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B. |
What is “forever
settled”?
What is forever
settled is the Word of God, all of it. Although most
of the OT and the entire NT were not written yet
when Psalm 119 was penned, the truth of this
doctrine is by way of application extended to the
entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation. All
sixty-six books of the Bible are the very Word of
God. Therefore the forever established Word of God
would definitely include all the books of the Bible.
Barnes have this to
add, “The word rendered ‘settled’ means properly ‘to
set, to put, to place;’ and then, to stand, to cause
to stand, to set up, as a column, Gen. 35:20; an
altar, Gen. 33:20; a monument, 1 Sam. 15:12. The
meaning here is, that the word - the law - the
promise - of God was made firm, established, stable,
in heaven; and would be so forever and ever. What
God had ordained as law would always remain law;
what he had affirmed would always remain true; what
he had promised would be sure forever.” [Albert
Barnes’ Notes of the Bible—SwordSearcher 4.7]
Barnes is correct
to make the observation that the law of God will be
established forever and it is good that he added
“what he had promised would be sure forever.” To
this it must be added that the phrase used in Psalm
119:89 is “God’s Word” which means all the words of
God. In other words, the scope of the forever
settled word is every jot and tittle without
exception.
The Word of God
must not be dichotomized into some parts more or
some parts less inspired than others, where the
parts that are less inspired may have mistakes but
that which is more inspired cannot have mistakes.
The measure of those parts which are supposed to be
“more inspired” are mostly defined as those parts
that pertain to “man’s salvation.”
However, God has
never at any time in the Bible teaches different
levels of inspiration. Inspiration is absolute and
has only one standard. ALL of the words of God are
equally inspired, including the numbers, names of
places and people. These letters and every word
including their tenses, person, gender, and number
are all inspired and are inerrant, infallible. They
are divinely inspired and preserved.
The dichotomizing
of the Word of God into different levels of
inspiration and also preservation is a deadly
presupposition and teaching. This deadly approach is
compounded by the notion that man’s salvation
becomes the sovereign yardstick of what constitutes
as more inspired or more preserved. Such
man-centered theology is a ploy of the Devil to
inflate man’s ego and to deceive man. The whole
Bible is always God-centered.
Every word of God
is inspired and of equal value in the eyes of God.
Man has no right to segmentize God’s Word into less
important and more important according to his whims
and fancies.
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C. |
Forever Settled in
Heaven
On earth everything
changes. The world continues to decay with every
passing year. It is said that the ozone layer has
increased in size and the temperature is rising. The
second law of thermal dynamics teaches that all
matters decay and break down. Multi-billion-dollar
companies that used to be the life line of thousands
of employees are now bankrupt. All human beings grow
old and die. Nations that used to be superpowers are
now minions. For example Babylon used to rule a vast
empire in the Middle East but now has become a weak
nation. Greece was a superpower in the days of
Alexander the Great where he thought he had
conquered the whole world and there was nothing left
for young Alexander to conquer. Today Greece is a
small insignificant nation not ranked among the
superpowers. Superpowers come and superpowers get
replaced! Everything on planet earth is never
settled.
But the Word of God
is settled in heaven. It means that the Word of God
will not be like the ever changing earth, which
changes all the time. The Word of God is settled in
heaven. It is constant and not afflicted or affected
by the variableness of the earth. The constancy and
veracity of the Word of God is emphasized here.
Christian must find his comfort in the immutable and
perfect Word of God. It is settled forever in heaven
untouched by the whims and fancies of evil men. No
matter how man may attack God’s holy and perfect
Word, it will never dent it or affect it. It is
permanently secured by God Himself, settled forever
in heaven. Be comforted and continue to trust the
immutable God by trusting His inerrant, infallible
and inspired and preserved perfect Word.
John Calvin
observed correctly when he wrote, “Many explain this
verse as if David adduced the stability of the
heavens as a proof of God's truth. According to them
the meaning is that God is proved to be true because
the heavens continually remain in the same state.
