Psalms 119:108

Accept, I beseech thee, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O LORD, and teach me thy judgments. ACCEPT, I BESEECH THEE, THE FREE-WILL OFFERINGS OF MY MOUTH - my prayers and praises (; , "the calves of our lips;" "the sacrifice of praise to God ... the fruit of our lips," )....

108._O Jehovah! I beseech thee, let the flee-will-offerings of my mouth. _This verse may be read in one connected sentence, as well as divided into two members. According to the former view, the sense will be, Receive, e Lord, my sacrifices, to this end, that thou mayest teach me thy commandments. If we prefer dividing the verse into two clauses, then it will consist of two separate prayers; first, a prayer that God would accept the prophet’s sacrifices; and, secondly, a prayer that he would instruct him in the doctrine of the law. I am rather inclined to follow the first opinion. The prophet affirms, as we have seen elsewhere, that nothing was more precious to him than to understand the doctrine of the law. Lord, as if he had said, do thou, according to thy good pleasure, accept the sacrifices which I offer thee; and as my chief desire is, to be instructed aright in thy law, grant that...

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 119:108. _THE FREEWILL-OFFERINGS OF MY MOUTH_] נדבות פי _nidboth_ _pi_, the _voluntary offerings which I have promised_. Or, As we are in _captivity_, and cannot sacrifice to thee, but _would_ if we _could;_ accept the _praises_ of our _mouth_, and the _purposes_ of our _hearts_, instead of the sacrifices and offerings which we _would_ bring to thy altar, but _cannot_....

ACCEPT, I BESEECH THEE, THE FREE-WILL OFFERINGS OF MY MOUTH - Or, the meaning of the word here rendered “free-will,” see the notes at Psalms 110:3. It conveys the idea that there is no constraint or compulsion; that the offering is a prompting of the heart. The offering might be that of flour, or grain, or fruits, or property of any kind, as devoted to God; or it might be, as here, an offering of the lips, expressed in prayer and praise. Either of them might be acceptable to God; their being accepted in either case would depend on the good pleasure of God, and hence, the psalmist prays that his offering might be thus acceptable. Compare Hebrews 13:15. AND TEACH ME THY JUDGMENTS - Thy commands; thy laws. See the notes at...

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

ACCEPT, I BESEECH THEE, THE FREEWILL OFFERINGS OF MY MOUTH, O LORD,.... Not sacrifices out of his flocks and herds, such as were the voluntary and freewill offerings brought to the priests under the law, though there may be an allusion to them; nor out of his substance, such as David and his people willingly offered towards the building of the temple; but these are not the freewill offerings of his hands, but of his mouth; the spiritual sacrifices of prayer praise: prayer is an offering; see Psalms 141:2; and it is a freewill offering, when a man is assisted by the free Spirit of God, and can pour out his soul freely to the Lord, in the exercise of faith and love. Praise is an offering more pleasing to God than an ox or bullock that has horns and hoofs, because it glorifies him; and it is a freewill offering when it is of a man's own accord, comes from his heart; when he

Psalms 119:89. _For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven._ Other things come, and go, and change, moons wax and wane, tides ebb and flow, everything earthly is changeable; but «Thy word is settled settled in heaven,» with the eternal settlements. No truth of it can fail, no promise of it can be broken. What a joy this is to our hearts tonight! There is something sure, after all: «For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.» Psalms 119:90. _Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it abideth._ That is, God has spoken to nature, and that word has established the earth, and made it to stand securely. Psalms 119:91

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...