140 Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.
David always had the highest regard for Scripture. He always considered it as belonging to God; hence he referred to it as “Thy word”. In Psalm 119 alone, 35 times David used the phrase “Thy word” to refer to the Holy Scriptures.
We too must read the Scriptures in the belief that we are listening to the words of our God. Through the Scriptures, God communicates with us. So with great reverence and joy, we must attend to God’s Word. We must receive the truths it teaches as divine and glorious. Nowhere else have we such a perfect body of divine truths revealed for our blessing.
We have no reason to doubt what God’s Word says, for it is “very pure”. The Hebrew words “very pure” literally means “much tried or refined”. As David said in Psalm 12:6, “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.” God’s Word has been utterly tried and has been proven to be absolutely pure and perfectly righteous. Its purity is the purity of its Author, the infinitely holy God.
Like David, many men, who have repeatedly relied on all that Scripture says throughout their lives, have testified unto us with utmost certainty and joy that all that it says are pure. David also confessed, “therefore thy servant loveth it.” Would anyone declare his unabated, unbounded love for God’s Word if it has ever been found defective, deceptive or unreliable? David’s open declaration of his love for God’s Word is a grand testimony to its trustworthiness. Those who trust all that it says shall not be ashamed, as it has already been tested and proven pure.
Because God’s Word is pure, it will also purify and preserve those who trust and obey its unpolluted words. Earlier in this psalm, David said, “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word” (Psalm 119:9). It could very well have been David’s own experience, for he confessed later that “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee” (Psalm 119:11). He also testified, “I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word” (Psalm 119:101). The beauty of God’s holiness shines through every word of His Word. Those who walk in the light of His Word shall have the joy of walking in the beauty of His holiness. The pure Word of God shall keep us away from all defiling ways. So, let us love it as David did.