Exposition of Psalm
119
Psalm
119: The Sufficiency of God’s Word
Ps.
119:11
Thy
word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin
against thee.
While it might be a
ridiculous exercise, if we could pick one verse that is
representative of all 176 verses in this Psalm, perhaps
it would be verse 11: Thy word have I hid in mine
heart, that I might not sin against thee. While we
will, of course, deal with it in detail later, I note it
here because it strikes me as the essence of what the
psalmist is telling us. In the many months of my study
of this psalm, this verse seemed to be the key to the
whole matter. To hide the Word of God in our hearts is
to be totally captivated by it,
committed to it, and controlled
through it. Further, to hide
God’s Word in the heart is to recognize that it alone is
sufficient to fill that heart with all that is needed
for living.
Psalm 119 is one of
those gems of Scripture that stands out as especially
brilliant. This in no way implies that it is “more
inspired” than any other part of Scripture, any more
than one diamond is “more of a diamond” than any other.
Rather we merely mean that its many
facets make it unique and
make it particularly noticeable. To illustrate, a
“facet” is a flat face on geometric shape. Gemstones
commonly have facets cut into them to improve their
appearances. Traditionally, there are fifty-eight tiny
facets in a diamond, each carefully cut and sharply
defined, and can be as small as two millimeters in
diameter. This precision is essential to the potential
beauty of a diamond. In fact, of the four “Cs” of
diamond quality (cut, color, clarity, and carat weight),
the stone’s overall appearance depends more on cut than
on anything else. My personal favorite is the marquee,
which is what I bought my wife-to-be in 1973, but there
are others, of course.
If we look at Psalm
119 using this metaphor, however, we see over three
times as many facets, a total of 176, in fact. The
precise, sharply defined facets in this gem are truly
dazzling. They amaze the eye, stimulate the mind, and
bless the heart. Why? Because this Psalm is about the
most beautiful gem God has given us—His
Word.
What is this Psalm
about? Simply put, Psalm 119 is devoted to praising
the virtues, merits, and sufficiency of the Word of God
and demonstrates the author’s total commitment to
it. In sad contrast to the
psalmist’s attitude, much of the church today gives only
lip service to the Bible. While we have plenty of anemic
Sunday School lessons and shallow sermons, what we do
not have is the systematic exposition of Scripture and a
thorough commitment to its sufficiency. What we see in
this Psalm, however, is a total, complete, and
unconditional commitment to Scripture as the sole and
sufficient authority in the believer’s life.
So saturated is this Psalm
with references to God’s Word, that of its 176 verses,
the Masoretes—a group of
Hebrew scholars from the sixth to eleventh centuries who
copied, preserved, and guarded the text—originally
observed that only one verse (122) does not make
reference to the Word of God. Verses 84 and 121 are also
possible exceptions, unless the word “judgment” is an
indirect reference to Scripture. The same is true of
verses 90 and 132, unless the words “faithfulness” and
“name” (respectively) are also indirect references. In
any case, therefore, virtually every verse in this Psalm
refers to God’s Word. We’ll detail this characteristic a
little later in this study.
Sadly, there are
some readers who view this Psalm as a collection of
unconnected thoughts, that it’s pointlessly redundant,
just repeating the same things over and over. In his
classic exposition of the Psalms, The Treasury of
David (which devotes almost 350
pages to Psalm 119), Charles Spurgeon addresses that
accusation:
Many superficial readers have
imagined that it harps upon one string, and abounds in
pious repetitions and redundancies; but this arises from
the shallowness of the reader’s own mind: those who have
studied this divine hymn, and carefully noted each line
of it, are amazed at the variety and profundity of the
thought. Using only a few words, the writer has produced
permutations and combinations of meaning which display
his holy familiarity with his subject, and the
sanctified ingenuity of his mind. He never repeats
himself; for if the same sentiment recurs it is placed
in a fresh connection, and so exhibits another
interesting shade of meaning. . . . Again and again have
we cried while studying it, “Oh the
depths!”
Indeed, the depths
to which the author plunges in this Psalm amaze the
spiritual person more and more as he or she reads.
Puritan Matthew Henry is correct when he writes: “He
that shall read it considerately, it will either warm
him or shame him.” If we might humbly add, however, one
can read it with both results. It consecrates
and convicts; it blesses and blames; it
excites and
examines.
