Psalms 119:100

I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts. I UNDERSTAND MORE THAN THE ANCIENTS, BECAUSE I KEEP THY PRECEPTS. Obedience is the key to the true knowledge of God and the highest things (). The ancients or elders, by reason of lengthened experience and observation, were, in the East, before the days of many books, considered the repositories of knowledge. Their knowledge is natural; mine is revealed, and therefore far exceeds theirs. 'Antiquity is no help against stupidity, where it does not accord with the commandments of God' (Luther). Compare Job 32:7. The three classes - "mine enemies ... my teachers ... the ancients" - though wise in their own eyes and those of the world, are all my inferiors in wisdom, because my wisdom is that of God's Word, loved and pra...

89-96 The settling of God's word in heaven, is opposed to the changes and revolutions of the earth. And the engagements of God's covenant are established more firmly than the earth itself. All the creatures answer the ends of their creation: shall man, who alone is endued with reason, be the only unprofitable burden of the earth? We may make the Bible a pleasant companion at any time. But the word, without the grace of God, would not quicken us. See the best help for bad memories, namely, good affections; and though the exact words be lost, if the meaning remain, that is well. I am thine, not my own, not the world's; save me from sin, save me from ruin. The Lord will keep the man in peace, whose mind is stayed on him. It is poor perfection which one sees and end of. Such are all things in this world, which pass for perfections. The glory of man is but as the flower of the grass. The psa...

Verse Psalms 119:100. _I UNDERSTAND MORE THAN THE ANCIENTS_] God had revealed to him more of that _hidden wisdom_ which was in his law than he had done to any of his predecessors. And this was most literally true of _David_, who spoke more fully about _Christ_ than any who had gone before him; or, indeed, followed after him. His compositions are, I had almost said, a _sublime Gospel_....

I UNDERSTAND MORE THAN THE ANCIENTS - Hebrew, The old men. It does not refer, as the word “ancients” does with us, to the people of former times, but to aged men. They have treasured up wisdom. They have had the advantage of experience, of study, and of observation. They, therefore, like teachers, become a standard by which we measure our own attainments, as the boy hardly hopes to gain that amount of knowledge which he observes in people who are venerable in years, and who are remarkable for their acquirements. Compare Job 12:12 : “With the ancient is wisdom, and in length of days understanding.” Job 32:7 : “I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.” Compare 1 Kings 4:30. Yet

EXPOSITION This is an "alphabetic psalm" of a more stringent character than any other. It consists of twenty-two stanzas, each of eight verses, every verse in each stanza beginning with its own proper letter—those of stanza 1 with _aleph_,_ _the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet; those of stanza 2 with _both_,_ _the second letter; and so on. The writer, having thus fettered himself, moves with some difficulty, but still has produced what has been justly called "a sweetly monotonous meditation" (Cheyne). He takes the Law for his one and only subject, and, further, seems to have bound himself, almost absolutely, to introduce the word "Law," or something which he regards as a synonym of "Law," into every verse. The synonyms are nine in number— 1. TORAH, "the Law"_ _itself; but not merely the Law given on Mount Sinai; rather, God's law in the widest sense, all whereby he

I UNDERSTAND MORE THAN THE ANCIENTS,.... Than those that had lived in ages before him; having clearer light given him, and larger discoveries made unto him, concerning the Messiah, his person and offices particularly, as it was usual for the Lord to do; or than aged men in his own time: for though wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, may be reasonably supposed to be with ancient men; who have had a long experience of things, and have had time and opportunity of making their observations, and of laying up a stock of knowledge; and this may be expected from them, and they may be applied to for it; yet this is not always the case; a younger man, as David was, may be endued with more knowledge and understanding than such; so Elihu; see Job 8:8 Job 32:6. Or, "I have got understanding by the ancients"; so Kimchi; though

Psalms 119:89. _For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven._ It is not a changeable or vanishing thing: «Thy word is settled,» settled for ever, settled «for ever in heaven.» As God changes not, so the Word which he has spoken to his servants changes not. If the foundations of the faith could be removed, what would the righteous do? What would any of us do? But, with an eternally fixed Word of God, we have something solid to build upon, a foundation on which we may confidently rest our everlasting hopes. Psalms 119:90. _Thy faithfulness is unto all generations:_ God, who kept his promise to Abraham, keeps it also to us though we are far down the ages, and he will keep it to our children and our children's children as long as the world endures, and then f

Psalms 119 The Law Written on Their Hearts and the Praise of the Word This is the longest and most perfect Psalm in the whole collection. It is an alphabetical acrostic. It is composed of 22 sections, each having eight verses, 176 verses in all. Each section begins with a different letter of the alphabet and each verse of the different sections begins also with the corresponding letter of the section. Eight times each letter of the alphabet is mentioned in the 22 sections. The number eight in the Word has the meaning of resurrection, death is gone and life has come. Israel has passed from death to life and now extols the Word and the Law of God. The time has come when it is fulfilled what the Lord spoke through Jeremiah concerning the new covenant, “I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts.” We behold then in this Psalm the joy of Israel in knowing the Word

CXIX. PRAISE OF THE LAW. This is the longest and most artificial Ps. in the whole collection. It is divided into twenty-two strophes, each beginning with one of the twenty-two letters of the Heb. alphabet in regular order. Again each strophe contains eight verses, and each verse begins with the same letter which introduces the strophe. The number of strophes then is determined by the number of the Heb. letters. But what of the eight verses in each strophe? The Psalmist had derived from a kindred Ps., viz. Psalms 19, the eight synonyms for the conception Word of God and impresses these terms on his readers by introducing them all into each stanza of his work. So Cheyne, in his _Book of Psalms_ (1904), following D. H. Mü ller. It is right, however, to bear in mind that this theory involves considerable, though by no means extravagant or arbitrary, changes in the received text both of Psalm...

ANCIENTS. elders, or the aged ones....