GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
PSALM 119:89
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The lamed stanza, verses 89-96, would return us to the idea of sanctified living in my outline of the Psalm, but only the second half of the stanza really does this. Other outlines, such as James Sonneman’s, emphasize the first part more: “The Word is firm/eternal… I will ponder it.” There is of course room for both observations in the poetry, and the author does not limit himself to the broad strokes of his outline as he writes. The inspiration of the Holy Spirit transcends the limits man sets on poetry, form, style, and even grammar from time to time. The letter lamed brings us to the center of the Hebrew alphabet; with this verse we have reached the halfway point of the Great Psalm.
89 Eternal, O LORD, is your word,
it is set firmly in the heavens.
It is a delight to consider the word of God as eternal. But when we encounter the Hebrew term לְעוֹלָם, le-olam, we should consider that olam means “a long time,” or “unbounded, uncountable time.” Sometimes this means a large chunk of human history, such as all of the centuries of the Old Testament (Exodus 31:17; Leviticus 24:8). Or sometimes it means a human lifetime, but not longer than that, such as when a servant becomes a servant “for life” (olam, Deuteronomy 15:17). But God is also “the eternal God” (olam, Genesis 21:33), and his love is “everlasting” (Jeremiah 31:3). It is here in the second, unlimited sense, that we find the word of God in our passage. His word is eternal; not lasting for the Old Testament alone, nor for the New alone, nor even for the duration of both Old and New Testaments, which is to say, for all of human history under the arch of time and the measurements of clocks. God’s word extends into all eternity along with God himself. For God spoke in eternity before ever there was evening or morning, when he designed the world he was preparing to make.
By “word of God” and “word of the Lord,” we do not limit ourselves to the written Holy Scriptures, since the Christian Church is indeed older than the Holy Scriptures. Until the time of Moses, God called his church into existence through his oral word. This creation of the Christian Church began immediately after the fall into sin, for right after the Lord proclaimed the condemning law (Genesis 3:8-14) he proclaimed the promise of the coming Savior, which is the saving gospel (Genesis 3:15). This was proclaimed by the patriarchs soon after, while Adam and Eve were still living, but the need for preaching was made clear by the spread of misunderstanding, doubt, sin and unbelief. And so men “began to call on the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:26) by which it is clear that they were proclaiming the name and promise of the Lord. Peter says about them: “All the prophets testify about Christ that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (Acts 10:43).
And of course there were many things spoken by Jesus and his apostles that were the word of God, but are not recorded for us. About the many things Jesus said, John proclaims that he did many miraculous things and surely said things “that are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31). And Paul wrote letters such as those mentioned in 1 Corinthians 5:9; 2 Corinthians 7:8 and Colossians 4:16 which are not preserved for us. And Paul heard things in at least one vision that were “inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell” (2 Corinthians 12:4). But what has been preserved and handed down to us by the church is indeed the holy word of God, for our salvation, encouragement, instruction, and of course our “teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).
The second line of the verse begins with the verb “it is set firmly.” This is a passive form, showing that it was placed there in the heavens, so that it would be immovable and unchanging. In which heavens is the word of God firmly set? There are three heavens in the Bible. The first heaven is the place where the birds fly and where the rain falls (2 Samuel 21:10). The second is where the sun, moon and stars wheel overhead. God himself speaks about this to Abraham (Genesis 15:5) and each of the Major Prophets has his say (Isaiah 34:4; Jeremiah 8:2; Ezekiel 32:7 and Daniel 12:3). Finally, there is the “Third Heaven” (so called by Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:2), the place where God’s throne is: “Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven” (Lamentations 3:41), and “The Lord looks down from heaven and sees” (Lamentations 3:50).
All things will pass away, “but my words will never pass away,” Jesus said (Matthew 24:35). The word of the Lord “stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him” (Zechariah 12:1). The Lord does all things with the power of his word, which is the simple and clear expression of his holy will. His will is proclaimed for us most clearly in the law, the Ten Commandments. The Apostles teach us that God’s will is that we will live sanctified lives (1 Thessalonians 4:3), love one another (Romans 13:8), and do good in the world in order to silence the ignorant talk of foolish and sinful men (1 Peter 2:15).
God’s word does not tip, totter or topple over like the false gods and idols (Isaiah 41:7; Jeremiah 10:4). God’s word is set in place and established, like the force of the wind (Job 28:25), the locations of the stars (Psalm 8:3), and the land set in place above the seas (Psalm 24:1-2). His word tells us, promises us, that eternal life comes through Jesus Christ (Romans 5:21). When Christ, who is our life, appears, we will also appear with him, risen from the dead, and live with him forever in glory (Colossians 3:4).
This is the gospel. This is most certainly true.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Psalm 119:89 The eternal word