Be Ready to Give an Answer

Be Ready to Give an Answer

Psalm 119:41-48

Main Idea: Cry out to God for help against opposition while remaining committed to and dependent on his Word.

Paul Little (1928–1975) was a wonderful Christian apologist who died in a tragic car accident in 1975. He served with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and taught evangelism at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Among his many accomplishments were two books God has used to encourage and equip Christians in apologetics: Know Why You Believe and Know What You Believe. Christianity Today lists Know Why You Believe as one of the fifty most influential books of twentieth-century evangelicalism (“The Top 50 Books”). In writing both books, Little was obeying the command of our Lord found in 1 Peter 3:15: “But in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” Peter was joining the cry of the psalmist who prayed in Psalm 119:41-42, “Let your faithful love come to me, Lord, your salvation, as you promised. Then I can answer the one who taunts me, for I trust in your word.”

Stanza Waw (?), the sixth in Psalm 119 (vv. 41-48), is a prayer for help (vv. 41-43) and a pledge of fidelity (vv. 44-48) to God and his Word. The centrality, once again, of God’s Word is highlighted by Old Testament scholar Derek Kidner, who points out that in this psalm the Word is “appropriated (41), trusted (42b,43b), obeyed (44), sought (45) and loved (47f.)” (Psalms, 425). God enables us to answer the critic, the “one who taunts me” (v. 42), as God works in us to rightly use his Word to define our faith (what we believe) and to defend our faith (why we believe).

I Will Pray for Help and Be Ready to Answer the Scornful

Psalm 119:41-43

The psalmist begins this stanza by asking God to be faithful to the promises in his Word. He asks first that the Lord’s “faithful love” (“steadfast love” ESV; “unfailing love” NLT; “lovingkindnesses” NASB) would “come to me.” Second, he asks that God’s salvation—here probably meaning deliverance—would come to him “as you promised.” In other words, what God has promised, the psalmist wants to experience. He longs for God to fulfill his promises right now in the challenging and difficult experiences of life.

Verse 42 gives the reason for the prayer request: “Then I can answer the one who taunts me, for I trust in your word.” The Message says, “Then I’ll be able to stand up to mockery.” The psalmist is under attack for his faith. Cynics, mockers, and scoffers are ridiculing, mocking, and making fun of him. He wants to be ready to answer them and refute the errors of their arguments and false accusations. He knows that to do this he needs to be renewed and strengthened by the Lord (Yahweh). He also knows that the foundation of his defense is the Word of God that he trusts (v. 42). He knows he has no hope, apologetic, or defense apart from the Word. This moves him to pray that the Lord will not withhold his “word of truth” when he speaks. He humbly and honestly confesses that his only hope is in the Word of God (“I hope in your judgments”).

God’s truth can always silence the devil’s lies and the empty and false attacks of his followers. We should never forget that the wisdom of this world, along with its prophets and philosophers, will always oppose the wisdom of God and his Word. Today brilliant minds confront the minds of our college students. Subtle philosophies will entangle them, and clever arguments will seduce them unless they stand strong on the word of truth (v. 43).

However, there is a necessary warning we must not neglect. When the enemy confronts us, the Lord will not give us his Word as our defense if we do not know his Word. His Spirit can only remind us of what we have read, learned, and pondered (v. 48). But if we know the Word, then we can confidently claim the promise of Jesus found in John 14:25-26:

I have spoken these things to you while I remain with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.

I Will Keep the Lord’s Word and Share It with Others

Psalm 119:44-46

The best apologetic and defense of our Christian faith is a transformed life that speaks the truth in love (Eph 4:15). Our daily obedience and surrender to the lordship of Christ and his Word powerfully demonstrate the reality of our faith.

Verses 44-48 are filled with “I” statements, as the psalmist pledges his loyalty to the Lord through obedience to the Word of God. He begins by declaring in verse 44, “I will always obey your instruction.” And as if that were not enough, he adds, “forever and ever.” He pledges to obey the Lord’s Word always and forever.

