Seize the Word

This is actually from last year, but since it’s in Psalms, whence we’ve gotten our first “Advisor Bible Challenge” from Quen and Stephen, I decided it would be from a more common starting point.

The fear of the LORD is clean,
 enduring forever;
the rules of the LORD are true,
 and righteous altogether.

Is there a reason for the metonymy here that equates those who fear God with the reverence itself in saying that it is clean of sin and endures into eternity? Or it is saying that true reverence for the Lord is, by definition, a clean thing, and something that lasts forever because of His preserving grace? Either way, the former depends on the latter, and so the message is the same. If we fear God, we must let Him keep us clean and keep our hearts in His saving sacrifice. There is also no defilement in serving the Lord and keeping His commandments, because God Himself is clean, not cleaned.

On judgements:

• Turn away my reproach which I fear: for thy judgements [are] good. (Psalm 119:39)
• I know, O LORD, that thy judgements [are] right, and [that] thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. (119:75)
• Thy righteousness [is] an everlasting righteousness, and thy law [is] the truth. (119:142)

Whether His Biblically revealed law or His judgement on what is the “way [we] should go” (32:8), what YHWH says to us are true, i.e., the truth. That is, if we follow it, His judgements for us are as truths to follow equally as one follows the law. Following them is accepting truth, and whatever we think of them, His judgements are completely righteous: they cannot have unrighteous (any but benevolent) intent, they are not misguided with respect to the truth, and from His judgements come our understanding of righteousness; and so we have reason to trust in them.

More to be desired are they than gold,
 even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
 and drippings of the honeycomb.

What He guides us in is better than gold, because gold cannot tell us the right way to go; what He tells us is sinless and thus purer than the finest gold. It is absurd to think that God knowingly would lead us in the wrong way, because His righteousness is more than our purification on this earth could ever refine us (c.f. Mal. 3:2–3), and it is impossible for God, as an omniscient God with an eternal eye infinitely greater than ours that sees outside of our physical and dimensional constraints, to unknowingly lead us in the wrong way. His laws are greater than any human laws inscribed on tablets of gold, because they are eternal, and in the same way His guidance is for the eternal, which far outweighs our light and momentary troubles that we may have in following the hard path He chooses for us (2 Cor. 4:17–18).

Do we savour God’s Word as we do with the fragrant sweetness of honey, or do we often see only the sourness, regarding doing His will and seeking after Him as a chore? This verse does not even mention any troubles. His preservation of our spirits and His Word are sweeter than honey. His protection is sweeter than the solid walls of the honeycomb and His presence than the golden honey inside it. God’s Word is bread to us, but because we know we can trust Him above all else, His words are sweeter to us in our lives than honey. Honey has been concentrated from nectar and lasts longer than nectar because of it. Similarly, God’s Word is concentrated for us such that this revelation is sufficient for us, and every single word put into it is important, and His revealed Word is eternal and applies eternally, as relevant to us today as it was to the first believers.