works” in
verse 27, here we see a subtle difference. He says that
the Word of God itself is wonderful.
The Hebrew noun behind wonderful
(pele’) speaks of a wonder, a
miracle, a marvel and is used is used to represent
something unusual or extraordinary.
There is, indeed, no
better word that sums up the Word of God than
wonder. Ponder briefly ten
wonders of the Bible.
First, there is its
unique authorship, as it was written over a
1600-year time span, written by some forty authors from
every walk of life, written in different locations, and
written in different languages. Second, is its
complete unity of thought and teaching,
presenting only one view of God, one view of sin, one
method of salvation, and one program for the ages.
Third, is its central theme, the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Old Testament points to Him, the
Gospels present Him, and the Epistles
propagate Him. Fourth, it was written in
superior languages. Aramaic was the local language
of Palestine and served to link the Old and New
Testaments through the Lord Jesus Christ and His
apostles. Hebrew was a pictorial, personal language that
graphically recorded God’s mighty acts. The exactness of
the Greek precisely expressed the theological truths of
the New Testament. Fifth, it is unmatched in sale and
circulation, passing the two billion copies in print
mark long ago and still selling twenty-five million
copies a year. Sixth, its prophetic accuracy is
astounding, with many ancient prophecies being fulfilled
to the letter, such as, to name only a few: the
returning of the Jews to their own land (Ezek. 36), the
utter destruction of Tyre and that it would never again
be inhabited or rebuilt (Ezek. 26), and, of course, the
many Messianic Prophecies fulfilled by Jesus Himself.
Seventh, its archeological authentication is
equally astonishing, such as after the denial of the
biblical record by critics, the existence of many
biblical cities has been proven by the archeologist’s
spade, such as, Ur of the Chaldees and the cliff city of
Petra. Eighth, its scientific accuracy is also
without flaw, providing us with absolutely accurate
facts about creation, astronomy, and even diet. Ninth,
its timeless age is demonstrated in the fact that
it is as up to date now as when it was first penned.
Tenth, its indestructibility
is demonstrated by the fact that thousands of
manuscripts have survived the ravages of time and that
its truth has survived the violence of both direct and
critical attack.
Oh, the wonders of God’s
Word! Augustine found this to be so true that he
wrote:
that though he should with better
capacity and greater diligence study all his lifetime,
from the beginning of his childhood to [decrepit] old
age, nothing else but the Scriptures’ yet they are so
compacted and thickly set with truths, that he might
daily learn something which before he knew
not.[i]
With that desire for its
wonders in our hearts, let us now consider that the Word
of God goes even further to produce even more wonder in
our experience in at least six ways.
I. God’s
Word Gives Light (vs. 130, 135)
The
entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth
understanding unto the simple. . . .
Make
thy face to shine upon thy servant; and teach me thy
statutes.
Just as the entrance
of light
illumines a room when the shades are opened, so does the
Word of God shine into the heart of the believer.
David’s first mention of God’s Word being light is
back in verse 105. In addition to what we noted there,
two of the prominent ideas in the Hebrew
('owr) are direction, which,
as noted, is illustrated by the pillar of fire that was
a light for the wandering Israelites (Ex. 13:21), and
instruction, as illustrated often in
Scripture.
Proverbs 6:23, for
example, declares, “For the commandment is a lamp; and
the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the
way of life,” which deals specifically with parent’s
instruction. In Psalm 19:8, we also read that “the
commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.”
Each of us is challenged, therefore, as was Israel, to
“walk in the light of the LORD” (Is. 2:5), for the
purpose of His Word is to be “a light of the people”
(51:4).
How vital it is to
recognize that Scripture is the only real source of
instruction, for instruction is more that mere facts! As
we’ve noted several times (vs. 27, 34, 73, 99, 104,
125), understanding
(bîn) means “to discern, to perceive, to observe,
to pay attention to, to be intelligent, to be discreet,
to understand.” Only light
gives understanding.
In spite of what facts he might know, the godless
scientist, philosopher, or religionist understands
nothing because he does not shine the light of Scripture on the question.
This is vividly
illustrated by something Charles Darwin wrote in his
radical book, The
Origin of Species:
To suppose that the eye with all
its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to
different distances, for admitting different amounts of
light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic
aberration, could have been formed by natural selection,
seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest
degree.[ii]
Now that certainly
does not imply that Darwin didn’t believe his own theory
or that this difficulty caused an insurmountable
problem. On the contrary, he uses the words “seems. .
