The Word Of God
Many centuries ago the writer of the Psalms penned these words: "Consider how I love thy precepts: quicken me, 0 Lord, according to thy loving kindness. Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever." (Psalms 119:159-160)
The word "Thy" refers to God. David believed that God Is. This belief was the impelling force in his life. Because God Is, David was! God does not exist as the mere figment of the Psalmist's imagination. GOD IS! He that comes to God must believe that He Is. (Heb. 11:6) We have a reasonable basis for this belief. This basis is expressed in these inspired words: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork." (Psalms 19:1) In language as vivid as the lightning the Universe declares, by reason of the fact of its own existence, that there is a God. (Psalms 8:3-4) The Universe and Reason join hands in demanding that there be a Creator. We could more reasonably argue that the Atom bomb conceived and built itself than we could say that this stupendous Universe, with all its infinite intricacies operating according to precision-like laws, came to be and to move without a Creator! Only the fool has said in his heart, "There is no God."
The Psalmist, having fixed our minds upon God, passes on to the "word of God." "Thy word," he says, "is true." God exists. It is therefore reasonable to believe that He speaks to man. God has spoken. (Heb. 1:1) Hence the expression—"Thy word." This signifies a revelation. God has revealed His Word to man. This revelation of God is called the Bible. It is inspired of God. The Bible is not a collection of fanciful fables. The Word of God is not a volume of "old wives' tales." The Bible is the word of eye witnesses. The writers of the Old Testament were not guided by their own will and wisdom to utter their own words; rather, "holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." (2 Peter 1:15-21) The New Testament writers "preached the gospel with the Holy Spirit sent down front heaven." (1 Peter 1:9-12) The deep things of God were revealed to the apostles by God's Spirit. (1 Con 2:10) They wrote and spoke these things in the words which the Spirit taught them. (vs. 13) They confidently affirmed that "all scripture is given by the inspiration of God." (2 Tim. 3:16-17) The apostle Paul wrote more of the New Testament than any of the other New Testament writers. He said, "I certify you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached of me Is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." (Gal. 1:11-12) He thanked God that the Thessalonian Christians, to whom he addressed two of his Letters, received his preaching "not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe." (1 Thes. 2:13) God has revealed Himself and His Will to man in the Bible.
David next affirms the infallibility of God's Word. "Thy word is true." The Bible is the only infallible standard of moral and religious truth. The Bible is historically true and accurate. The pick and the spade of the Archeologist are continually unearthing evidence that corroborates the Bible narratives. Take, for example, the Hebrew's long bondage in Egypt, the plagues and the exodus. This is a familiar story. Archeological discoveries in Egypt have given us the mummy of Rameses II, Pharaoh of the Bondage. The city of Pithom has been discovered; the actual storehouse built by the Hebrew slaves has been found, the lower portions of which were made of brick containing straw and the upper portions made of brick without straw. Menepthah II was the Pharaoh of the Exodus, and his mummy has likewise been found. A hymn of victory addressed to him mentions Israel and the inscription tells of the death of his young son—possibly in the last of plagues. Other researches show the location of the land of Goshen, the part of Egypt settled by the Israelites. Each new discovery actually strengthens faith in the Bible as the Word of God.
The Bible is scientifically correct. It is not a textbook on Science, and is not written in the technical language of the Scientist. The Bible is a textbook on Salvation, not Science. Nevertheless, at any point where it touches upon the subject of Science, it is always scientifically correct. In fact it is pre-scientific. The Bible anticipated many the facts of Science that we are only now discovering, or have known for only a relatively short time.
