Psalm 119: 89-96

This Psalm is called the Alphabet of Divine Love, the Paradise of all Doctrine, the Storehouse of the Holy Spirit, and the School of Truth.

The Theme of Psalm 119

is

The Word of God

89.  Forever, O Lord, Your Word is settled in heaven.

90.  Your faithfulness endures to all generations; You established the earth,    
       and it abides.
91.  They continue this day according to Your ordinances, for all are Your     
       servants.
92.  Unless Your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my
       affliction.

93.  I will never forget Your precepts, for by them You have given me life.

94.  I am Yours, save me; for I have sought Your precepts.

95.  The wicked wait for me to destroy me, but I will consider Your testimonies.

96.  I have seen the consummation of all perfection, but Your commandment is 

       exceedingly broad.

89-96  We have arrived at the Psalm's center, and the thread of the connection is purposely broken off.  The substance of the first eleven sections has evidently been, "The Lord has brought me this far, will I now perish?"  To this, the eleven succeeding sections answer, "The Lord's Word does not change, and in spite of all the evil, the Lord will perfect in me the work that He has already begun."    (Joseph Francis Thrupp, 1860)

89.  Forever, O Lord, Your Word is settled in heaven.  The strain is more joyful; experience has given David a comfortable knowledge of the Word of the Lord.  After tossing on a sea of trouble, the psalmist leaps to shore and stands on a rock.  Unlike man's word, Jehovah's Word is not fickle or uncertain. It is settled, determined, fixed, sure, immovable.  It is settled in heaven where nothing can reach it.  In the last section, David's soul fainted, but here, the good man looks out of self and perceives, "The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary" (Isaiah 40:28). Nor is their any failure in His Word.

This verse takes the form of an ascription of praise.  The faithfulness and the immutability of God are proper themes for a holy song.  When we are tired of gazing on life's shifting scene, the thought of immutable promise fills our mouth with singing.  God's purposes, promises, and precepts are settled in David's mind, and none of them will be disturbed.  Covenant settlements will not be removed, however unsettled people's thoughts 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.

90.  Your faithfulness endures to all generations.  God is faithful to all generations, so long as they keep His covenant and remember His commandments.  Divine faithfulness endures forever.  He who comforted His servants thousands of years ago still shows Himself strong on behalf of all that trust Him today.

You established the earth and it abides.  Nature is governed by fixed laws. The globe keeps its course by divine command.  It displays no erratic movements, the seasons observe their predestined order, and the oceans obey the rule of ebb and flow.  All things are marshaled in their appointed order.   There is an analogy between the Word of God and the works of God, both are constant, fixed, and unchangeable.  The Word of God that established the world is the same as He has embodied in the Scriptures.  "By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made" (Ps 33:6), and especially by Him who is emphatically the Word (John1:1).  When we see the world keeping its place, all its laws remaining the same, we have assurance that the Lord will be faithful to His covenant and will not allow the faith of His people to be put to shame.  If God's Word established the world surely it is enough to establish the individual believer.

91.  They continue this day according to Your ordinances.  Because the Lord has commanded the universe to remain, it stands, and all of its laws continue to operate with precision and power.  Because God's might is ever present to maintain them, all things continue.  The Word that spoke all things into existence has supported them until now, and it is still supporting them, both in being and in well being. God's ordinance is the reason for continued existence of creation.

For all are Your servants.  Created by Your Word, they obey that Word, answering the purpose of their existence and working out the design of their Creator.  Great and small things pay homage to the Lord.  No atom escapes His rule; no world avoids His government.  Should we, then, wish to be free of the Lord's sway and become lords unto ourselves?  It is God's law that secures the well-being of the universe.  Let us continue to serve, and serve more perfectly as our lives are continued.  by that Word which is settled, may we be settled.  By that voice which established the earth, may we be established. By that command by which all created things obey, may we be made the servants of the Lord God almighty.  We depend on Him and give Him glory as our Creator, Conserver, and Redeemer.

92.  Unless Your law had been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.  That Word, which has preserved the heavens and the earth, also preserves God's people in time of trial.  We are charmed with that Word which is a mine of delight.  We would lie down and die of our griefs if the spiritual comfort of God's Word had not uplifted us.  But by their sustaining influence, we have been carried above all the depression and despair that naturally grows out of severe affliction.  Some of us can set our seal to this statement:  If it had not been for divine grace, our affliction would have crushed us out of existence, and we would have perished.  In our darkest seasons, nothing has  kept us from desperation but the Lord's promise.  At times, nothing stood between us and self-destruction save faith in God's eternal Word. When worn with pain until the brain has become dazed and reason nearly extinguished, our poor struggling mind has still rested on the bosom of God as a sweet text has whispered it's heart-cheering assurance to us. That which was our delight in prosperity has become our light in adversity.  That which kept us from presuming in the day has kept us from perishing in the night.

93.  I will never forget Your precept, for by them You have given me life.  When we have felt the power of a life-giving precept, we can never forget it. We may read it, learn it, repeat it, and think we have it, and yet it may still slip out of our minds.  If, it has once given life or renewed that life, there is no fear of its failing from our recollection, for experience teaches and teaches effectively.  How blessed to have the precepts written on the heart with the golden pen of experience!  How blessed to have them engraved on the memory with divine grace!  That life-giving energy of the Word in the soul which revives the heart is sure to revive the memory.  Life lies in God's precepts and in all of the Lord's Words. 

