With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth (Psa 119.13).
A really good echo can be an unforgettable experience. The best ones have a long delay and high fidelity. The physical phenomenon involves your sending out sound waves, typically a word or phrase, and having them come back to you again. Echoes require the right environment; well-suited conditions to produce the desired effect are unusual, as in a cave or empty stadium. Usually our voices are just physically lost with no return.
You have also heard a figurative echo. Here is an example. I remember one of my former pastors who habitually quoted his greatest mentor, Dr. Bob Jones Sr., founder of BJU. Both in daily conversation and from the pulpit, my former pastor often began, “As Dr. Bob used to say . . .” and then the sage aphorism was gladly reiterated. Sitting under this pastor for years, I heard and learned many of them:
The greatest ability is dependability.
You and God make a majority.
The test of character is what it takes to stop you.
You can borrow brains, but you can’t borrow character.
Don’t sacrifice the permanent on the altar of the immediate.
It’s never right to do wrong in order to get a chance to do right.
If you will give God your heart, He will comb all the kinks out of your head.
Trust God as if it all depends upon Him, and work as if it all depends upon you.
Like it or not, you will have to live somewhere forever; so you better learn how to live.
The religions of the world say, “Do and live.” The religion of the Bible says, “Live and do.”
These became famous as his “chapel sayings.” In reviewing them, I realize that even though some have become a part of me, I had forgotten their source. My former pastor was honoring his mentor, showing great love and trust and appreciation, by echoing his very words to others. For me it was almost like sitting at the feet of Dr. Bob himself though I never knew him personally.
This illustrates on a human level the concept of Psa 119.13 about the psalmist’s relationship with God and His Word. The “couplet” form of this verse is less obvious than most of the others in Psa 119, but noticing it with meditation deepens insight, and the presentation above brings it out. God has spoken first of all, and His Word figuratively echoes back from His people.
Believers recite the Word of God to others.
THE DIVINE SOURCE
God speaks just as really and truly as man. The psalmist uses an “anthropomorphism” to get this across when he speaks of God’s “mouth.” Of course God is, as to His essence, “a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions” (1689 LBCF II.1). God does not literally have a mouth. Nevertheless, we must not think for a moment that the Creator can do less than His creatures (see Acts 17.29). “He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not see?” (Psa 94:9), and He that made our mouths, shall He not speak? One of the most basic truths about God is that “He is there an He is not silent” (title of Francis Schaeffer book). The psalmist expresses strong confidence in God’s existence and verbal activity.
The “judgments” of God are His authoritative declarations, here particularly referring to the Holy Scriptures. As with most of Psalm 119’s verses, the written Word of God is in view, and the particular term here used emphasizes the truth and justice of what God says in the Bible.
Also, notice the stress on the comprehensive authority, truth, and justice of God’s Word. “All the judgments of Thy mouth” are believed and admired by the psalmist. A living faith believes whatever God says just because He says it, because of confidence in God Himself. Knowing that He is infinitely holy and truthful and wise supports our implicit faith in Him. Likewise, realizing our creaturely finiteness and our natural prejudice against truth and for our sinful lusts leads us, again and again, to distrust our own judgments—especially when they conflict with what God says in His Word. People who disbelieve parts of Scripture because they seem false or unjust to them only prove they are trusting in something or someone else rather than God, and this is idolatry. Typically, the false god adored by Bible skeptics is themselves, and this is nothing else but sinful pride.
THE BELIEVING ECHO
While the bodily language in this verse referring to God is figurative, with the psalmist it was quite literal. “With my lips” indicates that he was habituated to speaking these things aloud. Further, the Hebrew verb choice connotes talking so as to communicate the message to another. The root word is surprisingly, mathematical, with the notion of counting something (e.g., Gen 32.12). In the form found here, it brings across an “iterative” idea (involving repetition)—to recount, recite, rehearse, etc. Thus the psalmist is testifying of his habit of repeating before others the same things God says in Scripture. Faith makes a Christian like an old-fashioned sounding board behind a Puritan pulpit which bounced the preacher’s voice toward the congregation in high fidelity to the original.
The unbeliever’s heart is like sound absorbing material. God speaks and His Word has no echo from the wicked person. If they repeat anything at all it is woefully distorted by glaring omissions (not “all the judgments of God’s mouth”) or openly false doctrine (contradicting parts of God’s truth) or at least a hypocritical life (making His truth odious to others by association with the godless professor).
All believers ought to have the same testimony of Psa 119.13, and to increase in this virtuous act of worship. We have a moral obligation to echo God’s truth in His Words back to others. Admittedly, relatively few are called to stand and preach from a pulpit within the church, or even in the streets (Psa 40.9-10; cf. 1689 LBCF XXVI.11). Nevertheless, every believer ought, at least, to repeat God’s Word to people in the family (Deut 6.4-7; 11.18-19) and informal situations (Mal 3.16).
We should be the kind of people, dear brethren, that repeat Scripture expressions to others, in evangelistic contexts, in family discipleship contexts, and in casual, everyday conversation with believers and unbelievers alike, as it is fitting, just like my former pastor used to quote Dr. Bob Jones. This Bible-talk is the overflow of our faith and enthusiasm for the wisdom and truth and righteousness and usefulness of Holy Scripture.
Let us take these things to heart, examining ourselves whether we have, like the psalmist, been faithful in reciting all the judgments of God’s mouth to others, and taking care to increase our faithfulness, by His grace. Amen.
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