Thou hast set at nought all them that wander from thy statutes; for their deceit is falsehood.
The writer has just asked God to hold him up and keep him safe. Now he turns to the people who walk off God's path, and watches God sweep their scheming aside as worthless.
The two halves of the verse belong to a single thought that runs back into the previous line. One writer traces the contrast between the man who leans on God and the man who wanders off on his own:
"Hold me up," he prays, "that I may be safe." Because he depends on God's hand to hold him up, he will be safe and able to keep God's statutes continually (v. 117). Those who willingly stray from His statutes, on the other hand, can expect God to reject them. Their deceit is not only a twisting of the truth, but deliberate falsehood. God discerns the inward motives.
The ESV says their cunning "is in vain." Older translations read "their deceit is falsehood." Two different Hebrew words stand behind that line:
Psalm 119:118. She-ker (falsehood) vanity — false, in the sense of having no reality. Tar-mi-tham (their deceit) — false, in the sense of deceiving another.
So the schemer lies to others, and the lie itself is hollow. He is working with nothing.
The word "stray" might suggest an honest mistake. One writer rejects that reading, and points to the name these people get one verse later:
Notice the character of the people in this verse: they "err from Your statutes." They do not err in their minds through ignorance. They err in their hearts through obstinacy. They deliberately turn away from God. They are like those in the parable who say: "We do not want this man to reign over us" (Luke 19:14). They say: "We do not desire the knowledge of your ways" (Job 21:14). In verse 119 they are rightly called "the wicked"! "Their deceit is falsehood" is another way of saying: "Evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived" (2 Tim. 3:13).
The deceiver ends up deceived himself.
What looked like a working strategy turns out to be air. The godly man watches this happen and takes the lesson:
But he sees God's judgments on those who turned away from God's commandments. The thing by which they sought to beguile others turned out to be emptiness and vanity. Deceit is, as far as men are concerned, falsehood — what was empty and false in itself. God rejected them, and treated them as nothing, as dross.
Dross is the worthless waste that refining leaves behind. One writer applies that picture to both halves of the verse:
From his shelter he looks out and sees judgment fall on all who go astray from the path. Their slackness — "letting fall," like the string of a bow that lets you down — is falsehood. It is not failure in a man whose heart may still be right. This is how God treats them. They are not silver that still needs purifying from dross. They are dross itself and nothing else.
Seeing God deal with the false does not leave the psalmist gloating. It leaves him shaking, as the closing verse of this section shows:
(vv. 118-120) He sees that those who wander from God's statutes are "set at nothing." They come to nothing and are treated as dross in God's sight. The judgment of such people fills the soul with holy fear.
That fear is the right response, and it has somewhere to send us:
There was fear, and rightly so, at the prospect of these judgments. But the word — and even the judgment itself — encourages the heart to look up to Him from whom it came.
- Held. Read this verse next to the prayer before it. One man asks God to hold him up, and he is safe. The other walks off, and God sweeps him aside.
- Deliberate. These people do not stray by ignorance. They stray by obstinacy — in the heart, not just the mind.
- Hollow. One word means a lie told to others. The other means a lie with nothing real behind it. The deceiver ends up deceived.
- Dross. God does not treat them as silver that still needs refining. He treats them as dross and nothing else. This is not the failure of a man whose heart is right.
- Fear. This judgment fills the godly with holy fear. It sends them to the word, and up to the God whose judgment it is.
Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth [like] dross; therefore I love thy testimonies.
Two verses earlier, the psalmist asks God to hold him up so he can keep God's statutes (v. 117). Then he looks away from himself to what God does with everyone else. He sees a whole class of people swept away like waste metal. That is what makes him say he loves God's testimonies.
The image comes from metalworking, but the point turns on what the verse does not say. It does not show God purifying a mixed lump of metal.
"Hold me up, that I may be safe," he prays. He depends on God's hand to hold him up. So he will be safe, and he will be able to keep God's statutes always (v. 117). But those who choose to stray from His statutes can expect God to reject them. Their deceit is not just a twisting of the truth. It is deliberate lying. God discerns the inward motives. He puts away all the wicked of the earth like dross. He does not just burn the dross out of the silver. There is no silver in them at all. They are all dross (v. 119).
Another writer states the same distinction and adds what the psalmist does with it:
So God treats them. They are not silver that still needs its dross purified away. They are dross itself and nothing else. The psalmist sees this judgment and agrees with it. So he holds even more tightly to the testimonies that save people from the road to destruction.
The word sounds harsh until you see who the psalm has in view. These are not people who missed the way by accident.
But notice what kind of people this verse describes: they "go astray from your statutes." They do not go wrong in their minds through ignorance. They go wrong in their hearts through stubbornness. They turn away from God on purpose. They are like the people in the story Jesus told who say, "We do not want this man to reign over us" (Luke 19:14). They say, "We do not desire the knowledge of your ways" (Job 21:14). Verse 119 rightly calls them "the wicked"!
The "therefore" is the hinge of the verse. God throws out what is worthless. That sight does not make the psalmist cold. It warms him toward God's testimonies.
But the very fact that God disposes of the dross is an added reason for the believer to love His testimonies. So the judgment of the wicked strengthens the faith of the godly. It gives a believer a healthy fear of God. He trembles as he thinks about so great a Creator, and holy fear of His judgments quiets his soul.