Commentator Franz
Delitzsch sums it up well, “Here we have set forth
in inexhaustible fulness what the word of God is to a
man, and how a man is to behave himself in relation to
it.” Psalm 119 drives us to the Word of God and
forces us to compare ourselves to it. Before examining each section and verse,
therefore, we should take the time to introduce and
overview this Psalm by considering four emphases: its
construction, creator, characteristic, and
content.
The
Construction of the Psalm
The structure of this
Psalm is one of those amazing features of Scripture. As
mentioned in our introduction to the Psalms, it is an
acrostic, a literary tool where the first letter of the
first word in every verse of a Psalm is a letter of the
twenty-two letter Hebrew alphabet in alphabetical order.
In Psalm 119, this trait occurs for eight-verses before
it then changes to the next letter. The result is
twenty-two sections with every verse in the section
beginning with the appropriate Hebrew letter. Most
Bibles today divide the Psalm into these sections using
the corresponding Hebrew letter as a heading.
Interestingly, similar acrostics appear in Proverbs
31:10-31 (the Virtuous Woman) and Lamentations
1-4.
But what
significance does this carry today? After all, it
matters only in the Hebrew and doesn’t translate into
any other language. But there is significance
nonetheless. Since the whole point of this literary tool
was to aid in memorization—how important it would be to
memorize to traits of the Virtuous Women, for
example—this demonstrates how important the truth in
Psalm 119 truly is. Again, as verse 11 puts it, Thy
word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin
against thee. What could be more
pivotal than this in the believer’s life? The author
knew how essential these principles are, so he made it
easier for the reader to memorize them. While it might
be a little harder for us to do so without this literary
device, the truth herein is no less
critical.
The Creator
of the Psalm
As to the author of
this Psalm, most commentators are agreed that the data
is inconclusive. Commentator Albert Barnes recounts a
few theories that have been offered. Some speculate, for
example, that the author
might have been a certain youth who was taken captive by
the Assyrians, and who composed the psalm in his
captivity. There is no clear evidence, however, that the
psalm was composed under those circumstances. Others
have supposed that it was written by Jaddua (Neh.
12:22), the high priest in the time of Alexander the
Great, during the troubles that then existed in Judea
and amidst the opposition of the Samaritans, and was
designed to challenge the Hebrews concerning the
excellence of the Word of God and the authority of the
law. Still another supposes that it was composed in the
time of the persecutions under Antiochus for the same
reason. Among other suggested writers are Ezra,
Nehemiah, Hezekiah, Jeremiah, Malachi, and Daniel, but
there is not compelling evidence for any of
them.
There are, of
course, many who believe David was the author. This
opinion is strengthen by observing three points.
First, it is certainly Davidic in tone.
Second, it matches David’s personal experiences.
As commentator Adam Clarke writes, for example, “Several
of the ancients, particularly the Greek fathers, have
considered it as an abridgement of David’s life; in
which he expresses all the states through which he had
passed; the trials, persecutions, succours, and
encouragements he had received.”
Third, and perhaps most
significant, it parallels David’s own words concerning
the Word of God in Psalm 19. While John Calvin, for
example, was not dogmatic, in his wonderful sermons on
this Psalm, he wrote: “As David surpassed all others in
point of poetical and devotional talent, I will not
scruple occasionally to insert his name.” On the other
hand, Puritan Mathew Poole was insistent: “The author of
this Psalm was David; which I know none that deny, and
of which there is no just reason to doubt.” Spurgeon
agreed:
We believe that David wrote this
Psalm. It is Davidic in tone and expression, and it
tallies with David’s experience in many interesting
points. In our youth our teacher called it “David’s
pocket book,” and we incline to the opinion then
expressed that here we have the royal diary written at
various times throughout a long life. No, we cannot give
up this Psalm to the enemy [critics who deny Davidic
authorship]. “This is David’s spoil.” After long reading
an author one gets to know his style, and a measure of
discernment is acquired by which his composition is
detected even if his name be concealed; we feel a kind
of critical certainty that the hand of David is in this
thing, yea, that it is altogether his
own.
In any case, while
we lean heavily toward Davidic authorship, we also agree
with Albert Barnes that “it
is sufficient to know that it was composed under the
guidance of the Holy Spirit, and is a repository of
truths which will be of inestimable value in all ages of
the world.”
