Your Word is Truth (More on Psalm 119)
Jesus says in John 17:17, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” In the midst of this great prayer for his present (and future) disciples, he asks the Father to sanctify them — to make them holy. How will the Father do this? Through his Word. In the truth, and by the Word which is truth.
Long before Jesus prayed these words, the Psalmist understood this same relationship between who God is (truthful and good) and what he says (truth revealed in his Word) in Psalm 119:
“Take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for my hope is in your rules.” (v.43)
“The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures for ever.” (v.160)
When the Psalmist speaks of “truth” in Psalm 119, he means more than mere factual accuracy. Christopher Wright observes:
“He means that God’s word is where he finds a truthful, dependable account of what is ‘really real’. And that is what he builds all his life and hope upon.” (Life Through God’s Word, p.15)
Truth, then, is that which accurately reflects who God is and what God requires of us — loving him, trusting him, obeying him. It is reliable, morally weighty, and covenantally binding. But it is also understandable. Truth that cannot be grasped cannot sanctify, comfort, or command.
The Psalmist knows this tension. On the one hand, he clearly understands God’s Word. It brings him blessing and delight. The word delight appears ten times in Psalm 119 (vv.14, 16, 24, 35, 47, 70, 77, 92, 143, 174). To delight in something assumes a real apprehension of it.
Yet while he understands it, he longs to understand it more deeply. So he repeatedly prays, “Teach me your statutes” — eleven times in various forms (vv.12, 26, 29, 33, 64, 66, 68, 108, 124, 135, 171). He has found God’s Word to be trustworthy, worthy, and foundational. Precisely because of that, he desires to grow further in understanding.
There is much to say about sola Scriptura, eg. what it means and how secondary authorities actually serve the Church. But we must not miss what Psalm 119 makes clear: God’s Word is truth. It is sufficiently clear that it can be loved, trusted, and obeyed. Yet we are finite and dependent creatures. We do not exhaust its depths. Therefore, like the Psalmist, we continually pray that God would enlighten our minds and instruct us by his Word.
Ultimately, we confess with him, “The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces” (v.72). And with Paul we affirm that “All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable” (2 Timothy 3:16) — useful, beneficial, and life-giving.
It was this love for God’s Word that lay at the heart of the Reformation. Just as the Renaissance called scholars back to the sources (ad fontes), so the Reformers returned to the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures in order to understand the Bible more faithfully. From that time onward, one of the defining hallmarks of Protestantism has been Bible translation — the conviction that God’s Word belongs in the hands of the people of God.
As the Westminster Confession of Faith affirms, all God’s people have a right to and an interest in the Scriptures (WCF 1.8). They are therefore commanded to read and search them diligently. The Reformers were not elevating private judgment; they were expressing confidence that the Word of God is true, powerful, and sufficiently clear to accomplish God’s purposes in the lives of his people.
And so we return, again and again, praying with the Psalmist: “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” (v.18).
