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.