They had almost consumed me upon earth;
But I forsook not thy precepts (Psa 119.87).
If Satan the roaring lion (1 Pet 5.8) cannot destroy you with violence, then as a cunning serpent he will deceive you with temptation (Gen 3.1 ff.). Your only hope of peace and safety is steadfastly to obey God’s law. Truly, there is more genuine and lasting danger in sin than in suffering. Christian martyrs are delivered from the devil once and for all, while the tried on earth remain vulnerable to at least a degree of apostasy through compromise, with its disastrous consequences. If you will keep to the straight and narrow way, though you must suffer persecution, you shall ultimately be saved.
John Bunyan preached this graphically in his famous extended allegory, The Pilgrim’s Progress. Just before Christian came to Palace Beautiful, he saw two ferocious lions standing in his way, the same from which Timorous and Mistrust had fled. Since Christian did not see they were chained, he almost went back, but the Porter encouraged him with these words, “Is thy strength so small? Fear not the lions, for they are chained, and are placed there for trial of faith, where it is, and for discovery of those that have none.” In other words, Providence ordains hindrances to salvation as a test of whether we will really trust him. The Porter’s next words are full of profound wisdom: “Keep in the midst of the path, and no hurt shall come unto thee” (Part I Chapter 3). Sure enough, as Christian bravely went straight on between the lions, he passed by safely. Though afraid, the little girl jumps from the third story window of a burning building into her loving father’s arms because she trusts him implicitly.
We are too prone to think that radical and consistent obedience to God’s Word will lead to disaster, when the exact opposite is true. Wandering from God’s revealed will is what exposes us to the most significant and long-lasting trouble. Faith is trusting God enough to do things his way, though the prospects of happiness or success may seem tiny. When the Israelites passed down into the Red Sea between high standing walls of water on either side they must have felt vulnerable, but this was for their salvation. Without trusting and obeying the Lord at this point, they would have been slaughtered by the Egyptian army.
Likewise, when they dwelt in the wilderness, Balak the Moabite king could not buy Balaam the prophet’s curse upon them (Num 22-24), but when he taught Balak to entice Israel into idolatry and immorality (Rev 2.14), 24,000 of them died in the plague of God’s judgment (Num 25). The Midianites had “vexed [Israel] with their [the Midianites’] wiles . . . [and] beguiled” them (Num 25.18).
Another example comes to mind, namely, the man of God from Judah commissioned to reprove Jeroboam, ruler over the northern kingdom of Israel (1 Kgs 13). God strictly charged this Judean prophet to return straight home after delivering the divine message of condemnation by a different route than he came, without stopping to eat or drink anywhere. Then an old prophet falsely claimed that the Lord now commanded a hospitable break in travel, and while there, the disobedient prophet learned of his impending demise.
Thus saith the LORD, Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the LORD, and hast not kept the commandment which the LORD thy God commanded thee, but camest back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place, of the which the LORD did say to thee, Eat no bread, and drink no water; thy carcass shall not come unto the sepulcher of thy fathers (1 Kgs 13.21-22).
Just after he departed for home, a lion met him and slew him in the way, leaving his donkey alone. This plain sign to all passers-by proved that this was not unlucky circumstances but a special divine judgment for disobedience. And this happened even to a faithful man of God who preached fearlessly to an evil king who could have ordered his execution!
With these examples in mind, the doctrine of Psalm 119.87 is better grasped.
THE TRIAL OF OBEDIENCE
“They had almost consumed me upon earth.” The context requires us to understand this of his human enemies. The definition of “consumed” which fits best here is “to destroy, to bring to utter ruin, to exterminate.”1 The precise original sense comes out well in these renderings: “almost made an end of me on earth” (ESV) and “almost wiped me off the earth” (Tanakh). While there is evidence that OT prophets were conscious of life after death and even eternal blessedness for the righteous, their perspective was more typically earth-bound than that of NT prophets. Sometimes the former spoke as if this life were all there is. Pleading for the Lord to preserve his earthly life, the psalmist argued for it this way, “Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise thee?” (Psa 88.10). “The interrogations in these verses imply the strongest negations.”2 This verse should not be taken as a flat denial of resurrection but rather as the psalmist’s temporary lack of hope while in the midst of much despair.