The
Characteristic of the Psalm
As stated already, the
chief characteristic of Psalm 119 is the extolling,
praising, and exalting of God’s Word. What is astounding
about this characteristic, however, is the variety of
ways the author refers to Scripture. He uses, in fact,
no less than eight synonyms, each of which carries a
little different shade of meaning or emphasis (see also
the table below). It’s also significant that all eight
are used within the first eleven verses, setting the
stage for the rest of the Psalm.
First, we
encounter the most frequently used term, “law”
(twenty-five times). The Hebrew is
torah, a feminine noun
meaning “instruction or direction.” It most often refers
to a body of teaching, and that is precisely what all of
Scripture is. Its first occurrence is in verse 1:
“Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the
law of the LORD.” It’s significant that the Psalm begins
with God’s promise to those who love and obey the body
of revealed truth He has given. If we obey God’s body of
revealed truth, we will be blessed. The opposite,
however, is also true; if we do not obey that body of
truth, we will be cursed.
Second, there
is the term “testimony” (or “testimonies”; twenty-two
times). The Hebrew is ‘edah (or
‘edut), another feminine noun
originally 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. Here
we read not suggestions or optional proposals, rather
God’s absolute standards. It is tremendously significant
that the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments
are called God’s “testimony” (Ex. 25:16; 31:18; 32:15).
It’s first occurrence is in verse 2: “Blessed are they
that keep his testimonies,” again showing blessing to
those who conduct themselves according to God’s
standards.
Third, there
is the term “precepts” (twenty-one times). The Hebrew here is
piqqud, a masculine noun meaning “precept,
instruction.” It’s a poetic word, found only in the
Psalms and always in the plural, that speaks of
injunctions and moral obligations. It comes from a root
(paqad) that “expresses the
idea that God is paying attention to how He wants things
ordered.”[i] It continues to
amaze me how church leaders today persist in doing
things the way they choose, from creating whatever
methods and ministries they deem fit to running the
church like they would a corporation. Instead of opening
Scripture to see how God wants things ordered, we do
what pleases people. The first occurrence of “precepts”
in this Psalm is in verse 4, “Thou hast commanded us to
keep thy precepts diligently, underscoring that God
wants things done His way.
Fourth, there
is the term “statutes” (twenty-one times). The Hebrew
choq (masculine noun) is derived from a verb
(chaqaq) that means “to cut,
inscribe, or engrave.” Oh, what a word we have here! The
old euphemism “set in stone” illustrates it. God’s
statutes (or decrees) are engraved in stone, showing
their permanence. It’s first occurrence is in verse 5,
where the Psalmist says: “O that my ways were directed
to keep thy statutes!” God’s Word is not “up for grabs,”
not open for debate, not subject to reinterpretation for
the times. God’s Word is set in stone!
Fifth, we
encounter the term “commandments” (twenty-two times).
The Hebrew feminine noun is miswah, which indicates a clear, definite, and
authoritative command. Its first occurrence is in verse
6: “Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect
unto all thy commandments.” As we will see in that
verse, when we keep God’s Word, we will never have to
apologize, never need to be ashamed because we have
failed to keep God’s Word, because we have obeyed Him
implicitly.
Sixth, there
is the term “judgments” (twenty-three times). The Hebrew
mishpat
(masculine noun) indicates a binding judicial decision
that establishes a precedent, a binding law. Not only
does God’s Word give us precepts,” as noted
earlier, but it also provides
precedents. Tragically, many
Bible interpreters ignore the precedents of Scripture.
One graphic example is the clear precedent in Scripture
of the primacy of preaching. True biblical and
expositional preaching has all but vanished, being
replaced by things that are “more appropriate to the
modern mind,” it is argued, or “more appealing to the
unchurched.” The first occurrence of “judgments” is in
verse 7, “I will praise thee with uprightness of heart,
when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments,”
indicating that we praise God only when we follow the
precedents set down in His Word. It is absolutely
impossible to praise God fully unless His Word is our
sole authority.
Seventh and
eighth, there is the term “word,” which actually
translates two different Hebrew words in our Authorized
Version. The first is dabar
(masculine noun occurring twenty-three times), which
means “a word or speech” and is a general term for God’s
revelation. The Ten Commandments are referred to in
Exodus 34:28 and Deuteronomy 10:4 using this word, which
we could translate “the ten words” because these words
are exactly what God said. The passion of the Christian
should not be the most entertaining speaker of the day
or the latest self-help teacher. The believer’s passion
should be, “God says.” It’s first occurrence in Psalms
119 is in verse 9: “Wherewithal shall a young man
cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy
word,” a clear reference to God’s moral law being the
one and only path to right living.
