TSADE
March 21, 2012
Oak Park Baptist Church – Wed Bible Study Series
Psalm 119:137-144 (HCSB) – 18 of 22
Tsade – 18th letter of the Hebrew Alphabet
Read/show ALL verses b4 verse by verse teaching…
[HCSB]
137You are righteous, LORD, and Your judgments are just.138The decrees You issue are righteous and altogether trustworthy.
[NLT]
137O LORD, you are righteous, and your regulations are fair. 138Your laws are perfect and completely trustworthy.
God is the righteous standard by which we must measure ourselves. We have a tendency to use other people…usually much worse than ourselves to measure ourselves by (in this way we rationalize our own position as NOT TOO BAD…)
So often we find ourselves thinking that God is harsh and His law is hard on us… but when we look at it for what it is… a guideline and direction for our eternal soul! It has to be a firm standard… it has to be unflinching to the whims of the human heart!
God’s Word is RIGHTEOUS and a solid foundation for ALL life! It only sounds harsh to those who seek to please SELF and serve themselves! For those who seek to serve God we find God’s judgments to be fair and wise and MUCH NEEDED in our hearts and minds!
Here the psalmist is letting us know that he sees the law of God as the right path and the implication is that he is sold out to this path… dedicated to this standard!
The psalmist is doing this because he knows who God is… the righteous Creator and that God will govern and lead as per His holy and righteous nature. God is not a capricious God who is at the whims of circumstance, but is righteous and consistent in His judgments!
Matthew Henry Commentary:
God’s will is the eternal rule of equity, and He is righteous, for He does all things in accordance with it.
How often do we acknowledge God’s sovereignty over our will? How often do we submit to the rule of God within our lives instead of demanding our own way? We know God is good and greatly to be praised…why is it then that we struggle so much in turning loose of our insecurities and giving full control over to God!
[HCSB]
139My anger overwhelms me because my foes forget Your words
[NLT]
139I am overwhelmed with indignation, for my enemies have disregarded your words.
As a believer, how angry to do we get when we see people openly defy God! What streams through our minds and dwells in our hearts when we see openly gay and lesbian marches that shake their fists at God and God’s standard for marriage?
How do we feel when we hear the atheists and agnostics use the very Constitution our forefathers created lifting UP our Creator… and they use it to defile Him and ban Him from all things public.
How MAD do we get when we see open rebellion within the church body, when those who profess Christ simply refuse to accept God’s calling OR they openly live in defiance of God’s perfect plan and purpose!
Does it hurt your heart? Does it make you sick on your stomach? Is your soul disturbed by sin? Do the unrighteous cause you a troubled spirit?
Here the psalmist was ANGRY with those who openly defied God and God’s law…
Matthew Henry Commentary:
Calls it a great contempt which wicked men put upon religion… or things holy!
We should not feel this way with sinners because they are going to sin… we hurt for them and pray for them to be saved…
Where this brings a crushing blow to the body of Chrsit is when we see those professing Christ, thinking that they can live as they CHOOSE to live and that there are no consequences to their choices or actions!
These people KNOW God’s plan, and they have often heard the Word preached. The issue here is NOT that they do NOT know (like sinners) but it is that they DID know, but did so little to heed those commandments from God. They ignore them for so long until they get to the point that they soon forget what they are!
They willingly forgot them, not only thru carelessness in letting them slip from their minds, but they have also contrived on how to cast them behind their backs.
Henry tells us that, “This [type behavior] is at the bottom of all wickedness as they have forgotten the words of God, else they would see their sinful course and change direction through God’s H.S.
[HCSB]
140Your word is completely pure, and Your servant loves it.
[NLT]
140Your promises have been thoroughly tested; that is why I love them so much.
Truth is often something that is difficult to face and hard to accept. I can remember when my youngest child, our daughter came to us at the tender age of 19 and she told us that she was pregnant…
That was a truth that we could NOT run from… it was a truth that hurt our hearts down to the very core of who we were… but what we found is that no matter how hard it may seem, the truth is always going to be the truth!
No matter how much it hurt us, our daughter was pregnant, and no matter how much we denied it or wanted to deny it… it did not change the fact of her situation!
Here the psalmist extols God for the truth of His word! He says that he rejoices IN the truth of God’s word. This is a statement of praise to God for the reliability of His word and the psalmist is recognizing the purity of God’s calling!
Matthew Henry Commentary:
The psalmist’s great affection for the word of God is evident here when he says, “Thy servant loves it.”
