I hate vain thoughts:
But thy law do I love (Psa 119.113).
Some disrespect is not unusual among evangelicals today for the religion of the Old Testament in comparison with the spirituality of the New Testament. It is often imagined that the experience of Jews back then was not spiritual like that of Christians today, and that the worship of Judaism was almost solely external ritual until the age of the Spirit on Pentecost. Perhaps some today think this way because of a wretched system of Bible interpretation known as Dispensationalism.
We should celebrate the fact of discontinuity between the testaments on this matter. In these last days there certainly is a new wideness and fullness of the Spirit’s blessing in the church.1 God’s elect have been gathered from all nations, and healthy local churches have much less of the “mixed multitude” of believers and unbelievers than old Israel typically did.
However, it is entirely wrong to teach that real saints before Jesus Christ came into the world were not subjects of the Spirit’s gracious internal operations like regeneration and sanctification. Long ago, John Calvin complained about certain heretics “who think of the people of Israel just as they would do of some herd of swine, absurdly imagining that the Lord gorged them with temporal blessings here, and gave them no hope of a blessed immortality.”2 That tribe is not yet extinct.
The author of our text was David, writing as a prophet of the Lord. His “experimental religion”3 was generally of a very high order and has been greatly admired by discerning believers ever since. Yawhew called him “a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will” (Acts 13.22; cf. 1 Sam 13.14). In the preface of a commentary on the Psalms, no less a spiritual giant than Calvin himself made these famous remarks about him:
For although I follow David at a great distance, and come far short of equaling him; or rather, although in aspiring slowly and with great difficulty to attain to the many virtues in which he excelled, I still feel myself tarnished with the contrary vices; yet if I have any things in common with him, I have no hesitation in comparing myself with him. In reading the instances of his faith, patience, fervor, zeal, and integrity, it has, as it ought, drawn from me unnumbered groans and sighs, that I am so far from approaching them; but it has, notwithstanding, been of very great advantage to me to behold in him as in a mirror, both the commencement of my calling, and the continued course of my function; so that I know the more assuredly, that whatever that most illustrious king and prophet suffered, was exhibited to me by God as an example for imitation.
Now as to our text, David’s mountainous spirituality shines forth in this verse as much as any.
HATING VAIN THOUGHTS
True and gracious piety is very much a matter of one’s sincere affections held in the secret place of the soul which no one can see but God. That has always been the case, even from the Garden of Eden. In this prayerful testimony to God, David solemnly affirms that his religion was not merely notional, a matter of ideas and opinions and beliefs only, but that it had radically altered his innermost likes and dislikes.
And that is to put it rather too mildly, for he uses much more forceful words. “I HATE vain thoughts.” The Hebrew verb also means to detest, loathe, be hostile, have a feeling of open hostility and intense dislike.”4
It expresses an emotional attitude toward persons and things which are opposed, detested, despised and with which one wishes to have no contact or relationship. It is therefore the opposite of love. Whereas love draws and unites, hate separates and keeps distant. The hated and hating persons are considered foes or enemies and are considered odious, utterly unappealing. . . . There is a hating on the part of man which is acceptable to God. Man must have an aversion to and depart from evil, hence the Psalmist says, “I have hated the assembly of evildoers” (Psa 21.5). This hatred is also in diametric opposition to a believer’s trust in the Lord, for the man of God says, “I hate them who regard vain idols but I trust in the Lord” (Psa 31.6).5
But here, it is not evil people but thoughts which the psalmist hates, even “vain6 thoughts.” The Geneva Bible notes (1599) commented, “Whoever will embrace God’s word correctly must abhor all fantasies and imaginations both of himself and others.”
Another possible interpretation of the Hebrew is reflected in the ESV, “I hate the double-minded,” i.e., those not wholeheartedly committed to following the Lord—evil people. While this statement is consistent with the biblical doctrine of holy hatred, Albert Barnes wedded both ideas in his explanation of our text, and this is probably best.