.absurd,” for he then goes on to explain how this could have
happened. He maintained that since much simpler forms of
eyes exist in nature, then “the difficulty ceases to be
very great in believing that natural selection may have converted the
simple apparatus of an optic nerve, coated with pigment
and invested by transparent membrane, into an optical
instrument as perfect as [the human
eye].”[iii] But notice that
Darwin uses the word “believing,” not “proving,”
demonstrating that evolution is not based on
science but on a belief.
Further, in spite of
Darwin’s “explanation,” the question remains, Is it
reasonable to believe that complexity can happen by
chance? On the very next page of his book, Darwin writes
that “it is scarcely possible to avoid comparing the eye
with a telescope,” and admits that “this instrument has
been perfected by the long-continued efforts of the
highest human intellects.” He then turns right around,
however, and calls it “presumptuous” to “infer that the
eye has been formed by a somewhat analogous process” by
“the Creator.” But Darwin misses the very point that he
himself demonstrates, namely, that the eye, just like
the telescope, demands a designer. Yes,
Darwin had facts, but no understanding; he
had knowledge, but no light.
David goes on to
write, Make
thy face to shine upon thy servant; and teach me thy
statutes. The same Hebrew
word is used here as for “light” in verse 130. David’s
desire was more light. Let that be desire as
well.
II. God’s
Word Produces More Longing for It (v. 131)
I
opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy
commandments.
When we truly see
the wonder of Scripture, we cannot help but pant for it.
The Hebrew behind panted
(sha’ap) means to desire, to
long for, to seek for something. It appears, for
example, in Job 7:2 for a weary, hard-breathing laborer
who is earnestly looking for some shade. What a picture
of how we should long for the Word of God! With David,
we should pant, plead, and pray for
it.
We are reminded here of
Job, “Neither have I gone back from the commandment of
his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more
than my necessary food” (Job 23:12). Jeremiah concurs,
“Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word
was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I
am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts” (Jer.
15:16), as did our Lord Himself, “My meat is to do the
will of him that sent me, and to finish his work” (Jn.
4:34), and as did Peter, “As newborn babes, desire the
sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” (I
Pet. 2:2). Do we truly long for God’s Word?
This leads to a third
principle.
III. God’s
Word Produces More Love for It (v. 132)
Look
thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as thou usest to
do unto those that love thy name.
To love God’s
Word is to love His
name, for in one of the most staggering verses of
Scripture, David writes, “I will worship toward thy holy
temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and
for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above
all thy name” (Ps. 138:2). Spurgeon beautifully writes
here:
The Lord lays all the rest of his
name under tribute to his word: his wisdom, power, love,
and all his other attributes combine to carry out his
word. It is his word which creates, sustains, quickens,
enlightens, and comforts. As a word of command it is
supreme; and in the person of the incarnate Word it is
set above all the works of God’s
hands.
As another writer
observes:
It is impossible to place the
inspired, inerrant Word of God on too high a pedestal,
for God Himself honors it above His name! The Word is
not greater than God, for He wrote it by His Spirit, but
it is greater than His “name,” which represents Him, and
all that He is and does. His Word, however, represents
Him more fully than His name alone can do: in His Word
His name is revealed.[iv]
Should this not
cause us to love and wonder at God’s Word more with each new day?
IV. God’s
Word Sets Limits (v. 133)
Order
my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have
dominion over me.
Verses like this
motivate us to defend the absolute sufficiency of
Scripture. Order my steps in thy
word, David writes. As noted back in verse
73, the Hebrew behind order
(kun)
has a wide range of meaning. Among others, it signifies
the action of setting in place or erecting an object
(Is. 40:20; Mic. 4:1), establishing a royal dynasty (2
Sam 7:13; 1 Chron. 17:12), founding a city (Hab. 2:12),
and creating the natural order (Deut 32:6; Ps. 8:3;
Prov. 8:27). David wanted to be set in place,
established, founded, and created by the Word of God. He
wanted nothing else. It is a sad commentary on the
Church today that Christians turn to sources other the
Word of God alone for every
issue and question under the sun.
David adds, however,
that not only does Scripture alone set the limits in his
belief, but it also does so in his
behavior: let not any iniquity
have dominion over me. He would let nothing
be his master or have control or “autocratic rule” of
his life (dominion
is shalat) except the Word of God. His behavior
conformed to its commands. Let that be our desire as
well, to do all that is right according to the
precedents of Scripture and nothing that is wrong
according to its precepts.
