Psalm 119:151

We closed our last meditation stating that “our next verse will show us that as the wicked draw nigh to us, they will encounter Someone else Who is near us.”  And so we read:

Psalms 119:151  Thou art near, O LORD; and all thy commandments are truth.

The Lord’s people are described as “a people near unto him” (Psalm 148:14). The Lord assures us that when we are with Him and seeking Him, He is with us, yea, “nigh (near) unto” us.

2 Chronicles 15:1  And the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded:

2  And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.

Psalms 145:18  The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.

Therefore, anyone who draws nigh unto us to do us mischief, will have our God to contend with.  This is so much the case that we can even defy the enemy to come near to us in the assurance that our God will help us.    

Isaiah 50:8  He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me.

9  Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.

Paul echoed these words in this great passage:

Romans 8:33  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.

34  Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

We may take great comfort in knowing that when trouble is near, God is also near, yea, “a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).  When someone is “very present,” he is right there at hand in whatever you are going through.  So our chief concern should not be the drawing nigh of the wicked.  Rather, our chief concern should be that we are on the Lord’s side seeking Him and calling upon Him in truth; for if we are, He assures us He is right there with us.

Now the psalmist connects this assurance of the nearness of the Lord with the fact that all His commandments are truth.  Charles Spurgeon wrote:  “God neither commands a lie, nor lies in His commands.”  These commandments not only include everything God has commanded us to do, but also to the promises of His covenant which He has commanded.

Psalms 105:8  He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations.

No matter how nigh the enemy might have come to the psalmist, they could never come between him and his God.  And He had the truth of God’s commandments to assure him of that.  When the Lord commands deliverances for Jacob, their enemies are powerless against them. 

Psalms 44:4  Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob.

5  Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.

And so we find the author of Psalm 71 consoling himself that God had given commandment to save him.  And trusting the truth of that commandment of God he besought the Lord to be near him, or, as he expressed it, to be not far from him as the enemy approached him to take him.

Psalms 71:3  Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou art my rock and my fortress....

10  For mine enemies speak against me; and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together,

11  Saying, God hath forsaken him: persecute and take him; for there is none to deliver him.

12  O God, be not far from me: O my God, make haste for my help.

Those who esteem all that God has commanded to be truth are those to whom He is near and whom He will defend when the wicked draw nigh unto them.  If you defend the Book, the Book will defend you!  Indeed, “his truth shall be thy shield and buckler” (Psalm 91:4).

Let it also be noted that all God’s commandments, plural, are truth, singular.  There is only one truth of God.  All the various commandments of God given in His word cohere together to form one body of truth.  Therefore, it is not correct to speak of the “truths” of the Bible.  There are not many truths.  There is only one truth and that it is the Lord Jesus Christ revealed in what Daniel 10:21 calls “the scripture of truth” (John 14:6; 5:39).