Psalm 119:145

We arrive at the beginning of the next octave of Psalm 119 bearing the title of the Hebrew letter Koph.  The pronunciation guide of my Bible shows the letter o being pronounced like the o in loaf or coat.  I like to invent witticisms with the sound of these Hebrew letters, but I confess I am at a loss to think of one for koph.  Maybe something will come along that requires a name and we can name it koph.  Then I can make a koph joke.  Until then, I will just have to leave the koph in the closet.  Now let’s move on to today’s meditation.

Psalms 119:145  ¶KOPH. I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O LORD: I will keep thy statutes.

If you look out over this entire octave, the psalmist’s prayer life emerges as a theme.  In fact, he makes specific reference to it in four of the eight verses.  In today’s verse and the two that follow, the psalmist describes his prayers as crying to God. 

Cry – To entreat, beg, beseech, implore, in a loud and emoved voice.

In reading that the psalmist cried to God, one picks up on a sense of fervency and urgency in the psalmist’s prayers.  He is earnestly pleading with His God.  This can also be seen in the expression O LORD since the word O conveys emotion. If you ever feel like your prayers aren’t being heard, you might try crying to God.  Perhaps the Lord is waiting to see just how serious you are about what you are asking for.  And God does hear the cries of His children.

Psalms 6:8  …the LORD hath heard the voice of my weeping.

Psalms 106:44  Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, when he heard their cry….

The psalmist’s prayers were not rote utterances reeled off without thought or emotion.  His whole heart accompanied his prayers.  He did not approach God with a divided heart.  He was not uttering words of prayer whilst his mind was thinking of something else.  His entire mind and affections were fixed upon His God as he called upon His name.  Heartless prayers are worthless.  Thomas Brooks said:  “God hears no more than the heart speaks.”

Charles Spurgeon wrote:  “It is to be feared that many never cried to God with their whole heart in all their lives.”  That right there would explain why so many do not take their religion as seriously as they should.  It does not matter to them whether the church they go to is preaching and practicing the truth or not.  Truth be told, their whole religious profession is like their prayer life:  it is halfhearted. 

The only request the psalmist makes in this verse is the request to be heard:  hear me, O LORD.  That the Lord would even hear us when we pray is itself an inestimable blessing.  For apart from His pardon of us through Jesus Christ our Lord, God will not even hear our prayers, much less answer them.

Isaiah 59:1  Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:

2  But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

But if we gain God’s ear to hear us, then we can be assured He will answer us.

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.

So to simply ask God to hear you is itself an important prayer.  It keeps the lines of communication open for whatever you might need to ask.

And then the psalmist adds this to his prayer:  I will keep thy statutes.  Prayer for this psalmist was not simply asking the Lord to give him things or do things for him.  He also used prayer to express to God what he intended to do.  Whatever else he might do, one thing he was determined to do:  he would keep God’s statutes.  He would keep to the right Bible, the Bible with God’s statutes.  He would not trade God’s statutes off for an imitation.  He would also obey those statutes.  He was willing to let everything else go to keep them.  He wanted the Lord to hear him.  Therefore, he made sure he also heard the Lord.  If we don’t hear the Lord speaking to us in His statutes, then neither will the Lord hear us speaking to Him in our prayers.

Proverbs 28:9  He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.

At the end of the day, if you have had the ear of Almighty God to hear you when you call upon Him and if you have lived by His statutes, you have had a good day.  It is with this precise thought in mind that I bid to you my readers a “good day.”    

Psalm 119:144

Today we come to the last verse of the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Tzaddai.  In my Bible this verse stands at the head of the right column of the left page.  From here I can see that I have two more columns to work through to arrive at the end of this psalm.  So here we go!

Psalms 119:144  The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting: give me understanding, and I shall live.

