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.”

Psalm 119:135

It has been over two weeks since I submitted my last meditation online.  Some extra things are going on this summer, which is not unusual for me.  I write and edit these blogs as I am able.  So off we go with today’s meditation as we near the end of the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Pe. 

Psalms 119:135  Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; and teach me thy statutes.

Now just what is the psalmist asking of the Lord when He prays: make thy face to shine upon thy servant?  As usual, we define our terms. 

To shine upon:  to look favourably upon, be favourable to, said of a star, or (in biblical language) of the face of God.

This definition I have cited is taken from a secular dictionary.  Hence, it includes both pagan and Christian usages of the terms.  Being Bible believers, we immediately dismiss any notion of being looked upon favourably by a star.  We are not pagan stargazers.  But we do covet being looked upon favourably by the face of God. Therefore, this prayer is a prayer for God’s favour, which is a synonym for God’s grace. 

This prayer is echoed in Paul’s prayer for the churches:

Galatians 1:3  Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ....

The priests of ancient Israel were commanded to bless the people with the following words:

Numbers 6:24  The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:

25  The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:

26  The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

Observe in this passage that connected with the Lord making His face shine upon us is His blessing and keeping of us, His graciousness unto us, His light and peace upon us.  What better could be desired than to have all that from the Most High God? 

Psalms 4:6  There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? LORD, lift thou up the light of thy countenance (face) upon us.

7  Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.

The shining face of God is a good that exceeds in value and brings greater joy than the most abundant harvest or the most robust financial gains. 

And if God make His face to shine upon us, we shall be saved.  The following petition is found in verses 3, 7, & 19 of Psalm 80:

Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

If in whatever condition you find yourself you would be saved, plead for the favour and grace of God and you shall be saved, for His grace “is sufficient for thee” and is able “to help in time of need” (2Corinthians 12:9; Hebrews 4:16).

As we have noted in several other verses of this psalm, the psalmist speaks of himself as thy servant when he addresses his Lord.  Being God’s servant his chief delight was the favour of his Master, a favour to be desired far above the favour of men.  As God’s servants our greatest happiness is in the shining of God’s face upon us, whereas our greatest misery is in the hiding of His face from us.

Then notice the thought that the psalmist connected with his prayer for God’s favour:  and teach me thy statutes.  When the Lord is teaching us His statutes and we are increasing in His knowledge, this is one of the clearest evidences of His face shining upon us.  If the Lord is favouring you with instruction and growth in His word of truth, then you will have the means to cope with any situation life throws at you, for God’s “truth shall be thy shield and buckler” (Psalms 91:4).  This is what Peter calls growing “in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2PE 3:18).

And these things I write unto you are not just flowery, nice-sounding platitudes.  These things are the actual experience of those who seek the favour of the Lord and the knowledge of His word.  I write out of my own experience and the experience of others.  Right now I have a man under my ministry who has been in a battle with colon cancer.  This brother in the Lord is drawing his comfort from his Bible and rejoicing in the realization that the face of God is shining upon him, his cancer notwithstanding. 

I close today’s meditation with another prayer taken from the psalms:

Psalms 67:1  God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.

2  That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.

When God’s face is shining upon us, He is dealing mercifully with us and blessing us.  The favour of God upon His people is the health that saves them and the witness they have among all nations upon the earth.

   

Psalm 119:134

As with the previous verse, I often pray using the words of today’s verse from Psalm 119.  This is especially the case as I see the freedoms that we have enjoyed in our nation receding before an ever expanding civil government and judiciary that are no friends to Biblical Christianity.

Psalms 119:134  Deliver me from the oppression of man: so will I keep thy precepts.

The essence of this prayer is found in a number of other places in the psalms.  Here is but a sampling:

Psalms 17:8  Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,

9  From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about.

Psalms 56:1  Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up; he fighting daily oppresseth me.

Psalms 142:6  Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I.

7  Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me.

If the Lord would answer the psalmist’s prayer and deliver him from the oppression of man, so, in this way, he would keep God’s precepts.  That is, he would keep God’s precepts as a free man, not restrained by any other man.  Commenting on this verse Charles Spurgeon wrote:

“We little know how much of our virtue is due to our liberty; if we had been in bonds under haughty tyrants we might have yielded to them, and instead of being confessors we might now have been apostates.  He who taught us to pray, ‘Lead us not into temptation,’ will sanction this prayer, which is of much the same tenor, since to be oppressed is to be tempted.”

The psalmist prayed for freedom from man’s tyranny not simply that he might pursue his own happiness, but rather, that he might keep the commandments of God.  Freedom to obey God’s precepts is the greatest and purest freedom there is.  Examples of such freedom would be the freedom to preach the gospel in obedience to Christ’s commandment; the freedom to worship God in an assembly of believers as God commands; the freedom to train up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; the freedom to work, save, and provide for our own as God’s law requires.  Throughout history there have been times when the oppression of man has hindered God’s people in keeping some of God’s commandments.  Preachers have been imprisoned and/or killed for preaching the truth (Acts 12:1-3).  Churches have been destroyed and congregations scattered (Acts 8:1-3; Galatians 1:13).  Children of God-fearing parents have at times been coerced into schools that teach things that contradict and deny the word of God.  In times of oppression men have been deprived of their livelihoods and their properties confiscated because of their political views or their faith.  And so on we could go. 

But, sadly, for many freedom from the oppression of man means the freedom to indulge in amusements no matter how vile or destructive they are, freedom to have sex any way one wants it, freedom to sell or purchase pornography, in short, freedom to indulge the vices of the flesh without restraint.  Such freedom as this is no freedom at all but rather an oppressive bondage.

John 8:34  Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.

Proverbs 5:22  His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.

When man’s idea of freedom is the freedom to sin, he will find himself under a government that will grind him in the end to humiliating servitude and poverty as the following passage describes would happen to Israel if they would not observe to do all God’s commandments:

Deuteronomy 28:28  The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:

29  And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.

30  Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.

31  Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof: thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee: thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them.

32  Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: and there shall be no might in thine hand.

33  The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway:

34  So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

So when we pray for deliverance from the oppression of man, when we pray for our freedom, let us be sure to qualify that request with this resolve:  so will I keep thy precepts.