The Bible affirms the rotundity of the earth. (Isa. 40:22) It proclaims the law of gravity. (Job 26:7) It teaches the truth of Cyntology, that all flesh is not the same flesh. (1 Cor. 15:39) The Bible is in harmony with the science of Anthropology in that it teaches that there is no difference in the blood of the various races of men. (Acts 17:26) The Bible declared 150 years before Christ that "the blood is the life of the flesh." (Lev. 17) Only recently has Medical Science made a thorough study of the blood and its conclusions agree with this divine statement. How could the men who wrote these scientifically accurate truths in the Scriptures so many centuries ago have known such facts as we are only now discovering? There is only one way that they could have known them. God the Creator of the world and all things therein inspired them to speak and write these truths. God's Word is true!
The Word of God is prophetically true. The Old Testament writers prophesied about practically every phase of the Life of Christ—his birth, life, death and his present reign in heaven. These prophecies were made many centuries before Christ was born. When Christ came he fulfilled the minutest details of all the Old Testament prophecies concerning himself. This is not a coincidence!
Many centuries before the mighty Cyprus was born, the prophets of God foretold his acts and actually called his names. It was fulfilled as the men of God had predicted.
God, through His prophets, foretold the rise and fall of the four world empires of Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. The predictions were specifically fulfilled hundreds of years after they were uttered.
One of the most remarkable of all prophecies is that concerning the Jews. It was uttered 1500 years before Christ and the time of its fulfillment. It is found in Deuteronomy 28. Because of the rebellious attitude of the Jews toward God and their continual breaking of His Covenant, God said He would bring upon them a nation from afar, fierce as an eagle, whose language they did not understand. This nation would destroy Jerusalem and so great would be the horrors of the destruction that even a woman would devour her own child. The markets of Egypt would be flooded with Jewish slaves until no buyers could be found. Thus would they be scattered through the nations to be a hiss and a by-word, to be oppressed evermore, yet they would not be utterly destroyed.
This was signally fulfilled in the year 70 A.D., when the Romans besieged the city of Jerusalem. Josephus, the Jewish historian, relates that during the siege a starving woman cooked and ate her own child; that the temple was destroyed; the walls broken down; above one million slain, and over 99,000 Jews taken prisoners and sold into Egypt until no buyer could be found. They were scattered among the nations. The Jews today are one of the most outstanding evidences of the inspiration of the Word of God. View them! The prophecy has been fulfilled concerning them. The Word of God is prophetically true!
The Psalmist continues: "Thy word is true from the beginning." This affirms the infallibility of the Bible in its entirety. All that God has spoken from Genesis to Revelation is true. Therefore it is true that God Is; that He was in the beginning; that in the beginning He created the heavens and the earth; that He formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. All that God said through Moses and the Old Testament prophets stands as Eternal Truth. The Mosaic account of the flood is accurate. The story of Jonah and the whale is true. It is equally true that all that is written in the New Testament is true. It is true that Christ was born of a virgin; that He now reigns over his kingdom—the Church, while seated on David's throne on the right hand of God. It is true that He gave the New Testament Law; that He will consign the finally incorrigibly wicked to the torments of Hell; and bestow eternal bliss upon the righteous in Heaven at the day of Judgment.
"Thy word is true from the beginning, and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever." The Word of God is the only divine standard of right and wrong. All our actions, our faith and our practice must be guided by that Word. God declares what is right. We cannot afford to endeavor to be a law unto ourselves. We must abide by the Book of God to be eternally safe. The Word endureth forever. When the brilliant words of statesmen, sages, and poets shall have been forgot the Word of God shall remain. His Word is immutable. Jesus said, "heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall never pass away." The apostle said, "The word of the Lord endureth forever."
The poet said: "Last eve I passed beside a blacksmith's door and heard the anvil ring the vesper chime; when looking in, I saw upon the floor, old hammers worn with the beating years of time. 'How many anvils have you had,' said I, 'to wear and batter all these hammers so?" Just one,' said he, then with a twinkling eye, 'the anvil wears the hammers out, you know.' And so, I thought, the anvil of God's Word for ages skeptic's blows have beat upon; yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard, the anvil is unharmed—the hammers gone!"
Let us praise God that His Word is true from the beginning, and all His righteous judgments endureth forever!