The King's Own Language

When William Tyndale smuggled the first printed English New Testament into England in 1526, he did so because he believed something radical — that ordinary plowboys deserved to hear God's Word in their own tongue. For centuries, Scripture had been locked away in Latin, accessible only to clergy and scholars. The common people of England sat in churches Sunday after Sunday, hearing words they could not understand.

Tyndale gave his life for the conviction that God's Word was never meant to be hoarded. He was strangled and burned at the stake in 1536, his final prayer reportedly, "Lord, open the King of England's eyes." Within three years, King Henry VIII authorized an English Bible in every parish church.

The psalmist understood this impulse long before Tyndale. "He sends His command to the earth," the writer declares, marveling that the same God who scatters frost like ashes and hurls hailstones also chose to reveal His statutes and ordinances to Israel. The Almighty who governs snowfall and spring thaw — that same God leaned close and spoke His Word to a particular people. "He has done this for no other nation," the psalmist writes, almost breathless with gratitude.

What Tyndale fought to restore, God had already initiated — the scandalous generosity of a Creator who refuses to remain silent. He doesn't just command the weather. He speaks to His children, in words they can grasp, treasure, and obey.