WORDS ABOUT THE WORD.
Since we have already dipped into Psalm 119, looking at one of the most precious verses in Scripture, verse 165, let’s examine a few more gems from the same psalm.
Psalms 119:1 NIV
[1] “Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord.”
If David wrote this psalm, and all the evidence points to this fact, then Psalm 119 is David’s story. He gathered together, in 176 verses, everything he could think of, in his experience, that God’s Word meant to him. It was light. It was truth. It was honey. It was direction. It was security. It was delight and happiness. It was rebuke, correction, teaching. It was hope and life. It was God’s words, everything he needed for life, packaged into the pages of a book, of whatever material those pages were made.
God’s Word is like precious metal purified in the fire, preserved through centuries of hatred and fear, and every attempt to discredit and vilify its truth, inerrency, and indestructibilty. As the hymnwriter declared…
1. All people that on Earth do dwell,
Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice;
Him serve with fear, his praise forthtell;
Come ye before him and rejoice.
2. The Lord, ye know, is God indeed;
Without our aid he did us make;
We are his folk, he doth us feed,
And for his sheep he doth us take.
3. O enter then his gates with praise,
Approach with joy his courts unto;
Praise, laud, and bless his name always,
For it is seemly so to do.
4. For why? The Lord our God is good;
His mercy is forever sure;
His truth at all times firmly stood,
And shall from age to age endure.
Author: William Kethe (1561)
(https://www.hymnary.org/text/all_ people_that_on_earth_do_dwell)
Psalm 119 begins with a declaration of blessedness. In Hebrew, there are two words that express blessedness. “Asher”, used in this verse, expresses the state of blessedness that those whom God blesses, experience. “Baruch” is God’s side of the equation. Baruch is the blessedness God bestows on those who walk according to His law. God blesses (baruch), and we are blessed (asher).
God’s blessings are not only a gift but also a state into which He places us when we choose to follow the standards of His Word. His children live in a perpetual state of blessedness in keeping with their submission and obedience to Him.
As we travel though this psalm, we meet instructions, declarations, blessings, warnings, worship, praise, prayers, actions, expressions of confidence, repentance, desire, hope…all flowing from one central truth, the beauty, efficacy, and sufficiency of God’s Word.
Without the Bible, both Old and New Covenants, we would be completely in the dark about God, the world, ourselves, life, our beginnings, our present, and our future.
Many have tried to explain these mysteries outside of the answers God gives us in His revelation. They may come up with fanciful ideas but cannot confirm what they have written with evidence. Those who believe these human impositions have no guarantee that they will end where they desire to be.
The Bible is the only reliable source of information with evidence, because God Himself has spoken, and the Holy Spirit has inspired ordinary people to write what God has said.
2 Peter 1:20-21 NIV
[20] “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. [21] For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
How has God spoken to humans in a way that we can understand?
1. Through His prophets.
Amos 3:7 NIV
[7] “Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.”
The word God spoke through His prophets is accurate, reliable, and guaranteed…some already fulfilled and some yet to be fulfilled, with thousands of years of evidence that it is true.
2. Through His Son.
Hebrews 1:1-2 NIV
[1] “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, [2] but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.”
Jesus is God’s Word in person.
John 1:14 NIV
[14] “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Jesus came to earth, became part of history, to reveal the Father, to restore people to the Father, and to take them to the Father. He backed up His message by dying and rising again. No one has been able to disprove the evidence.
3.Through the created universe.
Psalms 19:1-4 NIV
[1] “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. [2] Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. [3] They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them.
[4] Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world…”
Romans 1:20 NIV
[20] “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”
Psalm 119 is the pinnacle of reassurance that…
2 Peter 1:3-4 NIV
[3] “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. [4] Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”
So, dear reader, if you follow David’s testimony and adjust you life to the Word of God, despite the ills of life on this planet, you will live a truly blessed life.