Thou hast trodden down all them that err from thy statutes:
For their deceit is falsehood (Psa 119.118).
One of the things which discerning saints love to confess to the Lord in prayer is his sovereignty over the evil of this world, that “though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.”1 God’s wisdom and patience accounts for the prevalence and continuance of moral evil in the world today, not bad judgment or lack of power on his part.
In that spiritual knowledge we can persevere in faith and obedience to God’s Word, despite the difficulty of nonconformity to this present age. One may be greatly encouraged to keep walking in the right direction if he knows that the crowd walking past him is pressing toward their ultimate ruin.
It also helps the saints to persevere in these days of his longsuffering to remember how God, right now, views his enemies, a people Scripture calls “sinners.” For example, the ancient “men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly” (Gen 13.13). “Before” has the sense of “in the presence of, noting recognition of jurisdiction.”2 As God’s creatures, everyone is constantly in his territory of authority and control, and the One both omniscient and holy regards each with perfect knowledge and justice. “The Lord’s eyes are in every place, beholding the evil and the good” (Prov 15.3), that is, forming judgments of that which is evil and that which is good. “The ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings” (Prov 5.21). “All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weigheth the spirits” (Prov 16.2), and finds some irreverent and immoral.
In this life then, God is continually looking upon each and every person as having a legal status in his court of either righteous or unrighteous, even though the righteous ones are not without sin and the unrighteous ones are not nearly as bad as they could be on account of God’s powerful restraint of the full development and expression of their inward depravity. Judgment Day will distinguish more clearly and publicly to us than anything we can perceive in this life between these two great groups of mankind. “Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not” (Mal 3.18). “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats” (Matt 25.31-32).
These are merely some very basic teachings of Scripture about God and his relationship to the people in this world, and these lay a foundation for an accurate interpretation of our text.
SINNERS IDENTIFIED
Earlier we noted the term “sinners” used in Scripture, and fundamental to its proper usage is a recognition of their identity and character. Who is a “sinner” before God? There may be no more glaring example in the English language than with this word how widespread and long-standing misuse can cheapen a word to the point of practical meaninglessness. “We’re all sinners” is the never-doubted mantra of many, both outside and inside the visible church. As with many errors, it has more than a modicum of truth. The Puritan dictum, “In Adam’s fall, we sinned all,” is true (Rom 5.12). We are all born sinners and we prove our depraved nature by our actual sins (Psa 51.4; Mark 7.20-23; Jas 1.13-15).
The good news is that God saves sinners, not imputing their trespasses to them but to Christ in their place, and crediting his elect with the righteousness of Christ, as those united to him (2 Cor 5.19; Phil 3.9, etc.). The saved ones are no longer classified by God as sinners but as saints in Christ. This is clearly implied by Romans 5.8 which says about believers, “while we were yet [i.e., still] sinners, Christ died for us.” Paul characterizes believers as having been sinners before we were converted. On this text Calvin wrote, “Those are here called sinners (as in many other places) who are wholly vicious and given up to sin, according to what is said in John 9.31, ‘God hears not sinners,’ that is, men abandoned and altogether wicked.”
In the main biblical sense, then, to be a sinner before God is not merely to be sinful, as saints on earth certainly are, but to be wicked and guilty, and therefore under God’s just condemnation.
See how David distances himself from this class of people in our text by referring to them as “all them that err from thy statutes.” He does not count himself among them. This is the same trait he mentions in verse 21, “Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, which do err from thy commandments.” Paul has the same group in mind and calls them “the children of disobedience” upon whom the wrath of God comes (Eph 5.6, cf. vv. 5-11).
The term “err” means to wander from the right way, accurately conveying the sense of the original.3 The conceptual background is that God’s revealed will in Scripture sets a straight and narrow moral course for God-fearers. Sinners are those who are not trusting and obeying him. They are not just law-breakers but lawless ones, a law unto themselves. They have gone astray like wandering sheep, turning every one to his own way (Isa 53.6). God grants the graces of repentance and discipleship to the sinners he saves, so that they sincerely begin to walk in the faith and love which he commands (Acts 11.18; Rom 6.17; Gal 5.24, etc.).
Sinners are those, then, who practice lawlessness, even if they profess Jesus (Matt 7.22-23); their lives are not governed by God’s moral law.
SINNERS REPUDIATED
Addressing God, the prophet wrote, “Thou hast trodden down all them that err from thy statutes.” The verb is a form of tread which means to trample, “to inflict injury or destruction especially contemptuously or ruthlessly,”4 a graphic metaphor for humiliating judgment and severe punishment. That our God and Savior Jesus Christ will do this to the finally impenitent is the solemn and consistent testimony of all Scripture (Isa 63.3; Rev 19.13-15).
In the original, the verb for God’s activity means “to disdain,” and probably has a nuanced sense of “to throw away,5 to make light of, to toss aside,6 to reject, repudiate an existing relationship, implying a low opinion of the person rejected.”7 In any case this is a terrible term to characterize God’s attitude or action toward anyone! Some modern translations render in the present tense: “You spurn all who stray from your statutes” (ESV).
It is heartening to the righteous to know that God is holy and maintains his opposition to the church’s enemies, and it also supports our resolve against apostasy.
SINNERS DUPED
The second’s line’s exact sense is subtle both in the Hebrew and in accurate translation: “their deceit is falsehood.” The likely interpretation seems to be captured in these judicious comments:
In the original this is an emphatic way of declaring the whole thing to be false, as the Hebrew language often expresses emphasis by mere repetition—thus “pits, pits,” meaning many pits. The psalmist first characterizes their conduct as deceitful—as that which cannot be relied on—as that which must fail in the end; he then speaks of this system on which they acted as altogether a “lie”—as that which is utterly “false;” thus giving, as it were, a double emphasis to the statement, and showing how utterly delusive and vain it must be (Albert Barnes, in loc.).
Falsehood without the consistency of truth is their self-deceptive and seductive tendency.8
In his commentary on the Psalms, Charles Spurgeon elaborated in his inimitable way:
They call it far-seeing policy, but it is absolute falsehood, and it shall be treated as such. Ordinary men call it clever diplomacy, but the man of God calls a spade a spade, and declares it to be falsehood, and nothing less, for he knows that it is so in the sight of God. Men who err from the right road invent pretty excuses with which to deceive themselves and others, and so quiet their consciences and maintain their credits; but their mask of falsehood is too transparent. God treads down falsehoods; they are only fit to be spurned by his feet, and crushed into the dust. How horrified must those be who have spent all their lives in contriving a confectionery religion, and then see it all trodden upon by God as a sham which he cannot endure!9
All sinners, from intellectual atheists like Richard Dawkins, to the most unsophisticated drunkards in homeless shelters, have been duped. They have yielded to the darkness of their own hearts and minds, taking the way they preferred in life, thinking it would promote their happiness, and they will finally discover that they have cheated themselves out of God and eternal life, who might have been enjoyed by grace alone!
To oppose Christ and his church is the most egregious and cosmic folly. It is to maintain one’s status as a sinner before God, a lawless one whom he repudiates, and to continue in a delusion of one’s own making. Never, ever forget this, because it will furnish matter for praise and strengthen your heart. May we heartily embrace all this toward the praise of his glorious grace. Amen.
Notes:
1. “This Is My Father’s World,” Trinity Hymnal #109.
2. Webster’s 1828 Dictionary, “before” #4.
3. Webster’s 1828, in loc.; DBL #8706.
4. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.
5. NET Bible notes.
6. BDB Lexicon.
7. DBL#6136.
8. Keil and Delitzsch Commentary, in loc.
9. Treasury of David, in loc.