The second Hebrew
word translated “word” is ‘imrah, a rare poetic
word that appears more in this Psalm than everywhere
else combined. It is more or less a synonym for
dabar and simply emphasizes not just a concept or
thought but the very words of God. Its first occurrence
is again verse 11: Thy word have I hid in mine heart,
that I might not sin against thee. In a day when
God’s words are more and more being replaced by
concepts, Psalm 119
underscores that it’s the individual words that are
crucial. The same principle is underscored in 12:6-7:
“The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried
in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt
keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this
generation for ever.”
Eight Synonyms for Scripture in
Psalms 119
|
Hebrew
|
English
|
Occurrences |
|
torah
[to-raw] |
Law (instruction or
direction) |
(25):
1,18,29,34,44,51,53,55,61,70, 72,77,85,92, 97,109,
113,116,136,
142,150,153,163,165,174 |
|
'edah ('edut)
[ay-daw,
ay-dooth] |
Testimony(ies) (a solemn
testimony of the will of
God) |
(22):
2,14,22,24,31,36,46,59,79,88, 95,99,
111,119,125,129,138,144,
152,157,167,168. |
|
piqqud
[pik-kood] |
Precepts (injunctions and
moral
obligations) |
(21):
4,15,27,40,45,56,63,68,78,87,
93,94,100,104,110,128,134,141,
159,168,173 |
|
choq
[khoke] |
Statutes (engraved in
stone, showing
permanence) |
(21):
5,8,12,23,26,44,48,54,64,68, 71,80,
83,112,117,118,124,135,145,
155,171 |
|
miswah
[mis-waw] |
Commandment(s) (clear,
definite, and authoritative
command) |
(22):
6,10,19,21,32,35,47,48,60,66,
73,86,96,98,115,127,131,143,151,
166,172,176 |
|
mishpat
[mish-pawt] |
Judgment(s) (binding
judicial decision, precedent, binding
law |
(23):
7,13,20,30,39,43,52,62,75,84, 91,102,106,
108,120,121,132,137,
149,156,160,164,175 |
|
dabar
[daw-bawr] |
Word(s) (a word or speech;
a general
term) |
(23):
9,16,17,25,28,42,43,49,57,65,
74,81,89,101,105,107,114,130,139, 147,160,
161,169 |
|
‘imrah
[im-raw'] |
Word(s) (the very
individual words of
God) |
(19):
11,38,41,50,58,67,76,82,103, 116,
123,133,140,148,154,158,162, 170,172
|
Oh, what depth we see in
these words! One writer well summarizes:
With exquisite beauty and with
inspired depth of thought the writer of Psalm 119 draws
out these varied aspects of the Divine Truth, and
presents the law of God in every light in which the
experience of a godly man can regard it.[ii]
This brings us to one more
emphasis in this glorious Psalm.
The Content
of the Psalm
In the introduction of his
wonderful exposition of this Psalm, Charles Spurgeon
records the words of William De Burgh (1860), who
in-turn writes of Augustine’s struggle with the depth of
this Psalm:
It is recorded of the celebrated
St. Augustine, who among his voluminous works left a
Comment on the Book of Psalms, that he delayed to
comment on this one till he had finished the whole
Psalter; and then yielded only to the long and vehement
urgency of his friends, “because,” he says, “as often as
I essayed to think thereon, it always exceeded the
powers of my intent thought and the utmost grasp of my
faculties.”
