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Biblical
Support For The Doctrine of Verbal Plenary Preservation (III)
-- Psalm 119:89
Lesson 5
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INTRODUCTION
Psalm 119:89 LAMED: “For
ever, O LORD, thy word is
settled [Niphal participle] in heaven.”
This is the beginning of a new section (verses 89-96) in the treatment
of the Word of God. This is easily seen in the Hebrew Bible where all
the eight verses begin with the letter Lamed (the letter “L” in
English).
The focus of this new section on the Word of God is that “the Word of
God is forever settled.”
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INTERPRETING
PSALM 119:89 – The forever settled Word
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A.
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Meaning
of “forever settled”
“Settled” means “to set up” or
“to establish”. It is in the Niphal stem which makes the verb passive
i.e. “to be set up or to be established.” As a participle the emphasis
would be on the action of the verb.
The qualifier to this verb is
the word “forever.” The meaning of the two words combined together
emphasizes the fact that the Word of God will be established
forever.
The word of God
will not change. It will not be lost, every part of it. It will be
established forever.
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B.
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What is
“forever settled”?
What is forever settled is the
Word of God, all of it. Although most of the OT and the entire NT were
not written yet when Psalm 119 was penned, the truth of this doctrine
is by way of application extended to the entire Bible from Genesis to
Revelation. All sixty-six books of the Bible are the very Word of God.
Therefore the forever established Word of God would definitely include
all the books of the Bible.
Barnes have this to add, “The
word rendered ‘settled’ means properly ‘to set, to put, to place;’ and
then, to stand, to cause to stand, to set up, as a column, Gen. 35:20;
an altar, Gen. 33:20; a monument, 1 Sam. 15:12. The meaning here is,
that the word - the law - the promise - of God was made firm,
established, stable, in heaven; and would be so forever and ever. What
God had ordained as law would always remain law; what he had affirmed
would always remain true; what he had promised would be sure forever.” [Albert Barnes’ Notes of the Bible—Swordsearcher
4.7]
Barnes is correct to make the
observation that the law of God will be established forever and it is
good that he added “what he had promised would be sure
forever.” To this it must be added that the phrase used in
Psalm 119:89 is “God’s Word” which means all the words of God. In other
words, the scope of the forever settled word is every jot and tittle
without exception.
The Word of God must not be
dichotomized into some parts more or some parts less inspired than
others, where the parts that are less inspired may have mistakes but
that which is more inspired cannot have mistakes. The measure of those
parts which are supposed to be “more inspired” are mostly defined as
those parts that pertain to “man’s salvation.”
However, God has never at any
time in the Bible teaches different levels of inspiration. Inspiration
is absolute and has only one standard. ALL of the words of God are
equally inspired, including the numbers, names of places and people.
These letters and every word including their tenses, person, gender,
and number are all inspired and are inerrant, infallible. They are
divinely inspired and preserved.
The dichotomizing of the Word
of God into different levels of inspiration and also preservation is a
deadly presupposition and teaching. This deadly approach is compounded
by the notion that man’s salvation becomes the sovereign yardstick of
what constitutes as more inspired or more preserved. Such man-centered
theology is a ploy of the Devil to inflate man’s ego and to deceive
man. The whole Bible is always God-centered.
Every word of God is inspired
and of equal value in the eyes of God. Man has no right to segmentize
God’s Word into less important and more important according to his
whims and fancies.
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C.
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Forever
Settled in Heaven
On earth everything changes.
The world continues to decay with every passing year. It is said that
the ozone layer has increased in size and the temperature is rising.
The second law of thermal dynamics teaches that all matters decay and
break down. Multi-billion-dollar companies that used to be the life
line of thousands of employees are now bankrupt. All human beings grow
old and die. Nations that used to be superpowers are now minions. For
example Babylon used to rule a vast empire in the Middle East but now
has become a weak nation. Greece was a superpower in the days of
Alexander the Great where he thought he had conquered the whole world
and there was nothing left for young Alexander to conquer. Today Greece
is a small insignificant nation not ranked among the superpowers.
Superpowers come and superpowers get replaced! Everything on planet
earth is never settled.
But the Word of God is settled
in heaven. It means that the Word of God will not be like the ever
changing earth, which changes all the time. The Word of God is settled
in heaven. It is constant and not afflicted or affected by the
variableness of the earth. The constancy and veracity of the Word of
God is emphasized here. Christian must find his comfort in the
immutable and perfect Word of God. It is settled forever in heaven
untouched by the whims and fancies of evil men. No matter how man may
attack God’s holy and perfect Word, it will never dent it or affect it.
It is permanently secured by God Himself, settled forever in heaven. Be
comforted and continue to trust the immutable God by trusting His
inerrant, infallible and inspired and preserved perfect Word.
John Calvin observed correctly
when he wrote, “Many explain this verse as if David adduced the
stability of the heavens as a proof of God's truth. According to them
the meaning is that God is proved to be true because the heavens
continually remain in the same state. Others offer a still more forced
interpretation, ‘That God's truth is more sure than the state of the
heavens.’ But it appears to me that the prophet intended to convey a
very different idea. As
we see nothing constant or of long continuance upon earth, he elevates
our minds to heaven, that they may fix their anchor there.
