Exposition of Psalm
119
?
VAU
God’s
Word Produces Confidence
Ps.
119:41-48
Let
thy mercies come also unto me, O LORD, even thy
salvation, according to thy word.
So
shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth
me: for I trust in thy word.
And
take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth; for
I have hoped in thy judgments.
So
shall I keep thy law continually for ever and
ever.
And
I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy
precepts.
I
will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and
will not be ashamed.
And
I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have
loved.
My
hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I
have loved; and I will meditate in thy
statutes.
One of the great joys I
experienced in studying Psalm 119 was the reading of
several expositions and commentaries by various godly
authors. What was interesting about those resources was
how differently each teacher would approach each stanza
of this psalm. I was amazed many times at the different
outlines and principles that each brought out but at the
same time noticed the unity of thought of all of them no
matter what the approach. This is a powerful testimony
to the unity of Scripture.
What struck me in my
study of this sixth stanza is that God’s Word produces
confidence in the Believer’s heart and mind. We see, in
fact, that that confidence lies in no less than
seven
realities.
I. The Confidence of Salvation (v.
41)
Let
thy mercies come also unto me, O LORD, even thy
salvation, according to thy word.
Two words in this
verse address the subject of salvation: mercies
and the word salvation
itself. Mercies
translates the Hebrew hesed,
which is “one of the most important [words] in the
vocabulary of Old Testament theology and ethics,”
appearing some 240 times, most frequently in the
Psalms.[i] It speaks of kindness,
loving-kindness, mercy, goodness, faithfulness, love,
and acts of kindness. It’s most notable appearance is in
Psalm 136, where the Psalmist declares twenty-six times
of God: “his mercy endureth for ever.”
It is also
noteworthy that with few exceptions, the Septuagint
translates hesed with the common Greek word
eleos, which speaks of
“kindness or good will towards the miserable and
afflicted, joined with a desire to relieve
them.”[ii] The whole point of
mercy, therefore, is to relieve the affliction that man
suffers because he cannot relieve it himself. In one of
the most pointed verses in Scripture about salvation not
being by works, Paul wrote to Titus: “Not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to his
mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and
renewing of the Holy Ghost” (3:5). Man, who is helpless
afflicted in his sin, has only one hope: God’s mercy, energized and applied by the Holy Spirit (cf.
Jn. 3:5). This word was so imbedded in Paul’s thinking,
in fact, that he even used it often in salutations (1
Tim. 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:2; Titus 1:4). Mercy is always to the
helpless.
The word salvation,
then, is the Hebrew teshű‘â, which means
deliverance, victory, and safety. The word is often used
in the context of military conflict (Judg. 15:18; 1 Sam.
11:13; 1 Chron. 11:14). Spiritually, salvation
is, indeed, a great conflict, a conflict between Satan
and God, death and life, and such salvation is found only in God. As David declares in Psalm
144:10: “It is he that giveth salvation unto kings: who
delivereth David his servant from the hurtful
sword.”
What, then, is the
source of David’s confidence? His confidence lies in
[God’s]
word. He knows that Scripture declares that
God alone is the source of salvation and deliverance from sin. As the Psalmist again
declares:
There is no king saved by the
multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by
much strength. An horse is a vain thing for safety:
neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.
Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him,
upon them that hope in his mercy; To deliver their soul
from death, and to keep them alive in famine
(33:16-18).
Salvation is not
found in man’s strength, rather in God’s
sufficiency.
II. The Confidence of Answering (v.
42)
So
shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth
me: for I trust in thy word.
The words so
shall couple this verse
with the previous one. As a result of knowing the source
of true salvation, the psalmist now declares that he is
ready to give the skeptic or infidel that very answer.
Spurgeon well writes here:
It is most desirable that
revilers should be answered, and hence we may expect the
Lord to save his people in order that a weapon may be
put into their hands with which to rout his adversaries.
When those who reproach us are also reproaching God, we
may ask him to help us to silence them by sure proofs of
his mercy and
faithfulness.