Spurgeon himself also
writes of his own struggles in expositing this
Psalm:
I
have been all the longer over this portion of my task
[of writing The Treasury of David]
because I have been bewildered in the expanse of the One
Hundred and Nineteenth Psalm, which makes up the bulk of
this [third] volume. Its dimensions and its depth alike
overcame me. It spread itself out before me like a vast,
rolling prairie, to which I could see no bound, and this
alone created a feeling of dismay. Its expanse was
unbroken by a bluff or headland, and hence it threatened
a monotonous task, although the fear has not been
realized. This marvelous poem seemed to me a great sea
of holy teaching, moving, in its many verses, wave upon
wave; altogether without an island of special and
remarkable statement to break it up. I confess I
hesitated to launch upon it. Other psalms have been mere
lakes, but this is the main ocean. It is a continent of
sacred thought, every inch of which is fertile as the
garden of the Lord: it is an amazing level of abundance,
a mighty stretch of harvest fields. I have now crossed
the great plain for myself, but not without persevering,
and, I will add, pleasurable, toil. Several great
authors have traversed this region and left their tracks
behind them, and so far the journey has been all the
easier for me; but yet to me and to my helpers it has
been no mean feat of patient authorship and research.
This great Psalm is a book in itself: instead of being
one among many psalms, it is worthy to be set forth by
itself as a poem of surpassing excellence. Those who
have never studied it may pronounce it commonplace, and
complain of its repetitions; but to the thoughtful
student it is like the great deep, full, so as never to
be measured; and varied, so as never to weary the eye.
Its depth is as great as its length; it is mystery, not
set forth as mystery, but concealed beneath the simplest
statements; may I say that it is experience allowed to
prattle, to preach, to praise, and to pray like a child
prophet in his own father’s
house?
I cannot express how
much those statements meant to me the first time I read
them, for I confess to feeling the same way. I tried
preaching through this Psalm several years ago but
stopped after the second stanza. The depth simply
overwhelmed me, and I knew I was going to have to grow
more before I could return to it. After a few years, I
did return, and I thank God that I was able to get
through it this time, although I have merely scratched
the surface. One of my humble observations of this
Psalm, however, is that its content can be simply stated
in two propositions: The sole sufficiency of
Scripture and the psalmist’s steadfast
commitment to
Scripture.
The Sole
Sufficiency of Scripture
I recently heard this
pointed, but true, statement from a leading evangelical
leader who is thankfully not of the status
quo:
It seems to me that one of the
most subtle and dangerous threats facing the Word of God
is coming from within the category of evangelical
Christianity by people who claim to believe the Bible to
be the Word of God but betray a lack of trust in its
sufficiency, and therein speak evil of [it]. It has
forced me to ask the question, Is the Bible really
sufficient for matters of spiritual life? Is it
sufficient for the people of God and all the necessary
resources for the fullness of living in the will of God?
Or do we need to concede that the Bible has some glaring
limitations that can only be overcome by wisdom and
technique developed by well-meaning people who want to
help God out a little bit?[iii]
There is, indeed,
absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the Bible today is
under more attack than ever before in its history. It is
attacked by the rationalist, the evolutionist, the
sociologist, the socialist, the psychologist and
psychiatrist, the philosopher, and every other ilk of
society. It is dismissed as irrelevant, old fashioned,
inappropriate, and even damaging to people’s self-esteem
and society in general. Infinitely more appalling and
inexplicable, however, is that it is under attack by
so-called evangelicals. From the modern church builder,
to the latest entertaining motivational speaker, and on
to the rationalistic textual critic, the Bible is simply
not the sole, solitary, and sufficient authority for all
aspects of faith and practice. In our arrogance, we
think that we need to help God out a little
bit.
In contrast, as one
reads Psalm 119, the answers to such problems become so
clear that only the blindest (or most rebellious) reader
can miss them. There is absolutely no doubt in the
author’s mind that the Word of God is solely sufficient
in every area of life. Scripture
alone was his solace, his satisfaction, his surety, and
his sufficiency. Let us consider six areas concerning
this sufficiency. We will touch on several verses that
we will more deeply examine in our exposition, but we
here take a brief tour.
Sufficient for
Salvation
The very first thing
about this sufficiency is that it can, by itself,
save and transform a life. Here is a pivotal truth.
Verse 41 declares: “Let thy mercies come also unto me, O
LORD, even thy salvation, according to thy word.” Verse
50 echoes, “This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy
word hath quickened me.” “Quickened” translates the
Hebrew hayah,
a verb meaning to be alive, to live, to keep alive. It’s
used in several ways: to show that an object is safe
(Num. 14:38), to indicate that something is reviving
(Ezek. 37:5), and to demonstrate that something is
flourishing (Ps. 22:26). The Word of God, then,
brings life, sustains life, and
is our
life.
