As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these
verses:
7The
works of His hands [are] truth and justice;
the all of His commands are trustworthy,
8Being
established to forever to ages,
being done in truth and uprightness.
Our world is filled with “kings”
of all sorts – real “kings,” the presidents and dictators who rule over nations,
and then various and sundry other “kings” who rule over every other aspect of
our lives, the parents and teachers and policemen and bosses and regulators and
all such. Also, in a sense, we are all kings over ourselves, deciding whether
we will or won’t, always trying to rule over the little kingdom that is us.
What stands out to me in Psalm
111:7,8 is that the Lord is the best
King. “Truth and justice,” “trustworthy commands,” “truth and uprightness” – in
every possible way, God’s rule over us is a good
rule. He is a good ruler.
This stands out to me
particularly in contrast to all the other “rulers” I have to deal with. Our “government”
is an almost constant grief to us precisely because they are “none of the
above.” What Psalm 111:7,8 describes is precisely what we’re expecting from our
elected officials – truth and justice, good laws, truth and uprightness – and yet
all we see is corruption and utter incompetence. On the news last night I heard
that some agency of the government had “accidentally” sent live anthrax virus
to several laboratories. They are supposedly investigating it but assured the
public that at no time was anyone exposed to any danger. I heard all of it and
the words that filled my mind were, “lies, lies, lies, lies, lies, lies.” Something
happened. Apparently. What it was we’ll never know. Are they really “investigating
it?” Of course not. At most all they’re doing is some kind of diversionary
damage control. Why did it happen? Was it really an accident? We’ll never know.
Whether anyone was in any danger? Probably seriously. But the bottom line is I
don’t believe anything they tell us. They have proven to me over a lifetime to
be nothing but totally corrupt, utterly incompetent, and shameless liars who
feed us what they want us to hear, tell us whatever they want us to think, and
all of that with absolutely not the slightest concern whether what they do is
right or whether what they say is true.
Very few of the other “rulers” in
my life have ever been as bad as our government but the sad fact is that few
have been people of “truth and uprightness.” I have had some really good bosses
but then I’ve had some very bad ones. Anywhere in any business, I’ve seen very
few people who were good managers. So many people, it seems to me, get into leadership
positions and then basically just want to sit at their desk and hope no one
bothers them. Very few people, it would appear, actually work at their jobs. There just simply are very few people you
really could say you thoroughly trust.
And then there’s myself. I sadly
find I just don’t seem to do a very good job ruling over me. To paraphrase Paul: “I have the desire to do what is good, but
rarely seem to carry it out. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate
I do. What I do is not the good I want to, no, the evil I don’t want to do – this
I keep on doing.” The fact is I just don’t do a very good job ruling over me.
Yikes. What a hopeless, cheerless
botched up mess!
Enter the Lord.
7The
works of His hands [are] truth and justice;
the all of His commands are trustworthy,
8Being
established to forever to ages,
being
done in truth and uprightness.
That’s our God. He is everything
we could ever hope for in a King to rule over us.
Notice that the grammatical structure of verse 7 is actually
kind of odd, yet the very oddity is instructive. It says, “The works of His
hands [are] truth and justice.” You would think it would be expressed with
predicate adjectives: “The works of His hands are true and just;” instead
they are nouns, “truth and justice.” I think the Lord’s point is similar to
when Jesus said, “I am the truth” in John 14:6. Same odd construction. And yet,
when it is the Lord, it makes perfect sense. He not only speaks truth and acts
truly, He is truth itself. He is the very fountain of truth. He cannot be or do
otherwise because that is simply who He is. Satan is a liar and the father of
lies. The lusts of our father we do. But God cannot be like us. He is truth. In the folly and blindness of
our sins, we wonder if God can be trusted. The “gods” we create are invariably
capricious and we imagine the God of the Bible to be like them. But verse 7
would remind us the very nature of our God, the very fabric of who He is and
what He’s like, is truth. He cannot be otherwise. Dogs bark because they’re
dogs. Lions roar because they’re lions. God speaks and acts truly because He is
Truth.
This leads to the statement His works are justice. Same odd
construction, yet same point. The Hebrew word for justice is much larger (as
usual) than our English word and encompasses all of God’s rule over us. He is right rule. As He governs over us, as
He rules sovereignly over the lives of men and nations, He not only rules
rightly and rules well, He is right
rule. When Jesus rules over us, Isaiah proclaims, “His name shall be called Amazing,
Counselor, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace. Of the
increase of His government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on
David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice
and righteousness from that time on and forever” (9:6,7).
The second half of verse 7 is also odd: “All His commands
are trustworthy.” Commands are either good or bad. We would normally think of promises
as either trustworthy or not. Yet here God’s commands themselves are called
trustworthy. I don’t think in English we’d ever describe our boss’s orders as “trustworthy.”
And yet, in the very oddity, once again, I think we see the point. Even God’s
commands – that which He expects us to do – derive from the very truth that is
Him. We can utterly trust that, if we do as He says, it will in fact be best.
He is justice. He can only rule well
because that is who He is. When the government or a boss tells us something we
must do, we have every reason to wonder, “Is this a good idea?” and too often
it is not. Yet that will never ever be the case with God. We can rest assured
all He commands is good and we can trust Him to rule us wisely and well.
Verse 8 only reiterates these truths, which is an oddity in
itself. In the entire rest of this Psalm, each thought is contained in two
lines (which we have divided up into single verses). In this case, the thought
is expressed over four lines and our two verses. Verse 8 is actually
expressed in participles, “-ing” verbals, pointing us back to verse 7 and, in
effect, reiterating its teaching, which is a different structure from the rest
of the Psalm. All His works are in fact firmly established and immovable, and
all He’s doing is truth and uprightness. The word translated “uprightness”
means literally “to go or be straight.” We say an honest man is a “straight-shooter.”
We ask someone to “tell it to us straight.” When we do right, we walk a “straight
path.” Same idea. It has been said of some men, “He was so crooked, when they
buried him, they had to screw him into the ground.” Never so with God. There is
no possible “crooked” with Him. All He does is absolutely “straight.”
It is an inestimable blessing to have this great and good
God to rule over us. The government is corrupt and incompetent. So many people
are unfortunately very poor rulers. And we are utterly incapable of ruling over
ourselves. But our God is truth and justice. His rule is absolutely
trustworthy. He’s always completely “straight” with us.
I’m so glad in this world of disappointment to have my God
who is such a source of joy and confidence. May I trust Him more and may the
truth and justice and uprightness of who He is rub off on me!
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