Exposition of Psalm
119
?
TZADDI
God’s
Word Is Always Right
Psalm
119:137-144
Righteous
art thou, O LORD, and upright are thy
judgments.
Thy
testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and
very faithful.
My
zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have
forgotten thy words.
Thy
word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth
it.
I
am small and despised: yet do not I forget thy
precepts.
Thy
righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy
law is the truth.
Trouble
and anguish have taken hold on me: yet thy commandments
are my delights.
The
righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting: give me
understanding, and I shall live.
The key word in this
stanza is easy to spot. We see a form of the word
“right” no less than six times: righteous
(v. 137, 138); upright
(v. 137); and righteousness
(v. 142, 144). Each verse in the stanza, in fact begins
with the first letter of the Hebrew word for
“righteous.” This is reinforced all the more with words
such as faithful
(v. v. 138), pure (v.
140), and truth (v.
142). The Psalmist tells us that the word of God is
always right, regardless of
actions, adversity, attitudes, or even the ages. This
truth is crucial in our day when the Bible is accused of
not being “up to date or relevant” and must, therefore,
be rethought for our modern age.
I.
Regardless of Our Actions (vs. 137-139)
Righteous
art thou, O LORD, and upright are thy
judgments.
Thy
testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and
very faithful.
My
zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have
forgotten thy words.
Every person is
tempted to say, “Well, my actions don’t really matter as
long as my motive is pure.” How often we hear that!
David, however, didn’t agree, and neither did any other
Scripture writer. He declares here that actions matter,
regardless of what someone’s motive is. As we discern
truth from error, motive is actually irrelevant. Someone
can be sincere in their belief and have the purest of
motive in their action, but still be wrong. Uzzah’s
motive, for example, was pure in transporting the Ark of
Covenant on a cart instead of carrying it by hand using
poles. Further, he had the purest of motives when he
touched it to prevent it from falling off the cart even
though God had commanded never to touch it. But pure motive did not change the
fact that God took Uzzah’s life because he disobeyed
(Num. 4:5-6, 15; II Sam. 6:1-9). Likewise, we can be
passionately sincere, have the deepest of conviction,
and the purest of motives but still be totally wrong in
our action because we have not done it according to
God’s prescribed manner. In short, action is the issue,
not motive.
So again, David declares
here that actions matter and no matter what our actions
might be, God’s Word is always right. Notice his two
observations.
David’s
Perceptiveness (vs. 137-138)
Righteous
art thou, O LORD, and upright are thy
judgments.
Thy
testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and
very faithful.
If there is one
truth that is clear in Scripture, it is that God is
righteous. Deuteronomy 32:4 declares, “He is the Rock, his
work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of
truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.”
Psalms 145:17 declares, “The LORD is righteous in all
his ways, and holy in all his works.” So important is
this doctrine that Paul first words it in the
positive—“But after thy hardness and impenitent heart
treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of
wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God”
(Rom. 2:5)—and then in the negative: “What shall we say
then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid”
(9:14).
Long before my
seminary days and deep, advanced courses in theology and
other training, the very first doctrine course I ever
took was actually in my senior year of High School,
based upon William Evan’s classic book, The Great
Doctrines of the Bible. The
teacher made a statement that I still remember
thirty-eight years later (2008) and is one of the best
statements I have ever heard concerning the nature of
God. He said, “God’s righteousness is
plus-righteousness.” God, therefore, is better than just
righteous, which would seem impossible. So righteous is
He that we have trouble expressing it with language.
The Hebrew behind
righteous
(sadîq) primarily speaks of
conforming to a moral or ethical standard. Because of
their fallen nature, men do not want to a moral or
ethical standard. That is why many today are fighting to
remove the Ten Commandments from the courtroom. With
God’s moral and ethical standard plastered on the wall,
men are condemned before court is even in session.
The word upright
(yashar) adds the idea of “go
straight or direct in the way” or “make (a way) straight
and level.” Proverbs 2:6, for example, declares, “In all
thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths”
(Prov. 3:6), that is, make your paths straight, direct,
and level. One of the most telling instances of this
word is in Judges 17:6, where every man in Israel “did
that which was right in his own eyes.” That does,
indeed, describe our own day.