If we depend on mere human wisdom and the outward appearance of things, it can certainly seem to the most sorely persecuted that our demise is all but inevitable. The test of our faith can at times be so terribly difficult. In Psa 119.87a, this is what the psalmist confesses had happened to him in the past.
“At times their cruel plans seem to border on success. Let not the righteous be dismayed. Let the Word be remembered which can never fail” (Henry Law, in loc.). Matthew Poole may have been right to suggest that the psalmist, mentioning earth, consciously “implied that his immortal soul and eternal happiness in heaven, of which he speaks, Psa 16.11; 17.15, and elsewhere, was safe, and out of their reach,” but that may have been more obvious to him after the fact, when his temporal deliverance had come and prefigured a greater one.
THE TRIUMPH OF OBEDIENCE
Matthew Henry observes that “that which they [the psalmist’s enemies] aimed at was to frighten him from the ways of God, but they could not prevail; he would sooner forsake all that was dear to him in this world than forsake the word of God, would sooner lose his life than lose the comfort of doing his duty” (in loc.), and God delights to honor such principled and steadfast commitment to him.
The psalmist’s testimony of his experience throughout the trial was this, “but I forsook not [“did not abandon,” Tanakh] thy precepts.” There is such a close relation between God and his Word in the OT that to abandon his Word is the same as abandoning him. “Transgressors” and “sinners,” both terms with connotations of breaching God’s law, are the same as those who “forsake the Lord” in Isa 1.28. God speaks to an apostate when he mentions “the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me” (Deut 28.20). Unfaithfulness in one’s relationship to God manifests itself by flagrant sins of commission and omission. Only a fool imagines his heart is right with God while living in plain and habitual violations of his moral law.
Therefore this is the psalmist’s testimony of fidelity to God himself which was seen in treasuring his law and scrupulous adherence to it in real life. And having kept the faith while suffering intense pressure to sin, the psalmist had enjoyed answers to his prayers for the preservation and deliverance of his person, both soul and body.
Sometimes it does please God to grant the church’s enemies an apparent and temporary triumph over us so that we are led as sheep to the slaughter, but when that happens, we must remember two things.
First, this is the exception to the rule. Ours is a God of deliverances. He loves to bring us through the trial, proving our sincerity, strengthening our faith, and demonstrating his love and power toward us.
Second, the triumph of the wicked is only apparent and temporary. There really is an afterlife. The clouds obscuring this truth in the OT because of the progressive nature of God’s verbal revelation sometimes parted and the blazing sun of truth about this sometimes shone through. For example, Job prophesied with amazing knowledge of the future,
I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me (Job 19.25-27).
All mankind will finally be raised from the dead. Judgment Day is real, and the meek shall inherit the earth just as Jesus promised (Matt 5.5). All this will happen when God’s everlasting kingdom of glory is finally consummated at Christ’s second coming.
Until then, our calling as Christians is to love the Lord and keep his precepts. Don’t be intimidated by angry enemies. Despise the world’s attempts at spiritual seduction, because they imperil you. Giving in to please them, even a little bit, is hazardous. God who governs his moral universe keeps the lions chained so that you may safely walk between them. It may seem frightening to do the right thing, but as you trust and obey God’s perfect law, you will discover experientially that it was the only truly safe way to live. The righteous will see someday that all the transgressors have fallen into the evil pits they intended for us (Psa 119.85; cf. Prov 26.27).
May the Lord keep us loyal to him, giving us faith to trust his wisdom and to keep his precepts without compromise. Amen.
Notes:
1. Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
2. The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, in loc.
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