GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
PSALM 119:137-144
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The tsade stanza shows God’s word as it is opposed by wicked enemies and in various troubles caused by them. The prophet describes the word of God being forgotten by enemies and yet tested and proven. He says twice that God’s word is always righteous (vs. 142, 144), and he says that the word of God is truth and it brings life. We will look at this stanza all at once to show the foundation (vs. 137-138) and three troubles, all in pairs, while the prophet-poet proclaims his love for the word of God and its result in his blessed life. For even when we have trouble, we have the promise of heaven through Jesus’ blood. His righteousness means our righteousness, forever.
Part 1: The Foundation
137 You are righteous O LORD,
and your judgments are righteous.
138 You have commanded your testimonies
which are righteous and firm.
Even someone who knows no Hebrew at all might guess that “righteous” begins with the letter tsade (tsadiq). Righteous means “up to the standard,” it is something proven to be without fault or error. When a scholar seeks a legitimate doctor’s degree, the final step is to present and defend his research which is presented as a written scholarly paper. The faculty of the college or university assesses the candidate’s idea, thought-process, knowledge of the subject, and they will challenge these things in order to evaluate his dissertation. When he receives his degree, he can be rightly said to have been truly tested.
God’s word, his judgments, testimonies, commandments, law and gospel are all tested and true. God’s word is completely without fault and without any errors or contradictions. “Every word of God is flawless” (Proverbs 30:5); “Your word is truth” (John 17:17). Those who hold God’s word in contempt are condemned: “Do not speak to a fool, for he will scorn the wisdom of your words” (Proverbs 23:9). Holy Scripture is the only rule and norm by which we answer questions and controversies. Paul says: “Whoever follows this rule (canon), peace and mercy upon them” (Galatians 6:16). Therefore the word of God, not human reason, or human traditions, or even human councils nor even any Popes are to be held up above the holy word of God. The word of God is our highest and our only true authority. When the word of God is correctly explained by a creed, or a confession, or a Christian’s word, then we may use those words when we describe or explain or expound the word, but we must also know where those words came from and what they entail, and we are wise to revisit the word and the doctrines it presents often, so that we do not wander away from the true foundation.
Part 2: What God’s Enemies Forgot
139 My zeal wears me out,
for my enemies have forgotten your words.
140 Your sayings have been thoroughly tested,
and your servant loves them.
Woe to those who forget the word of God! The prophet shows that he has been preaching and teaching, like Noah and Methuselah before the great flood (2 Peter 2:5). They called on the name of the Lord, which means that they proclaimed God’s name and prayed to him in public (Genesis 4:26). But the world refused to listen. So the Lord called Methuselah home in death after a millennium of service, and he rescued Noah and his family in the boat they had built, and all the others were destroyed in the deluge: “every living thing that moved on the earth perished– birds, livestock, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind… died” (Genesis 7:21). The word of God was tested then, and it is tested to this day. His holiness and perfection are constantly proven.
Those who forget the words of God are in danger of leading their families and all of their descendants into unbelief. Their own blood and the blood of their children is on their heads (Acts 18:6; Matthew 27:25). It is a terrible thing to turn from the Lord. Years later, people will ask, did they ever have a chance to hear the gospel? And the answer will be laid at the feet of that great-grandfather, who dragged his entire clan down to hell through his stubbornness. Praise God for the one or two from his family who did not follow him, but who were brought to faith despite his terrible sin, like those certain sons of Korah who did not rebel with their father against Moses (Numbers 26:11; Psalm 42:1; 84:1).
Part 3: Lowly and Despised
141 I am lowly and despised,
but I do not forget your precepts.
142 Your righteousness is always righteous
and your law is true.
To be lowly in this case is anything small, poor, insignificant, or even too young to be considered of any account. In older English, “mean” would also have been included here: “Tell me, how far ‘tis thither? If one of mean affairs plod it in a week, why may I not glide thither in a day?” (Cymbeline III:2). When God’s faithful ones are dismissed and considered nothing by the world, they can still take refuge in his holy word and promises. “The insignificant things and the despised things of the word are what God chose, along with the things that don’t exist, to nullify the things that do, so that no one at all can boast before him” (1 Corinthians 1:28-29).
God’s righteousness is always righteous—this is an axiom; he does not change. This is the doctrine of God’s immutability, which is to say that his essence and also his decisions and purposes do not change. “When we speak of God’s immutability, we are asserting that God’s essence, along with all of the perfections included in that, is eternally and constantly one and the same and that any change of God’s being, willing, and thinking is excluded” (Hoenecke). The prophet states the simple conclusion: “Your law is (always) true,” and therefore so is God’s holy gospel. “ He will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:21). This is his smiling assurance on his oppressed people, He sent his Son to be despised and rejected, so that by his wounds we would be healed (Isaiah 53:3-5).
Part 4: Trouble and Distress
143 Trouble and distress have come upon me,
but your commandments are my delight.
144 Your testimonies are always righteous.
Give me understanding so that I will live.
The third trouble is every kind of trouble and distress, from sinners in the world, from sin itself being in the world, from the errors that follow after sin like so many muddy footprints on a clean carpet, and from the devil and his imps that try to wrench us away from the Father’s loving arms. But God’s commandments delight us. Why? They express his will, his holiness, and they give him glory. How would we know that coveting was a sin if God had not said, “Do not covet”? (Romans 7:7). How would we know that lust is a sin in the heart if Jesus had not explained that to lust is the same as adultery (Matthew 5:27)? His word is our delight.
When I taught my sons to drive, I always told them that when the first ice and snow come every year, nobody remembers how to drive. This wasn’t meant to comfort them in the little mistakes that they made, but to tell them to watch out for everybody else’s mistakes, and to take care themselves, because we’re all in danger from each other. This is what sin is like every day, when we are bombarded from many sides by sins, some of them aimed carefully at us and some coming our way at random, but all are dangerous. “Give me understanding about such things, and I will live.”
Perhaps I have not done justice to every word of the text in this meditation, but I wanted to show how often these stanzas of the Great Psalm are a complete unit and can be considered altogether as well as all together. God’s tested, holy, perfect and enduring word is our refuge and our delight, for while we are in the world we are surrounded by sin and by those who have forgotten the Lord. Lord God, do not forget us, but bring us safely home to heaven through Jesus our Savior, where we will be righteous forever.
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 119:137-144 Righteous forever