PSALMS 119:160 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.”
The beginning of Your word is truth, and every one of its righteous ordinances endures forever, completing the Resh stanza with affirmation of Scripture's fundamental truthfulness and permanence. This verse employs "beginning" to mean "sum" or "essential character"—God's word is fundamentally true at its core. The assertion that every ordinance is righteous resists allowing any portion of God's law to be dismissed as culturally conditioned or morally problematic; all commandments reflect divine justice. The eternity of God's righteous ordinances distinguishes them from human laws that change with circumstance and time. This verse provides intellectual foundation for the entire stanza's petitions: confidence that God will preserve and revive the covenant-keeper rests upon certainty that God's law itself endures. The Resh stanza concludes with emphasis on the objective, eternal character of revelation.
Church Fathers on Psalms 119:160
1. From its commencement, dearly beloved, does this great Psalm exhort us unto bliss, which there is no one who desires not....And therefore this is the lesson which he teaches, who says, “Blessed are those that are undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord” Psalm 118:1. As much as to say, I know what you wish, you are seeking bliss: if then you would be blessed, be undefiled. For the former all desire, the latter fear: yet without it what all wish cannot be…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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