Recall that we pointed out in the beginning of this octave that it stresses the righteousness of God’s word, describing it as upright, righteous, very faithful, pure, and true.  In this last verse the emphasis of this octave is summed up in this statement:  the righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting.  Righteousness is the quality of being right.  Since God’s word is everlastingly righteous, that means it is always right and never wrong.  The reason for this can be deduced from this octave in which we are told that God is righteous (verse 137) and that His righteousness is everlasting (verse 142).  Therefore, it follows that the word of the everlastingly righteous God must itself be everlastingly righteous.  God’s word is like Himself in that it never changes with the times.  Whatever testimony God has given in His word is righteous and will remain so.  You can always rely on what God says.  He will not change His story.

And being convinced that the testimonies of his Bible were always right, the psalmist prayed:  give me understanding.  It stands to reason that the greatest understanding anyone can ever have is the understanding of God’s everlastingly righteous word.  Whatever thing you understand that is always right ─ and God’s word is always right ─ that is one thing about which you will never be wrong.

Now should God answer the prayer of the psalmist for understanding, this would be the result:  and I shall live.  To understand God’s righteous testimonies is to live in the fullest sense of the word.  This is so much the case that understanding is referred to as life itself.

Proverbs 3:13  Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding….

16  Length of days is in her right hand….

18  She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.

Proverbs 4:13  Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.

But understanding God’s testimonies involves more than just comprehending them intellectually.  It also involves obeying them!  You do not truly understand God’s testimonies if you do not believe and obey them.  Note the words that I have italicized in the following passage, which prove this point:

Deuteronomy 4:5  Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.

6  Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.

To lack this understanding of God’s word is court death and destruction.

Proverbs 21:16  The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead.

Isaiah 5:13  Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.

Isaiah 27:11  …for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.

Hosea 4:6  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

As we look about us in our time we see so much ignorance of even the most basic facts of God’s testimonies.  And along with this lack of understanding we see widespread moral decadence, the destruction of the family, the increase of violent crime, the erosion of the economy, and the collapse of our culture.  Here is all the more reason to seek understanding for ourselves that we might live in the midst of the destruction that surrounds us.  This is precisely the message of Psalm 91 which I urge you now to read.  The psalm describes one who has the understanding of God’s testimonies and who lives in spite of the fact that all around him is collapsing thus demonstrating the answer to the prayer:  give me understanding, and I shall live.

So in closing our meditations on this octave of Psalm 119, I urge you to pick up your Bible, beg God for understanding of its pages, read it, study it, submit to its teaching, and you shall live.  There is no more profitable exercise than what I have just recommended.  It is the single best thing you can do for your life and health.

1 Timothy 4:8  For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.

9  This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation.

Psalm 119:143

We continue working our way through the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Tzaddai.

Psalms 119:143  Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: yet thy commandments are my delights.

I don't think I need to define the word trouble.  Our lives are full of experiences that define that word for us.  But let’s define the noun anguish and the verb phrase take hold.

Anguish – Excruciating or oppressive bodily pain or suffering, such as the sufferer writhes under.  Severe mental suffering, excruciating or oppressive grief or distress.

Take hold – fig. To get a person or thing into its (or one’s) ‘hold’ or power; usually with of; of a feeling, a disease, etc.:  to seize and affect forcibly and more or less permanently.

In this case the trouble that took hold of the psalmist was also characterized as anguish, which means that it was a particularly severe and oppressive trouble.  I am sure you can all attest to the fact that there are troubles and then there are troubles!  There are those troubles we encounter that make other troubles look like a cake walk in comparison.  And it was this anguishing kind of trouble that had taken hold of the psalmist.

Now observe that the psalmist did not go looking for trouble and anguish.  They came after him and seized him.  And seizing him, they oppressed him.  This was not a trouble that the psalmist could free himself from.  It was forced upon him. 

Nevertheless, as oppressive as the trouble was, he could still say:  yet thy commandments are my delights.  This phrase echoes what was written in verse 92 of this psalm:

Psalms 119:92  Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction.

