Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful (Psa 119.138).
Most people ignore the Bible, assuming it is not trustworthy as the Word of God. This seems to be true, even within the visible church, being mostly composed of mere nominal Christians. When we come to realize Scripture is absolutely trustworthy and then begin to exercise a living faith, we take the first steps on our trek to heaven and our whole lives are altered radically and permanently.
Since the trustworthiness of Scripture as God’s Word is the foundation of all righteous thinking and living, it should be no surprise that this is where the Archenemy concentrates much of his attack on the church. Once he shakes your confidence in the Book of books, you are much more easily led astray from the Great Shepherd by the infernal roaring lion who walks about seeking whom he may devour. Do not let his loud cavils drown out the voice which leads you to the full enjoyment of eternal life!
GOD HIMSELF IS TRUSTWORTHY
God’s Word derives its trustworthiness from the God who authored it. While we know the trustworthy God through his Word, its trustworthiness rests upon him, not vice versa.
This was the psalmist’s point in the previous verse. “Righteous art thou, O LORD, and upright are thy judgments” (v. 137). Note well the connection of line one with line two. From a righteous God proceeds righteous judgments; it could not be any other way.
Jesus said, “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things” (Matt 12.34-35). God himself is the greatest treasure, so his words are of inestimable value. “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times” (Psa 12:6). “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1.5). His speech is so many streaming rays of glorious truth.
GOD’S WORD IS TRUSTWORTHY
This is the psalmist’s basic assertion in our text, though it is not easy to translate into English. “Hardly any two scholars render this verse in precisely the same way.”1 Certainly the Authorized Version is a good rendering. Grammatically, its subject is “testimonies,” specifically, those belonging to God (“thy”), the original meaning “what God solemnly testifies to be his will.”2 A dependent clause strengthens the reader’s appreciation of exalted sacredness in God’s testimonies, for they are “that thou hast commanded” or “appointed” (ESV). It possesses peculiar divine authority. “God insures the truth of his word by commanding it.”3 God’s Word is an extension of God’s own authority, an authority which suffers absolutely no loss for having been expressed verbally in words of human language.
These divine testimonies, appointed by God, are in this verse connected by the verb with two adjectives. The first is “righteous,” the original being used significantly also in verses 7, 62, 75, 106, 123, 142, 144, 160, 164, and 172, which see. It means that which is morally right because it is according to God’s own standard. As stunning as it is to consider this, God’s Word is as righteous as God himself!
The second adjective is “faithful,” with the special connotations of firmness, fidelity, and steadiness.4 Compare verses 86 and 90, where it describes both the faithfulness of God and of his Word. Truly, God’s Word is also as faithful as God himself! Joined to this adjective is a word of intensification which means “very” or “exceedingly”: “very faithful.”
A responsible attempt to bring out the true sense for modern readers is, “The rules you impose are just, and absolutely reliable” (NET Bible). In this truth we have a solid foundation for vital godliness.
Since it is preposterous to think that God is evil, Satan attacks our view of God’s good character indirectly by undermining our confidence in his Word. In Eden’s primeval temptation, the serpent slithered up to Eve and hissed, “Yea, hath God said . . . ?” (Gen 3.1).
This first question in all of Scripture, exceedingly sinister, was the very means by which the Tempter insinuated doubt to Eve concerning God’s goodness in himself and grace to her. The Devil went from questioning God’s Word to contradicting it flatly, and then boldly attacking God’s reputation: “Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods [or, like God, ESV], knowing good and evil” (Gen 3.4-5). If we may paraphrase, “God only gave the prohibition to keep something very, very good from you, that he may keep it selfishly all to himself.”
By intimating that God’s Word was not righteous and very faithful, Lucifer planted the horrid idea into Eve’s mind that God himself was not righteous and very faithful.
GOD’S PRESERVED WORD IS TRUSTWORTHY
When Satan asked, “Yea, hath God said,” he was not seeking information for himself. Instead, he wanted destabilize Eve’s confidence in the substance and reliability of God’s Word. When you believe you know what someone said and a third party asks you, “Is that exactly what they said,” all of a sudden you may begin to question the accuracy of your recollection. Evidently our first parents did not have the Word of God written, but rather the voice of God himself ringing in their ears. Maybe there was some self-doubt about their memory. Thankfully,
it pleased the Lord at sundry times, and in divers manners, to reveal himself, and to declare that his will unto his church; and afterward for the better preserving, and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment, and comfort of the church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan, and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing.5
Notice carefully that the historic faith of the Christian church has been that God committed his Word “wholly unto writing” for the purpose of preservation afterward, better than it was preserved in an oral tradition prior to its inscripturation. What good are inerrant autographs (i.e., the original manuscripts of Holy Scripture) if by copying and publishing through the ages the exact wording of God’s Word was lost? Our Christian faith assures us that this could not possibly happen, and there are many reasons we can be sure that God has indeed preserved his Word. As Jesus said, “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matt 5.18).
Bible skeptics sometimes allege textual corruption through the ages, but wholly without warrant. No ancient text has been preserved with anywhere near as much extant evidence as the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament. This topic makes a fascinating study and we commend it to you.6 One may know for sure that God has preserved his Word.
RELY ON GOD’S TRUSTWORTHY INSTRUCTION
Plumer states that the varied opinions of scholars on the nuances of this verse all harmonize in these two doctrines from it: 1) God’s Word is marked by justice and faithfulness; 2) In his Word he has enjoined on us the strictest uprightness and fidelity. And citing Pool, “The sense is, Thou hast strictly and severely, under the highest obligations and penalties, commanded in thy word that men should be just and true in all their actions.” The sum is this: “We can have no other safe rule of righteousness than God’s Word.”7
The existence of God’s Word to us calls for our response of implicit faith and obedience. Scripture is the truth, the solid rock for all thinking and living in this world. Let us believe it and do it, or we are lost and undone. Amen.
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