God is merciful. That is the truth that psalmist shared in the first half of this stanza. In the second half, we find the next truth that he has learned about God. You can see this passage for yourself in Psalm 119:157-160:

In the first half of this stanza, the psalmist discussed the characteristic of mercy that he has found in God. God is merciful, and that is all the more evident to us as we become more and more obedient to him.

But this isn’t the only characteristic that the psalmist has learned about God; in fact, there are at least three more truths that he has learned that he reveals in this stanza and in the next.

The second thing that he has learned about God is found in this passage. He states it quite clearly in verse 160, but it has been seen already in Psalm 119, and more than once.

God’s Word is True

This is a reality that the psalmist has already shared. We have seen it in verse 142, and again in verse 151. It seems as if the further this psalm progresses, the more this concept appears. The reason for this is simple: the truth of God’s Word is a vital lesson that we must learn. The psalmist has come to understand it, and so must we.

We live in a culture where truth is commodity that is traded without much thought. A culture where truth is relative at best, and more likely spurned than not. A culture that has accepted untruth more often than truth, and only then if it fits our own desires and lusts.

As a culture, we have largely rejected the notion of absolute truth, that there is a standard of truth that is true for all people, in all places, for all times. That there is a truth that over-arches all else. A truth that does not change or bend.

But God’s Word is utterly true, and completely trustworthy, even when everything else and everyone around us proves to be untrustworthy and false.

Our culture is one where fake news is the news of the day, and deep fakes are so convincing that we accept them as real, often without thought. Our culture refuses to accept any standard of truth, and prefers to hold on to relativism; something might be true true for you, and that’s all well and good, but it’s not for me.

We absolutely reject any sense of absolute truth.

But God’s Word must be viewed as absolute. There is no room for wavering when it comes to the absolute truth it contains. Jesus stated this very clearly in John 17:17, when he prayed, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” In fact, in John 14:6, he even equated himself with the truth of Scripture, calling himself Truth, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Paul carries the concept of Scripture as truth through in his second letter to Timothy. In 2 Timothy 2:15, he writes:

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

And then in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, we read this:

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

So when the psalmist states that, “All your words are true,” he is making a statement that can be seen in multiple places throughout the pages of Scripture. And therein lies the power of Scripture. The fact that it is true is what gives it the power that it needs to speak into our lives, and to change us as we open our lives up to it.

Chuck Colson said it this way: “The Bible’s power rests upon the fact that it is the reliable, errorless, and infallible Word of God.”

That’s exactly what the psalmist discovered, and that’s what carried him through the persecution of his enemies (verse 157), what held him above the faithless (verse 158), and what kept his life preserved (verse 159).

God’s eternal truth, found in the pages of his Word, will act in the same way in our own lives still, revealing God’s love for us, preserving us, just is the psalmist discovered all those years ago, and as he penned in these beautiful stanzas of Psalm 119.

Question: How firmly do you hold to the truth of God’s Word in a world that tries hard to minimize it? What are you doing to cling to Scripture and keep it close to you day by day? You can leave a comment by clicking here.