When commenting on this psalm we saw that delight is defined as pleasure, joy, or gratification felt in a high degree.  Therefore, the psalmist did not allow his trouble and anguish to sap him of all joy.  He kept to his Bible notwithstanding, and found something there to offset his grief and make it more supportable so that it did not destroy him.  And as we noted when commenting on verse 92, he found delights, plural, in God’s word.  There are numerous things in God’s commandments to cheer the soul if they be received in faith.  I know this from personal experience.  Just this week I am dealing with some troubles that are causing me grief, which is not anything unusual for a pastor.  But in the midst of this I studied Hebrews 2:5-13 in preparation to conduct an evening Bible study.  Just studying about the Lord Jesus Christ, His incarnation to suffer and die for our sins, and His subsequent glorification delighted my soul and gave me relief from my grief.  The trouble is still there, but so is the delight.  Therefore, I can relate to the apostle Paul who described himself “as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing” (2Corinthians 6:10).

And not the least of these delights we find in God’s word is the fact that the trouble and anguish God’s children experience in this world are the only hell they shall ever know, because Christ has made eternal satisfaction for their sins.  On the other hand, trouble and anguish will be the lot of the wicked for all eternity since this is precisely what God will render to them in the Day of Judgment.

Romans 2:5  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;

6  Who will render to every man according to his deeds:

7  To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:

8  But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,

9  Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile….

Furthermore, today’s verse reveals to us the character of the psalmist.  You can tell a lot about a person by noticing what his delights are.  Thomas Manton said it well:  “Men are good and bad, as the objects of their delights are:  they are good who delight in good things, and they are evil who delight in evil things.”

Psalm 119:142

We continue working our way through the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Tzaddai.

Psalms 119:142  Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.

Since God’s righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, that means that God is always right and will never be wrong about anything either in His Being, His word, or His works. 

This everlasting righteousness of God is the righteousness that was brought in by Jesus Christ and that is given to God’s people, whom He has chosen to save from their sins.

Daniel 9:24  Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

Romans 3:21  But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;

22  Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference….

1 Corinthians 1:30  But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

2 Corinthians 5:21  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

God’s salvation consists of making sinners righteous with His everlasting righteousness.  God’s children, who were so very wrong, are made right and that forever.  Since this righteousness is everlasting, their salvation is everlasting.  And so it is written:

Isaiah 51:6  Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.

This is such a comfort to believers who live in dying bodies in a dying universe.  Through God’s everlasting righteousness they are given everlasting salvation or, in other words, eternal life.

Romans 5:21  That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now since God’s righteousness is everlasting, it follows that His law that He has issued is also righteousness.  If there is anything wrong with God’s law, then it has ceased to be righteous at that point.  But since God is everlastingly righteous and can never be wrong, His law is righteous as was stated in verse 138 of this octave:  “Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous.”  And if God’s law is righteous it follows that His law is true.  How can it be true if it is wrong?  In fact, not only is God’s law true, it is truth itself:  thy law is the truth.  Commenting on these words Charles Spurgeon wrote:  “Those who are obedient thereto shall find that they are walking in a way consistent with fact, while those who act contrary thereto are walking in a vain show.”

Any truth that you find anywhere else in this universe is incorporated in God’s law.  There is no truth apart from it.  In his commentary on Psalm 119 Charles Bridges wrote: 

“There may be fragments of truth elsewhere found―the scattered remnants of the fall.  There may be systems imbued with large portions of truth deduced from this law.  But here alone is it found perfect─unsullied.”

And since the Lord Jesus Christ is the truth, it follows that this law testifies of Him.

John 5:39  Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

John 5:46  For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.

And notice in the passage quoted above from Romans 3, that “the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ” was “witnessed by the law and the prophets.”  Indeed, that law which is the truth testifies of Jesus Christ Who is the truth.

And so today’s verse points directly to the Lord Jesus Christ Who is the very embodiment of both the everlasting righteousness of God in which we are saved and His truth by which we are led.  One could say of Christ that He is The Living Bible. 

In conclusion, let us take note of the fact that this world will be judged by God’s everlasting righteousness and truth at the coming of the Lord. 

