God's Wonderful Word

Narrator: The author of Psalm 119 found the Lord and His word so wonderful. And how we can still experience that wonder today. Many people fail to see the wonder in the world around them. In fact, a sense of wonder is fast disappearing from our postmodern society. We are dulled to marvelous things because of overexposure to the trifles the world has to offer. The writer of Psalm 119, however, had no such problem. He was filled with the wonder of God's word.
Narrator: Welcome to The Bible Study Hour, a radio and Internet broadcast with Dr. James Boice, preparing you to think and act biblically.
Narrator: One of the reasons we've lost our sense of wonder is that God is its only true source, and God is not prevalent in our contemporary culture. When God goes, our wonder goes with Him.
Narrator: Join Dr. Boice as he studies the reasons the author of Psalm 119 found the Lord and His word so wonderful, and how we can still experience that wonder today.
Dr. James Boice: Many good things from the past are disappearing from our modern and postmodern society, and one of them is wonder. I wonder if you have noticed that. People used to have their sense of awe inspired by some new thing, but it doesn't seem to be happening anymore. They used to speak about a wonder worker, or a seven-day wonder. They had expressions like, "Well, wonders never cease." We used to read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, or we watched movies like, "It's a Wonderful Life." But all of that seems to be going. One reason for it is technology, which seems able to do everything and explain everything. Another reason is television. Television is discussing things ad nauseum. Every possible subject you can think of, and at any hour of the day or night. A number of years ago, Neil Postman, whom I like to quote, wrote a book called *The Disappearance of Childhood*, which argued that television, more than anything else, is robbing childhood of all its lovely and appealing qualities, including, we must assume, a sense of wonder at the world and at many new things. Well, those are reasons, but the chief cause of a lack of wonder is a loss of a sense of God. That's because God alone is the true sense of wonder. He's the Creator of all wonders. And so when God goes, wonders go. I noticed something very interesting when I was preparing for this study. I sometimes like to look in dictionaries of quotations to see what has been said about a particular subject in the past. And I noticed when I did that, to see what was said about the words "wonder," or "wonders," or things "wonderful," that a very large percentage of the quotations came from the Bible, or from the Book of Common Prayer, or from English authors that were intentionally and deliberately echoing biblical language. For example, the Bible speaks of signs and wonders. Jesus Christ is called a wonderful counselor. It says that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. It speaks of the creation and says that all God's works are wonderful. This is especially true in the Psalms. That word occurs in the New International Version at least 32 times, and there are variations of it in one way or another. And what about the English writers? If you make your way through the great writers in our language, you find them talking about God and His wonders again and again. I won't plague you with all of my memory of English literature, but I will share my favorite with you. It's a poem on Christ's nativity by an author in the early 17th century, whose name is Richard Crashaw. And this particular verse goes like this: "Welcome all wonders in one sight, eternity shut in a span. Heaven, summer and winter, day and night. Heaven and earth and God in man." "Blessed little one, whose all-embracing birth, lifts earth to heaven, stoops heaven to earth." Well, the author of Psalm 119 had not lost his sense of wonder, because he had found the Bible to be wonderful. Now, he's already mentioned that. In the 18th verse, he says, "Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in Your law." And then a little further on, in verse 27, he talks about meditating on Your wonders. Now, in the stanzas to which we come today, the very beginning, verse 129, he says, "Your statutes are wonderful, therefore I obey them." Now, he talks about that in this stanza and the next. There are two themes that go together. On the one hand, he talks about the wonders of God's law. And on the other hand, he talks about the proper response to those wonders, which is obedience. That word "obey" is repeated three times in the first stanza, in verses 129, 134, and 136. Now, as we go through these two stanzas to see why God's word is wonderful, we're going to find that obedience comes in with each of the affirmations. But before I do that, let me share a quotation with you from Charles Haddon Spurgeon. He writes about the wonders of God's law, and it goes like this: "God's word is full of wonderful revelations, commands, and promises. Wonderful in their nature, as being free from all error and bearing within themselves overwhelming self-evidence of their truth." "Wonderful in their effects, as instructing, elevating, strengthening, and comforting the soul. Jesus, the eternal word, is called wonderful, and all the uttered words of God are wonderful in their degree. Those who know them best wonder at them most." "It is wonderful that God should have borne testimony at all to sinful men, and more wonderful still that His testimony should be of such a character, so clear, so full, so gracious, and so mighty." And then because Spurgeon himself recognized that the proper response to wondering at the marvels of God's revelation is obedience, he wrote this: "The word of God has such wonderful character