Psalm 119:140

The next verse that we take up today from Psalm 119 gives us one of the many reasons why we should love our Bible.    

Psalms 119:140  Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.

God’s servants need the pure word of God in order to learn and grow.  Otherwise they stumble about in darkness and ignorance.

Psalms 19:8  ….the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.

1 Peter 2:2  As newborn babes, desire the sincere (genuine, pure) milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby….

Now let’s focus on what it means for Gods word to be pure.

Pure – In non-physical or general sense.  Without foreign or extraneous admixture; free from anything not properly pertaining to it.

If you are reading the right text of the Scriptures, there is nothing in that text that does not belong there.   

The purity of God’s word extends to every word in the Scriptures.

Proverbs 30:5  Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.

6  Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.

Therefore, the psalmist was right on when he said to God that His word was very pure.  It is pure to the most extreme degree.  Its purity extends to every word, yea, even to every letter of every word.

Speaking of the Scriptures of the Old Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ said:

Matthew 5:18  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.

A jot is the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet and a tittle is a small line or point used to distinguish letters in the Hebrew alphabet.  Our Lord argued for the integrity of the Hebrew Old Testament down to the smallest points.  Hence, the Bible our Lord preached from was the very pure word of God the psalmist was speaking of in today’s verse.

And since every word of God is pure, the above passage from Proverbs strictly warns us against adding to God’s words.  If we add to God’s word, we introduce extraneous matter to it and thus become guilty of corrupting it.

2 Corinthians 2:17  For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

When the word of God is corrupted, it is no longer pure.  Sadly, as this verse informs us, there have been many throughout history that have been corrupting the word of God. And this brings us to a very interesting point. 

The Hebrew word rendered pure in today’s verse is the same word rendered tried in the following verse:

2 Samuel 22:31  As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him.

The word tried refers to the process whereby a refiner puts gold and silver through the fire to purge them of impurities.  Since corruptions manage to get into the text of God’s word, a purification process is necessary to purge them out. And Psalms 12:6-7 clearly teaches that God uses such a process in preserving His word.

Psalms 12:6  The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

7  Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.

Notice from this passage that God subjects His word to a sevenfold purification process, which suggests a complete purification since seven is a number in Scripture representing completeness.  So God’s word is very pure because it is thoroughly tried and thereby purified and so preserved from one generation to the next.

Now I submit this for your consideration.  There were seven translations of the word of God into the English language culminating in the Authorized Version of 1611.  Those translations or versions were:  (1) The Tyndale Bible (2) The Coverdale Bible (3) The Matthews Bible (4) The Cranmer or Great Bible (5) The Geneva Bible (6) The Bishop’s Bible (7) The King James Bible.  Here we see a sevenfold process ending with the King James or Authorized Version in which there is absolutely no provable error.  Is it a coincidence that we have precisely seven versions culminating in God’s purified word?  I don’t think so.  The Authorized Version of 1611 is the very pure word of God in the English language.  And for this reason God’s servants, like the psalmist, love it!  And if you don not love it, you may very well doubt that you are indeed a servant of the living God.