Psalm 19:10

Psalm 19 has two halves that belong together (Psalm 19). The first six verses speak of creation. The heavens and the sun on its daily circuit declare God’s glory and power to every nation, though they use no words. At verse 7 David turns to the word God has spoken to his people. Creation tells everyone that God is great. His word tells his people who he is and what he wills, and it reaches the inner person: the soul, the heart and the eyes. This was Israel’s great privilege, and Moses asked, “what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law” (Deuteronomy 4:8).

Each of the six names is “of the LORD”, the covenant God who bound himself to Israel, so this word carries his own character. When these five verses of praise are done, David turns to prayer and asks to be kept from sin and found upright (verses 12 to 14).

Verses 7 to 9 are built from six short lines in one pattern: a name for God’s word, a quality it has, and in the first four lines what it does. Hebrew poetry often says a thing twice in different words, and here the repetition lets us see God’s word from six sides.

• The law, Torah, is God’s instruction as a whole, all his teaching and guidance for his covenant people. For Israel it was far more than a code of rules. It shaped their worship, their life together and their conduct, and it was the way to life, blessing and a right relationship with the LORD.
• The testimony, ‘êdûwth, is what God has solemnly declared, the witness he bears about himself and his will. The word belongs especially to the covenant given at Sinai, and the Ten Commandments were God’s testimony to Israel, kept in the ark of the covenant.
• The statutes, piqqûwd, are his precepts, the charges he has laid on his people.
• The commandment, mitsvâh, is a particular command with his authority behind it.
• The fear of the LORD, yirʼâh, is the reverence his word teaches, explained under verse 9 below.
• The judgments, mishpâṭ, are his verdicts and ordinances, the decisions by which he governs his people and the world.

The names overlap, and all six point to the one body of God’s revealed word. Psalm 119 uses many of the same names through its whole length (Psalm 119).

“The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul.” The word for perfect, tâmîym, means complete, whole and sound, without blemish, and when it is used of people it means blameless and upright. God’s law is whole. It has every part it needs for its purpose, and there is no flaw in it.

Converting is shûwb, to turn back or return. The same verb and the same word for soul stand in “He restoreth my soul” (Psalm 23:3). The law brings a person back. It turns a wandering soul back to God and revives one that has grown faint, and it does this deep inside, in the mind and the will. Often it begins by convicting us of sin, which leads us to repent and gives us a fresh desire for what is right. Hebrews describes this power of God’s word: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). Moses told Israel that God’s word “is your life” (Deuteronomy 32:47), and James calls it “the perfect law of liberty” (James 1:25).

“The testimony of the LORD is sure.” The verb behind sure, ʼâman, comes from the same root as amen. In its simplest form it means to support or nourish, as a nurse or foster-parent does, and in the form that gives “sure” it means firm and established. What God has declared can be leaned on with your whole weight, and it stands when human promises and ideas shift and fail.

It is “making wise the simple.” The simple are people who are open but untaught, short on judgment and easily led astray. God’s testimony gives them understanding, so his wisdom belongs to everyone who receives his word humbly, whatever their learning. Another psalm says the same: “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple” (Psalm 119:130). This wisdom starts where Proverbs says all knowledge starts, with the fear of the LORD (Proverbs 1:7).

So the very first line of praise names the two deepest needs a person has, a soul that must be brought back to God and a mind that needs his wisdom, and it says that his word meets both. Paul tells Timothy that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and equips God’s servant for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16–17). God’s word is enough for life and godliness because it comes from God himself.

“The statutes of the LORD are right.” The word yâshâr means straight, and so upright and just. God’s precepts run straight because they come from his own upright character, and they lead to what is good and fitting.

They are “rejoicing the heart.” The verb sâmach means to rejoice or be glad, to feel and show great joy. In Hebrew thought the heart, lêb, is the whole inner person: mind, feelings, will and character together. So this gladness reaches the centre of who we are. The same verb is used elsewhere of gloating and of joy God forbids, which shows that gladness is only as good as its source. Here the source is God’s right statutes, and the joy they give is deep and lasting.

“The commandment of the LORD is pure.” The word bar means clean and clear, unmixed with anything false. God’s commandment is free of error and deceit, so we can trust it fully.

It is “enlightening the eyes.” The verb ʼôwr means to be or become light, or to make something light, and here the commandment makes the eyes bright. The eyes, ʻayin, stand for seeing and understanding. God’s word helps us tell right from wrong, understand his will, make wise decisions and see ourselves and others truly. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105), and Proverbs says, “For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life” (Proverbs 6:23).

“The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever.” The word yirʼâh means fear, and toward God it means reverence: the awe and willing submission that are right for anyone who knows how holy and great he is. It is the beginning of knowledge and of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7, Proverbs 9:10).

