Psalms 119:38 Stablish thy word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear.
In this prayer the psalmist identifies himself as God’s servant. Then he defines a servant of God as one who is devoted to the fear of God. To understand this, we need to define the word devote.
Devote – To appropriate by, or as if by, a vow; to set apart or dedicate solemnly or formally; to consecrate (to). To give up, addict, apply zealously or exclusively (to a pursuit, occupation, etc., or to a particular purpose).
Show me what a person is devoted to, what he dedicates his thoughts, time, resources, and energy to and I will show you what he serves. I will show you his character and the course of his life. Our devotions define us.
Now our psalmist was devoted to the fear of God. One who fears God hates evil.
Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.
The fear of the Lord is to hate evil in whatever form it occurs be it mental, emotional, physical, social, professional, religious, or whatever. A man that fears the Lord will endeavour to keep all the commandments of the Lord. He will not think of any commandment God has given as unnecessary or unimportant.
Deuteronomy 6:2 That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.
The fear of God also expresses itself in the worship of God in His house.
Psalms 5:7 But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.
The institution of the local church is the house of God in the New Testament times (1 Timothy 3:15). That being the case, we can conclude from the verses we have considered so far that a person who is devoted to the fear of God will want to worship God in the right church in the right way, that is, according to the commandments of God.
Now the psalmist prays to the Lord: Stablish thy word unto thy servant.
Stablish – Establish (To render stable or firm.). To render indubitable (That cannot be doubted; perfectly certain or evident), support by proof or testimony.
When it comes to rendering God’s word stable, it cannot be more stable than it is because it proceeds from the God Who cannot lie. What God says will stand and that forever.
Psalms 119:152 Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever.
Psalms 119:160 Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.
It is not that the psalmist is asking God to make His word itself more stable. It is that he wants his faith in that word to be more stable. He wants the word to be stablished to him.
When God made the promises of His covenant to King David, recorded in 2 Samuel 7:12-16, David responded in prayer with these words:
2 Samuel 7:25 And now, O LORD God, the word that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant, and concerning his house, establish it for ever, and do as thou hast said.
David already knew that what God had said was true. It was stable and firm as he acknowledged in the same prayer.
2 Samuel 7:28 And now, O Lord GOD, thou art that God, and thy words be true, and thou hast promised this goodness unto thy servant....
The fulfillment of the promises to David would only confirm that what God had promised was true and, therefore, worthy of trust.
When God fulfills a promise of His word to us, it establishes that word to us. It shows God’s word to be true and thus our faith is strengthened. That promise was true and stable before God fulfilled it. The fulfillment of it only confirms or stablishes the truth of it to us; it provides proof of its truth. Every fulfilled promise of God increases our faith in the fulfillment of other promises not yet fulfilled. For example, the evidence we have of the fulfilled word of God in the first coming of Christ stablishes God’s word to us so that we have confidence in the promise of the second coming of our Lord. Every answer to every prayer that we pray according to the will of God stablishes God’s word to us and encourages further prayers of faith.
1 John 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
I am currently bringing a series of sermons on the book of Genesis. Seeing the remarkable agreement of the message of the Scriptures with the message of the creation stablishes the word of God to me. I realize all the more how true that Book is. This gives me yet more reason to place my confidence without reservation in every word of the Bible.
We who are servants of God devoted to His fear know altogether too well what it is to still be plagued at times with doubts of God and His word. Hence, we need to pray this prayer: Stablish thy word unto thy servant. Thanks be to God that He is merciful to our weakness and comes to our aid by giving us tokens that stablish His unshakeable word to our hearts that are too often shaken by doubts and fears. I close with the words of Alexander Raleigh, who well described our struggle:
“Is not this the very condition of many and many a one? ‘Stablished,’ yet moved; ‘devoted,’ yet uncertain; ‘serving’ God truly, yet looking and longing for clearer warrant, and higher sanction, and more inward grace, to make the service better; ‘believing,’ yet crying, sometimes, ‘with tears, Help though mine unbelief!’”
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