The psalmist is not a spectator at a distance. God holds him up in the same world where others are set aside. One writer adds that Christians stand in a different place still.
God rejected them and treated them as nothing, as dross. That encouraged the heart in God's testimonies. The heart had kept their way despite the wicked who sneered at them. But there was fear, and rightly so, at the thought of these judgments. We ourselves shall be above them. We shall be taken out of the hour of trial that is coming on all the earth. Meanwhile the word encourages us, and even the judgment does, as we look up to Him from whom it came.
Commentators differ in emphasis here: some read the verse as a coming judgment believers are kept out of, while others draw it into telling true from false today.
God once used this same language of dross about His own people. So no reader can treat the verse as a comment about outsiders only.
Today there are people who claim to be Christians while "having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power" (2 Tim. 3:5). Paul says, "Avoid such people." Of Israel it is said: "Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me… Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have all become dross… so I will gather you in My anger and in My wrath, and I will put you in and melt you" (Ezek. 22:18-20).
The psalmist's own response is what the reader is meant to copy:
We shall be able to discern these false spirits only when we know what the Word says. "Therefore I love your testimonies" is the positive stand the psalmist takes. We do well to follow his example!
- Dross, not ore. God is not shown refining these people. There is no silver in them at all — the whole mass is waste, and God throws it out instead of purifying it.
- Chosen, not stumbled into. They "go astray from your statutes" by stubbornness of heart, not by ignorance of mind. Their deceit is deliberate lying.
- Held, not discarded. The psalmist's own safety is not his integrity but God's hand: "Hold me up, that I may be safe" — that hand is the only thing separating him from the dross.
- Loved, not merely observed. God's dealing with the dross becomes one more reason to love His testimonies. Judgment strengthens the faith of the godly and fills the soul with holy fear.
- Warned, not exempt. God once called Israel itself dross, so the warning turns inward. Turn away from a faith that has the look of godliness but no power — and only knowing the Word lets you tell the difference.
My flesh shuddereth for fear of thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments.
A long section of Psalm 119 ends here — not in confidence, but in shaking. The writer loves God's law, yet he has just watched God sweep the wicked away like worthless waste, and the sight leaves him trembling.
The trembling has a cause. It follows what the writer has just watched God do with people who stray from the path:
From his shelter he looks out and sees judgment fall on all who stray from the path. Their slackness — "letting fall," like the loose string of a deceitful bow — is falsehood. It is not mere failure, where the heart may still be right. So God treats them not as silver that still needs purifying from dross, but as dross itself and nothing else. The psalmist sees this judgment and approves it. So he clings all the more to the testimonies that deliver from the way of destruction. Meanwhile his flesh trembles with awe at the holiness of God, and he is afraid as he takes in His righteous judgments.
This fear does not weaken faith. Watching God deal with evil strengthens it:
But the very fact that God disposes of the dross is one more reason for the believer to love His testimonies. The judgment of the wicked serves to strengthen the faith of the godly. It produces such a healthy fear of God in a saint that he trembles as he thinks about so great a Creator. The holy fear of His judgments subdues his soul.
Another commentator calls this fear right and just. He also points to a hope beyond it:
He sees God's judgments on those who walked away from God's commandments. What they used to try to fool people turned out to be empty and worthless. Deceit is, as far as men are concerned, falsehood — something vain and false in itself. God rejected them and treated them as nothing, as dross. This encouraged the heart in God's testimonies... But there was fear, and rightly so, at the prospect of these judgments. We ourselves will be above them. God will take us out of the hour of temptation that will come on all the earth. Yet the word encourages us, and even the judgment does, as we look up to Him from whom it came.
Psalm 119 is built in sections, and this one is named Samech, after a Hebrew letter. In it, love for God's law, the need to be held up, and fear of God stand together:
Samech. The psalmist rejects wavering and evil-doing as strongly as he loves Jehovah's law. He voices his need to be held up. On the other side stand Jehovah's swift dealings with the deceitful and the wicked; for He is indeed to be feared.
Commentators differ on how far a Christian should make these words his own. One draws a line between the Psalms and Christian experience:
As far as the Book of Psalms reflects the heart of a righteous Jew, the saint is now carried beyond it, or beside it. The Psalmist says, for instance, "My flesh trembles for fear of you, and I am afraid of your judgments"; the saint now is to prove that "perfect love casts out fear," and that he has "confidence for the day of judgment."
Another keeps the verse in daily use, reading its fear as the reverence a loved child has toward a father:
Believers should have a healthy fear of the Father. A child who loves his father fears the punishment he deserves when he disobeys his father's will. We also fear to grieve and sadden someone we love... The Lord helps and supports us through His precious Word. With that help we can have victory over our spiritual enemies, avoid pitfalls, and escape being deceived by false teaching. It will also keep us sensitive to His will and help us to obey Him in our daily lives.
- Dross. The trembling starts with what the writer just saw. God did not treat the wicked as silver worth refining, but as dross and nothing else.
- Awe. That sight produces a healthy fear. He trembles at the thought of so great a Creator, and God's judgments subdue his soul.
- Approval. He does not protest the judgment. He approves it, and holds tighter to the testimonies that deliver from the way of destruction.
- Support. The same section that ends in fear also asks God for support. Reverence and dependence travel together.
- Confidence. Commentators differ here. One points past the Psalmist to perfect love that casts out fear. Another keeps the verse as a child's reverence that guards obedience.