Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross:
therefore I love thy testimonies (Psa 119.119).
Some say, “I just cannot believe in a God who could send anyone to hell,” and they don’t. Others who do believe in God most confidently affirm that he does send people to hell, and this is part of their complex of reasons for believing in him. In these two reactions we see two fundamentally different responses to the revelation of God and his judgment—rejection and reverence. The first belongs to sinners, and the second to saints.
HE JUSTIFIES JUDGMENT
As a devout believer in the God who reveals himself, David wrote of him and his righteous work in the first line of this psalm verse. “Thou” references God, to whom this whole psalm is addressed as a prayer. The specific work for which he praises God is his terrifying work of judging sinners.
Here the word used to describe sinners is “the wicked,” the original Hebrew term appearing over 250 times in the Old Testament. It means the one who acts badly, even criminally with respect to God’s law, and as a result incurs guilt, that is, liability to punishment by God.1 The first occurrence is in Gen 18.23 where Abraham contrasts them with the righteous who by contrast do not deserve punishment. An ancient proverb went, “Out of the wicked comes wickedness” (1 Sam 24.13). When one lives in a way of flagrant disobedience to God’s law, it exposes the depravity of that person’s heart. In our world of moral relativism where practically no one is considered evil, this biblical worldview must not be lost in our thinking.
David testifies to God’s praise that he “puttest away” or “discards” (NIV) the wicked. The original can mean to remove or to exterminate or destroy, and here the simile probably has the first especially in mind, but because this is an act of God’s judgment, it certainly implies that the wicked shall be destroyed, not in the sense of ceasing to exist, but eternally ruined (Matt 25.46).
The psalmist is confident that God will so judge “all the wicked,” all of them as one lot, and each and every one individually, so that not one will escape when God’s long-suffering mercy expires if they are found to be impenitently wicked after all. Elijah’s dealing with the priests of Baal foreshadows Judgment Day (1 Kgs 18.40). Our natural tendency is to think that if even only a few of the wicked were to escape, we would surely be among the lucky ones, and so we assure ourselves that all will be well at last though we continue our sinful status quo. Thus this univeral judgment upon the finally impenitent is useful to awaken us from our carnal sleep that ends in death.
David uses a very suggestive simile to describe God’s dealing with the wicked. He will put them away “like dross,” a reference to the refining of silver which comes out of the ground a dirty ore. From ancient times the science of metallurgy has been practiced, at least in regard to the refining of precious metals. It has long been known that silver may be sufficiently heated to the melting point, and then the slag rises to the top where it can be scooped off the surface and thrown away, leaving only pure silver behind. Here David compares all those who continue in rebellion against God and his law to the refiner’s filthy and worthless scum. “Yahweh looks upon the wicked as garbage.”2 God counts them so because they really are objectively so in his righteous and infallible judgment. And God in dealing with them acts according to his infinitely holy and just nature.
This is in contrast with the righteous who are the objects of God’s favor. “The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is little worth” (Prov 10.20). Eschatalogical judgment will purge the earth of all the wicked and leave only the righteous to shine in the kingdom of their heavenly Father. “The meek . . . shall inherit the earth” (Matt 5.5). Only those who are “left behind” after the Lord’s sweeping judgment are counted precious to him.
A particular subtlety of this text can be easily overlooked. The Authorized Version translates it, “Thou puttest away [present tense].” God is the Author of all the temporal calamities that come upon the wicked in this life, and these are harbingers of their doom. Further, even though this verse has ultimate reference to the final day of judgment, it is spoken about as God’s present act, so sure it is of being accomplished.
Now how do you fundamentally respond in your heart of hearts to this disclosure of God and his ways? Discerning this will be like a mirror to your soul. Being a prophet under the total influence of the Holy Spirit when these words were written, David’s response is exemplary.
HE FLEES JUDGMENT
“Therefore I love thy testimonies.” God’s Word written, that is, his testimonies, were the means of David’s knowing how God regards the reprobate and what end he had planned for them. Holy Scripture remains a testimony of God’s holiness and his wrath against sin and sinners, besides being the disclosure of his preceptive will. David embraces the whole message as true and precious. He uses the language of strong affection. Later he wrote, “My soul hath kept thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly” (119.167). This is more than mere belief, or even intellectual assent. It is an emotional joy in everything God reveals about himself, including his holiness, his judgment, and his commandments.
Long ago in seeking to promote genuine revival among his beloved parishioners, that foremost theologian of the Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards, wrote an entire treatise called “Religious Affections” to stress the indispensability of religious feelings in authentic salvation and godly experience. His starting thesis was that “true religion, in great part, consists in holy affections.” He drew this doctrine from 1 Peter 1.8 which says, “Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory,” commenting,
We see that the apostle, in observing and remarking the operations and exercises of religion in the Christians he wrote to, wherein their religion appeared to be true and of the right kind, when it had its greatest trial of what sort it was, being tried by persecution as gold is tried in the fire, and when their religion not only proved true, but was most pure, and cleansed from its dross and mixtures of that which was not true, and when religion appeared in them most in its genuine excellency and native beauty, and was found to praise, and honor, and glory; he singles out the religious affections of love and joy, that were then in exercise in them: these are the exercises of religion he takes notice of wherein their religion did thus appear true and pure, and in its proper glory.3
Edwards observed that the kind of faith many possess is merely intellectual, and since it does not reach the heart and affect them emotionally, they are merely nominal Christians. Sadly, the state of affairs within the church is probably no better today than it was before revival came to 18th century New England.
Beware of considering David’s emotional faith expressed in this verse as a very rare thing reserved only for the most spiritually mature believers. While he was no doubt spiritually mature, in this he expresses what is normative for those whose souls have been transformed by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Spiritually alive people are like newborn babes who crave the milk of the Word, that we may grow thereby (1 Pet 2.2). The more we do grow in it, the more it ravishes our hearts, and the more intensely we can testify that we, too, love God’s testimonies.
“Therefore” links the second line to the first as effect to cause. We might paraphrase, “Because you discard all the wicked like dross, therefore I love your testimonies.” This the connection is made up of at least two considerations. First, the psalmist confesses a heartfelt fear of the Lord. The wicked are those who reject God’s testimonies. They shall be destroyed. If I reject his testimonies, then I am wicked, too, and I also shall be destroyed. Therefore I love the divine word. There is a completely legitimate place for being afraid of God’s judgment in the heart of all saints. While this is not the primary or predominant motivation for holiness of heart and life, it is no small part of the reality which God uses to sanctify us. Thomas Boston stated this truth most helpfully,
As a child, when he seeth his father lashing his slaves, cannot but tremble, and fear to offend him, so a believer’s turning his eyes on the miseries of the damned, must raise in him an awful apprehension of the severity of his Father against sin, even in his own; and cause him to say in his heart, “My flesh trembleth for fear of thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments” (Psa 119.120).4
The second part of this connection is the manifestation God’s terrible judgments upon the wicked are of his righteousness and worthiness to be loved and served willingly. A god that is in collusion with the wicked could hardly inspire the loyalty of good men, but the true God’s holiness is beautiful and commends his service more than anything else could without it.
So here we have this clear knowledge of God’s real nature and dealings with sinners. You must love him and his ways to have assurance of salvation. Amen.
Notes:
1. TWOT 2222b.
2. A Handbook on the Psalms, in loc.
3. A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections; Part One, “Concerning the Nature of Affections and Their Importance in Religion.”
4. The Marrow of Modern Divinity by Edward Fisher, with notes by Thomas Boston, p. 214 of the Christian Heritage edition.