Love and Fear of God's Word

Psalm 119, verses 113 to 120.

Psalms 119:113–120

I hate the double-minded, but I love your law.

You are my hiding place and my shield.

I hope in your word.

Depart from me, you evildoers,

that I might keep the commandments of my God.

Uphold me according to your promise,

that I may live,

and let me not be put to shame in my hope.

Hold me up that I may be safe

and have regard for your statutes continually.

You spurn all who go aside from your statutes,

for their cunning is in vain.

All the wicked of the earth you discard like dross,

therefore I love your testimonies.

My flesh trembles for fear of you,

and I am afraid of your judgments.

So this stanza is about how we should love God's word

because God upholds those who keep his word.

And so it opens in verse 113 with an affirmation of God's love,

I mean, our love for God's word, his law.

It says,

I hate the double-minded,

but I love your law.

So you can see the contrast there between hating the double-minded,

but loving God's law.

This is not,

this doesn't contradict Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5,

for example,

when he says,

love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Because it's possible to hate evil for the evil that they do

and the evil that they represent,

but at the same time sincerely desire that they repent

and are forgiven and are restored, right?

And so what it's talking about here is in order to,

if you love God's law truly,

and if you desire to see God's law upheld

and see it fulfilled in practice,

then you, by necessary consequence,

hate the people who break God's law

and don't abide by God's law.

And evil doors are described in an interesting way here.

They're called double-minded,

which can also be translated half-hearted or divided.

So, and they're also described later in verse 118

as people who go astray from God's statutes

and for having cunning, right?

So these are,

these are all words that characterize evil doors

because sinners are, by definition,

people who are divided.

They are accountable to God

because they are created by God.

But they have other things

that they pledge allegiance to.

Their allegiances are divided.

They're half-hearted.

They're double-minded.

They're devious in their ways.

And they're cunning.

They practice deception.

They're duplicitous.

And this is contrasted throughout the stanza

with the singular devotion

that the psalmist has for God's word.

And he twice says that he hopes in God's word.

And it says in 116,

let me not be put to shame in my hope.

And it says, again, verse 114,

I hope in your word.

And that leads us to ask,

what is hope, right?

Because the word hope is used nowadays in,

you know,

in a way that's similar to kind of just wishing for something,

right?

I really hope I, you know,

get that job.

But I'm not sure.

It's like I wish I can get it, right?

I wish I can get that job.

It's like we use hope in the same way

I like wishful thinking

because it's something that's uncertain.

We say we hope for something that's not certain.

That's not the way the Bible uses hope.

The Christian hope is not something that's uncertain.

It's actually something that is certain

because God has promised it.

God has guaranteed it.

And so it's going to happen.

The difference is that it hasn't yet happened, right?

So that's what Romans 8, 24 to 25 talks about.

It says, for in this hope,

he's talking about the redemption of our bodies,

the full redemption of ourselves.

This is Romans 8, 24 to 25.

For in this hope, we were saved.

Now hope that is seen is not hope.

For who hopes for what he sees?

But if we hope for what we do not see,

we wait for it with patience.

So it refers to kind of patient waiting for something

that is definitely going to come.

Because we're still waiting for the return of the King

and for the consummation of the kingdom of God.

Not because our full redemption is uncertain,

but because our full redemption isn't here yet.

Right?

So that's what hope is.

And Christian hope looks like this.

We can see it in this stanza.

Verse 114.

You are my hiding place and my shield.

And it says in verse 117,

hold me up that I may be safe

and have regard for your statutes continually.

So a lot of words of protection and safety, right?

Hiding place, shield, and safe.

To hope in God is to make his word and God's promises

the things that we bank on and trust in.

It takes shelter.

And it means to make God's word our refuge.

So instead of resorting to devious ways like evildoers,

instead of resorting to sin, manipulation,

to take things into our own hands,

instead of trying to preserve ourselves,

protect ourselves,

it means to turn to God and his word for protection,

for safety, for refuge,

to wait on God's deliverance and vindication.

That's what Christian hope looks like.

And the psalmist here hopes because even though he knows this will happen,

but because it hasn't happened yet.

His deliverance hasn't come yet.

His vindication hasn't come yet.

And so he waits patiently and he prays to God,

uphold me according to your promise that I may live.

Hold me up that I may be safe

and have regard for your statutes continually.

He waits on God knowing that God's going to spurn,

as it says in verse 118,

all who go astray from your statutes.

And God's going to, it says in verse 119,

discard like dross all the wicked of the earth.

This is a metaphor from metallurgy.

So dross is like when you're melting precious metal, right?

It's the kind of mass of waste material

that just floats on the top.

It looks kind of like useless rocks,

in contrast to the melted precious metal.