Psalms 96:13  Before the LORD: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.

We who have been saved by Jesus Christ Who is God’s righteousness and truth have nothing to fear in that day and much to look forward to.

Psalm 119:141

Today’s verse taken from the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Tzaddai, tells us something about the condition of the believer in this world.

Psalms 119:141  I am small and despised: yet do not I forget thy precepts.

It should come as no surprise that this world that “lieth in wickedness” (1John 5:19) would reckon the godly as small and insignificant, and would despise them.  Nevertheless God has chosen His people from among the small and despised of this world.

1 Corinthians 1:26  For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

27  But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

28  And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

29  That no flesh should glory in his presence.

Observe that this passage says “not many” rather than “not any” wise, mighty, or noble are called.  God has had a few of His chosen among the great and noble of this world.  Consider how great and esteemed among men Solomon was whose “fame was in all nations round about” (1Kings 4:31). 

2 Chronicles 9:22  And king Solomon passed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.

23  And all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom, that God had put in his heart. 

Yet even those who attain a measure of fame from the world should, like the psalmist, remain small in their own estimation.  The great king Solomon himself commended humility and lowliness in his proverbs. 

Proverbs 11:2  When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.

Proverbs 16:19  Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.

Solomon recognized that it would be foolish to let his greatness go to his head.

The apostle Paul, who is the pattern for believers (1Timothy 1:16), was small in his own eyes.  Even though he was “in nothing…behind the very chiefest apostles,” he considered himself nothing (2Corinthians 12:11).  He described himself as “the least of the apostles” and “less than the least of all saints” (1Corinthians 15:9; Ephesians 3:8).  And as for being despised, Paul was that too.

1 Corinthians 4:9  For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.

10  We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.

11  Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace;

12  And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it:

13  Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.

From this foregoing passage we can clearly see that Paul and his fellow apostles were small and despised by this world.  And yet these apostles, small and despised though they were, turned the world upside down and left an indelible mark on civilization (Acts 17:6). 

If you are small and despised in the eyes of the world, this places no limitation on Almighty God as to what He might do with you “for there is no restraint to the LORD to save by many or by few” (1Samuel 14:6).  The church of Philadelphia was small in that it had but “a little strength.”  And yet the Lord Jesus Christ set before them “an open door” that no man could shut (Revelation 3:8).  No man, no matter how great or powerful, could close the door of evangelistic opportunity that Christ gave to that church.

Even though the psalmist was small and despised, he did not let that discourage his faith and adherence to the word of God:  yet do not I forget thy precepts.  He did not place a great premium on what the world thought of him.  He was too occupied with what God thought of him to be worried about that.  And as he had complained in verse 139 that his enemies had forgotten God’s words, he was careful not to do the same.  I am quite taken with William Cowper’s comments on these words:

“We see by experience that our affection leaves anything from the time it goes out of our remembrance.  We cease to love when we cease to remember; but earnest love ever renews remembrance of that which is beloved.”      

If we would continue to love God’s word, we must keep it ever fixed in our memory.

Before I close, let me connect today’s verse with our Lord Jesus Christ.  Was He small and despised in this world?  These verses that speak of Him should answer that question:

Philippians 2:7  But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men….

Psalms 22:6  But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.

Isaiah 53:2  For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

3  He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Yet small and despised though He was, He never forgot a single precept of His God.  He kept all those precepts down to the smallest of them and so fulfilled the law of God, brought in everlasting righteousness, saved His people from their sins, and is now exalted as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  Let us never shun His cross though it means being small and despised in the estimation of this world.  And let us never forget His word which this world has discarded as insignificant and despicable. 

 

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.

Psalm 119:139

We continue our meditations drawn from the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Tzaddi.    

Psalms 119:139  My zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten thy words.

The psalmist’s zeal had consumed him.  Zeal works like a consuming fire.  So just what is zeal?

Zeal - In Biblical language, denoting ardent (burning) feeling or fervour (taking the form of love, wrath, ‘jealousy’, or righteous indignation). 