With Paul we can then say:
Likewise reckon ye also
yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin
therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey
it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members
as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield
yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the
dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness
unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for
ye are not under the law, but under grace. (Rom.
6:11-14)
V. God’s
Word Liberates (v. 134)
Deliver
me from the oppression of man: so will I keep thy
precepts.
Back in the 1960’s,
the cry was for “sexual freedom,” in the 1970’s there
was the roaring of the feminist for “Women’s
Liberation,” and throughout the 20th Century
Socialism and Communism have blathered on and on about
“the liberation of the worker.” In each and every case,
however, and in many other examples, the result has in
reality been the oppression of
man. “Sexual freedom” has
oppressed millions through disease, “Women’s Liberation”
has oppressed millions of marriages and homes, and
Socialism and Communism have oppressed large portions of
the world and slaughtered tens of millions of people.
The greatest example
of man’s oppression,
however, is his fallen will. In
clear terms, Scripture speaks declares that man no more
has a free will to choose God than a slave has free will
to do as he wishes. Man is depraved, dead in sin (Eph.
2:1-3), and will never seek God on his own (Rom.
3:11-18). As one writer so ably puts it, the only way a
man’s will is “free” is “in the sense that it is not
controlled by any force outside of himself. As a bird
with a broken wing is ‘free’ to fly but not able, so the
natural man is free to come to
God but not able. How can he repent of sin when he loves it? How
can he come to God when he hates Him?”[v] Indeed, nothing
outside ourselves enslaves us, rather our own will
enslaves us.
Sadly, men will most
certainly continue in such oppression
because they refuse to acknowledge that true freedom,
true liberty comes only by obeying the precepts
of God’s Word. As David mentioned back in verse 45,
“I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts.” And
as the Apostle John echoes: “And ye shall know the
truth, and the truth shall make you free. . . . If the
Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free
indeed” (Jn. 8:32, 36). Sexual permissiveness is not
freedom, throwing off position and responsibly is not
freedom, and no political viewpoint is freedom. Truth
is freedom, and that is found
only in God’s Word.
VI. God’s
Word Makes Us Lament (v. 136)
Rivers
of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy
law.
A final wonder that
God’s Word creates in the believer is a deep sorrow for
those who reject truth. David literally wept for those
who keep not
[God’s] law. This sorrow
is two-fold. He sorrowed for God because His Holy Word
is ignored and treated as though it were worthless, and
he lamented for men who are, therefore, under God’s
wrath. As He wrote back in verses 118-119, “[God] hast
trodden down all them that err from [His] statutes” and
“puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross.” A
sobering truth of Scripture is that those who reject
God’s Word will themselves be rejected by God. Never has
there been a day that needs to hear that truth than our
modern age. Puritan Charles Bridges
writes:
Can we conceive a Missionary
living in the spirit of his work—surrounded with
thousands of mad idolaters, hearing their shouts, and
witnessing their abominations, with a weeping spirit?
Indignant grief for the dishonor done to God—amazement
at the affecting spectacle of human
blindness—detestation of human impiety—compassionate
yearnings over human wretchedness and ruin—all combine
to force tears of the deepest sorrow from a heart
enlightened and constrained by the influence of a
Saviour’s love.[vi]
Without question,
that is the drive of missionaries all over the world.
But the truth of the matter is that we live in the exact
same environment and that we all are witnesses of Jesus Christ and should weep at
their blasphemies of God and their judgment that is to
come. Dear Christian Friend, are you a weeping witness
of God’s Word?
Oh, the wonder of
God’s Word that is intrinsic to itself, and then
the wonder it further instills in us! We close with these words from
Spurgeon:
. . . wonderful
revelations, commands and promises. Wonderful in their
nature, as being free from all error, and bearing within
themselves overwhelming self-evidence of their truth;
wonderful in their effects as instructing, elevating,
strengthening, and comforting the soul. Jesus the
eternal Word is called Wonderful (Is. 9:6], and all the
uttered words of God are wonderful in their degree.
Those who know them best wonder at them
most.
[i] Cited in Bridges, p.
335.
[ii] The Harvard
Classics, Charles Darwin, The Origin of
Species (New York: P. F. Collier
& Son, 1909), p. 190.
[iv] Morris, The
Defender’s Study Bible.
[v] Loraine Boettner,
The Reformed
Doctrine of Predestination
(Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing
Company, 1932), p. 62.