and so impressed itself upon the psalmist's mind that he kept these words in his memory. Their wonderful excellence so charmed his heart that he kept them in his life." Now, he gives seven reasons here why God's word is wonderful, and the first is because God's words give understanding to the simple. This is what he states in verse 130, and then he talks about his obedience to the law in verse 131. "The entrance of Your word gives light, it gives understanding to the simple. I opened my mouth and pant, longing for Your commands." Now, the interesting word there is the word "entrance." The Hebrew word is *petakh*, and depending upon whether you pronounce it with a long or short E, it can mean either of two things. It can either mean "door," if you pronounce it *petakh*, or it can mean "revelation," if you pronounce it *petekh*. Same consonants exactly, but a different pronunciation of the vowel. Now, the New International Version, which follows the King James, treats it as an opening or a door. That's why it's translated "entrance." "The entrance of Your word gives light." Martin Luther, on the other hand, thought it had to do with revelation. So he translates it this way: "wenn dein wort offenbart wierd," that is, "when your word is revealed." Now, the explanation for that double meaning is this. In the early days of the formation of the Hebrew language, the Jewish people were largely Bedouin, that is, living in tents. And a tent had a single door, which was a flap of skin. It was the only opening into the tent. And so when that flap of skin was opened, as the door, it let the light flood in. The entrance was literally the revelation. And this is exactly what's picked up in the psalmist's particular use of the word, when he talks about the entrance of God's word giving light. Now, haven't you found that to be true? When you read the Bible, haven't you found that it throws illumination on all of life? You say, "Who am I?" You read the Bible, you find out. You say, "Why am I here?" You read the Bible, you find out. You say, "What is wrong with me? And what is wrong with the race?" You read the Bible, you find out the problem is sin. You say, "How can it be cured?" You read the Bible, you find out. All of the deep questions of life and eternity and God and man and redemption and sin, and all of that are unfolded for us in the Bible. If you haven't found that to be true, it's because of one or two reasons. Either, first, you haven't been studying the Bible seriously, or secondly, you've approached the Bible with a superior frame of mind, judging it by your own limited understanding, rather than allowing it to be the other way around. I mentioned Martin Luther a moment ago. Luther made a very strong point in his exposition that this revelation provided by the Bible is for the simple. Most of us don't like to be thought of as being simple, but Luther said, "Yes, it's the simple who really do understand." He argued that the wisdom of the Bible is hidden from those who are wise in their own eyes, but that it's disclosed to those who are ready, prepared, eager always to be taught, judged, and to hear, rather than to teach, judge, and be heard. Now what happens as a great illustration in an incident from the gospels in the life of Jesus Christ. After the crucifixion, and even after the resurrection, two of the disciples were going back to their home in Emmaus. We call them the Emmaus disciples, but one of them is named. His name is Cleopas, and presumably this is the same Cleopas that's mentioned elsewhere in the gospels as having a wife named Mary, and we're to understand, no doubt, that these two, Cleopas and Mary, are making their way home. They were very disheartened by the crucifixion. They had heard news of the resurrection. They tell Jesus Christ that women that they knew had been to the tomb, they'd come back with a report from angels that Jesus was raised from the dead. Two of their own number, Peter and John, who were there in Jerusalem, they said had gone to the tomb, and they'd found it exactly the way the women had said, but they didn't believe in resurrections. Dead people don't rise. It was all over. Whatever it happened, it must be mythology or some kind of hallucination. They were going home. And so Jesus began to talk to them, and what we're told is that He began to talk to them from the scriptures. Listen, verses 13 and following. "How foolish you are," He said, "and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter into His glory?" And then this verse, "Beginning with Moses and going through all the prophets, He explained to them what was said in the scriptures concerning Himself." Now, that story contains three great openings. First of all, He opened the scriptures. In other words, He took the Bible and He began to teach from the Bible all the things that concerned Himself. Second, we're told that their eyes were opened, because as Jesus opened the Bible to them, God who blesses His word, and who has promised that it will never return unto Him void, but will always accomplish what He has sent it to do, provided understanding. And they began to see that Jesus really was the one who was prophesied in scripture. And then finally, having opened the scriptures and having opened their minds, we're told that when He reappeared to them at the end, after they had returned to Jerusalem, that He opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures. That's the way it always works, and that's what we're talking about here in this particular passage in the Psalms. First the Bible is open, then the eyes are open, and finally the mind is open, which is a way of saying that as we study the Bible, we begin to see things aright. We have our minds reordered, transformed, as Paul says in Romans, by the