When the Lord raised the dead, He addressed the Word of command, "Lazarus, come forth" (John 11:43), or "Little girl, arise" (Luke 8:54). Do not fear to address gospel precepts to dead sinners, since by them, the Spirit gives life.  The psalmist does not say that the precept gave him life, but that the Lord gave him life through the precepts.  He traced the life from the channel to the Source and places the glory where it is due. Yet at the same time, he prized the instruments of he blessing and resolved never to forget them.

94.  I am Yours, save me.  This is a comprehensive prayer with a prevailing argument.  Consecration is a good plea for preservation.  We are the Lord's by creation, election, redemption, surrender, and acceptance.  Our firm hope and assured belief is that He will save us.

For I have sought Your precepts.  His children know that no merit can be found in them. Thus they urge a reason fetched from the grace of God.  In this way, the psalmist proved that he was the Lord's.  He might not have attained all the holiness he wanted, but he studiously aimed at being obedient to the Lord, and he begged to be saved even to the end.  A person may seek the doctrines and the promises and still be unrenewed in heart.  But to seek the precepts is a sure sign of grace.  The Lord had evidently worked a great work in the psalmist, who sought Him to complete it.  Saving is linked with seeking.  When the Lord sets us seeking, He will not refuse us the saving.  Those who seek holiness are already saved.

95.  The wicked wait for me to destroy me, but I will consider Your testimonies.  David did not allow the malice of the wicked keep him from his holy study of the divine Word.  He was so calm that he could consider, so holy that he loved to consider the Lord's testimonies, so victorious over all their plots that he did not allow them to drive him from holy contemplation.  If the enemy cannot force us to withdraw our thoughts from holy study, or our feet from holy walking, or our hearts from holy aspirations, they have met with poor success in their assaults.  And if they cannot do this today, they will wait for further opportunities.  If we are unmoved so that we don't give them a thought, their hope of destroying us will be a poor one.

96.  I have seen the consummation of all perfection.  David had seen its limit, for it went but a little way.  He had seen its evaporation under the trials of life, its detection under the searching glance of truth, its exposure by the confession of the penitent.    Experience believers have seen an end of all perfection in themselves, in their brethren, and even in the best person's best works.  There is no such thing as perfection in anything that is the work of man.

But Your commandment is exceedingly broad.  When the breadth of the law is known, the notion of fleshly perfection vanishes, for the law touches every act, word, and thought, and it is of such a spiritual nature that it even judges the motives, desires, and emotions of the soul.  It reveals a perfection that convicts of shortcomings as well as transgressions.  The divine ideal of holiness is far too broad to cover all its wide arena, yet it is no broader than it ought to be.  Who would want an imperfect law?  Its perfection is its glory, and it is the death of all glorying in our own perfection.  There is a breadth about the commandment that has never been fully met by a corresponding breadth of holiness in any mere human here below; only in Jesus is perfection fully embodied.

Taken from the Treasury of David - commentary by Charles Spurgeon

92. Unless Your law had been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. That Word, which has preserved the heavens and the earth, also preserves God's people in time of trial. We are charmed with that Word which is a mine of delight. We would lie down and die of our griefs if the spiritual comfort of God's Word had not uplifted us. But by their sustaining influence, we have been carried above all the depression and despair that naturally grows out of severe affliction. Some of us can set our seal to this statement: If it had not been for divine grace, our affliction would have crushed us out of existence, and we would have perished. In our darkest seasons, nothing has kept us from desperation but the Lord's promise. At times, nothing stood between us and self-destruction save faith in God's eternal Word.

My thoughts of this passage...

In my pre-Christian days as a young adult I began to have extremely bad flashbacks to an earlier part or my life which, along with most other memories, had been totally blocked out.  This was back in 1970 when they began occurring regularly at unexpected times, I feared that I must be losing my mind and I didn't understand why I was having them.  I thought if I told anyone, I would be locked up for good.  I could only think of one thing, and that was to keep my children safe. I thought the only way to do that was for me to die.  I overdosed on Seconal sleeping pills after sending my two little ones to a neighbours. I thought I would have a cigarette while I waited for the drugs to work, but apparently was out before I had finished the cigarette. lt had fallen to the carpet and left a burned spot. I woke up in the intensive care the following day and was forced to see a psychiatrist.  I never did tell him about the flashbacks because I was afraid to.  Instead, after leaving the hospital I started using alcohol and valium to keep the flashbacks at bay.  Twenty years later I would be forced to deal with my past.


January 28, 1994 I became a new creation in Christ Jesus and my life has been totally different since this time.  I came to know Him deeper through intensive searching through the Bible for Scriptural truths to clear up twisted scripture and to undo wrong conceptions. I had a head knowledge of who Jesus was, except hadn't recognized Him as God before the above date.  Since this time, I have a hunger and a thirst for His Word and His Spirit in my life.  I no longer relied on chemicals or alcohol for dealing (or not dealing) with life's pains and trials...and I have had plenty of tough tests and trials since.  My supports now are pouring my heart out to my Father, soaking myself in His Word, with the Holy Spirit giving me the strength and enablement I need in all things.  I now have a Living Hope and on Him alone... I rely on for all things.

God has taken my past, including the flashbacks of memories, and has brought good out from the evil. I feel the bigger part of my life was a mess but God cleans up messes, too.  I thank Him for His Word and His Spirit to cover every area of life and every test or trial we will encounter. Most of all, I thank Jesus for shedding His blood for me to rescue me from the kingdom pit of darkness and bringing me into the kingdom of light. I will forever treasure His Word because it is His message to us.  I will forever treasure Him because He is worthy to be treasured and praised forever. Thank You, Father for giving me new life in Your Spirit. Thank you Holy Spirit for empowering and enabling me to live for Christ. Our triune God is to be forever praised.

~Annie~