Psalm 119:120

We now arrive at the last verse of the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Samech. 

Psalms 119:120  My flesh trembleth for fear of thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments.

The Bible is the most comforting book in the world to those who receive it as it is in truth, the word of God.  But it can also be the most terrifying book if you consider the judgments that God has pronounced in it.  In just the two verses that go before this one we read that God has trodden down all those that err from His statutes and puts away all the wicked of the earth like dross.  Right there are two judgments that should strike terror in anyone who has ever erred from the word of God.  The God of the Bible is certainly no Being to be trifled with.  He is to be greatly feared for it is written:

Hebrews 10:31  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

When the judgments of God were made known to the prophet Habakkuk, he responded like the psalmist. 

Habakkuk 3:16  When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops.

When the good king Josiah heard out of the book of the law the great wrath that was pronounced against his nation for their transgressions against that law, “he rent his clothes” (2Kings 22:11).  He, too, was afraid of God’s judgments.  Now it speaks well of the psalmist, the prophet, and the king that they had a fear of God and His judgments.  Far better is it to have such a fear than to be like those who have no fear of God, His word, or His judgments.  We read of such persons in the following passages. 

Psalms 36:1  The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes.

2 Peter 3:3  Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

4  And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

5  For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:

6  Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

7  But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

When Jehudi read the prophecy of Jeremiah before the king and his servants, look at the reaction.

Jeremiah 36:23  And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.

24  Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words.

Now as for those whose flesh trembleth for fear of the Lord and who are afraid of his judgments, the Lord has His eye upon them and takes delight in them.

Isaiah 66:2  For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

Psalms 147:11  The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.

Those who fear the Lord even to the point of trembling are those who can also hope in His mercy, because His mercy is upon those who fear Him.

Psalms 103:17  But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children;

18  To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.

One of the reasons those who fear God keep His commandments is that they are afraid not to since they know the judgments that befall those who do not. 

To be sure, we do not obey the Lord only because we fear Him.  We also obey Him because we love Him.  Hence our service to God arises from a balance of fear and love.  We know that “we love Him because He first loved us” (1John 4:19).  But we also know that “whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth” (Hebrews 12:6).  Therefore, we fear Him.  And when you consider how prone to err we are, you understand that we need both fear and love to keep us in line.  As George H Horne sounded off: 

“Encompassed with a frail body, and a sinful world, we stand in need of every possible tie; and the affections both of fear and love must be employed, to restrain us from transgression; we must, at the same time, ‘love God’s testimonies, and fear his judgments.’”

i

Anyone that shares the sentiments of the psalmist in fearing God and His judgments may also take great comfort in all the reassuring promises that God has made to those who fear Him.  That is why Habakkuk, even though he trembled for fear, could “rest in the day of trouble.”  He knew that as one who feared God the Lord would take care of him in that day.  Thus it is that we read of the early churches that they were “walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 9:31). 

As the end of 2014 is upon us, let me take this opportunity to wish all of my readers who fear the Lord a most blessed New Year.

Psalm 119:119

Today’s meditation brings us to the verse number that matches the chapter number of this great psalm.

Psalms 119:119  Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross: therefore I love thy testimonies.

To clearly grasp what the psalmist is saying, let’s define dross.

Dross - The scum or extraneous matter thrown off from metals in the process of melting.  In general:  Refuse; rubbish; worthless, impure matter.

This is a very sobering verse in that it clearly shows us God’s estimate of all the wicked people of this earth.  They are dross in His sight.  They are just so much scum, refuse, or rubbish to be discarded.  This is true of the wicked individually and collectively.  All the wicked are dross. 

Now many of the wicked of this earth are intelligent, or wealthy, or mighty, or beautiful.

Job 5:13  He taketh the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong.

Job 21:7  Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?

8  Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes.

9  Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.

10  Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf.

11  They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.

12  They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.

13  They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave.

14  Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.

15  What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?

Psalms 73:12  Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.

2 Samuel 14:25  But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom (the wicked son of David) for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.

But whatever glitz and glitter the wicked display, it is not the lustre of genuine silver or gold.  It is just the dross of those precious metals posing as the real thing. And because the wicked often do well for themselves in this earth, they think highly of themselves and others praise them for their accomplishments.

Psalms 49:16  Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;

17  For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him.

18  Though while he lived he blessed his soul: and men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself.

Nevertheless, because they are wicked and have no regard for God or His laws, they are vile, worthless scum.  And being worthless, they are not worth keeping around.  Therefore, God takes them away, just as a refiner takes away the dross from gold and silver. 

Proverbs 25:4 Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer.

Now throughout history God has been discarding the wicked of this earth into the garbage pit of hell, the place of destruction. 

Job 21:17  How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! and how oft cometh their destruction upon them! God distributeth sorrows in his anger.

18  They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.

Psalms 9:17  The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.

