Psalm 119.89-96 (1)

Pray Psalm 119.89.
Forever, O LORD,
Your word is settled in heaven.

Psalm 119.89-91.
(Finlandia: Be Still, My Soul)
Forever, Lord, Your Word abides in heaven; Your faithfulness to every age is sure.
You made the earth; to us it has been given, and it abides, because Your Word is pure.
All of creation serves Your holy pleasure, thus we, Your servants, by Your grace endure.

Read Psalm 119.89-96; meditate on verses 89.

Preparation
1. How did the psalmist describe God’s Word?

2. Where is God’s Word “settled”?

Meditation
This first verse of the ל (lamed) stanza comes almost exactly at the middle of Psalm 119. And it represents a high point in Psalm 119, because it gives us an important insight to the faith of our psalmist.

Our psalmist practiced the discipline of living there and then, here and now. He had an eye to the heavenly realm. He could see, as it were, into the throne room of God, where Christ is seated at the Father’s right hand, ruling over and advancing His Kingdom to bless and fill the earth. Our anonymous psalmist shared this vision with David and other psalmists (cf. Pss. 2; 20; 22.21ff; 45, 46, 93, 97, 110, etc.).

What did these psalmists see? What glimpses of heaven allowed our psalmist to know that God’s Word is forever settled in heaven? That Hebrew verb, נִצָּ֥ב (nit-TSAV), means be set or stationed or fixed in place. It’s in a passive form because God Himself has set His Word in place. We pray, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” How can we know what that intends or what we should be seeking and working for, if we have no insight to what it means that God’s Word is settled in heaven forever?

Think about what we know of heaven as revealed in God’s Word (cf. Rev. 4, 5). It is a place of radiant glory and rejoicing. All is focused on God the Father and Jesus, at His right hand. Creation is represented by four mysterious creatures which serve and praise the Lord. Saints carry our prayers around in bowls, like incense. Songs of praise fill the place continually. The Holy Spirit arches like a rainbow over all. And all the movements, comings and goings, singing and rejoicing reflect what happens in a world where God’s Law is set in place. This is the real world – set, fixed, unchanging, and glorious according to the Word of God.

When the Law of God is settled in our hearts and fixed in our lives, we’ll bring something of the real world of eternal life into the fallen, unreal world where God has set our Personal Mission Field. Think about it.

Treasures Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.16.
An oft-used phrase of the modern church is also one of the most hubristic: “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” What? Frankly, whether you or I believe it has absolutely nothing to do with the truth or reliability of what God says! God’s Word is true. It is settled. And human beings’ belief system has not a shred to do with it.

“Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven” (Ps. 119.89). Period.

We have an option: whether to serve God or an idol.

Here is a brief description of an idol:
“The idols of the nations are silver and gold,
the work of men’s hands.
They have mouths, but they do not speak;
eyes they have, but they do not see;
they have ears, but they do not hear;
nor is there any breath in their mouths.
Those who make them are like them;
so is everyone who trusts in them” (Ps. 135.15-18). Hmmm.

And here is our wonderful, amazing God and Savior, the Word:
“He is the image of the invisible God the firstborn over all creation.
For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth,
visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
All things were created through Him and for Him.
And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him
to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven,
having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Col. 1.15-20). Yes!

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13.8).

That is Settled. Believe it or not.

For reflection
1. What’s the difference between the real world and the unreal world? Why has God assigned us a Personal Mission Field?

2. What can you do to know more of the real world in your daily life?

3. Whom will you encourage today to stand firm on the settled Word of God?

… 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. John Calvin (1509-1564), Commentary on Psalm 119.89

Pray Psalm 119.92-94.
Ask God to give you greater delight in His Word. Thank Him for all the ways He has given you life. Give yourself anew to Him today as a living sacrifice for His glory (Rom. 12.1, 2).

Psalm 119.92-94.
(Finlandia: Be Still, My Soul)
Unless Your Law had been my great delight, I would have perished when affliction came.
I will Your precepts ever keep in sight, for by them I have life – I praise Your Name!
Lord, I am Yours, deliver me from night! I seek Your precepts for Your praise and fame.

T. M. and Susie Moore

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (Williston: Waxed Tablet Publications, 2006), available by clicking here.