It refers . . . to a state of mind or heart in general, where there is no firmness, no stability, no settled view: a state of mind wavering, doubtful, skeptical, in regard to religion.7
Is this not most instructive for us? Nominal believers do not hate their double-mindedness or they would forsake it. They are only troubled much in conscience, if at all, by more grossly sinful deeds, if not grossly sinful thoughts.
A sincere Christian believer, on the other hand, is grieved over even the beginnings of skepticism with respect to biblical teaching, and over so-called “little sins,” and over any perceived wavering from his commitment to follow Christ as Lord wholeheartedly. This aversion to double-mindedness keeps us safe spiritually. Since indulging atheistic thoughts and flagrant sins brings us very near the precipice of complete and final apostasy, the further we stay away from that cliff edge of eternal perdition the better. We ought to detest very deliberately and intensely even the slightest regression from our former faith and faithfulness, and we will if the root of the matter is in us. We will shudder to realize the danger of “vain thoughts.” Someone sent me a message today that he “is getting sick to his stomach that he would dare spend even a second of his life for self and sin and not give a care about God and his glory.”8 That is the praiseworthy spirit David represents.
LOVING GOD’S LAW
“But thy law do I love.” By love he means that he strongly desires God’s law, preferring it above all other things.9 Of course God’s law refers to Scripture. He has already affirmed his love for all God’s commandments (vv. 47-48). He has burst out in an emotional declaration of his love of God’s law (v. 97). He loved it for its justice (v. 119), its worth (v. 127), its purity (v. 140), its power to revive him and give him peace (vv. 159, 165), its truthfulness (v. 163), and its practical direction for his life (v. 167). In all these verses he used the same word for love.
Many people would say they believe the Bible, but how few can honestly say that they love it with all their heart! For those few who dare to claim such a love, no doubt many would prove insincere if their habitual neglect of Bible reading, study, memorization, and meditation were exposed. And even among that select group that does make conscience of daily contact with the Bible, not all exhibit an ardent love of Scripture by a whole-souled and scrupulously obedient walk with God visible to all who know them.
It is reported that noted evangelical pastor John Stott has for six decades enjoyed 90 minutes of Bible study and prayer each morning.10 That is believable, since much of his teaching exhibits great spiritual excellence and his books have helped so many.
David said publicly, sincerely, and before God, “Thy law do I love.” What a challenge to us all! At least in a small degree, this is true for every real Christian, and at the same time it remains the goal toward which we strive. Even great David images but faintly his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in this. No one loves the Scriptures as much as he who is the Word Incarnate. No one embodies its righteousness, the very holiness of God, as Jesus does.
We can only attain a virtuous disgust of wavering thoughts and a deep love of Scripture when Christ dwells in us richly by his Spirit, as he did in David. For that let us pray earnestly, with faith and hope that our pleas will not be in vain. Amen.
Notes:
1. See The Holy Spirit by Sinclair Ferguson.
2. “The Similarity of the Old and New Testaments,” Institutes of the Christian Religion II.10.
3. Or, “experiential.” “The older Reformed writers used the word to indicate that we not only read and confess what Scripture teaches, but also are enabled by the Holy Spirit in our own experience to prove and enter into those truths. The propositions of Scripture are true regardless of our experience of them. But in those who belong to Christ, there is a work of the Holy Spirit to persuade them of those truths, so that they taste and feel the power of them in their own souls. To tremble when we discern our guilt before God, and to be driven to seek covering in the blood of Christ, is to gain an experimental knowledge of realities revealed in Scripture” (Sherman Isbell, “Recovering Experimental Religion,” available at http://www.westminsterconfession.org/Recovering_Experimental_Religion.pdf).
4. DBLSD #8533.
5. TWOT 2272.
6. “Vain” is italicized indicating it was supplied by the AV translators. All hinges on the meaning of the specific Hebrew word in this context.
7. In loc.
8. Tweet from JM Vergara, “iamfeeblesaint.”
9. DBLSD #170.
10. http://www.intervarsity.org/news/loving-gods-word