It is common among all men to feel the burning of love or wrath or jealously.  And God’s servants sometimes feel the burning of righteous indignation, which flows out of their fervent love of God and His righteousness, and a jealousy for His glory.  Such was the case with the psalmist.  He so loved the words of God that his zeal had consumed him; he was burned up with righteous indignation because those words were forgotten by his enemies. 

George Horne wrote when commenting on this verse:  “‘Zeal’ is a high degree of love; and when the object of that love is ill treated, it venteth itself in a mixture of grief and indignation, which are sufficient to wear and ‘consume’ the heart.”  One can see this from Solomon’s words regarding love:

Song of Songs 8:6  Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.

7  Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.

A love that strong breeds a consuming zeal.

Observe that the zeal of the psalmist did not consume him because his enemies had forgotten him!  How often does our wrath or jealously consume us because we feel someone has slighted us?  This is because we love ourselves too much.  But in the psalmist’s case, his zeal was stirred because God’s words were slighted, even slighted to the point of being forgotten.

Mine enemies have forgotten thy words.  And do these words ever describe the age in which we live!  Not only is the Bible rejected, it is not even considered.  It is a forgotten Book.  And make no mistake about it; those who forget it are our enemies as the psalmist said.  Just only this week the pope of Rome stood before the United States congress and said:  “But there is another temptation which we must especially guard against:  the simplistic reductionism which sees only good or evil; or, if you will, the righteous and sinners.”  What he calls “simple reductionism” is precisely how the Bible sees things.  The Scriptures are replete with things and persons characterized as good or evil, righteous or sinners.  The pope’s words remind me of what the prophet Ezekiel wrote about the apostate priests of his day.

Ezekiel 22:26  Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

The “simplistic reductionism” of the Bible reduces the pope’s speech to being simply profane.  That the masses could look favourably on such a speech only underscores the fact that they have forgotten God’s words!  The pope’s statement stirs my ire as well it should.  Anyone who can be indifferent to such an ignorant, asinine, downright anti-Scriptural statement as he made certainly does not have much love for what God says in His word.

Let us ever strive against developing the lukewarm attitude of the church of Laodicea.  The Lord found their lack of zeal disgusting to the point of wanting to vomit that church out of His mouth.

Revelation 3:16  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Of course, the greatest example of consuming zeal for God’s words is found in the Lord Jesus Christ.  When He beheld how the moneychangers had turned the house of God into a den of thieves, in righteous indignation He drove them out of the temple with “a scourge of small cords” (John 2:13-16).  When His disciples saw this they recalled the words of Psalm 69:9 which prophesied of Christ:

John 2:17  And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.

Those moneychangers had obviously forgotten the words of God written in Isaiah 56:7 that God’s house is a house of prayer.

Mark 11:17  And he (Jesus) taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.

So zealous was our Lord for God’s words that it resulted in His being crucified by His enemies, who had forgotten them.  In fact, His enemies had forgotten God’s words to the point that they did not even realize they were fulfilling them in crucifying Him.

Acts 13:27  For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him.

Once again we find testimony borne to Christ in Psalm 119 just as we said we would when we began these meditations.

But let’s turn the searchlight of truth onto ourselves.  How about the altogether too many times that we have forgotten God’s words?  Do we turn our zeal against ourselves in correcting this oversight?  Are we as zealous against our own sins as we are the sins of others?  When the church of Corinth was confronted with their sin of tolerating scandalous sin their congregation, they reacted with a zeal that was nothing short of vehement, like the vehement flame of love that Solomon described above.  And thereby they cleared themselves of their transgression.

2 Corinthians 7:11  For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.

If today’s meditation has convicted you of a lack of love and zeal for God’s words, then I strongly urge you to heed the words of the Lord Jesus Christ to the church of Laodicea:

Revelation 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Psalm 119:138

The next verse of this octave of Psalm 119 entitled Tzaddi follows logically from the verse before it.    

Psalms 119:138  Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful.

