Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb19971214.htm

PSALMS: DIARIES OF GODLY OLD TESTAMENT SAINTS
Psalm Ninety-Three - Gaining Assurance In The Reliability Of God's Word And Its Stands
(Psalm 93:1-5)
  1. Introduction
    1. According to the Western Reserve University poll taken in the 1970s of 10,000 clergymen in five major American Protestant denominations, 82% of the Methodist, 89% of the Episcopalian, 81% of the United Presbyterian, 57% of the Baptist and 57% of the Lutheran ministers felt that the Bible was not God's Word in any unusual sense, James Montgomery Boice, Does Inerrancy Matter?, p. 9.
    2. However, as Boice says, "In the final analysis . . . an attack on the Bible is an attack on the character of God" (Ibid., p. 20) in that the validity of God's Word reflects on His truthfulness and thus on the confidence that we put in the God of the Bible.
    3. Psalm 93:1-5 draws from the comparison between the character of God and that of His Word to produce certain assurances for the believer respecting our confidence in God's Word as follows:
  2. Gaining Assurance In The Reliability Of God's Word And Its Stands, Psalm 93:1-5.
    1. In no uncertain terms, the psalmist asserted the fact that Israel's God, Jahweh is sovereign so that the world is established, never to be moved, Psalm 93:1.
    2. He states that God's throne is established from eternity past unlike the false deity, Baal, Psalm 93:2-4:
      1. Pagan Canaanite theology asserted that its supreme god, Baal, struggled to overcome the prince of the seas, Yamm to set up his throne in Canaan, Bib. Know. Com., O.T., p. 861.
      2. In hinting of Baal beliefs that oppose the truth of God's Word that God never struggled with a prince of the sea for sovereignty, the psalmist reports that the seas have lifted up their thundering surf with the crashing waves of the shore, typical of a thre at, Ps. 93:3.
      3. However, Israel's Jahweh does not need to battle these seas as did the weak BAAL, for Israel's Jahweh is mightier than the seas, Ps. 93:4.
      4. In light of verse 2, the implication is that He has ALWAYS been mightier than the sea.
      5. Accordingly, Israel's Jahweh is the TRUE God as opposed to the impotent Canaanite BAAL!
    3. In view of God's eternal sovereignty, the laws, or Word of God is exceedingly reliable, Ps. 93:5a.
    4. In view of this exceeding reliability of God's Word, the stand God's Word takes, or the separation of God from sin (holiness) which adorns His temple is eternal and worthwhile holding to as a belief, Ps. 93:5b.
Lesson: We believers in the truth of the Bible and in the God of Scripture can be ASSURED that our STANDS of RIGHTEOUSNESS that are BASED on that BIBLE are WORTHWHILE, for they reflect the character, will and purpose of the sovereign GOD of the Bib le. As Boice has correctly noted that " . . . an attack on the Bible is an attack on the character of God", we tie our confidence in the Bible's accuracy and authority to the character of God Himself, cf. Ps. 138:2b [My own translation: " . . . You have exalted in addition to all Your name (the previous manifestations of God's nature via His 'name') Your word." In other words, God has magnified His character AND His Word in connection to that divine character!]

Application: (1) God wants us to respect the divine authority of His Scriptures, and thus to rest assured that when we READ and APPLY Scripture, we are believing and acting in accord with the will and character of God. (2) Note how (a) Satan's tem ptation of Eve in Genesis 3:1 attacked the credibility of the Word of God, or the credibility of its TRANSMISSION from Adam to her, and how, AFTER getting Eve to "soften" on her confidence in what God had SAID (3:2-3 versus 2:16-17) Satan undermined God's C HARACTER, Gen. 3:4-5, blaspheming Him by making Him out to be a liar (v. 4) and a self-serving biggot (v. 5). (b) Accordingly, we need to get "firmed" up in our minds the credibility of the Scripture, of God's preservation of its transmission of truth to u s through the many Greek and Hebrew manuscripts and of the way God's WORD and CHARACTER are interwined so that we RELY on Scripture with confidence!