This is the third in the “Text(s) of Scripture” series between Thomas and yours truly.
Our present text is Psalm 18:31:
As for God, his way is perfect;
the word of the LORD is flawless.
He is a shield
for all who take refuge in him.
Thom:
This God—his way is perfect;
the word of the LORD proves true;
he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.
“Prove It!”
That’s what a nine year old says to another nine year old when a boast has been made or a bluff is waiting to be called. Even if something is proven, the person who is right still might need to take refuge from the more powerful or the bully. Spun out into a cosmic game of good versus evil, where spears are being thrown at harp players and prophetic words seem weak when confronted with the sword, proving right over might seems impossible.
In this psalm of David, he is declaring once again that the word of the LORD proves itself true, because it has been witnessed in his own life. He has seen God’s prophecy and law prove its worthiness and perfection. He has seen his life spared. He has seen the wisdom of the Proverbs play itself out in real life. He has heard God’s true prophets say “this is the word of the LORD” and then seen the fulfillment of this word.
God’s word is his covenant to us. It is his agreement, his oath, his desire, focus, and pleasure. He speaks and the earth shakes. He speaks and Creation becomes. He delights in the fulfillment of his Word, the heirs of his coming kingdom.
Christians live on the dawn of the last days. We have seen the light cusp the horizon, and we prepare for the sunrise. But it hasn’t come yet.
But it has! Christ is risen each Easter morn, in each soul that follows his way, in each mouth that is fed, heart warmed, cold body clothed, and orphan adopted. His Word, though tempted and suffering, even death on a cross, has been proven. It was the same in the time of David. It will be the same forevermore, until the Kingdom dawns.
Dave:
What does it mean that the “word of the Lord is flawless?” I think this is a kind of relational, experiential term: God’s ways are perfect and his “word” is “tested” or “tried and true” — a more accurate translation of the Hebrew here than “flawless” (the Hebrew root refers to the purification and smelting of precious metals).
David here is referring specifically to the benefits of keeping the Torah, the Law. He claims in verses 18-24, for example, that
For I have kept the ways of the LORD,
And have not wickedly departed from my God.
For all His ordinances were before me,
And I did not put away His statutes from me.
I was also blameless with Him,
And I kept myself from my iniquity.
Therefore the LORD has recompensed me according to my righteousness,
According to the cleanness of my hands in His eyes.
David celebrates his fidelity to Torah and attributes his success over his enemies to superior keeping of Torah. In fact, this Psalm is recorded essentially verbatim in 2 Samuel 22, after David has consolidated his rule over Israel after bloody conflict with Saul and civil war against his own son, Absalom.
David’s claim to be “blameless,” however, is something of a rhetorical and literary device. In fact, David repeatedly violated God’s law in serious ways. Absalom was the son of David’s unlawful tryst with Bathsheba, which David tried to cover up through the murder of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah (2 Samuel 11-12). As another example, David took a census of Israel, which he later acknowledged to be sinful, and which resulted in a judgment of pestilence against Israel (this census was sinful probably because it involved increased taxation, conscription and forced labor) (2 Sam. 24). David, who ultimately repents for his violations of the Law, is “blameless” only in comparison to those who disregard the Law entirely.
The claim here, then, is that those who follow God’s ways will not be disappointed. There is also an implied lesson, I think, that when we fail to follow God’s ways we should turn back to Him and that He will receive us.
God’s “word” — His Law — His definition of the “good life” — is “tried and true.” Many heroes of the faith — even highly flawed heroes such as David — have listened to God’s word and have found God to be faithful. And many others have obstinately turned aside from God’s ways, to their ultimate destruction.
So is this passage a proof text for a particular doctrine of scripture? Yes and no, I think. Yes, in that God’s precepts and commands, which fundamentally concern appropriate respect for God, self, and others, always lead to a “true” life for those who follow them. No, I humbly submit, in that it isn’t really connected to our modern meticulously phrased, logically systematic statements about how the human and divine aspects of scripture as a whole relate to each other in general, or about how scripture “measures up” to modern ideas of historiography.