David is not done,
however. Not only does he perceive that God
Himself is righteous
and upright,
but he goes on to say that the testimonies that
[God] hast commanded are righteous and very
faithful. As noted back in verse 90, the
Hebrew translated faithful
(“faithfulness” in verse 90, ‘emuwnah) comes from
the same word for “truth” (’emûnâ). Why is God’s
Word faithful, perpetual, always the same? Because it is true,
because “truth endureth to all generations” (Ps. 100:5),
because “endureth for ever” (117:2).
Therefore, God’s
Word, David declares, is as righteous
as God. Stop and let that sink in for a moment.
Yes, God Himself is perfect and righteous, but it is
also essential that we look at His Word in the same way.
Sadly, many today talk about God and talk about how they
love Jesus, but then disregard His righteous
revelation. His word is as much “plus-righteousness”
as He is. Oh, how we need to see that there is only one
right and straight way of doing things,
and that is the Word of God alone. David’s
perception of this principle then leads us
to his passion about
this principle.
David’s Passion
(v. 139-140)
My
zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have
forgotten thy words.
Thy
word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth
it.
This was not
theory to David; it was reality. He looked
around and saw that men of his day (like in our day) had
forgotten
[God’s] words. They did not care about
God’s righteousness or the righteousness of God’s
words.
As Paul declares, they did not wish to “to retain God in
their knowledge” (Rom. 1:28). This drove him to a
zeal that
totally consumed him. How many of us can say that God’s Word
consumes everything about us, consumes our thinking and
our living?
The word consumed
(samat), in fact, is
shockingly graphic (and certainly is not considered
“tolerant” in our day). One Hebrew authority
explains:
The verb is a very strong word
for destruction or for completely silencing someone. . .
. It describes the intense desire of one to obliterate
completely his enemies (cf. Psalm 143:12). . . .
Similarly one who serves God zealously is consumed by
that very zeal, especially when he sees his adversaries
forgetting God’s word (Psalm 119:139).[i]
In other words,
David wanted to see the obliteration of those who
disregard God’s words.
“But how unloving!” many would cry today. But we submit,
“Unloving to whom?” Whom do we truly love? Is it loving
to God when men hate his word and we then
tolerate their attacks on it? It is loving to God to
coddle those who have heard the Word and reject it out
of hand? Is it even truly loving to
men not to tell them the
consequences of their sin and rebellion? Spurgeon
captures David’s passion here:
These men had gone so far in
iniquity that they not only violated and neglected the
commands of God, but they appeared actually to have
forgotten them. This put David into a great heat; he
burned with indignation. How dare they trample on sacred
things! How could they utterly ignore the commands of
God himself! He was astonished, and filled with holy
anger.
Such an attitude is
precisely what proves our love for God’s Word. Instead
of the typical mantra of today, “Oh, well everyone is
entitled to their opinion,” let us say with Spurgeon,
“How dare they on sacred things!” or as Hebrews 10:29
declares: “Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye,
shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot
the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the
covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing,
and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?”
Thy word is very
pure, David goes on to say, which is why he
therefore
loveth it. This is the single time in this
Psalm that David speaks of God’s Word as being pure
(sarap), although he does
elsewhere (Ps. 12:6; 18:30). This word “describes the
purifying process of a refiner, who heats metal, takes
away the dross, and is left with a pure
substance,”[ii] as in Proverbs
25:4: “Take away the dross from the silver, and there
shall come forth a vessel for the finer.” That was not
enough for David, however, for he adds the modifier
very,
demonstrating that God’s Word is even purer than
pure. What
a description of the Word of God! It’s “plus-pure,”
purer than pure. No dross, no impurities, just the
absolute pure truth of God. Is there any wonder that David
loved it? Do we?
II.
Regardless of Our Adversity (vs. 141)
I
am small and despised: yet do not I forget thy
precepts.
