I have done judgment and justice:
Leave me not to mine oppressors (Psa 119.121).
The godly fear just mentioned (Psa 119.120) compels single-eyed obedience to God’s Word. We sinners face a choice of fears—God or men. The Lord exhorts us to fear him above all others. “Fear not, Abram; I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward” (Gen 15.1), that is, fear not men, fear not the future, fear not the consequences of obedience to the divine commands. When Abram had proven he would sacrifice Isaac just because the Lord required this, then God said, “Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me” (Gen 22.12).
Jesus said, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell,” that is, God (Matt 10.28). When Paul had boldly pronounced a divine curse on all who would preach any other gospel than the one the apostles had already preached, he raised the point that this illustrated his determination to please God above all others. “For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ” (Gal 1.10; cf. vv. 8-9).
Above all other things, the Lord wants our hearts. The difference between life and death, heaven and hell, righteousness and sin, is the matter of worship. Whom or what shall we count as our first priority, our chief treasure, our highest pleasure, our greatest fear, our most secure confidence, and our supreme love? This is the spiritual watershed that divides saints from sinners, regardless of our claims.
To the degree we worship God, we lose the fear of men. “The Lord said unto [Jeremiah], Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord” (Jer 1.7-8). Overflowing holy boldness inspires us to say, “Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident” (Psa 27.3). Even if I am the only one left in the whole world who believes the Bible and wants to keep God’s commandments, my heart is steadfast! Let them mock me, threaten me, rob me, beat me, even kill me—my conscience is held captive by the Word of God. This was Luther’s praiseworthy stance, and oh, what glorious churches have been built with the living stones who shared Luther’s spirit!
We also recall with gratitude and pleasure the exemplary reply of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, when they had refused obeisance to King Nebuchadnezzar’s golden statue while the sound of his instruments brought everyone else down to their knees with their faces to the ground.
O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up (Dan 3.16-18).
It is as if they said, “We have no doubt that if it pleases him, God is able to save us from your furnace, but our main concern is exclusive devotion to our God, even if it costs us our very lives!” This zealous determination to believe and obey God’s Word no matter what, leaving the consequences to God, what we could call “Theism,” is completely incompatible with the philosophy of “Pragmatism.”
With considerable insight, theologian Cornelius Van Til got to the root of the matter.
Why should Theism consider Pragmatism to be its enemy? Is it because Pragmatism opposes Christian morality? Yes, but there is deeper reason. Is it because Pragmatism is the enemy of the Christian religion? Yes, but for a still deeper reason. Theism considers Pragmatism its foe because Pragmatism serves another God than the God of Theism. Theism serves God; Pragmatism serves gods.1
This verse in Psalm 119 illustrates the godly man’s posture with respect to Scripture and the results the follow from his commitment to it.
A TESTIMONY OF SPIRITUAL INTEGRITY
“I have done judgment and justice,” or, “I have done what is just and right” (ESV). Of course the standard for justice and righteousness praised in this psalm is Holy Scripture. The two Hebrew nouns so translated have been used to refer to it repeatedly (judgment: mishphat, vv. 7, 13, 20, 30, 39, 43, etc.; justice: tsehdek, vv. 7, 62, 75, 106, etc.).
Whatever boasting might be done before men of limited knowledge and fallible judgment, anyone with a shred of sensitivity left in his conscience and any realization of God’s holy omniscience would not dare to engage in it while addressing him. David is not boasting here but pleading his case with all candor before God. “Lord, you know my heart. You have observed all my ways. You have weighed my motives and actions in the balance of your eternal wisdom and made your assessment. While I make no claims to sinlessness, O God, you know that I have walked before you with a serious intention to keep all your commandments, and to shun everything your holy law forbids. I have chosen again and again to displease people around me that I might please you instead.” Let no one protest that such a life is impossible, for the grace of God has produced it through the authentic conversion of countless sinners, and their spiritual growth toward holiness.
Remember Hezekiah’s response to the news that God was about to let him die. “Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight” (Isa 38.3). The Lord confirmed his pleasure with Hezekiah’s prayer by granting him fifteen more years to live.
Let each of us examine ourselves, whether we can also offer in prayer to the Lord such a testimony of spiritual integrity and general fidelity to knowing and doing his Word in all circumstances, despite many pressures to compromise. Only then can we pray with confidence that he will honor our cause as David pled in the second line of our text.
A PETITION AGAINST SPIRITUAL ENEMIES
“Leave me not to mine oppressors,” or, “do not hand me over to my oppressors” (NJB), or “deliver me not up to them that injure me” (Septuagint, English translation).
First, notice the psalmist is admitting that he had oppressors. Our effeminate generation of political correctness condemns the Christian that raises any opposition at all, just because he has opposition, but only unscrupulous cowards have no enemies. Jesus said, “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets” (Luke 6.26), and Paul, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Tim 3.12). Spurgeon preached with admirable courage:
We speak out our minds even when propriety is shocked and respectability is enraged. I would always give to young men this piece of advice: Quit yourselves like men, let nobody have to say that your religion is mamby-pamby, and your conversation affected. . . . Be holy, but not showy; true, but not obtrusive. Be men, be manly, be Christians, be like Christ. He was the very highest type of man; you never see anything stilted, or unnatural in him, he is always himself, transparent, out-spoken, brave, honest, true, and manly.2
Second, note well that he is praying against being turned over to his oppressors, so that they could do to him whatever they wished, and accomplish all they intended concerning him. This is a prayer against absolute spiritual demise, and suffering total conquest. Now this is not martyrdom, for the martyr dies a victor, standing firm for his Lord to the bitter end. No, the most miserable end possible is much worse than that. It is succumbing to the evil, becoming morally vile like the reprobates dishing out abuse and tormenting the godly soul. “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom 12.21). To be “overcome of evil” is to fight fire with fire, to yield to the temptation of retaliation when injured. To overcome evil with good is to continue unflinching obedience toward God’s righteous law even when it is most difficult and costly to us, and above all things this law requires love, even love to our enemies.
Third, he committed his cause to God, with all confidence that the outcome would praise the glorious divine grace. Only prayer can strengthen us against a response of rage and malice in the crucible of unprovoked, undeserved mistreatment. The Spirit of Christ is not inherent within us, but he comes again and again in his blessed influences as the expression of God’s covenantal love for his chosen people, and in answer to our repeated prayers. We should be importunate in asking God for the Spirit, so that we might possess and exhibit the virtues of his Son who had the Spirit without measure (Luke 11.13; John 3.34). This Spirit of grace God promises to give us forevermore (Prov 1.23; Isa 44.3; Ezek 36.27; John 7:37–39; 14.16-17; Eph 1.13-14).
Oh, dear brethren, let us repudiate Pragmatism with all proper disgust! The end never justifies the means. If that is the case even when our lives are at stake, how obviously it applies when lesser concerns plead for consideration! Do not compromise God’s truth to hold onto an unworthy friend or even to preserve a marriage. Stick to your guns at work. Count the threat of no promotion or getting fired as less than a speck of dust on the scale. Let us together be scrupulously Scriptural also in the church’s message and ministry. Yes, we will suffer criticism and slander. We may even be privileged to endure worse things for the name of Jesus Christ. But this is no more than what the worship of our God requires, and great will be our reward. Amen.
Notes:
1. “God and the Absolute,” EQ, Vol 2, 1930.
2. MTP, Vol. 18, #1052.