We also read in
verse 146: “I cried unto thee; save me, and I shall keep
thy testimonies.” “Save” is yasha’, “to save, help, deliver, or defend.” The
“underlying idea of this verb is bringing to a place of
safety or broad pasture as opposed to a narrow
strait.”[iv] The Word of God is,
indeed, the only place of safety we can ever
know.
Again in verse 155 we
read, “Salvation is far from the wicked: for they seek
not thy statutes,” which demonstrates that salvation
simply comes only to those who seek God’s Word. We then
read in 166, “LORD, I have hoped for thy salvation, and
done thy commandments,” and again in 174: “I have longed
for thy salvation, O LORD; and thy law is my delight.”
This truth is pivotal
because many people in our day think that the Bible is
simply not enough to bring about change. The Gospel must
be repackaged to appeal to people’s “felt needs.” But
Scripture alone, the preaching of salvation, is
sufficient to bring life and nourish that life. People
today are simply getting what appeals to the flesh, not
what transforms and sustains the life. As Paul wrote to
the Romans: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to
every one that believeth” (1:16). How appalling it is
that many today are ashamed of the very thing (and only
thing) that is sufficient to bring salvation! This leads
to a second principle.
Sufficient for
Security
In the Word of God
alone we find assurance. Assurance in modern thinking is
based on feelings or psychological techniques. But the
Word of God alone can assure us. Verse 81 declares, “My
soul fainteth for thy salvation: but I hope in thy
word.” “Hope” is yahal, to wait, tarry, trust, and hope. It’s used of
Noah, for example, as he waited expectantly for the
waters to recede (Gen. 8:12). It’s used throughout
Psalms to indicate waiting with hope and certainty. It
simply means we are expectantly waiting for God to do
what He says He will do.
In verse 105 we read, “Thy
word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path,”
and in 114, “Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I
hope in thy word,” and again in 117, “Hold thou me up,
and I shall be safe: and I will have respect unto thy
statutes continually.” There, and there alone, do we
find security.
Sufficient for
Satisfaction
People of the world run to
many things to try to find joy and relief, such as
possessions, pleasure, passion, and prestige. Tragically
even many in the church do the same as through
mysticism, miracles, and even mindlessness. But the
Psalmist testifies that he finds satisfaction only in
the Word of God.
Verse 14, for example,
declares: “I have rejoiced in the way of thy
testimonies, as much as in all riches.” As noted
earlier, “testimonies” refers to a sober and serious
expression of God’s standards for human behavior, as
that is what brings real joy. Each of us should ask, “Do
I get as excited about hearing the Word of God as I do
about all the other things in life? Do I get as excited
about it as I do a ballgame, movie or TV program,
camping or hunting trip, making money, or anything
else?” Is Scripture our number one priority of
life? What
do we allow to come before it? What do we allow to keep
us from faithful attendance in the local church where we
are feed the Word? Does the Word alone satisfy our heart
to the extent that nothing else is permitted to take us
from it?
The Psalmist goes on in
verse 47, “And I will delight myself in thy
commandments, which I have loved,” and then in 50, “This
is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath
quickened me,” and again in 54, “Thy statutes have been
my songs in the house of my pilgrimage,” and still again
in 76, “Let, I pray thee, thy merciful kindness be for
my comfort, according to thy word.”
We cannot help but
also note verse 28: “My soul melteth for heaviness:
strengthen thou me according unto thy word.” Strength is
not in emotionalism or psychobabble; it’s in the Word of
God. In the midst of tremendous adversity, Jeremiah
declares, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and
thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine
heart” (Jer. 15:16). We should be reminded that
Jeremiah, who for over 40 years preached against
Judah’s sin and prophesied of the coming judgment of the
Babylonian Captivity if she did not repent, had not
one single convert. It didn’t
matter if anyone believed or not—Jeremiah preached
faithfully anyway. While today much of the church is
driven by success, results, and numbers, Jeremiah was
driven by the joy of the Word of God and the
faithfulness preaching of it. And if we may dare add, if
a preacher is not driven by that alone, he needs to get
out of the ministry, for he will destroy the true work
of God if he stays.
Sufficient for
Simplicity
An attack that has always
been, and still is, leveled against the Bible is that it
is mysterious, cryptic, and subject to any number of
interpretations. Verse 105, however, takes care of that
accusation: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a
light unto my path.” Picture yourself for a moment in a
pitch-black cave. Do you think that you would consider
the flashlight in your hand as mysterious or cryptic, or
that you weren’t really sure of its meaning and purpose?
