Each of these are plural imperatives, addressed to all mankind.
New Testament Echoes
In the New Testament we notice cases where the very voice of God was heard on earth. At Christ’s baptism God testified: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). At the Transfiguration the disciples heard that same voice: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him” (Matt. 17:5). John 12:28–30 records another case of direct speech from God. Paul affirms that when he cried out to the Lord to request delivery from his thorn in the flesh (2 Cor. 12:7–8), God spoke to him: “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (v. 9). The book of Hebrews begins with the affirmation that God has indeed spoken to mankind in the past (1:1) and that now He speaks by His Son (v. 2), who is indeed Immanuel, God with us. The Gospel writers claim they have recorded the very words of this Immanuel (hence red-letter editions of the NT). But it is not just the Gospels that record direct quotes from Jesus: we find a number of them in Acts (1:4b–5, 7b–8; 9:4b–6, 11–12, 15–16; 11:16b; 18:9b–10; 20:35c; 22:7b–8, 10b, 18b, 21b; 23:11b; 26:14b–18). Paul quotes Christ a couple of times in his letters (1 Cor. 11:24b–25; 1 Tim. 5:18b).52 Of course, Revelation contains a number of quotations in chapters 1–3 and 22. If we look at all these words of Christ, we will find Him affirming the seven propositions above.
A fitting conclusion to this theme of God’s speaking to mankind is what the psalmist tells the Lord in Psalm 89: “Then You spoke in a vision to Your saints, and You said …” (89:19a, literal translation). This is indeed good news! God chose to converse with sinners. When our first parents sinned, God could have killed them on the spot, but He came and spoke to them. We then have the first proclamation of the gospel (Gen. 3:15).
2
Instruction
God has spoken. When we say that, we naturally think about God’s law delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai. The Hebrew word for “law” is תּוֹרָה (towrah),53 related to a verb (ירה, yarah) that means “to teach” or “to instruct.” As God has spoken to mankind, right from the beginning after creation, He instructed humans about His requirements and blessings (Gen. 1:28–30; 2:16–17). In fact, everything that the Lord has said to mankind could, in a broad sense, be called “instruction.” God’s word is always instructive for both the ungodly and the godly. The verb for instruction (ירה, yarah) appears twice in Psalm 25. The Lord “instructs sinners in the way” (v. 8, NASB), and He “instructs” those who fear Him (v. 12). Psalms has much to say about the Lord’s instruction: over 200 verses treat the subject of God’s word.
When the book of Psalms speaks about God’s law, it is referring not just to the law of Moses as God’s word but also to itself. In other words, the Psalms themselves are God’s word. There are certain indications in the Old Testament that what the psalmists are saying has been inspired by the Holy Spirit. In a Davidic psalm recorded in 2 Samuel 23, David makes the following claim: “The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue” (v. 2).54 In Psalm 49 the author exhorts everyone to listen to his poem because his “mouth shall speak of wisdom” (v. 3). This is really a claim that the Holy Spirit has revealed divine truth to him: “For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding” (Prov. 2:6). Significantly, Psalm 49 speaks about the afterlife, providing instructions to us in the form of information that could only be known by revelation from God.
The New Testament clearly indicates the divine inspiration of Psalms. Our Lord based one of His arguments on the wording of Psalm 82:6, calling it a part of the “Law”; then He says, “the scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:34–35). Matthew 22:43 records Jesus saying that David was in the Spirit55 when he called his messianic Son “Lord” (Ps. 110:1). Peter affirmed that David prophesied in writing Psalm 16:8–11 (Acts 2:30–31). The book of Hebrews opens by declaring that God in the past spoke through prophets (1:1); then the author quotes from the Psalms five times in the first chapter, implying that the psalmists were indeed prophets.
Synonyms for the Word of God
As we search Psalms to gather information about what the book says about the word of God, we soon realize that there are a number of synonyms for this basic term. The book of Psalms uses eight main synonyms to refer to this instruction He has provided for mankind. In Psalm 119 these words occur 176 times, more than twice as many times as the occurrences in the rest of the book. Table 2.1 below lists these eight terms in the order of their first appearance in that psalm. Table 2.2 charts the remaining 75 uses of the synonyms for this concept.
The first synonym appearing in Psalm 119 is “law” (תּוֹרָה, towrah) from “instruct,” and like this word many of the other synonyms derive from verbs. The KJV uses “testimonies” to translate the second synonym, which is the Hebrew word עֵדוּת (‘eyduwth),56 normally plural but used in the singular five times (19:7; 78:5; 81:5; 119:88; 122:4); the related verb means
Table 2.1 Synonyms for Instruction in Psalm 119
| Hebrew words: | תּוֹרָה | עֵדֹת | פִּקּוּדִים | חֻקִּים | מִצְוֹת | מִשְׁפָּטִים | דָּבָר | אִמְרָה |
| towrah | ‘eydoth | piqquwdiym | khuqqiym | mitswowth | mishpatiym | davar | ’imrah | |
| section | law | witnesses | rules | statutes | commands | customs | word | saying |
| 1 (א) | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 8 | 6 | 7 | ||
| 2 (ב) | 14 | 15 | 12 16 | 10 | 13 | 9 16 | 11 | |
| 3 (ג) | 18 | 22 24 | 23 | 19 21 | 20 | 17 | ||
| 4 (ד) | 29 | 31 | 27 | 26 | 32 | 30 | 25 28 | |
| 5 (ה) | 34 | 36 | 40 | 33 | 35 | 39 | 38 | |
| 6 (ו) | 44 | 46 |
45
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