Since the Lord is righteous, it follows that the testimonies that He has commanded are righteous and very faithful.  Nothing a righteous God commands could be otherwise.

God’s testimonies that He has commanded are righteous.  Therefore, you are always doing the right thing when you keep them.  Never question that!  Even if circumstances do not seem favourable to keeping a commandment of God, keep it anyway.  If doing what God says costs you a valued relationship, a valued position, a valued possession, or even if it costs your life, do it anyway.  Peter and John were so convinced of the righteousness of God’s testimonies that they made this response to the Jewish council when they threatened them to speak no more in Jesus’ name:

Acts 4:19  But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.

20  For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.

God had commanded them to preach and give testimony of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  It was the right thing to do and thank God they did!  Because they obeyed God’s righteous commandment to preach, we have the testimony of the resurrection with us today.

God’s testimonies that He has commanded are also very faithful.  Let’s define that word faithful when it refers to actions such as commanding.

Faithful - Of persons and their actions: That may be believed or relied upon; trustworthy, veracious.

Being righteous, it is impossible for God to lie (Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18). Therefore, when can believe and rely upon anything God has commanded as being right. 

But let us not overlook that God’s testimonies that He has commanded are very faithful.

Very – In a high degree or measure; to a great extent; exceedingly, extremely, greatly.

God’s testimonies are extremely reliable. You will never find the word of any other more worthy of your absolute trust than the word of God.  It is extremely important that you believe with all your heart that God’s testimonies are righteous and very faithful, as Matthew Henry wrote:  “It is necessary to our faith and obedience that we be convinced of this.”  You will be less prone to heed a Bible that you think has mistakes in it and that cannot be relied upon to be right about everything it says.

Now in order for us to have the righteous and very faithful testimonies of God, they must be preserved somewhere for us to have access to them.  A qualification for a bishop or pastor is that he hold “fast the faithful word” (Titus 1:9).  How can a pastor do that if he does not have the faithful word to hold?  If we have no right and faithful copy or translation of God’s word, then we have no right and faithful word of God.  It is that simple.  But, thanks be to God, we have the Authorized or King James Version of the Bible faithfully translated in 1611 from faithful copies of the original Hebrew and Greek texts.  In this version we find not one single, provable error.  It is righteous and very faithful and in every respect justified in being called The Holy Bible, which cannot be said for the modern versions that have taken over most of professing Christendom.  Therefore, when you hold this faithful translation in your hand, read it, and obey it, you are keeping the righteous and very faithful testimonies that God has commanded. 

Let me acknowledge that I realize I have not advanced my proof for making this case for the Authorized Version.  However, if you look back through the archives of my blog, you will find a series of four articles that I submitted on 2, 8, 16, & 22 September 2009 entitled The Inspiration of the Scriptures.  In those articles I make my case for believing the Authorized Version is the inspired word of God in the English language.

In closing let me comment on verses 137 & 138 of Psalm 119 taken together.  It is by means of God’s righteous testimonies that God's born again people come to know the God that is righteous since God reveals Himself to them by His word. 

1 Samuel 3:21  And the LORD appeared again in Shiloh: for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the LORD.

We are unspeakably blessed to know the right God by having the right Bible!    

 

Psalm 119:137

We are ready to launch out on our study of the eighteenth octave of Psalm 119 bearing the title of the Hebrew letter Tzaddi.  The tz in this word is pronounced like ts in our word pants or cuts. The a is pronounced like the a at the end of our word dilemma.  The letter i at the end of the word is pronounced the same as the letter i in our word machine.  Now if you put all those pronunciation suggestions together, you will have an idea of how Tzaddi sounds.  As for a humourous remark to make with this letter, my mind comes up empty so I shall pass on this one. If that makes you tzad, I’m tzorri.

Psalms 119:137  ¶TZADDI. Righteous art thou, O LORD, and upright are thy judgments.