Likewise, neither is Scripture obscure and enigmatic. It
lights the path. Its commands, decrees, and mandates are
clear, unmistakable, and binding. Verse 130 restates:
“The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth
understanding unto the simple.” It is the only light
there is for life.
Sufficient for
Spotlessness
There is absolutely no
taint of evil or error in Scripture. As verse 9
declares: “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his
way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.” It
is pure, pristine, and polished to a gleaming
perfection. It, therefore, brings about cleanness in the
believer. The Psalmist declares in verse 101, “I have
refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep
thy word.” As we are permeated by the Word, it reveals
the uncleanness in us, whether it be word, deed, action,
attitude. Verse 172 adds, “My tongue shall speak of thy
word: for all thy commandments are righteousness.” If we
want to live holy, live right, and live without having
to suffer the consequences of sin, we will open the Word
of God and obey what it says.
Sufficient for Surety
In a day of
unprecedented relativism and no absolutes, even in
Christianity, the Word of God stands as the only sure
source of absolute truth. This is what Peter refers to
as a “more sure word of prophecy” (II Pet. 1:19). “Sure”
is the Greek bebaios, which means “fit to tread on, having a firm
foundation, durable, unshakeable, sure, reliable, and
certain.” Further, used in a legal sense, it meant
“valid and legal.” As one Greek authority writes, “Thus
the hope and confidence of man is firmly secured as by
an anchor, when the object of the trust is the Word of
God, which He has legally confirmed with an oath (Heb.
6:16, 19).”[v] So, as long as we cling
to the Word, we will be firm, unshakable, sure, and
certain.
What makes Peter’s
statement so important, however, is the context. In
verses 15–18, he writes about his witnessing of Christ’s
transfiguration. What a staggering, earth-shaking,
unforgettable, unprecedented experience that was! Oh,
how many people today talk about “their experience”!
Many go on to base their whole lives on such experience.
But Peter declares here that he, too, had a dramatic
“personal experience” but that it cannot even begin to
compare with the “more sure word of prophecy,” that is,
the written Word
of God.
Only the Word of God is sure. There is no assurance
whatsoever in personal experience. To be driven by
experience and feelings is to invite
defeat.
That is the Psalmist’s cry
as well. In verse 128 he declares, “Therefore I esteem
all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and
I hate every false way.” He adds in 142, “Thy
righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy
law is the truth,” and in 151, “Thou art near, O LORD;
and all thy commandments are truth.”
Let us also note
verse 160: “Thy word is true from the beginning: and
every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.”
This surety is “for ever.” It doesn’t “change with the
times” or have to be reinterpreted for each different
circumstance or era. It doesn’t need to be reedited,
redefined, or even retranslated to better conform to
human thought, all of which are typical attitudes of our
day. God’s Word has always been without error,
and it always will be.
It is the only source of truth.
Sadly, that is not the
general attitude of our day. Instead of surety,
everything is up for grabs. We have flooded our Lord’s
church with man-made programs, gimmicks, humanistic
psychology, worldly marketing, and a plethora of other
“helps” just to get “results,” but such results are not
lasting ones.
Of many Scriptural
examples we could cite of those who just did things
God’s way and obeyed His Word without addition or
subtraction, Noah is my favorite. Here was a man who
appeared to everyone outside his family to be either an
eccentric at best or simply “a nut” at worst. Think of
it! Though totally land-locked, he built a huge boat,
all the while proclaiming it was going to rain, even
though it had never rained before! Why would anyone do
such a thing? Did God give Noah any signs that it was
going to rain? Did He give Noah even a single piece of
evidence that what He said about the coming judgment was
true? No. So why did Noah do it? Simply and solely
because God said to do it. That
was enough for Noah; his response to what God said was:
“Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him,
so did he” (Gen. 6:22).
What a contrast that is to
our day! How many of us today fear what people will
think if we simply obey what God says? We fear that we
will appear old-fashioned, behind the times, out of
touch, naïve, simplistic, non-intellectual, or just
plain silly if we quote the Bible. Not Noah.