What is the
offensive weapon of the Christian soldier?—“the sword of
the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:17). What
is the source of David’s confidence? It lies in His
trust in
[God’s] word. Oh, how we should imbed those
words into our thinking! We trust nothing else but the
Word of God. We rely on nothing else. How do we answer
the skeptic and the infidel? Not with the arguments
of men, but with the announcement of
Truth. While the field of
Christian apologetics has its place, what matters most
in our witness to a lost world is the declaration, “Thus
saith the Lord,” a phrase we encounter some 415 times in
Scripture. Commentator Albert Barnes well says:
So the Saviour replied to the
suggestions of the tempter almost wholly by passages of
Scripture (Matt. 4:4, Matt. 4:7; Matt. 4:10); and so, in
many cases, the best answer that can be given to
reproaches on the subject of religion will be found in
the very words of Scripture. A man of little learning,
except that which he has derived from the Bible, may
often thus silence the cavils and reproaches of the
learned sceptic; a man of simplehearted, pure piety,
with no weapon but the word of God, may often thus be
better armed than if he had all the arguments of the
schools at his command.
If we may say it
again, it is not for us to argue trifles, rather
to announce Truth.
Will such an approach invite criticism and accusation of
simple-mindedness? Yes, but as Paul declared to the
Corinthians:
And I, brethren, when I came to
you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom,
declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I
determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus
Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in
weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my
speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of
man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of
power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of
men, but in the power of God (I Cor.
2:1-5).
Our confidence is God’s
Truth as it alone answers the foolish ramblings of men.
This leads right to a third principle.
III. The Confidence of Certainty (vs.
43)
And
take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth; for
I have hoped in thy judgments.
If there is one word
that sums up modern society, it is the word
uncertainty. We live in an age of unprecedented
relativism, where truth is up for grabs, is different for each person,
and changes according to circumstances.
In the verse before
us, however, the Psalmist writes of the word of
truth. Oh, that every Christian would be in
love with this word truth! As
noted back in verse 30, there are four occurrences of
the word truth in
this Psalm (vs. 30, 43, 142, 151). A different Hebrew
word is used in verse 30 (’eműnâ) than in the
other three occurrences. At the root of the word used in
these other three verses (‘emeth), is the idea of certainty[iii] and includes such
concepts as truth, right, and faithful.
It is extremely
significant that the Septuagint translates this Hebrew
word as the Greek aletheia in some 100 instances,
including the three here in Psalm 119. As one Greek
authority puts it: “etymologically aletheia means
nonconcealment. It thus denotes what is seen, indicated,
expressed, or disclosed, i.e., a thing as it really is,
not as it is concealed or falsified. Aletheia
is the real state of
affairs.”[iv] The fundamental concept concerning truth is
that it is that which is absolute, that which is
incontrovertible, irrefutable, incontestable,
unarguable, and unchanging. If something is true, it’s
always true and can never be untrue, no matter what the
circumstances.
Note what
David prays: take not the word of
truth utterly out of my mouth. He desperately
depended upon the truth and
prayed that nothing would remove it from his life. Oh,
that the church today would pray that prayer! Would that
Christians desired truth and nothing else! While David prayed that truth
would never be taken from him, modern church leaders are
working overtime to eliminate it from our
midst.
David goes on to add
that he hoped in [God’s]
judgments. Hoped is
the Hebrew yahal, which means “confident
expectation, trust, and patient waiting.” The Septuagint
translation is again significant, where yahal is
often translated by the Greek elpizo, “to expect with desire.”[v] Unlike its use
today, biblically, hope always means certainty;
it expresses an attitude of absolute assurance
and rest in that assurance.
That’s the message
of the psalmist and every other Bible author, and that
is the message needed today. In a day when truth has
been redefined and even denied as not existing at all,
it is the Christian believer who must stand on Scripture
alone as the only source of truth. This again leads to another
principle.
IV. The Confidence of Permanence (vs.
44)
So
shall I keep thy law continually for ever and
ever.
