As we preach through sections of Psalm 119 this month, we’re discovering a rich vocabulary describing the many ways our speaking God talks to us, including unfamiliar words like “statute.” As we read this Psalm, we don’t want to miss the relationship! Each sermon provides an opportunity to unpack one or two of the eight different words that are used to describe God’s Word, so that we might better hear our Heavenly Father speaking to us. Today I want to look back to the sermon from 8/14 and review word and statutes. We’ll also look ahead to this coming Sunday’s message (8/21) and consider promise and rules.
Word
When you think about God’s Word, what comes to mind? A book perhaps? The Bible is God’s inscripturated word to us, but I find that sometimes we can relate to it in such a way that it becomes a disembodied set of rules and regulations for how we are supposed to live. This falls short of God’s intention. Simply reading this book isn’t the goal, it’s the means to the goal of knowing the great Triune God whose voice we hear in these words.
God’s Word is his letter to us. It is everything God has to say to us and has lovingly preserved for us in this book we call the Bible. That includes stories, proverbs, gospels, songs, promises, and warnings. God’s Word is what he tells us about himself, about our world, about the future. It’s what he tells us about what’s wrong with us, and the consequences of sin. God’s Word to us finds its main theme in the person and work of Jesus Christ, who speaks God’s Word to us and who is God’s Word to us (John 1:1, 14). And the good word of the gospel is that Jesus, who was sinless, became sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21)
Statutes
As I’ve had a chance to study and meditate on these eight synonyms for God’s Word, my favorite discovery is this one. Statutes comes from the Hebrew word for engraving. This speaks of something permanent. The idea here is that Scripture has a binding force to it that never gets tired or needs to be replaced; it is always relevant. When God gave the 10 Commandments to Israel, he met with Moses on the mountain and God personally engraved those “10 Words” on tablets of stone. Since then, God’s words have been written on scrolls, then parchments. They were copied by hand in books and then, with the invention of the printing press, mass produced. Now we can read these timeless engravings on our phones and computers. “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” (Isaiah 40:8)
Promise
The idea here is that God makes pledges to his people. He assures us, for example, that he will be our God and we will be his people. He says over and over, “Fear not” because he will be with us (Isaiah 41:10). God’s promises are intended to keep us going, to bring us comfort, and courage to keep pressing on. When we internalize his promises, meditating on them, believing them, and acting as though they are really true, we find that they are life-changing and life-giving. “This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.” (Psalm 119:50)
Rules (sometimes translated judgments, ordinances, or decrees)
Derek Kidner writes that these are “the decisions of the all-wise Judge about common human situations…”[1] David Powlison comments, “Judgments…put the emphasis on how God evaluates things. They teach us to weigh things for what they actually are. For example, in God’s judgment, cheating on your spouse is wrong. In God’s judgment, trusting in the grace of Christ is the way of forgiveness and life. In God’s judgment, compassion for helpless people demonstrates the goodness of his character…In God’s judgment, he alone is the only wise God.”[2]
As we soak in this inexhaustibly rich psalm, may the unfolding treasure of his word revive and enliven and strengthen our fellowship with the Lord.
Next week: precepts, commandments.
*In case you missed it, you can read part 1 of these definitions here.
[1] Derek Kidner, Psalm 73-150, p. 454.
[2] David Powlison, Suffering and Psalm 119, in Speaking Truth in Love, p. 20.