renewing of your mind. But now notice, here, as with each of the other points to be considered, the end result is not understanding alone, as important that is, and it has to come first, but rather it is obedience. And that's why verse 131 follows 130. Because the entrance of God's words gives light, the psalmist says that he opens his mouth panting after those words, longing for God's commands. It's a way of saying that he intends to obey it. Now the second reason why God's words are wonderful is that we find the mercy of God in them. And mercy is what we need. Not justice. We don't need that. Justice will condemn us. Not pity. You can have pity but not be able to help. Not recognition of our tarnished good deeds. We don't need that before Almighty God. What we need is a mercy that reaches out to us and saves us who are truly wretched and unable to help ourselves in our sin. Now, that's what the psalmist says. He expresses it as a prayer in verse 132. "Turn to me and have mercy on me, as You always do to those who love Your name." This is the last verse in the psalm that doesn't mention the Bible specifically. Although it's quite possible that the reference to Your name somehow has a reference to the Word of God or the Bible. But whatever the case, it's in the Bible that the psalmist finds mercy. He certainly doesn't find it when he turns to his enemies. He's talked about that. They're merciless. He doesn't find it when he turns to his friends. They're indifferent, and some of them have even betrayed him. But when he turns to the Bible, he finds God, and God is a merciful God. And we know that mercy above all because of Jesus Christ. Charles Wesley captured that well in that great hymn, "And Can It Be," that we love to sing so much, particularly at the PCRTs. You know that third verse that goes like this: "He left His Father's throne above, so free, so infinite His grace, emptied Himself of all but love and bled for Adam's helpless race. 'Tis mercy, all, immense and free, for, oh, my God, it found out me." "'Tis mercy, all, immense and free, for, oh, my God, it found out me." So I ask the question, have you found the mercy of God in the word of God? That's the greatest discovery anybody can possibly make, to find the mercy of God in the word of God. If you haven't found that mercy, if you don't know that the very essence of the character of God is to be merciful, then you have to pray the prayer of the publican, that tax collector, who was not at all like the self-righteous Pharisee, but the one who stood off at the edge of the crowd and prayed, "God, be merciful to me a sinner." Nobody has ever prayed that prayer honestly, looking to God who has sent Jesus Christ to be the Savior, who has not found mercy. Well, the third reason the psalmist finds the words of God to be wonderful, it's something that we have seen many times already. He's repeated it again and again throughout the Psalm, and that is that they give the right guidance for life. Specifically here, they give direction for his footsteps, victory over sin and salvation from those who are trying to destroy him. The new thing that we find in this mention of the role of God and giving God's giving guidance is what we've been talking about all along, and that is the role of obedience. It works in two different ways. On the one hand, it is by obeying God's word that the psalmist finds obedience. On the other hand, it's because he finds direction in the word of God that he actually learns to obey it. The fourth reason he finds the scriptures to be wonderful is because God Himself is in them, and because He reveals Himself to the one who studies them. That's what verse 135 says. "Make Your face shine upon Your servants." Now, that is a direct reference to what's called the Aaronic blessing. You find it in the sixth chapter of Numbers. Sometimes we use it at the close of a service. "The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you." That's what he's referring to here. "And be gracious to you. The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace." What was the great and abiding desire of the Old Testament saints? What did they aspire to more than anything else? The answer is what they wanted was to see God. That's why Moses prayed as he did back there in the 33rd and 34th chapters of Exodus. He asked God, "God," he said, "what I want more than anything else is to see Your face." And God had to reply to Moses, "No one can see My face and live. You can't do that, but," he said, "I'll do the next best thing." And we know how the story unfolds. He put him in a cleft of a rock in the mountain, as it says, he covered him with his hands, he passed by. And Moses had this great revelation, and the revelation was the still, quiet voice of God. Not something visible, but the words audible to his ears. And what God said was this: "The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin." That's what Moses heard, and in that sense, Moses saw God. He saw Him to be merciful. And that's the way we see Him too. We don't see God in some imaginary vision, some mystical experience of the saints, some bright light coming into our room, or something of that nature. If that happens, you wouldn't know whether it was God or the devil. But rather we hear God in His word. And when we turn to His word, what we find out is that God is merciful. Somebody says, "Yes, what about Jesus?" Jesus said, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father." True. But where do we see Jesus today? We see Him in the Bible. And then in verse 136, this idea of obedience comes in again. But here, you see at the close of this stanza, the writer's concern is that God's law is not obeyed. And what he says is that it brings tears to his eyes, because the disobedience of