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.”