David, no doubt, might have said, as he has done in many other places,
that the whole order of the world bears testimony to the steadfastness
of God's Word -- that Word which is most true. But as there is reason to fear
that the minds of the godly would hang in uncertainty if they rested
the proof of God's truth upon the state of the world, in which such
manifold disorders prevail; by placing God's truth in the heavens, he
allots to it a habitation subject to no changes. That no
person then may estimate God's word from the various vicissitudes which
meet his eye in this world, heaven is tacitly set in opposition to the
earth. Our salvation, as if it had been said, being shut up in God's
Word, is not subject to change, as all earthly things are, but is
anchored in a safe and peaceful haven. The same truth the Prophet
Isaiah teaches in somewhat different words: "All flesh is grass, and
all the godliness thereof is as the flower of the field," (Isaiah
40:6).
“He means, according to the
Apostle Peter's exposition, (1 Peter 1:24) that the certainty of
salvation is to be sought in the Word, and, therefore that they do
wrong who settle their minds upon the world; for the steadfastness of God's
Word far transcends the stability of the world.”
1 Peter 1:24-25, “For
all flesh is as grass, and
all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and
the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord
endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you.”
The Psalmist did not stop at
verse 89 but restates the same theme of verse 89 in the next two
verses. Psalm 119:90-91 reads, “Thy
faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the earth,
and it abideth. They continue this day according to thine ordinances:
for all are thy servants.” In the event that some might
think that the Word of God is only constant in heaven and of no earthly
good, verses 90 and 91 argue and answer this question. The earth may
change but it changes within her own constancy. This constancy of the
earth is in God’s sovereign power and control. God revealed to us that
this constancy of the earth’s overall disposition has its foundation in
the unchanging Word of God. It is according to the forever settled Word
of God in heaven that the earth finds her constancy!
John Calvin is right when he
commented that, “. . . the Psalmist repeats and confirms the
same sentiment. He expressly teaches that although the faithful live
for a short time as strangers upon earth, and soon pass away, yet their
life is not perishable, since they are begotten again of an
incorruptible seed. He, however, proceeds still farther. He had before
enjoined us to peer by faith into heaven, because we will find nothing
in the world on which we can assuredly rest; and now he again teaches
us, by experience, that though the world is subject to revolutions, yet in it bright and signal
testimonies to the truth of God shine forth, so that the steadfastness
of His Word is not exclusively confined to heaven, but comes down even
to us who dwell upon the earth. For this reason, it is added, that the
earth continues steadfast, even as it was established by God at the
beginning. Lord, as if it had been said, even in the earth
we see Thy truth reflected as it were in a mirror; for though it is
suspended in the midst of the sea, yet it continues to remain in the
same state. These two
things, then, are quite consistent; first, that the steadfastness of
God's Word is not to be judged of according to the condition of the
world, which is always fluctuating, and fades away as a shadow; and,
secondly, that yet men are ungrateful if they do not acknowledge the
constancy which in many respects marks the framework of the world; for
the earth, which otherwise could not occupy the position it does for a
single moment, abides notwithstanding steadfast, because God's Word is
the foundation on which it rests. Farther, no person has
any ground for objecting, that it is a hard thing to go beyond this
world in quest of the evidences of God's truth, since, in that case, it
would be too remote from the apprehension of men. The prophet meets the
objection by affirming, that
although it dwells in heaven, yet we may see at our very feet
conspicuous proofs of it, which may gradually advance us to as perfect
knowledge of it as our limited capacity will permit. Thus the prophet,
on the one hand, exhorts us to rise above the whole world by faith, so
that the Word of God may be found by experience to be adequate, as it
really is adequate, to sustain our faith; and, on the other hand, he
warns us that we have no excuse, if, by the very sight of the earth, we
do not discover the truth of God, since legible traces of it are to be
found at our feet. In the first clause, men are called
back from the vanity of their own understanding; and, in the other;
their weakness is relieved, that they may have a foretaste upon earth
of what is to be found more fully in heaven. [Taken from http://www.ccel.org/c/calvin/comment3/comm_vol11/htm/xxviii.xii.htm]
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III.
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CONCLUSION
Let the comments of Spurgeon on
Psalm 119:89 be our summary:
“The strain is more joyful, for
experience has given the sweet singer a comfortable knowledge of the
Word of the Lord, and this makes a glad theme. After tossing about on a
sea of trouble, the Psalmist here leaps to shore and stands upon a
rock. Jehovah’s Word is
not fickle nor uncertain; it is settled, determined, fixed, sure,
immovable. Man’s teachings change so often that there is never time for
them to be settled; but the Lord’s Word is from of old the same, and
will remain unchanged eternally. Some men are never
happier than when they are unsettling everything and everybody; but
God’s mind is not with them. The
power and glory of heaven have confirmed each sentence which the mouth
of the Lord has spoken, and so confirmed it that to all eternity it
must stand the same — settled in heaven, where nothing can reach it.
In the former section David’s soul fainted, but here the good man looks
out of self and perceives that the Lord fainteth not, neither is weary,
neither is there any failure in His Word.
“The verse takes the form of an
ascription of praise: the faithfulness and immutability of God are fit
themes for holy song, and when we are tired with gazing upon the
shifting scene of this life, the thought of the immutable promise fills
our mouth with singing. God’s
purposes, promises, and precepts are all settled in His own mind, and
none of them shall be disturbed. Covenant settlements will not be
removed, however unsettled the thoughts of men may become; let us
therefore settle it in our minds that we abide in the faith of our
Jehovah as long as we have any being.” [http://www.eternallifeministries.org/psalm119l.htm]
Two other verses that support the
teaching of Psalm 119:89 are:
(a) Psalm 119:152: “Concerning
thy testimonies, I
have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever.”
(b) Psalm 119:160: “Thy
word is true from the
beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.”
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