Psalm 119:89; Psalm 119:11
Forever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in heaven.
Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee.
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Dear reader, we want you to accept a little motto for the year on which you have just entered. We think you will find it a precious motto for every year during which your Lord may see fit to leave you on this earth. It consists of two short but most weighty passages from Psalm 119. The first is this: “Forever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in heaven,” and the second is, “Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee.” These are golden sentences for the present moment. They set forth the true place for the Word—“settled in heaven” and “hidden in the heart.”
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): According to the most eminent scholars, the opening sentence should be read—“Forever Thou art, O Lord; Thy Word is settled in Heaven.”
THOMAS SCOTT (1747-1821): The Word of God is as unchangeable and everlasting as His own existence. It is established “in the heavens,” beyond the reach of the revolutions of this lower world: and its accomplishment is as certain, as the motions of the heavenly bodies, which are not at all affected by the convulsions and vicissitudes of the earth and its inhabitants.
C. H. SPURGEON: As God changes not, so the Word which He has spoken to His servants changes not. If the foundations of the faith could be removed, what would the righteous do? What would any of us do? But, with an eternally fixed Word of God, we have something solid to build upon, a foundation on which we may confidently rest our everlasting hopes.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): His purposes are all settled above, and they shall all be fulfilled below.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Our salvation, 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: “The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field…The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever,” Isaiah 40:6,8.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): It is eternal and perpetual, neither can it be vacated or abolished by the injury of time or endeavours of tyrants.
JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): “The Scriptures cannot be broken,” John 10:35. They are called “the Scriptures of truth,” Daniel 10:21; and “the true sayings of God,” Revelation 19:9; and also the fear of the Lord, for every jot and tittle thereof is forever settled in heaven, and stand more steadfast than doth the world. “Heaven and earth,” saith Christ, “shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away, Matthew 24:35. Those, therefore, that are favoured by the Word of God, those are favoured indeed, and that with the favour that no man can turn away.
C. H. SPURGEON: God will uphold His Truth that is in this Book and the men that hold that Truth shall be upheld. And similar eternal settlements are made for all whose hope is fixed upon that Word! No truth of it can fail, no promise of it can be broken. What a joy this is to our hearts! There is something sure, after all—We can say, “this is not mere opinion; this is not the judgment of a wise man, this is not the decree of councils; this is the Master’s own declaration.” Not one of His Words shall ever fall to the ground. There is in His authority no change—His Word is forever settled in Heaven and He is, in Himself, the same yesterday, today and forever…No promise of God ever changes—“His Truth endureth to all generations,” Psalm 100:5.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): It could not be otherwise, for “He is faithful that promised,” Hebrews 10:23. None has ever laid hold of a divine promise and found it to fail, and none ever will…How comforting is this to the children of God. Unto us are given “exceeding great and precious promises,” 2 Peter 1:4; and these are the promises of Him who can not lie. Rest, then, with implicit confidence on the sure Word—forever settled in heaven—of the Lord our God.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: But let us remember the counterpart: “Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee.” There are three special points suggested, namely, What have I hid? Where have I hid it? Why have I hid it?
C. H. SPURGEON: As one has well said, Here is the best thing—“Thy Word;” hidden in the best place—“in my heart;” for the best of purposes—“that I might not sin against thee.”
A. W. PINK: God has bidden us, “My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye. Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart,” Proverbs 7:1-3. This cannot be done by reading the Bible for a few minutes, and then an hour later forgetting what has been read. Shame on us that we should treat God’s Word so lightly.
JOHN BUNYAN: There wanteth even in the hearts of God’s people a greater reverence of the Word of God than this day appeareth among us—and this let me say, that want of reverence of the Word is the ground of all disorders that are in the heart, life, conversation, and in Christian communion. Besides, the want of reverence of the Word layeth men open to the fearful displeasure of God. “Whoso despiseth the Word shall be destroyed; but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded,” Proverbs 13:13. All transgression beginneth at wandering from the Word of God…First, then, be sure thou keep close to the Word of God; for that is the revelation of the mind and will of God, both as to the truth of what is either in Himself or His ways; and also as to what He requireth and expecteth of thee, either concerning faith in, or obedience to, what He hath so revealed.
ADAM CLARKE: If God’s word be only in his Bible, and not also in his heart, he may soon and easily be surprised into his besetting sin.
JOHN CALVIN: Our true safeguard, then, lies not in a slender knowledge of His law, or in a careless perusal of it, but in hiding it deeply in our hearts.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: Nothing can touch the eternal truth of God, and, therefore, what we want, at all times, is to give that truth its proper place in our hearts, to let it act on our conscience, form our character, and shape our way.
A. W. PINK: Unless we do so, we shall never be able to say, “Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee.”
ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): The Word, if hid in the heart, will certainly be manifest in the life.