Noah, in fact,
teaches us another lesson. Notice that he did not build the
ark because he saw “a need” for it—there wasn’t a
need. There were no large bodies of water nearby,
and Noah certainly didn’t live in a port city, so there
was absolutely no perceived need for a big boat. In
contrast, many today want to go out and “do something”
just because they perceive a need. So using human
reasoning they think up something to “meet the need.”
This is not what Noah did. He simply did what
God told him to do, no more and no less.
He didn’t form a committee,
he didn’t found an organization, he didn’t think up a
method for ministry; he simply obeyed God by building
the ark and preaching the Word. Likewise, if we would
just do what God says to do, the way He says to do it,
no more and no less, we will see God’s blessings like
never before.
Without doubt, most of
Christianity today is totally pragmatic in its approach
to ministry. To many, if not most, Christian ministers,
“the end justifies the means.” In other words, we can do
anything we want because our motive and end result are
pure. They, like Charles Finney, D. L. Moody, and
others, will “do anything to get a man to God” (Moody’s
own words). But is that what we see in God’s Word? Is
that what we learn from Noah? No. We see a man doing
what God told him to do, no more, no less.
Consider what Noah
would do today if he followed modern trends. To
be successful, he would build several boats and then do
anything to get people on one of them. He’d run an
attendance contest, give away balloons with dinosaur
pictures on them, put on a stage play to dramatize the
coming flood, make people feel comfortable by appealing
to their “felt-needs,” sing praise choruses for an hour,
have a celebrity give his testimony, and then deliver a
ten-minute talk on self-esteem that might begin with the
words, “God has a wonderful plan for your life so you
really need to get on a boat.” While that might seem a
little melodramatic, it is exactly what is happening in
modern “ministry.” It is, in fact, if I may be so bold,
no less than heresy because it denies God’s power to
bring about His results His way. Noah’s
ministry was not a pragmatic one; it was a
biblical one. He did things
God’s way.
The
Steadfast Commitment to Scripture
The Psalmist makes
his position crystal clear: he is steadfastly,
stalwartly, and scrupulously committed to Scripture
alone. Tragically, that simply
is not true today. The sad fact of the matter is that
evangelical Christianity is not wholly committed to
Scripture. People truly committed to Scripture will be
like the Bereans (Acts 17:10-11), discerning truth from
error. People committed to Scripture will not tolerate
false teaching (Gal. 1:8-9). People truly committed to
Scripture will carry on ministry the way Noah did. To
illustrate the Psalmist’s commitment, we’ll only list
his attitudes, mentioning only a single verse for each,
which we will explore in the exposition to come. The
Psalmist’s attitudes to the Word of God
were:
·
He
walked according to it (v. 1).
·
He
kept it (v. 2).
·
He
learned it (v. 7).
·
He
lived it (v. 9).
·
He hid
it in his heart (v. 10).
·
He
declared it (v. 13).
·
He
rejoiced in it (v. 14).
·
He
meditated on it (v. 15).
·
He
delighted in it (v. 16).
·
He
longed for it at all times (v. 20).
·
He
desired to understand it (v. 27).
·
He
chose it (v. 30).
·
He
stuck to it (v. 31).
·
He was
established in it (v. 38).
·
He
trusted in it (v. 42).
·
He
obeyed it continually forever (v. 44).
·
He
spoke of it before kings (v. 46).
·
He
loved it (v. 47).
·
He did
not turn from it (v. 51).
·
He
found comfort in it (v. 52).
·
He
thought on it (v. 59).
·
He
didn’t forget it (v. 61).
·
He
gave thanks for it (v. 62).
·
He
believed in it (v. 66).
·
He
valued it above all else (v. 72).
·
He put
his certainty in it (v. 74).
·
He was
not ashamed of it (v. 80)
·
He
accepted persecution for it (86)
·
He did
not forsake it (v. 87).
·
He
sought it (v. 94).
·
He
learned it (v. 152).
As we begin our exposition
of this glorious Psalm, let us each examine ourselves to
see if we embrace these attitudes to the Word of
God.
[i] Baker and Carpenter,
#6490.
[ii] Robert Baker
Girdlestone. Girdlestone’s Synonyms of the Old
Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker
Book House, 1983 Reprint), p.
231.
[iii] John MacArthur, “The
Sufficiency of Scripture,” a sermon preached on the
Grace to You radio broadcast, June 22,
2006.
[iv] Baker and Carpenter,
#3467.
[v] Brown, Vol. I, p.
658.
