Praise for the Permanence of God's Word

Psalm 119:89-91

The Psalmist is going to say here in these lines that when you look at the sun, moon and the stars and recognize that they are upheld by the power of God's word, that the reason they are steadfast and the permanence that they have is because God's word upholds them.

Question then for each of us is can we learn anything from observing them. If His word can sustain and uphold them do you think maybe, just maybe, that if we choose to rely on His word, it would also uphold us, give us stability and permanence in life? Its from this thinking that he moves in vs:92-96 to his relationship to the Word, in the second section.

The Psalmist begins with a statement of fact: Forever, O LORD, Thy word is settled in heaven.

Since the word forever (~l'A[) can look in either direction, forward to the future or back to the past what he is saying is that the permanence of the Word is seen either way you look! If you look back, God's word is eternal; if you look forward God's word is eternal.

The idea of "settled" means to stand firm and it sets up a principle that is axiomatic; that is its a statement that we know to be true. In the far distant past to the far distant future, YHWH, your word stands firm (is a settled matter) in heaven. Literally he is saying in the heavens and it establishes a reference point for the Word.

He's saying its settled in the highest you can go, the throne room of God! No higher place you can go! It's like saying it was appealed to the Supreme Court and therefore it is a settled matter! This also links the settled nature of His word to God's essence. That's why you can count on what it says.

This verse picks up God's word, lifts it up above all the changes wrought by time, above all the exigencies of life, above all the temporality and transience of this earth. No matter how clever man thinks he has become, no matter how confident he is, he will never change God's word or His plan.

Diocletian [284-311 AD] mobilized the resources of the Roman empire to stamp out the Bible. He might as well have tried to stop the blowing of the wind.

Voltaire one day held up a Bible and said that in 50 years I'll have this book in the morgue. It will be done and have no impact any longer being his thrust. In 50 years he was in the morgue and the Geneva Bible Society owned his house and used it as a place to store Bibles.

Since vs:89 stresses the fact, the certainty of the permanence of God's Word, and that it has been settled at the throne of God, the highest authority there is. Now what kind of evidence does the Psalmist draw for that? How can he prove this fact, that it is true?

No surprise the evidence he gives is that of Creation in vs:90-91. Let's suppose that we do not believe that the heavens and the earth were created by God. What are we loosing here in Ps 119 if that is the case? We're taking the whole evidence for the permanence of the Word of God here and flushing it!

The Psalmist's argument here ought to alert us to the importance of creationism over evolution. This is an ongoing battle that in most arenas is being lost today. Evolutionary thinking pervades the thinking in most all aspects of life today. Its part of the common world view.

Throughout the Psalms the fact that God is creator is assumed, and here he is saying do you want me to prove the permanence of God's word, then I'll go to what we all know, it is evident that we have a creator God, just look around see the heavens, see the earth, look at His hand work. If you take away the fact that God is a creator God, then you take away almost all of the arguments of the O.T. for God's character and God's works.

In the light of that, you can see why it is so important that we understand God as He has revealed himself, as the creator God. God as the Creator God is foundational, not just to Genesis but to the whole of the O.T. as well as the whole of the Word of God.

YHWH is the personal God, who created everything, and He did so by His word!! If you attack that then your attacking the entire O.T. Notice what he says first in vs:90 before he gets to the evidence!

"Thy faithfulness (continues) through out all generations;..."

In vs:89 what parallels the "faithfulness" of vs:90? It’s the character of the word that parallels faithfulness. The faithfulness here he is not just talking about the character of God but the character of God as revealed in His word. In effect the Psalmist makes faithfulness here a synonym for scripture, the word. In Psalm 119 the scripture is called the law, the commandments, the precepts and scripture here is called faithfulness.

Vs:90a lit. "For historical epics and historical eras Your faithful word;"

Now with the 2nd part of the verse he begins the evidence for the permanence of the word, His faithful word. How can creation demonstrate the faithfulness or permanence of the Word?? What is more dependable than the sun? the Moon? Do you go to bed with a great fear that it won't "come up" tomorrow??

In fact how do we date months?? By the moon, lunar months; Why do we go from a full moon to full moon?? Its dependable! Most all the solid dating that we have from ancient history are tied to solar or lunar events, eclipses. So celestial movements are critical in dating not to the year, but to the day and month.

And it all hinges on the regularity of the movement of the celestial bodies. So if your going to attempt to illustrate permanence, tough job since only God is truly permanent, so the best that we can do is to turn to what He has created, that best gives us the picture of permanence.

That's what the Psalmist is doing here! Says God's word His faithful word is permanent; here's my best shot at illustrating that; look at the heavens, the earth; all of God's creation. It gives you the best picture of permanence. (Jer. 31:35-36)

"You have established the earth, and it stands." The emphasis of "establish" (kun) is once again that we have a creator God. The emphasis of "it stands" is that he is also a sustainer God, sustains what He created.

All of modern science is predicated on the fact that God has established and sustains His creation. The "laws" of light and electricity, of heat and sound, of magnetism and gravity, of chemistry and physics, of biology and mathematics -- all are established by the faithful Word of God. [Biblical Basis of Modern Science by Henry Morris]

Where does man come into the picture here? Not in it at all!! Not only has God made it and since He has made it He has kept it together "it stands". And He has done all this by His word. (10 times in Gen.1 we find "And God said,...or then God said")

Now what is the lesson that we should learn from the moon?? If the moon is sustained by the word of God, is it not logical that His creatures, like us, can and will also be sustained by the Word of God!! The Psalmist also will make one more point here and that is the celestial creation, the moon, the earth has much more "sense" than man does.

What are they?? The last part of vs:91 says "For all things are thy servants." [all things refers to the celestial creation]

Need to pick up the thought of the first part of vs:91 which presents the reason we see the permanence of God's word in His creation. "They stand this day according to Thine ordinances, ..." The verse in the Hebrew actually begins with what they have translated, "according to Thine ordinances, ..." This reflects the construction which indicates a result where the thought actually begins in vs:90.

So by putting the last part of vs:90 with vs:91 what do we have? You have established the earth, and it stands. As a result of your ordinances they stand this day." What does this do to the emphasis of the verse? The heavens and the earth, His creation stands as a result of His word. So that gives us the evidence that they are sustained! Now what is the reason they are sustained?

It's because they are in a servant relationship with YHWH. "For all things are thy servants." The idea of the servant relationship is that they do His bidding.

Did you ever see the sun rebel against its creator; nor has the moon! You can count on it they will last as long as God desires them to. His word sustains them, and one day what is His word going to do?

2 Pet 3:7 speaks of the heavens and the earth being sustained, preserved for the day of judgment when they will be destroyed with intense heat (a nuclear type of explosion vs:10). Then follows the creation of a New heavens and earth untainted by sin.

Creation relates to the creator as a servant. And the Creator reciprocates by making them permanent, sustaining them! This leads to an easy transition to the application to His people. If He does that much for His creation then should he not also do as much for his people?? What does this all mean to us and our relationship to the Creator God??

This is what the Psalmist deals with in the rest of the stanza. (vs:92-96) How it all relates to me and the benefits of putting my trust and confidence in his faithful word, a word that is changeless, settled in heaven.

Are we not to be His servants just like the creation is His servant? Are we not to be sustained by His word just as the creation is sustained by His word?

Next time we'll analyze the next section of the stanza to discover the truths and the challenge the Psalmist has for us.