Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.
Try Tabletalk NowAlready receive Tabletalk magazine every month?
Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.
Psalm 12:6
“The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.”
Yesterday we considered how Neoorthodoxy’s separation of personal encounter from propositional truth undermines the full authority of Scripture. Today’s verse leads us to the positive confession that “the words of the Lord are pure words” (Ps. 12:6). The church has especially confessed its belief in the purity of God’s Word by using the terms inspiration, infallibility, and inerrancy, which together establish why the Bible alone serves as the final authority for the people of God.
Inspiration describes how the Bible came into existence. As we saw in our study of 2 Timothy 3:16–17, all Scripture is “breathed out by God.” The Spirit of God worked through human authors, employing their gifts, vocabularies, and circumstances, so that what they wrote was simultaneously their own words and the very words of God. Inspiration does not mean that God dictated Scripture as to a stenographer; rather, God so directed the process that these men wrote exactly what God wanted them to write while retaining their own style.
Infallibility addresses the Bible’s capacity for error. To say that Scripture is infallible is to confess that it is incapable of failing or deceiving; it will not lead us astray in any matter it addresses. A word of caution is warranted here: Some modern theologians have redefined infallibility. They may affirm that the Bible is infallible in matters of faith and practice while denying its reliability in matters of history and science. But the classic Christian understanding makes no such division, for if God’s Word can err in one domain, its trustworthiness in every domain is undermined.
Inerrancy is the necessary consequence of the Bible’s infallibility. If Scripture cannot err, then it does not err. The original manuscripts of the Bible contain no falsehood. This does not mean that the Bible always uses precise scientific language or exact numerical figures. Inerrancy simply means that whatever Scripture affirms is true.
The psalmist captures this beautifully in today’s verse (Ps. 12:6). The words of the Lord are not partially refined, not mostly trustworthy, but are purified seven times over. There is no dross in what God has spoken. His Word can bear the full weight of our trust because it comes from One who cannot lie. In an age when every human authority is rightly questioned, the Christian possesses a Word that has been tested and found utterly reliable.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Though our world is full of deception and uncertainty, we hold a Book whose promises have never failed and whose claims have withstood every challenge. The God who cannot lie has breathed out a Scripture that contains no falsehood. Let us build our lives on this foundation without reservation, for it will bear every weight that we place on it.
For further study
- Numbers 23:19
- Psalm 19:7–11
- John 10:35
- Titus 1:1–2
The bible in a year
- Psalms 36–38
- Acts 24