So certain
is the Word of God, so sure is
the psalmist of its truth, he declares that he will keep
it continually for ever
and ever. It is truly fascinating that three
separate Hebrew words are used here. The first
(tamîd,
continually) means always, continually,
regularly and refers to something being done regularly
with no interruption. It’s used most often of the daily
rituals in the tabernacle and temple: “Now this is that
which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the
first year day by day continually” (Ex. 29:38). The
second word (‘ôlam, for
ever) speaks of
“indefinite continuance into the very distant
future.”[vi] In other words, one
looks toward the future but finds no end to this. The
third word (‘ad, ever)
simple means eternity or the unforeseeable future. In
other words, not only can I not see an end to
this, but there is no end to
this. True confidence comes only with such an attitude
to the Word of God, that without interruption, It is
continually, permanently in us and will remain there
forever into the unforeseeable future.
Oh, if we could only grasp
that truth in the church today! In light of all the
“stuff” we have added to “ministry,” in light of the
relativism and pragmatism that rule, how we need to
return to Scripture alone.
V. The Confidence of Liberty (v.
45)
And
I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy
precepts.
Young’s Literal
Translation renders this: “And I walk habitually in a
broad place, For Thy precepts I have sought.” The reason
for that rendering lies in the word liberty,
which translates the Hebrew rahab, meaning broad,
wide, spacious, or large. Exodus 3:8, for example,
describes the Promised Land as a good land and a large
[rahab] . . . a land flowing
with milk and honey.” In the present context, therefore,
as one Hebrew authority puts it, “It refers to the broad
freedom or openness of God’s Law.”[vii] In other words, no longer
restrained by corrupt desires and bound by sinful
passions, David had confidence in the broad freedom he
had in God’s Word. In this New Testament economy, we
call this “Christian liberty.” As Puritan Matthew
writes, “The service of sin is perfect slavery; the
service of God is perfect liberty.”
How many people today
think they are “free” in their sin! They think they are
at liberty to do whatever they want. But the Psalmist
understood the sobering truth that only God makes us
free. The Apostle John also understood this when he
declared, “[Satan] hath blinded their eyes, and hardened
their heart; that they should not see with their eyes,
nor understand with their heart, and be converted (Jn.
12:40). He also declared: “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). There is no freedom, no liberty, unless
we embrace the truth.
VI. The Confidence of Witness (v.
46)
I
will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and
will not be ashamed.
Here is wondrous
statement of witness to the lost without the slightest
note of shame or apology. As we have noted before,
testimonies
is the Hebrew ‘edah (or ‘edut), meaning a “testimony, witness, or warning
sign.” It eventually came to be used for a solemn
testimony of the will of God, a sober and serious
expression of God’s standards for human behavior. It’s
extremely significant that the stone tablets containing
the Ten Commandments are called God’s “testimony” (Ex.
25:16; 31:18; 32:15).
This is what David
declared that he would speak of
even to kings, without shame or apology, no matter how it
might be taken or how much a person of great power might
intimidate him. He says he will tell such men about
God’s standards for human behavior. There are other
examples throughout Scripture: Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego before the King of Babylon (Dan. 3:1-16), Peter
before the religious leaders (Acts 4), Stephen before
the council (Acts 6:15ff), and Paul before Felix
(22:14), Festus (25:1ff), and Agrippa
(26:1ff).
If we might bring this
down to real practice today, is this not what we should
be telling our political leaders, some of whom have not
an ounce of moral fiber? Should we not be telling them
about God’s standards for human behavior? We are not
only reminded that former president Bill Clinton had
sexual relations with a White House intern in the oval
office and then lied about it on national television,
but that the American then turned right around and
reelected him! Such things are unimaginable! Likewise,
we read about scandal after scandal among such leaders,
who even have the unmitigated gall to say that
“character doesn’t matter.”