If you look over this entire octave, you will notice that it stresses the righteousness of God’s word.  His word is characterized as upright, righteous, very faithful, pure, and true.  All of this is so because of what God is.  God is righteous and being righteous, everything that proceeds from Him is righteous.  Nothing God ever thinks, decides, says, or does is ever wrong.  God is never mistaken.  He is righteous.  And because He is righteous, His judgments are upright. 

Let us review the definition of the word judgment since we are speaking of God's judgments being upright.

Judgment – Divine sentence or decision; spec. a misfortune or calamity regarded as a divine visitation or punishment, or as a token of divine displeasure.  In various Biblical uses, chiefly as rendering of Heb. mishpit, in its different uses.  A (divine) decree, ordinance, law, statute.

God’s judgments can refer to His punishment of sinners, His afflicting of His people, as well as His laws given to govern our lives.  Or it can refer to God’s decisions to permit evil.  No evil can exist without God deciding to suffer or permit it. 

Acts 14:16  Who in times past suffered (permitted) all nations to walk in their own ways.

1 Corinthians 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer (permit) you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Recall that Satan could not touch Job or anything Job possessed without first obtaining permission from the Almighty (Job 1-2).  Neither can any evil touch or tempt you unless God suffers it.  Although the evil itself is not upright, God’s decision to permit it is upright because a righteous God can render no decision that is otherwise than upright.  The Scriptures are full of examples of God permitting evil and then making use of that evil to accomplish His good purpose.  Man’s sin does not rob God of His sovereign right to do with sinful man as He pleases.  One of the many examples would be the evil of Joseph’s brethren in selling him into slavery.

Genesis 50:20  But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

The evil of Joseph’s brethren did not proceed from God because God is righteous.  That evil proceeded from the lust of their own evil heart. 

James 1:13  Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

14  But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

But what God decided to do in permitting that evil was righteous. 

That God is righteous is fundamental to all we believe about Him.  The righteous God Whose judgments are upright is the Rock upon which we build our faith, base our hopes, and in Which we find our refuge.

Deuteronomy 32:4  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.

A God Whose work is perfect, a God of truth Who is without iniquity, and a God Who is just and right never makes a wrong decision.  Anything He decides to do is right.  

Always confess that God is righteous no matter how much your circumstances may seem to cry out to the contrary.  Never allow any adversity or injustice you see or experience in this world overthrow your faith in the righteousness of God.  There are things about God and His doings that we cannot fathom, including things He has told us in His word.  God’s judgments are a depth past our finding out.

Romans 11:33  O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

But even though we may not fathom God’s judgment, we can know it is right and rest our souls on that.  If you can once clearly lay hold of this fact, then you will be on the way to experiencing God’s peace “that passeth all understanding” (Philippians 4:7).  No matter what happens, always come back to this:  Righteous are thou, O LORD, and upright are thy judgments.

I once heard of a black preacher who said, “I knows the Bible is right.  Some’in else is wrong.”  Those words may have been incorrect grammatically, but they were absolutely correct theologically since they capture the essence of today’s verse:  Righteous are thou, O LORD, and upright are thy judgments. i

Psalm 119:136

We now come to the conclusion of the octave of Psalm 119 that bears the title of the Hebrew letter Pë.  Today’s meditation will be a bit longer because the subject of it is so broad.  Much more could be written.

Psalms 119:136  Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law.

Rivers of waters running down his eyes?   He was that upset?  And what called forth so much emotion?  It was people who do not keep God’s law.  It certainly bears testimony to the psalmist’s tremendous love for God’s law that he could be that deeply moved because it was not kept.  Oh, the great good that would be done for the cause of God and truth if God’s people were that emotionally bonded to His holy word!

Now just who are they that keep not God’s law?  Earlier in this psalm the author has identified those who do not keep God’s law as the proud (verse 21) and the wicked (verse 53).  These are they who persecuted and oppressed the psalmist (verses 78, 85, 95, 122).  But that which caused him such abundant grief here was not what they were doing to him, but what they were doing to God’s law.