the law of God dishonors God. And even though it's the enemies of God who are disobeying God, his reaction to the enemies isn't to hate them, but rather to weep for them, because God is dishonored, and of course, they suffered as a result. We need to learn from this today. Particularly in the evangelical world, we have the idea that the way to handle the enemies of God is to fight them, verbally perhaps, and maybe physically as well. And so we have whole movements that are based upon that, and they just turn out, generally speaking, to be ugly things. Matthew Henry once wrote, "The sins of sinners are the sorrows of saints." We have to remember that Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Tears show compassion. And compassion for others, more than anything else, tends to win people. It certainly wins them more than anger. Now we move to the next stanza, and here we have more reasons why the word of God is wonderful. The theme of this whole stanza is righteousness. The word occurs a lot of times in verses 137, 138, 142, 144. And there's a perfectly good reason for that. If you look in your Bible, you find that this stanza is known as the Tsadhe stanza. It's that Hebrew character, the letter with which all of the verses begin. The reason righteousness is so prominent is that the word "righteousness" begins with that letter, and it has almost the same sound. So, you can hardly say the letter without the word "righteousness" immediately coming to your mind in the Hebrew. So, it's another reason why the psalmist knows that God's words are wonderful. They're altogether righteous. A couple of thoughts go together in this section. First, the source of righteousness is the character of God. Notice he says, verse 137, "Righteous are You, O Lord." And 142, "Your righteousness is everlasting." That's one side of it. But secondly, the law of God gives expression to that righteousness. Notice 137, "Your laws are right." 138, "The statutes you have laid down are righteous." 144, "Your statutes are forever right." One way to express this is to say that the Bible is a mirror of the character of God. You want to know what God is like, you study the Bible. And what you find there is that God is a righteous, holy God. We do need to study it, because we have a great need for understanding what righteousness is today. Our world is losing a sense of righteousness. We're retreating into law, which isn't the same thing. States when need to study the Bible to find what righteousness is. So should judges and policemen and teachers and parents and ministers. Indeed, everyone who is concerned for righteousness in his or her life or in our world. Now quickly, the sixth reason why God's word is wonderful is that it has been tested and has been proved to be reliable. Notice verses 140 and 141. "Your promises have been thoroughly tested, and Your servant loves them." Have you found God's word to be trustworthy, something you can count on? Years ago, it was a habit among Christians, when they had studied a promise in the Bible and had prayed about it and found that God was faithful to His promise, to write two letters in the margin. They would write T and P, and it stood for "tried and proven." It's a way of saying that they had appropriated that promise themselves. They had prayed about it, and they found that it's true. Now, that's what the psalmist is saying. The word of God has been tried and tested. It has been proven reliable. And so he throws out a challenge to us to actually believe it and live by it and find that it's wonderful, because God always keeps His word. And that leads to the last of these seven reasons. It's because God's words are true. "Your law is true," he says, in verse 141. You say, "Well, why should that be important?" Obviously, because so much of what we hear is not true and can't be trusted, regardless of whom it comes from. It used to be that if somebody in a position of authority said something, generally speaking, you could believe it and trust it, but you can't do that anymore. Two researchers named James Patterson and Peter Kim wrote a book some years ago, published in 1991, entitled *The Day America Told the Truth*: what people really believe about everything that really matters. Fascinating study. One set week, they did an extensive interview of Americans, and one conclusion that comes out of this book is that Americans lie, and they lie all the time. They lie constantly. People acknowledge lying, and lying regularly and often for no apparent reason. Politicians lie, directors of large corporations lie, employees lie, husbands and wives lie, friends lie, everybody lies. So you ask the question, "Is there anyone who doesn't lie?" And the answer is, "Yes, there is one." And that is God. God does not lie. God tells the truth. He is the truth. Jesus Christ is the truth, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. And the Bible is the word of truth. Amidst of lies, here is a word that can be absolutely trusted. Isn't that wonderful?
Dr. James Boice: Let's pray. Our Father, we are thankful that You've given us this book. We confess, we don't value it as we ought. We confess in a world of technology and images and lies, and all of the shallow things that make up our culture. We pass by Your word. And we ask forgiveness for that. Here we have an anchor to our souls, a rock and a foundation upon which we can build. A message of mercy and hope which opens new possibilities for those who will come to Jesus Christ in saving faith. We pray that You will help us to recapture a sense of the wonder of what You have given us in this book. And then respond to it obediently as we are told to do, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
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