Every good man, being a servant of God, loves the word of God, because it lets him know his Master’s will and directs him in his Master’s work.
[Rom 12:2 HCSB & NLT]
WHY? It is our love for God! We see it to be pure, and therefore we love it. So what does that mean? It means that OUR love for the word of God is an outward evidence of our love of God!
We love it for its purity! We love it because it bears the image of God’s holiness and is designed to make us partakers of that holiness.
So no matter how ‘harsh’ we may THINK the truth of God’s word may be… it is pure and we should love it because it is thru His word that we can know eternal salvation in Christ Jesus!
[HCSB]
141I am insignificant and despised, but I do not forget Your precepts.
[NLT]
141I am insignificant and despised, but I don’t forget your commandments.
Here the psalmist understands that he is ‘a nobody’ in the world’s eye, and that because of his love for God, he is also a despised nobody!
Jesus told His disciples that the world would hate them because of their affiliation with Him! We know that today, that Christians are coming under fire more and more because of the name of Jesus! It doesn’t matter how much we minister and love people… we are judged by those outside the kingdom as being judgmental and blinded by religion…
But those in Christ are FAR from that… those who are truly “in Christ” don’t judge people or condemn people… they love them! But that does not mean that their love will be given back… most of the time believers are hated BECAUSE of their great love!
Matthew Henry Commentary:
The excellence of humanity cannot always secure him from contempt; instead it often exposes him to the unfair and hateful scorn of others and always makes him low in their own eyes.
What we can see is that God has made the choice to use the foolish, broken and despised people of this world! This uplifts and glorifies HIM!
And tho’ the psalmist believes he is belittled and despised, God can and will use Him… it is a promise straight out of his word and the psalmist knows this and lays claim to that promise…
[HCSB]
142Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your instruction is true.
[NLT]
142Your justice is eternal, and your instructions are perfectly true.
God… your standard is far above all other standards! Your standard has always been… it is… and it always WILL BE! The psalmist recognizes not only the eternal nature of God’s word, but expresses joy in the certainty of its truth!
The word of God will judge us, it will judge us in righteousness, and by God’s Word our everlasting standing will be determined.
This should possess us with a very great reverence for the word of God that it is righteousness itself, the standard of righteousness, and it is everlasting in its rewards and punishments.
Another aspect here is that God’s word is a law, and that law is THE truth. In this we can see a double obligation that we fall under if we desire to be governed by the word of God.
First we are reasonable creatures, and as such we must be ruled by truth! The TRUTH in this aspect is the man, Jesus of Nazareth!
So the psalmist has come to the conclusion that IF the principles are true, those practices [associated with] must be agreeable to them, else we do not act rationally.
We are creatures, and therefore must be ruled by our Creator; and whatever he commands we are bound to obey as a law. God’s truth is a law (John 18:37) and God’s law is the truth; surely we cannot break them apart.
[HCSB]
143Trouble and distress have overtaken me, but Your commands are my delight.
[NLT]
143As pressure and stress bear down on me, I find joy in your commands.
[HCSB]
144Your decrees are righteous forever. Give me understanding, and I will live.
[NLT]
144Your laws are always right; help me to understand them so I may live.
These two verses are almost a repetition of the two foregoing verses, but with improvement.
The psalmist once again professes his constant devotion to God and his duty, notwithstanding the many difficulties and discouragements he has met with.
He said (Ps. 119:141), I am small and despised, and yet adhere to my duty. Here he finds himself not only mean, but miserable, as far as this world could make him so:
Trouble and anguish have taken hold of him—trouble without, anguish within have surprised him, seized him, and has held him.
I don’t have to tell you here tonight that SORROW is very often the plight for any believer! They are in constantly heavy of heart and suffer thru a great many temptations.
This is where the psalmist says, yet do I not forget thy precepts; [show 2nd highlighted verse here]
Here the psalmist in this verse v.143 carries his faithfulness much higher when he writes, “…I find joy in Your commands…”
All this trouble and anguish did not put his mouth out of taste for the reassurance of the word of God, but he still relished them and found that peace and pleasure in the Word of God is what delivers him from the calamities of this present time!
There are delights in the word of God in which the saints have often the sweetest enjoyment of when they are in trouble and anguish, 2 Cor. 1:5 is one of them…
How much do we VALUE the Word of God in our lives and detest the evil of this world… FAR too often the value of God’s word in our lives is miniscule and the value of the world grows in our hearts to the point where we lose touch with who we are in Christ!
Love God… Love People! That must be our mantra! Loving God means that you must also LOVE His great Word! Where are you tonight…