Psalms 37:35  I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree.

36  Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.

Psalms 73:18  Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction.

19  How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.

Now just as dross is often mixed with precious metals and must be extracted and discarded, so the wicked are mixed with the righteous in this earth.  The wicked even mingle among the righteous in the church.  But God has His ways of ridding the church of them, as this writer can attest.  Yet a Day is coming when all the wicked will be forever rooted out of the earth and cast into the lake of fire.  At that day they will be separated from the righteous never to be mingled among them again.

Proverbs 2:22  But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.

Psalms 1:4  The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

5  Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

Matthew 13:47  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind:

48  Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.

49  So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,

50  And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Revelation 20:15  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Realizing that God puts away all the wicked of the earth like dross had this effect on the psalmist:  therefore I love thy testimonies.  When God puts away the wicked of this earth like dross, He is fulfilling His word of truth.  He is doing precisely what He testified in His word that He would do.  Therefore, since God is always true to His word, we can trust it.  And just as we can trust God to fulfill His decree of judgment upon the wicked, we can trust Him to fulfill His promise of salvation to the righteous.  And that is certainly a reason to love the Lord’s testimonies! 

When we consider that God’s chosen people by nature are wicked and, therefore, equally deserve to be put away like dross, we have great cause to love the words of Scripture that testify that He has saved them from their wickedness and made them righteous through His Son Jesus Christ.  Therefore, instead of being put away like dross, they shall gathered unto the Lord as His jewels.

Malachi 3:17  And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

Psalm 119:118

We continue taking up the verses of the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Samech.  Today’s verse presents an opposite scenario from that of the two previous verses.  The two previous verses speak of the Lord upholding people whereas today’s verse speaks of Him treading them down.

Psalms 119:118  Thou hast trodden down all them that err from thy statutes: for their deceit is falsehood.

The Lord treads down all them that err from His statutes.  What is it to err?   

Err – To ramble, roam, stray, wander.  To go astray; to stray from (one’s path or line of direction).  To go wrong in judgment or opinion; to make mistakes, blunder.  To go astray morally; to sin.

Those who err from God’s statutes are those who are operating by a different set of rules than those laid down in the Holy Scriptures.  They are taking their cues from someone other than Almighty God.  Therefore, they are going astray from the direction God’s says they should be taking; they are forming wrong opinions; and they are making mistakes.  In short, they are sinning.  Now they deceive themselves into thinking that the way they are pursuing is best for them, which is why they err from God’s statutes.  Of course, their thinking is utterly false as the psalmist said:  for their deceit is falsehood.  Or to describe it another way, it is like our brother Greg Ohly (a member of the church I pastor) described recently.  When one is not aiming his arrow or gun at the right target, his shot goes astray.  If our aim in life is anything other than keeping God’s statutes, then we are sure to err from them.  And what happens when we err from God’s statutes?  We find ourselves being trodden down by God Himself.

When God chooses to tread under foot a man or a people, it is a crushing experience.  There is not one mighty enough to resist as Jerusalem experienced when the Lord trod her down.

Lamentations 1:15  The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me: he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress.

The psalmist wrote in Psalms 119:21 that it is “the proud that are cursed, which do err from thy commandments.”  The proud are they who think too highly of themselves, their plans, and their opinions.  Such people are sure to err because the Lord’s statutes have a way of crossing the plans and opinions of men as He says in this verse:

Isaiah 55:8  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

Now the psalmist wrote of the Lord treading down those who err from His statutes as having already occurred:  Thou hast trodden down.  Doubtless the psalmist had already witnessed in his life those whom God had brought low because of their error.   And throughout history the Lord will continue to tread down those who err from His statutes until He finally treads them down forever when the Lord Jesus Christ returns to judge the quick and the dead.  So that we may say that this verse is not only historical, but prophetic.  For the dealings of our immutable and unchangeable God in past history presage His dealings in the future.

1 Corinthians 15:24  Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

25  For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.

Isaiah 2:17  And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.

Isaiah 63:3  I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.

4  For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.

But our verse says the Lord has trodden down all them that err from His statutes.  So that includes even God’s own children when they err.  Speaking of the Lord’s own people the psalmist wrote: 

Psalms 106:43  Many times did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity.

44  Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, when he heard their cry:

45  And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies.

I know the good Lord has had to trample me down from time to time.  But the difference between a child of God and one who is not is that when a child of God is “brought low” for his error, he is not trodden down forever.  God remembers His covenant with His people and lifts them up again.  Speaking to God’s own children James wrote:

James 4:8  Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

9  Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

10  Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

Now folks do not normally like to be trampled on.  So if you do not want the Lord treading you down, then I suggest you get into your Bible and aim towards keeping God’s statutes.  I close with this fitting prayer:  “O let me not wander (err) from thy commandments” (Psalms 119:10).