In contrast, let us, with
David, stand and declare God’s standards for human
behavior. Sadly, in today’s atmosphere of “political
correctness,” “tolerance,” and “openness,” fewer and
fewer Christians are standing for the Truth. Intimated
by modern thought, they are fearful and even ashamed of
the Gospel and biblical absolutes. We need to follow the
challenge Paul gave to timid Timothy:
Be not thou therefore ashamed of
the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but
be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel
according to the power of God. . . . For the
which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I
am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am
persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have
committed unto him against that day. Hold fast the form
of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith
and love which is in Christ Jesus (II Tim. 1:8,
12-13).
Paul likewise wrote to the
Believers at Rome: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to
every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to
the Greek” (Rom. 1:16). Let us also be warned, as our
Lord Himself declared, “Whosoever therefore shall be
ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and
sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be
ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with
the holy angels” (Mk. 8:38).
Oh, how we need
Christians today who will stand for the Truth without
apology! We cannot help but recall Martin Luther as he
stood before Charles V and other dignitaries who tried
to shame and intimidate him into silence. On that day at
the Diet of Worms in April 1521,
Luther boldly
declared:
Since your most serene majesty
and your high mightinesses require from me a clear,
simple, and precise answer, I will give you one, and it
is this: I cannot submit my faith either to the Pope or
to the councils, because it is clear as the day that
they have frequently erred and contradicted each other.
Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason—I do
not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they
have contradicted each other—my conscience is captive to
the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant
anything, for to go against conscience is neither right
nor safe. Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise. God help
me. Amen.
Oh, how we need men today
who will do the same!
VII. The Confidence of Joy (v.
47-48)
And
I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have
loved.
My
hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I
have loved; and I will meditate in thy
statutes.
For the fourth time
in this Psalm, David expresses his total delight in
God’s Word, specifically, God’s commandments,
that is, the miswah, His clear, definite, and
authoritative commands. He further adds that these are
the commandments
that I have
loved. This is the first
of eleven statements in this Psalm of David’s love for
the Word of God.[viii] The Hebrew here
(’ahab), which is used in all
eleven statements, speaks of “a strong emotional
attachment to and desire either to possess or to be in
the presence of the object.”[ix] Do not we all want to
possess and be in the presence of the things we love?
Abraham loved Isaac (Gen. 22:2), Isaac loved Rebekah
(24:67), Jacob loved Joseph “more than all his children”
(37:3), and Ruth loved her mother-in-law Naomi (Ruth
4:15). Using the same word, God commands men to love
Him: “Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”
(Deut. 6:5). Let us, with David, truly love the Word of
God, desire to be with it.
David adds, however,
My hands
also will I lift up unto thy commandments,
which is a further expression of delight. As John Gill submits here, we can see David
“stretching out his hands, and embracing [God’s
commandments] with both arms.” What a picture! Matthew
Henry agrees: “I will lay hold of them as one afraid of
missing them, or letting them go.”
As proof of that
love, David vows I will meditate in
thy statutes. As Puritan
Charles Bridges observes, “Meditation kindled
love.”[x] In other words, the
more we meditate the more we will love, and the more we
love the more we will mediate, and the circle continues.
One meaning of the Hebrew behind meditate
(sîah) is a “silent
reflection on God’s works (Psalm 77:8; Psalm 9:12), and
God’s word (Psalm 119:15, 23, 27, 48, 78,
148).”[xi] Indeed, the more we truly
mediate on the Word, the more we will love it, and more
we love it the more we will meditate on it.
What an indictment and
challenge this stanza presents to us! In what do we find
joy? What do we really love? What do we desire more than
anything else? If our answer to all those questions is
not God’s Word, we are in grave error, and we will be
“of all men most miserable” (I Cor. 15:19).
[i] Vine’s, under the word
“Loving-kindness.”
[iv] Kittle, Vol. I, p.
238.
[vii] Baker and Carpenter,
#7342
[viii] Vs. 47, 48, 97, 113, 119,
127, 132, 159, 163, 165, 167.
[ix] Vine’s, under the entry
“Love (To).”