Verse 45, as Ross notes, “adds to this the expectation of living at liberty when the Lord fulfills his Word and because the psalmist is faithful” (Psalms, 505). This is expressed in the idiomatic phrase, “I will walk freely in an open place.” Such liberty and freedom are his because “I study your precepts.” Study and apply God’s Word to be set free, the psalmist encourages. You are not set free to do what you want but free to do what you ought! Doing the will of God is always the way of true and real freedom. God’s Word does not restrict your lifestyle; it liberates it for God’s glory and our good. Thus Jesus reminds us in John 8:32, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Such truth is too wonderful to keep to ourselves. The psalmist declares in verse 46, “I will speak of your decrees before kings and not be ashamed.” With unhindered boldness we speak truth to those in power, recounting the great acts and faithfulness of our God. When I read this verse, I think of Jesus in Isaiah 52:15—“Kings will shut their mouths because of him”—and of the Gospels (cf. John 18:28-40; 19:9-16). I think of Daniel. I think of Paul in Acts. Speaking truth to power is our responsibility. It is also our privilege.

I Will Love God’s Word and Meditate on It Continually

Psalm 119:47-48

Our stanza closes with our author proclaiming his “delight in and love for God’s word” (Ross, Psalms, 506). God’s Word is not a burden; it is a blessing. So the psalmist sings, “I delight in your commands, which I love.” The verb tense indicates a present and continuing delight in God’s commands. He enjoys the Word.

He also loves the Word—something he declares twice. As tangible evidence of this, he will do two things, one outward and one inward. First, he will lift his hands toward the commands he loves. He will visibly testify for all to see his love for God and his Word. Second, he will meditate on God’s Word, here referred to as God’s “statutes.” Whatever goes deepest into the heart goes out widest to the world. Boldness in witnessing flows from a deeply ingrained (i.e., through meditation) love and delight in God and his Word. Truth moves from the head to the heart; then it moves out to the mouth and even to the hands. The Word of God has captured the whole man, set him free, and given him a liberty in life that cannot be contained. When we delight in God’s Word, love God’s Word, and obey God’s Word, sharing its message comes naturally. We cannot help ourselves. We must speak. We cannot remain silent.

On April 18, 1521, the great Reformer Martin Luther (1483–1546) stood before Emperor Charles V and an examination council at the Diet of Worms. Challenged to retract and recant his writings, Luther boldly and famously replied,

Since your most serene majesty and your high mightiness require from me a clear, simple, and precise answer, I will give you one, and it is this: I cannot submit my faith either to the pope or to the councils, because it is clear to me as the day that they have frequently erred and contradicted each other. Unless therefore I am convinced by the testimony of Scripture, or by the clearest reasoning—unless I am persuaded by means of the passages I have quoted—and unless they thus render my conscience bound by the Word of God, I cannot and I will not retract, for it is unsafe for a Christian to speak against his conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. May God help me. Amen. (Luther quoted in Boice, Living, 60)

Luther chose to obey Psalm 119:46-48. He knew God would not fail to keep his promises.

Conclusion

Spurgeon wisely says,

There are three sorts of blasphemies of the godly—the devils, heretics and slanderers. The devil must be answered by the internal word of humility; heretics by the external word of wisdom; slanderers by the active word of a good life. (Treasury, 232)

To say it another way, we must be Psalm 119 kind of people. To say it still another way, we must follow in the footsteps of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. When tempted by the devil, he defeated him with his humble appeal to the Word of God (Matt 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13). When the Pharisees attacked him, his superior wisdom sent them scurrying: “from that day no one dared to question him anymore” (Matt 22:46). And in John 18:38, when wrongly charged by the religious leaders on the day he was crucified, even Pilate was forced to confess after examining him, “I find no guilt in him” (ESV). May we also speak and live in such a way that those who would find fault with our faith be silenced because the evidence for the truth of what we believe and who we follow is simply too strong to deny.

Reflect and Discuss

1. Do you always have to pray for God to fulfill his promises in order for him to answer them? Why or why not?
2. If you “claim” a promise of God in prayer, does that mean he will automatically answer that prayer? Why or why not?
3. Do you ever feel it is easier to daydream about how you will respond to others instead of praying to God for help? Why is this the case?
4. How is the way you live your life connected to your ability to answer those who would ridicule or mock you?
5. Is obedience to God necessary for him to help you during difficulty? Why or why not?
6. What are some past examples in your own life where you have seen that following God brings freedom and not restriction?
7. Why does the psalmist give an outward expression (raising his hands) of his love for God’s Word?
8. How would you explain to an unbeliever who is not familiar with the Bible why Christians love God’s Word?
9. What passages of Scripture do you find most helpful to remember when you are confronted with sin and temptation? What is a new passage you could use to help you in the future?
10. How does hope in Christ’s future return and rule help you withstand opposition now?