The first cross-references
that come to mind when I read this verse are both in I
Corinthians. First, there is 1:21-25:
For after that in the wisdom of
God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after
wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a
stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But
unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the
foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness
of God is stronger than
men.
Paul then goes on to write
in 2:1-5:
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.
Paul absolutely refused to
mix philosophy with preaching, “lest the cross of Christ
should be made of none effect” (i.e., empty, void, and
useless), as he wrote in 1:17. By mixing man’s ideas,
philosophies, and traditions with God’s Word makes the
Word useless. It would take another whole book to list
to instances in history of men adding philosophy and
negating truth. So Paul says in effect, “All I am going
to give you is the Word of God. I will mix it with
nothing else.” He goes on to say, however, that both Jew
and Gentile mock this approach. Jews want signs and
wonders (as do many today who want something exciting
and entertaining), and Gentiles want philosophy, debate,
rationalism, and “scientific empiricism.”
In the world’s eyes,
then, both David and Paul are small and
despised. Small
(sa‘îr) means little, insignificant, or young. In
other words, in the world’s eyes we are nothing more
than children babbling away with their insignificant
Bible verses. Further, despised means to hold in contempt. It is an absolute
certainty that to stand on biblical authority alone will
invite criticism. People will say we are young, naïve
simpletons, and they will even hold us in contempt if we
dare point out their error. “If the world hate you,”
Jesus said to His disciples, “ye know that it hated me
before it hated you” (Jn. 15:18), and “shall they
deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and
ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake”
(Matt. 24:9). That is the price of
truth.
In God’s eyes,
however, David and Paul were right because they
did not . .
. forget [God’s] precepts. It is sad, indeed,
how many preachers today will not stand for God’s Word
alone because it won’t be popular, it won’t make people
happy or make them feel good, or simply will not give
people the church programs that they think they should
have. Few statements in our day are more frustrating
than, “We are looking for a church that will meet our
needs.” What that really means is, “We are looking for a
church that will meet our wants.” The fact of the
matter is that what most people want today is
based in fleshly, selfish desire. They want to be
conformable, entertained, and most of all unchallenged.
What they need, however, is
the truth and that is found in the Word of God
alone.
Yes, to stand on
God’s Word alone will, indeed, make us small and
despised, but it will
also makes us right. We do not mean here that we are act
superior or take on an attitude of arrogance that says,
“Oh, I know I am right and I have all the answers.” No,
such attitudes are prideful and sinful.” Rather, our
attitude is a humbleness of heart that says, “Here is
what God’s Word says, and I am compelled not only to
believe it but to speak the truth to you in love (Eph.
4:15).”
III.
Regardless of Our Attitudes (vs. 142-143)
Thy
righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy
law is the truth.
Trouble
and anguish have taken hold on me: yet thy commandments
are my delights.
We live in a day when
people are driven by “feelings.” No one has said it
better than Herbert Spencer, 19th Century
English philosopher and political theorist, who wrote,
“Opinion is ultimately determined by the feelings, and
not by the intellect.”[iii] How true that is
today. Feelings drive people’s belief system. Whether
they are voting for a political candidate, looking for a
church, or accepting a new teaching, it is all based on
feelings. Facts are not the issue, faith
in what God says in His Word is not the issue, rather
how it makes them feel is the issue. It is not
the intellect that rules, rather it’s an
impulse that rules. There is great zeal,
but nothing real. This has
even kicked open the door to the growing frequency of
mysticism, which teaches finding God through visions and
revelations, that God impresses new ideas and truth upon
our hearts that are not already contained in Scripture.
Such teaching is no less, however, than
apostasy.
Further, and this is
the real issue, truth has
been realigned. No longer is Truth aligned with
what God says, but rather realigned to what each
person thinks or feels truth to be. Truth is no longer
propositional rather experiential. In
other words, truth is not made up of propositions,
statements of facts, or theorems to be demonstrated;
rather it is comprised of what each person feels, what
is true for them, how they view based upon their life
experience and the context of each situation in which
they find themselves. Neither is Truth absolute
nowadays but relative. It is not unconditional,
definite or conclusive, rather it depends upon each
person’s perspective or circumstance; it is in flux and
adaptive. Neither is Truth today exclusive rather
inclusive; it does not reject
anyone, no matter what his view, rather it embraces
everyone.