“More to be desired are they than gold.” The KJV supplies the words “are they” to make the English clear, and “they” means all six from the verses before: the law, testimony, statutes, commandment, fear and judgments of the LORD.

To desire, ḥāmad, is to long for something or delight in it because it is precious, beautiful and good. In Israel gold stood for the height of wealth and security. Fine gold, pâz, is pure, refined gold, the most valuable kind, the gold of royal treasuries and of the temple, and Solomon’s wealth shows how much of it a king could gather (1 Kings 10:21). “Much fine gold”, pāz rab, adds rab, “much” or “great”: a great store of the best gold there is. God’s words are worth more than all of it. Wisdom speaks the same way in Proverbs, telling us to receive her instruction and knowledge rather than choice gold (Proverbs 8:10–11), and another psalm says, “Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold” (Psalm 119:127). Solomon tried every pleasure and treasure he could find and called it all vanity (Ecclesiastes 2:1–11).

“Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” Gold speaks of what God’s word is worth, and honey of how good it tastes. Honey, dᵉbash, is the sweet food made by bees or from fruits such as dates, grapes and figs. In a world with no refined sugar it was a prized delicacy, and God promised Israel “a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:8). The honeycomb, nôpheth, is honey dripping straight from the comb, the freshest honey there is. God’s words are sweeter still. “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103). His word is food for the soul, for “man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live” (Deuteronomy 8:3), and Jesus answered the tempter with the same words (Matthew 4:4).

“Moreover by them is thy servant warned.” David calls himself God’s servant, ʻebed, a word for a bondservant or anyone who serves another. It is a common way for a worshipper or a prophet to speak of himself before God, and it means humble dependence on a Lord whose authority is loving. Warned is zâhar, whose root sense is to gleam, and so to enlighten, admonish or warn. It is the verb God uses when he makes Ezekiel a watchman: “give them warning from me” (Ezekiel 3:17). God’s word shines a light on the dangers ahead, on sin, folly and the paths that destroy, so that his servant can see them and avoid them. The warning is an act of grace, given to protect and preserve.

“And in keeping of them there is great reward.” To keep God’s words is to do them, to live by them in every part of life. Reward is ʻêqeb, literally the heel, and so what comes at the heel or end of a thing, the outcome that follows it. The reward follows the keeping the way fruit follows a healthy tree. Moses told Israel to hearken to God’s statutes and judgments “that ye may live” (Deuteronomy 4:1–2). Proverbs promises length of days, long life and peace to the one who keeps God’s commandments (Proverbs 3:1–2), and James says the doer of the word “shall be blessed in his deed” (James 1:25). The law itself sets out the blessings that come with obedience and the curses that come with disobedience (Deuteronomy 28, Leviticus 26).

Everything these verses say of God’s word comes to its fullness in Jesus. He is the Word who was with God and was God (John 1:1), and “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us... full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). He said of the law, “I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil” (Matthew 5:17), and he kept it perfectly. The law turned souls back to God by showing sinners their sin, and it pointed beyond itself to the atonement he would make as “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

Each line of the psalm finds its answer in him. The soul is truly converted through faith in Christ, by “the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Titus 3:5). He makes the simple wise, for in him “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3), and he is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30). He enlightens the eyes: “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). He rejoices the heart, for he promised that those who keep his commandments will abide in his love and have his joy in full (John 15:10–11).

The fear of the LORD rested on him, as Isaiah foretold of the Branch from Jesse, on whom would rest “the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD” (Isaiah 11:2). He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:8), and he was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). He makes us clean, for “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). He is the truth (John 14:6), and his words “are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). Whoever drinks the water he gives “shall never thirst” (John 4:14).

We are saved by grace through faith in his obedience and sacrifice (Ephesians 2:8–9), and that salvation brings the Holy Spirit, who writes God’s law on our hearts as the new covenant promised: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33). So the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us who walk after the Spirit (Romans 8:4), and we keep his commands from love and gratitude: “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). The great reward is eternal life with God, for “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

These verses tell us what God’s word is, and that gives us a measure for our own desires. The world around us names its gold and honey every day: money, success, comfort and pleasure. David names something better, and he speaks from experience. When you open Scripture, you can expect God to do what he says his word does: turn your soul back to him, give you wisdom you lacked, gladden your heart, clear your sight, warn you of danger and reward your obedience. That happens through reading, study, meditation and humble obedience, day after day.

And the word is for the simple. It asks for no special learning, only a humble heart. The God who made the heavens to declare his glory has also spoken to us plainly, and what he has said is perfect, sure, right, pure, clean and true.