Hi friends! We are almost finished with our deep dives into Psalm 19:7-9 where we have discussed some different aspects of the law of the Lord and how the law affects our lives. This post covers verse 9.
Recall once more the recurring pattern within verses 7-9: “the [title] of the LORD is [property], [effect]”.
19:9a. the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever;
In the Hebrew, the word translated fear is yir’âh (yir-aw’), which is a fear defined as “morally reverent”[1]. This form of the word differs from the more typical usage meaning afraid or frightened (Hebrew: yârê’ (yaw-ray’)).
Exodus 20 provides an illustration of the contrast between yir’âh and yârê’ in the Israelite’s reaction to seeing the presence of God upon Mount Sinai. The Lord spoke and “the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off” (v. 18). Following this event, in Moses’s exhortation to the people of Israel, he tells them to “not fear (yârê’), for God has come to test you, that the fear (yir’âh) of him may be before you, that you may not sin” (v. 20). The yârê’ of the Israelites caused them to distance themselves from the presence of God because His power and holiness frightened them. Dr. Michael Reeves[2], in his chapel sermon delivered at Reformation Bible College in November of 2018[3], describes the Israelites’ fear as ungodly:
So, there is a fear the Lord does not wish us to have. That ungodly fear is the sort of thing you see in the Israelites at Mount Sinai… The Lord speaks, and the people shrink back in fear. Or Adam who was afraid because he was naked. He’s afraid, he fears, and so he hides. This is not the sort of fear the Bible urges on believers. That is the sort of fear rebels have, fearing their sin will be exposed. An ungodly fear drives you away from God (time 4:24 – 5:15).
In contrast, Reeves goes on to explain that reverent fear (yir’âh) is the fear God desires of his people. Fear that “draws us to [and] keeps us with God… the sort of fear that means being overwhelmed, staggered at the holiness and greatness and glory and kindness of God” (time 9:28 – 9:33, 11:12 – 11:26). This sort of reverence can be seen in Genesis 28:17 when Jacob, after dreaming of the stairway to heaven, woke and “he was afraid and said, ‘How awesome is this place!’”. In this case, Jacob’s fear caused him to be in awe of God and draw nearer to Him rather than turning away in fright as the Israelites did.
Another example can be drawn from the book of Joshua, chapter 2. The Israelites were advancing through Jordan to take possession of Canaan, and Joshua sent two spies into the land ahead of the army. In the city of Jericho, the spies encountered a woman named Rahab, who ended up saving them from the King of Jericho. Rahab told the spies that stories of Israel’s escape from Egypt and subsequent conquest of two Amorite kings, Sihon and Og, had circulated throughout Canaan and created a terror in their hearts so fierce that “all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you…and there was no spirit left in any man because of you” (v. 9, 11).
Rahab’s fear, however, was of a different quality than the other inhabitants. She did not tremble and flee from the army, but rather invited the spies into her home, even defying her own king to save them.
Why would she do that?
She, too, had heard the stories of Israel’s conquests, and even admitted she knew the army was advancing on her own city to conquer it (v. 9). Why did she react differently than everyone else?
Former Sweetwater intern Angela Jackson-Gallardo answers this question in her blog post The Identity of Rahab with this succinct phrase: “[Rahab’s] fear of the Lord far outweighed any of her other fears or doubts.” Rahab’s fear was yir’âh. She had a reverence and awe for the power of God that resulted in her running toward, not away, from Him whom she acknowledged to be “[the] God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath” (v. 11).
How, then, does King David describe this reverent fear in Psalm 19:9?
He says it is “clean”.
The word ‘clean’, like ‘fear’, can have two different meanings. If something is described as clean, it is an adjective to mean it is not dirty; it is spotless, free from grime or filth. Another usage is to say I am going to clean a thing, where it is then used as a verb, an action taken to remove dirt, grime, or filth. King David’s statement that “the fear of the Lord is clean” can be taken as both, an adjective and a verb.
Charles Spurgeon, in his commentary The Treasury of David[4], says the fear of the Lord is “clean in itself, and cleanses out the love of sin, sanctifying the heart in which it reigns”. In a similar fashion, Matthew Henry[5] states, “The fear of the Lord (true religion and godliness prescribed in the word, reigning in the heart, and practised in the life) is clean, clean itself, and will make us clean (John 15:3); it will cleanse our way (Psa 119:9).”
Let’s look again at Psalm 19:9a in its entirety: “the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.”
At first glance this sentence might appear to deviate from the recurring pattern of verses 7-9 where the last phrase of the stanza provides the effect of the law on the believer[6]. How verse 9 is worded sounds as if David lists two properties of the fear of the Lord without giving its intended effect; however, that is not the case. The words “enduring forever” do, in fact, point to the effect on the believer.
In the words of Reverend Thomas Dale:
This tells of the effect of the principle rather than of the principle itself, though this latter is not to be omitted. But in its effects it is consistent, unswerving, abiding, all-powerful. It enters into the man, and goes with him wherever he goes. He cannot and would not shake it off. And its effects are eternal, they can never pass away. And all may possess it, through Christ. It shall be for your peace here and happiness hereafter.[7]
Holy, reverent, yir’âh of the Almighty brings us to the foot of the cross of Christ. For it is in light of the power, glory, mercy, righteousness, and wonders of God that we become aware of our own feebleness and filth about which, on our own, we are powerless to cleanse. But when we are drawn to Christ (John 6:44, 65) and our hearts are cleansed by His blood, there is nothing that can then take that away; neither space nor time nor even death (see Psa. 139:7-12 and Rom. 8:38-29). In Christ, we will “endure forever”.