In stark contrast,
David was not driven by his feelings, his attitudes, his
views, or his opinions. He was driven by truth. It
did not matter that trouble and anguish
[had] taken hold on [him]. What mattered was
God’s everlasting
righteousness, God’s law, and
God’s commandments.
It did not matter how he felt; what mattered was
what God said.
Some time ago, I was
broken-hearted by the words I heard from one Christian
who had “been in therapy” as the expression goes.
Repeating the mantra that is typical today, that
Christian said, “It’s all about my needs right now; it’s
about how I feel.” Where is such foolishness in
Scripture? Where do we read, “It’s all about
me?”
In wonderful
contrast, I once heard Dr. Al Mohler, president of The
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, tell a story on
himself. He said that he admittedly does not have the
greatest counseling technique (at least according to
modern opinion). He said, “I ask three questions when
someone comes for counsel: first, what’s your problem?;
second, what do you think God would have you do about
it?; and third, why are we having this conversation?”
That is absolutely right. Many people think
counseling is coddling when it should be
commanding. It is simply a matter of recognizing
what God says and then doing it. Stop living in the
past, stop living based upon feelings, and simply obey
what God says. Stop wallowing in self and start
walking with
God.
Oh, that we can say
with David, Trouble and anguish
have taken hold on me: yet thy commandments are my
delights.
IV.
Regardless of the Ages (vs. 144)
The
righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting: give me
understanding, and I shall live.
As David wrote
earlier in verse 89: “For ever, O LORD, thy word is
settled in heaven.” Such statements immediately bring to
mind our Lord’s own words: “Heaven and earth shall pass
away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matt. 24:35).
He also declared, “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” (Matt.
5:18). As noted in our study of verse 89, so permanent
is God’s Word that not even the smallest letter
(yod) or the smallest part of a letter
(tittle) will be lost. Deeper yet, “it is easier for
heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to
fail” (Lk. 16:17). Think of it! It would be easier
for the whole universe to wink out of existence than for
even to smallest stroke of the pen of God’s Word to
fail. Should not that be what we
love?
To say that nothing
comes even remotely close to the longevity of the Bible
is the height of understatement. One such feeble example
is L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics, a handbook to his
self-founded religion Scientology that has been on
several bestseller lists, one for over 100 weeks, and
has, of course sold millions of copies. The Bible,
however, tops the bestseller lists every year. Further,
while Dianetics has been translated into some 40
languages, which is certainly impressive for any book,
the Bible has been translated in whole or in part into
more than 1,500 languages. Further still, as noted in
our last study, its longevity 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. The more
men try to destroy it, the more it thrives. While
Dianetics will one day fade
away, God’s Word endures forever.
In closing, I cringe
whenever I hear a Christian say, “Well, times change.”
While that statement is certainly true, more often than
not what those Christians actually mean is that we also
must change, that our methods, our
ministries, and even our message must
change to fit the times. But that is a blatantly
unbiblical idea. God’s Word is everlasting because truth is absolute or it is not truth. As
commentator Albert Barnes observes (on v.
142):
Human governments change. Old
dynasties pass away. New laws are enacted under new
administrations. Customs change. Opinions change. People
change. The world changes. But as God himself never
changes, so it is with his law. That law is founded on
eternal truth, and can never
change.
Commentator Adam Clarke
adds:
[God’s] moral law was not made
for one people, or for one particular time; it is as
imperishable as [His] nature, and of endless obligation.
It is that law by which all the children of Adam shall
be Judged.
Mark it down:
God’s Law will never change!
We ignore that truth at our peril. God’s Word is always
right, so let us stand on what is
right.
[ii] Baker and Carpenter,
#6884.
[iii] Social
Statics (1851), Part 1, Chapter
2.