It says a lot about your character when you are deeply grieved rather than indifferent to the abounding iniquity around you.  We find examples in the Bible of other God-fearing people who were grieved to the point of tears over the sin of those about them.  When the prophet Elisha knew of the evil that Hazael would commit, he wept.

2 Kings 8:11  And he (Elisha) settled his countenance stedfastly, until he was ashamed: and the man of God wept.

12  And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child.

When the law of Moses was read to king Josiah and he was made aware of the judgment that would befall his nation because of the evil that they had done, he wept before God.

2 Chronicles 34:27  Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me; I have even heard thee also, saith the LORD.

When Ezra learned of the abominations committed by the Jews, realizing the anger of God that they had merited he and the people fell before God praying and weeping.

Ezra 10:1  Now when Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children: for the people wept very sore.

Or consider how Jeremiah wept for the pride of the people of Judah and Jerusalem who would not humble themselves before his warnings by the word of the Lord. 

Jeremiah 13:17  But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the LORD'S flock is carried away captive.

It is well for us when we can weep for the sins of those among whom we live.  This is especially so when we read that God singled out and spared those that mourned “for all the abominations that” were done in the midst of Jerusalem.

Ezekiel 9:4  And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.

5  ¶And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity:

6  Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.

The apostle Paul warned with tears against those who teach false doctrine and thereby corrupt the churches of God.

Acts 20:30  Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.

31  Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.

Philippians 3:18  (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:

19  Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)

It was not without many tears that Paul wrote his first epistle to the Corinthians rebuking them for their sins.

2 Corinthians 2:4  For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.

One of the things Paul rebuked in the Corinthians was that they had not mourned over the fact that fornication had been committed among them and nothing had been done about it.

1 Corinthians 5:2  And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.

The Corinthians were so puffed up over other things that they had not taken due notice of the wrong going on in their very midst.  These Corinthians needed to feel what Paul felt as he wept over their sad state of affairs.

In fact, these tears of Paul were a part of the service he rendered to God.  Speaking of himself he wrote:

Acts 20:19  Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews:

A minister of God is a man of tears if he is really in earnest about what he does as a teacher of the law of God.  Such a minister was Timothy to whom Paul wrote:

2 Timothy 1:4  Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy….

Of course, today’s verse points us to the Lord Jesus Christ, “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3).   He poured out His tears over Jerusalem which had had a history of not keeping God’s law and now ultimately broke that law in rejecting Him, the promised Messiah.

Luke 19:41  And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,

42  Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.

There is a decided spiritual advantage to weeping over those who break God’s law and it is this:  when we are that grieved over others not keeping God’s law, there is a much greater likelihood we will keep it ourselves.  Commenting on today’s verse Thomas Manton wrote:  “The soul will never agree to do that which it grieved itself to see another do.”  William Nicholson also had this comment to make:  “If we grieve not for others, their sin may become ours.”  Therefore, it behooves us to never let ourselves become calloused or indifferent to the sin that surrounds us.  God forbid that these words is ever describe us:

Matthew 24:12  And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

Now you may say, “I am not an emotional person.  I do not cry easily.  I am very disturbed by the abounding iniquity, but rivers of water are not running down my eyes.”  In that case, then, you may enlist with Jeremiah when he wrote:

Jeremiah 9:1 Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

Notice that Jeremiah did not say he his head was waters and his eyes a fountain of tears.  He rather expressed the wish that his head were waters and his eyes a fountain of tears, that he might weep.  Jeremiah was using the subjunctive mood which we often use to express the wish for things to be other than they actually are.  So even if your eyes are not a fountain of tears, it is good that you are so grieved over the sins you witness that you wish you could weep profusely.  And the day will likely come that the fountain of tears will break forth and rivers of water will run down your eyes, because they keep not thy law.  Something will come along to trigger that release of emotion.  And as sore as such weeping is, it is a token of a heart that loves God’s law and a guard against breaking that law.  May the Lord bless this meditation to you who out of love of the truth characterize this fallen, perverse world we live in as “a vale of tears.”