I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings,
And will not be ashamed (Psa 119.46).
The Christian life is a pursuit of thinking and acting in accordance with reality, the way things really are, as revealed and interpreted by Scripture. This is walking by faith, not by sight, because the reality often differs from what can be known by our senses alone. By definition, a real, acting faith is the difference between a believer and an unbeliever. A believer is sensible enough to know that his own wits are not as trustworthy as the biblical doctrine, and so though doing things God’s way feels like “going out on a limb,” it is really climbing down off the limb to stand on terra firma, the solid ground of truth.
The greatest reality is God Himself. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. All the nations are a drop in the bucket to Him (Isa 40.15), and a mere man is even less, even if that man is a mighty earthly king. Therefore, it is the most reasonable thing in the world to please God even if it offends everyone else. This is easier to do when the “everyone else’s” are people beneath us in some way, with less power, but the greatest test of our faith is to behave with integrity even when it angers an earthly king, even when our lives are on the line. Remember Jesus’ counsel to His disciples.
What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Matt 10.27-28).
The greatest power (God) warrants your greatest fear. The key to fearlessness before men is a robust fear of God. How foolish to join with God’s enemies in compromise when they are bound for destruction! It is not only virtuous to be bold for God, it is just plain sensible.
You may have heard some Christians advocate a “silent witness,” where they imagine that their exemplary lives alone sufficiently discharge their spiritual duty and evangelize their neighbors, but the “silent witness” is often an excuse for sinful silence. People say silence is golden, but sometimes it is just plain yellow.
Allow a few sundry observations on our text from Psalm 119.
PRAYER AND BOLDNESS
First, notice that this is a statement of hope and resolve. It anticipates an answer to the prayer of verse 43, “And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth.” To quote our previous study,
This verse breathes an urgent sense of importunity or heartfelt and persistent pleading. The psalmist is very concerned about the conceivable outcome that one day, the word of truth might not be found “in his mouth” at all. This is a Hebrew idiom which here has the sense of a confession of verbal divine revelation, and ordinarily but not always, a sincere confession of the speaker’s faith in God and His truth (Num 22.38; Deut 18.18; cf. Rom 10.8-10). To have God’s word of truth depart utterly from one’s mouth is to apostatize, to fall away from God, and to become an open unbeliever again.1
The psalmist is confident that God will preserve him spiritually, and that spiritual blessings will flow from that preservation, including obedience to God’s Word (119.44), enjoying spiritual liberty (119.45), and the holy boldness to proclaim God’s Word, even before kings (119.46). This boldness is a part of the psalmist’s obedience and liberty.
Christ exemplified this above all in His passion. Whether standing before Herod or Pontius Pilate or Israel’s corrupt religious leaders plotting to kill Him, His message never wavered (Matt 22.16). His disciples are destined to the same kind of intimidating circumstances, and this would be their greatest opportunity to bear a verbal witness to Christ and His gospel (Luke 21.12-13).
This suggests an important application, namely, that holy boldness cannot be expected apart from believing prayer to God for it. The early Christians knew this, prayed earnestly, and experienced a powerful answer to their prayers. Hear their passionate intercessions as persecutions began and behold God’s gracious response in Acts 4.29-31.
We have profited well and truly by God’s word, when our hearts are so completely fortified against the fear of man, that we do not dread the presence of kings, even though all the world attempts; to fill us with dejection and dismay (Calvin, in loc.).
Are we praying like our first brethren did? Are we expecting grace to witness boldly? Are we opening our mouths as we should with dependence upon God to assist us as He promises He will?
AUTHORITY AND BOLDNESS
Another detail of our text worthy of your careful attention is the parallel between God’s testimony and ours. “I will speak of Thy testimonies.” God never called us to dream up a message for conveying to others in His name. The substance of our spiritual witness is what God has already said in His Word, His “testimonies.” The Hebrew term is used 13 times in this psalm, is always in the plural, and refers to Scripture as God’s witness to truth. It is tantamount to “divine decrees.” The King has spoken in His Word, and we believers are His messengers to others. In witnessing, we relay His message, like Micaiah said (1 Kgs 22.14).
This provides considerable relief to believers struggling with fear. First, if our hearers take issue with us, it is really a manifestation of their hostility to God and Christ (John 15.18), and the Lord will deal with them eventually, either in mercy or in punishment. Second, their disdain comforts us as a sign of our salvation (Phil 1.28; cf. Matt 5.11-12).
To whom are you speaking God’s Word? If you must answer to no one, then how can you imagine that you are being a faithful Christian? We all have at least an informal ministry of counseling others with God’s Word, including both law and gospel, morality and salvation by grace. If your heart and mind by faith are filled with these things, it is inevitable that you will speak them—first to those nearest you, as your family members, and then to others as your boldness and opportunities grow.
CONFIDENCE AND BOLDNESS
Finally, notice one more detail of our text. Confidence and boldness are not exactly the same thing. By confidence I mean a strong belief that one is acting in a righteous way. Boldness has the sense of being fearless before danger. Confidence paves the way for boldness. “I will speak of thy testimonies before kings, and will not be ashamed.” The Hebrew word translated “ashamed” means
to have a painful feeling and emotional distress (sometimes to the point of despair), by having done something wrong, with an associative meaning of having the disapproval of those around them.2
The worldlings who do not want to hear the truth are trying to convince you that it is not “nice” to confront them with it—in fact, that it is just wrong. You must reject this because it is contrary to God’s Word which requires you to speak the truth in love (Eph 4.15). Unbelievers are too foolish to realize that there is little more God-glorifying you could do, and little more compassionate you could do for them, than to explain the gospel. The great commission is given to the church as a whole, not just to her officers (Mark 16.15; cf. Acts 8.1, 4).
Bishop Hugh Latimer was a great Protestant Reformer who was destined to seal his testimony with his blood, for he was burned at the stake, refusing to recant. Here is an anecdote that shows the stuff he was made of.
Latimer was raised to the bishopric of Worcester in the reign of Henry VIII. It was the custom of those days for each of the bishops to make presents to the king on New Year’s Day. Latimer went with the rest of his brethren to make the usual offering; but, instead of a purse of gold, he presented the King with a New Testament, in which was a leaf doubled down to this passage, “Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”3
Brethren, if we had the faith of Latimer and all the great saints through church history, we would be more bold in our witness as they were.
When we really believe the gospel of the grace of God—when we really believe it is the power of God unto salvation, the only power of salvation in this wicked world of ours—it is a comparatively easy thing to preach it, to preach it in its purity, to preach it in the face of a scoffing, nay, of a truculent [defiant] and murdering world. . . . Believe this gospel, and you can and will preach it. Let men say what they will, and do what they will,—let them injure, ridicule, persecute, slay,—believe this gospel and you will preach it.4
May the Lord preserve us spiritually, giving us much faith and consequent irrepressible utterance, to make known the mystery of the gospel, that we may speak boldly, as we ought to speak (Eph 6.19-20), for His glory and the good of the everlasting souls to whom He sends us. Amen.
Notes:
1. “Plea for Spiritual Preservation,” Pr. Meadows.
2. DBL 1017.
3. Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations, #11.
4. B. B. Warfield, Faith and Life, “The Spirit of Faith.”
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