Psalm 119 | Part 12
For week twelve, Holly Culhane reflects on Psalm 119:89–96 and the Hebrew letter Lamedh in the Psalms for Shepherds series. She emphasizes the permanence and power of God’s Word, which stands firm and sustains believers through every trial. Holly urges shepherd leaders to seek, trust, and delight in Scripture as the limitless and perfect foundation for faithful leadership.
Transcript
This is Holly with Presence Point and welcome back to our Psalms for Shepherds series. This is week 12 of our series on Psalm 119, and we’re looking at verses 89 through 96. This portion of the longest psalm, also an acrostic based on the Hebrew alphabet, represents the 11th letter, known as Lemedh [pronounced la-med]. It’s clear in this passage that God’s Word is settled, that He is faithful, that His creation is established, and that peace is available for those who choose to believe His Word and follow His way and His Truths.
Psalm 119:89-96 (Lemedh)
From “The Message” translationWhat you say goes, God,
and stays, as permanent as the heavens.Your truth never goes out of fashion;
it’s as relevant as the earth when the sun comes up.
Your Word and truth are dependable as ever;
that’s what you ordered — you set the earth going.
If your revelation hadn’t delighted me so,
I would have given up when the hard times came.But I’ll never forget the advice you gave me;
you saved my life with those wise words.
Save me! I’m all yours.
I look high and low for your words of wisdom.
The wicked lie in ambush to destroy me,
but I’m only concerned with your plans for me.I see the limits to everything human,
but the horizons can’t contain your commands!
It seems that Psalm 119, so far, has proven it is as Thomas Manton, an English Puritan Clergyman from the mid-17th Century, once said, “Let us complain not of God, but to God. Complaints of God give a vent to murmuring; but complaints to God, to faith, hope, and patience.” And I would add to that, peace. The psalmist must have had great peace to live as he did while under great affliction. His words indicated time and again: There is difficulty. He is faced with affliction. But his great hope and his peace and his faith and his patience are in the Lord and His Word.
As one preacher has said, this passage is clearly a testimony of the permanence, the power, and the perfection of God’s Word. The psalmist talks of its permanence when he says, “Your truth never goes out of fashion”, “Your word and truth are as dependable as ever.” The psalmist talks of the power of God’s Word when he says, “What You say, goes, God!” And, in the following verses, “If your revelation had not delighted me so, I would have given up when the hard times came. But I’ll never forget the advice you gave me; you saved my life with those wise words.” “I look high and low for your words of wisdom.” And how about when the psalmist said, “The wicked lie in ambush to destroy me, but I’m only concerned with your plans for me.” And we see the perfection of God’s Word in Verse 96: “I see the limits to everything human, but the horizons cannot contain your commands!”
When the psalmist said, “I see the limits to everything human, he is maintaining that even the best things in this world are limited and finite, that nothing in this world is perfect. And he then contrasts that by saying the “horizons cannot contain Your commands”, indicating that God’s Word is perfect, complete, sufficient, limitless, and undefeatable.
Pastor/Teacher H. B. Charles, Jr., says, “The average person views the Bible to be a narrow book. But the psalmist says the Bible is exceedingly broad. It is sufficient to meet you at the point of your need.” He went on to write, “Only God’s word can give hope to the lost person who is facing an uncertain eternity. Only God’s word can give joy to the sick person who is suffering the pain of chronic sickness or disease. Only God’s word can give comfort to the grieving person who is standing over the remains of a loved-one who has died. Only God’s word can give peace to the anxious person who is facing a severe financial crisis. Only God’s word can give strength to the troubled person who is enduring family discord. Only God’s word can give guidance to the confused person who is wrestling with a difficult decision.”
The Psalmist understood, from his own experience, the perfection of God’s Word, even when it didn’t gel with what he thought should happen. He knew what we must know, also as Charles, Jr. writes, “God’s Word will not always make sense to you, God’s Word will not always give you what you want, and God’s Word will not always keep you out of storms.”
The psalmist’s experience with affliction, as should also be true for us, proved that God’s Word would never let him down. God’s Word were perfect for every situation.
There’s a wonderful hymn, first published in 1787, that is a beautiful reminder of this truth. You may know it: How Firm a Foundation, author unknown. The first verse says this:
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He can say than to you He hath said,
To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?
The hymn was especially popular with men who felt the weight of the world on their shoulders, and many leaders in America chose it as their favorite hymn. Andrew Jackson requested it be sung at his deathbed, and Robert E. Lee and Theodore Roosevelt both requested it be sung at their funerals. During the American Civil War, both Northern and Southern soldiers could be heard singing it; a testament to how God bridges the gap between all men.
In 1898, How Firm a Foundation was used to unite a divided American army. It happened during the Spanish-American war, a time soon after the Civil War when tensions between North and South were still high. Soldiers needed to put aside differences to face a new conflict, but that was easier said than done. Lieutenant-Colonel Curtis Guild, Jr. was there on the night it happened, and here is his account:
On Christmas eve of 1898 I sat before my tent in the balmy tropical night [near Havana] chatting with a fellow-officer, of Christmas and home.
Suddenly from the camp of the Forty-Ninth Iowa rang a sentinel’s call, “Number ten; twelve o’clock, and all’s well!” It was Christmas morning. Scarcely had the cry of the sentinel died away, when from the bandsmen’s tents of that same regiment there rose the music of an old, familiar hymn, and one clear baritone voice led the chorus that quickly ran along those moonlit fields: ‘How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord!’
Another voice joined in, and another, and another, and in a moment the whole regiment was singing, and then the Sixth Missouri joined in, with the Fourth Virginia, and all the rest, till there, on the long ridges above the great city whence Spanish tyranny once went forth to enslave the New World, a whole American army corps was singing –
Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed;
For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.
These men knew of the power, the permanence, and the perfection of God’s Word as did the psalmist. Verse 89 tells us God’s word is as permanent as the heavens. Verses 92-95 tell us God’s word is more than sufficient for the believer. Therefore, as God’s under-shepherds, we must delight in God’s Word as the psalmist does in verse 92. We must remember God’s Word as he does in verse 93. We must seek God’s Word, just as the psalmist searched it in verse 94, and we must consider God’s Word as the psalmist does in verse 95.
The answers we need as leaders are there. The support we need as guides and mentors is there. The wisdom we need as advisors is there. The influence we need as principals and pastors and C-suite executives is there.
But we must be in God’s Word to know it. If we do not seek it and consider it, we cannot remember and delight in it. I pray this Lemedh portion of the Psalm 119 Hebrew alphabet acrostic becomes more to you than part of a poem, more than a song, but that it is the edification you need to take time to dig deeper into the words of our God, and the teachings of our Good, Great, and Chief Shepherd, and becomes the firm foundation upon which you shepherd the sheep entrusted to your care.
May you live deeply into your calling this week. Thank you for joining me.
DIGGING DEEPER QUESTIONS:
- What attribute of God’s Word, its permanence, power, or perfection, resonates most with you as a leader the sheep in your life?
- How can you continue to trust the perfection of God’s Word when it doesn’t match your expectations?
- If the storm is raging, are you spending time in God’s Word and standing firm its foundation?