Others offer a still more forced interpretation,
‘That God's truth is more sure than the state of the
heavens.’ But it appears to me that the prophet
intended to convey a very different idea. As we
see nothing constant or of long continuance upon
earth, he elevates our minds to heaven, that they
may fix their anchor there. David, no doubt,
might have said, as he has done in many other
places, that the whole order of the world bears
testimony to the steadfastness of God's Word -- that
Word which is most true. But as there is reason
to fear that the minds of the godly would hang in
uncertainty if they rested the proof of God's truth
upon the state of the world, in which such manifold
disorders prevail; by placing God's truth in the
heavens, he allots to it a habitation subject to no
changes. That no person then may estimate God's
word from the various vicissitudes which meet his
eye in this world, heaven is tacitly set in
opposition to the earth. Our salvation, as if it had
been said, being shut up in God's Word, is not
subject to change, as all earthly things are, but is
anchored in a safe and peaceful haven. The same
truth the Prophet Isaiah teaches in somewhat
different words: "All flesh is grass, and all the
godliness thereof is as the flower of the field,"
(Isaiah 40:6).
“He means,
according to the Apostle Peter's exposition, (1
Peter 1:24) that the certainty of salvation is to be
sought in the Word, and, therefore that they do
wrong who settle their minds upon the world; for
the steadfastness of God's Word far transcends the
stability of the world.”
1 Peter 1:24-25, “For
all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as
the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the
flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the
Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which
by the gospel is preached unto you.”
The Psalmist did
not stop at verse 89 but restates the same theme of
verse 89 in the next two verses. Psalm 119:90-91
reads, “Thy faithfulness is unto all generations:
thou hast established the earth, and it abideth.
They continue this day according to thine
ordinances: for all are thy servants.” In the
event that some might think that the Word of God is
only constant in heaven and of no earthly good,
verses 90 and 91 argue and answer this question. The
earth may change but it changes within her own
constancy. This constancy of the earth is in God’s
sovereign power and control. God revealed to us that
this constancy of the earth’s overall disposition
has its foundation in the unchanging Word of God. It
is according to the forever settled Word of God in
heaven that the earth finds her constancy!
John Calvin is
right when he commented that, “. . . the Psalmist
repeats and confirms the same sentiment. He
expressly teaches that although the faithful live
for a short time as strangers upon earth, and soon
pass away, yet their life is not perishable, since
they are begotten again of an incorruptible seed.
He, however, proceeds still farther. He had before
enjoined us to peer by faith into heaven, because we
will find nothing in the world on which we can
assuredly rest; and now he again teaches us, by
experience, that though the world is subject to
revolutions, yet in it bright and signal
testimonies to the truth of God shine forth, so that
the steadfastness of His Word is not exclusively
confined to heaven, but comes down even to us who
dwell upon the earth. For this reason, it is added,
that the earth continues steadfast, even as it was
established by God at the beginning. Lord, as if
it had been said, even in the earth we see Thy truth
reflected as it were in a mirror; for though it is
suspended in the midst of the sea, yet it continues
to remain in the same state. These two things,
then, are quite consistent; first, that the
steadfastness of God's Word is not to be judged of
according to the condition of the world, which is
always fluctuating, and fades away as a shadow; and,
secondly, that yet men are ungrateful if they do not
acknowledge the constancy which in many respects
marks the framework of the world; for the earth,
which otherwise could not occupy the position it
does for a single moment, abides notwithstanding
steadfast, because God's Word is the foundation on
which it rests. Farther, no person has any
ground for objecting, that it is a hard thing to go
beyond this world in quest of the evidences of God's
truth, since, in that case, it would be too remote
from the apprehension of men. The prophet meets the
objection by affirming, that although it dwells
in heaven, yet we may see at our very feet
conspicuous proofs of it, which may gradually
advance us to as perfect knowledge of it as our
limited capacity will permit. Thus the prophet, on
the one hand, exhorts us to rise above the whole
world by faith, so that the Word of God may be found
by experience to be adequate, as it really is
adequate, to sustain our faith; and, on the other
hand, he warns us that we have no excuse, if, by the
very sight of the earth, we do not discover the
truth of God, since legible traces of it are to be
found at our feet. In the first clause, men are
called back from the vanity of their own
understanding; and, in the other; their weakness is
relieved, that they may have a foretaste upon earth
of what is to be found more fully in heaven. [Taken
from http://www.ccel.org/c/calvin/comment3/comm_vol11/htm/xxviii.xii.htm] |
