Psalm 12:6 says “The words of the LORD are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times.”
God’s words (the text of the Bible), is like silver refined seven times
Why not just refined once once?
“Seven” in the Bible is the number for completeness and wholeness. What Psalm 12:6 is saying is that God’s words are completely pure, without error and wholly reliable.
Yet, there may be more to the number seven:
The first refining fire was used to burn away the combustibles in the silver bearing rock.
Then the ore container (the clay pot) was sealed from the air, first having some material added, such as charcoal, which would chemically remove the oxygen from the silver oxide. This would result in silver metal flowing to the bottom of the container with the molten rock (the slag) above it. The process was repeated a few times so that all the reclaimable silver was removed from the valuable ore.
The next problem that had to be solved was to remove the impurities such as copper, arsenic etc. in the silver and because they have different melting temperatures, they had to be carefully removed in fires of different temperatures.
Also, because not much coal or coke was available, wood had to be used and this first had to be converted into charcoal to remove its impurities because any smoke resulting from say the wax or oil in the wood that reached the molten metal would cause further impurities in the metal.
Fluxes, such as beeswax were also discovered, which in certain circumstances formed a film over the surface of the molten metal, also causing impurities to separate and float to the surface.
Further, a blast of air had to be forced through the burning charcoal with the aid of bellows so that the fire would burn hot enough.
We see that the refining of silver was a fairly complex process – seven fires probably had to be used. Further, this process was learned over a period of many generations of metalworkers and silversmiths. If the wrong process was used, the resultant metal could have been copper instead of silver. If the fire was not hot enough because of the laziness of the silversmith in using the bellows, impure silver would have resulted.
Here’s the bottom line: You can trust the Bible. It’s pure. There’s no errors. It’s God’s words.
(Thanks to Derek Prince for the insights.)
Hi Anonymous
You are right. I doubt King David had the entire, complete Bible with its 66 books in mind when he wrote Psalm 12.
Psalm 12:6 does not refer directly to the Bible, but to all the “words of the LORD” which are all flawless and without error. Kind David would have heard those words by reading the Law of Moses, through direct revelation from God and through the messages of God’s prophets (cf. Deuteronomy 31:9-13, 2 Samuel 2:1, 2 Samuel 7:4).
However, the completed Old and New Testament claim to be the “word of God” and therefore Psalm 12:6 must, by implication, now refer to the Bible (e.g. 2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Peter 3:16 etc).
Hi Liv
Thanks for your comment.
It is true; this is a kind of circular argument.
Wayne Grudem speaks to this, he writes,
“However [this circular argument] does not make the [argument] invalid…all arguments for an absolute authority must ultimately appeal to that authority for proof: otherwise that authority would not be absolute or highest authority…E.g.
My reason is absolute authority because it seems reasonable to me to make it so.
Logical consistency is my ultimate authority because its logical to make it so.
I know there can be no ultimate authority because I do not know of any such ultimate authority.
How then does a Christian, or anyone else, choose among the various claims for absolute authorities?”
Grudem ends by saying, “Ultimately the Bible will commend itself as being far more persuasive than any other religious books or other intellectual constructions of the human mind…The process of persuasion (that the Bible is God’s authoritative words) is perhaps better likened to a spiral in which increasing knowledge of Scripture and increasing correct understanding of God and creation tend to supplement one another in a harmonious way, each tending to confirm the accuracy of the other.” (p79-80, Systematic Theology)
If someone reads the Bible truly seeking answers, I believe that Jesus’ words, “For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” would apply. The more someone sincerely reads the Bible, the more the Bible (through the Spirit) will convince them of its own truthfulness.
Does this help?
When the Psalmist says “The words of the LORD are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times.” He doesn't have the bible in mind does he?
I agree with you bottom line.
But I don't think it's logical to use the Bible itself as the proof. Is this not circular reasoning?
I don't see how it would convince anyone asking about the reliability of a source to say that the source says it's reliable.
Anyone one truly seeking answers would be in no better position as before. They would still ask: But, how can you know that?