19:9b. the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.
The Hebrew word for rules here is mishpât (mish-pawt’), often translated “judgements”, meaning “a judicial verdict (favorable or unfavorable); a sentence or formal decree (human or (particularly) divine law), including the act, the place, the suit, the crime, and the penalty”.
As I mentioned in my previous blog post, “rules” is the second plural noun used within verses 7-9. According to Charles Spurgeon:
…jointly and severally the words of the Lord are true; that which is good in detail is excellent in the mass; no exception may be taken to a single clause separately, or to the book as a whole. God’s judgments, all of them together, or each of them apart, are manifestly just, and need no laborious excuses to justify them.
Therefore, as with “precepts” in verse 8, the plurality of “rules” points to both individual rules or judgements as well as every rule or judgement collectively. This is reiterated in the final phrase of 19:9b that God’s rules are “righteous altogether”. The mishpât that David refers to in Psalm 19:9b are the judgements set by God through Moses in the written Law (see Exo. 21:1). However, Spurgeon notes the meaning of the judgements of the Lord to be two-fold. He writes, “The judicial decisions of Jehovah [are] revealed in the law, or illustrated in the history of his providence…” It is not only the written judgements of God that are true, but also those that we experience.
What does it mean for God’s rules, or judgements, to be true?
They are accurate, or just; the punishment fits the nature of the crime. Spurgeon describes this as meaning God’s judgements are “unimpeachable”, or in other words, unarguable and irreversible.
Why?
In my blog post on 19:7b I mentioned that we can trust in the sureness of God’s testimony because “the testimony of the Law is founded and upheld in God. His word is dependable because He is dependable”. The same applies here to God’s judgements. His verdicts are true, right, and just because God Himself is true, right, and just. Therefore, every judgement, every verdict, every rule that God has declared is, by nature, fitting; it is true and unarguably just. As David says in Psalm 119, “the sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever” (v. 160).
Along with being true, God’s judgements are also “righteous altogether”. In contrast to 19:9a, where the phrase “enduring forever” only appears to break away from the recurring pattern, 19:9b does diverge from the pattern. This is indicated by the conjunction “and”. The rules of the Lord are clean and righteous altogether, signifying David is still talking about God’s mishpât. The rules of God being declared righteous altogether is a reference to the totality of righteousness found in both individual judgements and in all judgements collectively. In the words of Matthew Henry, “The judgements of the Lord… are righteous; all consonant to natural equity; and they are so altogether: there is no unrighteousness in any of them, but they are all of a piece.”
Though it does not seem in Psalm 19:9 that David is claiming the believer will become righteous altogether, I would like to briefly address the topic of believers’ righteousness.
Can a believer become “righteous altogether”?
Yes.
How?
Through faith in Jesus Christ
In Genesis 2 God commanded the first man, Adam, to refrain from eating the fruit of one of the trees in the Garden of Eden else “you shall surely die” (v. 17). In this command, God declares the due penalty for sin. It is death (Rom. 6:23). In chapter 3 of the book of Romans, Paul gives the chilling statement: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (v. 23). All have sinned therefore all are deserving of death. Left to our own devices, no one is capable of racking up enough “good” points to be able to stand in the presence of a holy God (see Rom. 3:10). It was for this reason that Jesus Christ was sent: to live the sinless life that we are incapable of living, to die the sinner’s death that we all deserve, and to rise again victorious over sin and death so that “in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21, emphasis mine). As 1 John 2:1-2 says:
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
Jesus Christ is righteous. Not only righteous, but He is righteous altogether – every bit of Him is pure and true. Therefore, when we see our need for the salvation that comes only through Jesus (John 14:6) and believe in His work on the cross, we are declared righteous in the sight of the Father. We become clothed in Christ’s righteousness, or, as Paul puts it in his letter to the Galatians, we “put on Christ” (3:27), which means we, also, are righteous altogether.
*All scripture references in this post were taken from the ESV translation unless otherwise noted.
[1]Taken from Strong’s concordance, as are the definitions that follow.
[2] Dr. Michael Reeves is president and professor of theology at Union School of Theology in Oxford, England.
[3] Chapel audio accessed on soundcloud.com: https://soundcloud.com/reformationbiblecollege/michael-reeves-finding-strength-in-the-fear-of-the-lord. A transcript of the chapel service can be found here.
[4] Published 1869-1885. Accessed on e-Sword. All quotes cited by Spurgeon in this blog post were pulled from his Treasury of David commentary.
[5] Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, Published 1708-1714. Accessed on e-Sword.
[6] Recall the words from Matthew Henry describing the pattern of Psalm 19:7-9: “Here are six several titles of the word of God, to take in the whole of divine revelation, precepts and promises, and especially the gospel. Here are several good properties of it, which proves its divine original, which recommend it to our affection, and which extol it above all other laws whatsoever. Here are several good effects of the law upon the minds of men, which show what it is designed for, what use we are to make of it, and how wonderful the efficacy of divine grace is, going along with it, and working by it.”
[7] Biblical Illustrator, Published 1900. Accessed on e-Sword.