For Ever, O Lord, Thy Word Is Settled

For Ever, O LORD, Thy Word is Settled

Psalm 119:89-96

Some of you have noticed that I read this text from a very old Bible. I found it among my grandmother’s possessions after her death. It is the First Revision of the King James Bible which was done in 1762. As the King James Bible was revised again to its modern spelling in 1768, this Bible was printed during this six-year period. This means that it is over 250 years old. When this Bible was printed, John Wesley was in the middle of his long ministry. The American Revolution had not yet happened. So this Bible has been able to provide aid and comfort for the entire history of the United States.

This Bible contains the family record of one branch of my family back to 1741, this Bible was first owned by the sheriff of Newport, (dramatic pause: This sermon is being preached near Newport, Tennessee ) Rhode Island. This information is helpful in reconstructing the family genealogy and provides a window into my past. It shows that some of my ancestors were Quakers and that they moved from Rhode Island to Philadelphia. It shows that they became members of the Arch Street Meeting House in Philadelphia. Betsy Ross, who created the first flag for the United States was also a member there. The Bible also shows that General Nathaniel Greene, “The Fighting Quaker” was a distant uncle. Unfortunately, it also shows that I am related to Benedict Arnold as well. It shows that after the Revolution that part of the family removed to Nova Scotia in Canada. The Quakers became divided whether they should fight in the Revolution. Some did, and some did not. Those who did not support the Revolution left for British Canada after the War. Another branch through General Greene removed and founded Greene County, Tennessee, (Greene County is the next county over from where I am delivering this sermon)

I normally would not talk about my family, I am called to proclaim Christ and not myself, but seeing that this is also July 4th, it serves to remind us of our common American heritage and the struggles that the people of America endured in the founding of this nation. This Bible also has a bookmark in it which reads “Our Leader Has Fallen”, dated April of 1865 which remembers the assassination of Abraham Lincoln who in the Gettysburg Address my saying whether the American experiment in democracy “could long endure.” The North and the South struggled for what American democracy meant. The Quakers were adamantly opposed to slavery, so they could find comfort and instruction in God’s word. The Bible was ready to offer the truth and comfort of God Himself in this most disastrous war.

Besides this, the Bible contains some other interesting inserts. One of these is a clip from an 1837 paper with stock prices, livestock that is. It contains an 1872 report card for an ancestor. Strangely, it contains hundreds of pressed leaves. I guess the weight of the book itself aided in the preservation of these leaves.

I know that this has been a very long introduction on my part, but we will now see how it connects to the passage from the 119th Psalm. The 119th Psalm is the longest Psalm by far as well as being the longest chapter in the Bible. It is close to the very middle of the Old and New Testaments as well. The very length of this psalm was oddly used by schoolchildren back in the day when a student would recite a psalm at the beginning of the school day. Because most children would find reading such a psalm a burden, they would choose the very short psalm such as the 117th Psalm instead. But on test day, things were different. The length of the psalm itself would put off the judgment, called an exam. This is quite ironic, as the 119th Psalm is all about learning and meditating upon the word of God. The length of the psalm was also used by those about to suffer the death penalty. They were permitted for the priest to have a psalm recited before their execution. One prisoner, expecting a pardon from the king requested it be read before his execution. The pardon came at about verse 100, which saved his life, for the moment. Hopefully, the prisoner was prepared when the Greater King sums him before the throne.

The 119th Psalm is what is called an “acrostic psalm.” It is broken up into 22 sections of eight verses each, one section for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In each of these sections, every verse in that section begins with the same letter. In the section we read this morning, each of the verses begins with the Hebrew letter, “Lamed.” One can see the hard word that the psalmist did to arrange the psalm in this matter. This would provide an aid to memorization, something that a psalm of this length might be difficult.