So of course, you just discard that.

There's no use for that.

The whole point of the melting process

is used to burn off the dross so you can pour it out.

And so it's a really graphic image

that that's what God's going to do with the wicked.

There's going to be justice.

There's going to be judgment.

There's going to be started like dross.

And knowing that that vindication is coming,

the psalmist says,

I love your testimonies.

I love your law.

And so again,

I mentioned earlier that the psalmist began

with love for God's law.

Verse 113,

I love your law.

And now he concludes with his affirmation of love.

Again, verse 119,

therefore I love your testimonies.

He loves,

just as he loves God,

he loves God's word.

But that's not the final note.

He does add one further emotion

in his description of God's word.

Verse 120,

it says,

My flesh trembles for fear of you,

and I am afraid of your judgments.

It's easy to misunderstand this.

So it's,

the fear that is in view here

is not terror before a threat, right?

So there is fear that you feel,

like let's say there's a,

you know,

psychotic murderer in the school right now

that we're meeting at

and carrying,

you know,

these guns.

And like,

so there's this terror that you feel

from a threat,

right?

And that's not the kind of fear

that's in view here.

It's,

it's a fear that you might feel,

for example,

in the presence of

someone really authoritative

and powerful.

Maybe someone like the president,

right?

When you're in the presence

of such people,

you might feel nervous,

right?

You might shake even,

right?

Maybe it's this celebrity

that you really look up to,

or,

or it's like you might,

it,

you,

you,

you might tremble

in your presence.

And,

and God's holiness

is,

is such that you,

is that you

feel

fear.

In that sense,

you feel that reverence,

that awe before God.

And,

and that's kind of what this is talking about.

And this is not something that,

you know,

people that can't stomach the idea

of fearing God,

you know,

arbitrarily made up,

you know,

this distinction between fear

and reverence.

You guys?

Hmm.

It's actually a distinction

that scripture itself makes

in Exodus 20,

Exodus 20,

20,

for example.

It says,

do not fear.

This is when God appears

to the Israelites

and,

and he speaks to them

and,

and Moses reassures God's people

by saying this in Exodus 20,

20.

And it says,

do not fear,

for God has come to test you

that the fear of him

may be before you

that you may not sin.

Did you guys catch

the two instances of fear there?

Right.

So he's basically saying,

don't be fearful

because God has come

to make you fearful.

So he's using the,

the same word fear

in two different sense,

senses.

It says,

it's,

he means don't be afraid

because I'm not going to kill you.

You're not going to die

right now in my presence.

But remember this experience

so that you revere me

and stand in awe of me

for the rest of your life.

And that fear of me

keeps you from sinning.

So it's two different

types of fear.

So that,

this,

that second kind of fear

is what's in view here

when he says,

my flesh trembles

for fear of you

and I am afraid

of your judgments.

And the word judgment

here is the word

that's elsewhere

translated in this Psalm

as rule,

God's rule.

It's one of eight words

that the Psalmist,

the author of Psalm 119

uses for God's word,

for scripture.

So here,

it's not talking about

being afraid of being judged

by God.

He's saying that God's word

is his judgment.

It is his,

his rule.

It's his decision.

And,

and so he,

in the same way,

he reveres God's word

and fears God

and trembles before his presence.

He does the same

with God's word.

He says,

I fear,

I am afraid

of your judgment

because it's a holy book,

a book that is unlike

any other book

in which God himself speaks.

And so this word

that it speaks of here

is fulfilled by Jesus

because he's the,

he's the incarnate word.

He's the word,

the word of God

taken on flesh

and blood,

flesh and bone

of,

of humankind.

And,

and,

and scripture

is God's recorded,

record,

it's a record

of divine revelation

and,

and Jesus is God's

ultimate revelation.

So everything in scripture

points to him

and it's fulfilled

in him.

And so that's how

we can apply

the psalm to ourselves

is that,

because in truth,

we have all

gone astray

as this psalm

is talking about.

It's,

we have all

departed

from God's way,

gone astray

from God.

We're evildoers.

We have spurned,

we've been spurned

by God.

We are wicked

that should be

discarded like dross.

And that's the amazing

thing about the gospel

is you melt the metal,

right,

to pour out the dross.

But Father,

in his mysterious

providence,

decides to pour out

the precious metal

instead to save

the dross.

And,

and he pours out

Jesus on the cross.

He dies for us.

And in doing that,

we are declared

precious to him

and we are refined

like fine gold.

And so it is

in hoping in Jesus

as the same way

the psalmist talks

about hoping

in God's word

that we can rest

assured of God's promises,

rest assured of his

ultimate vindication

and judgment

and,

and live with

steadfast devotion

as the psalmist does.