Psalms 119:118

Thou hast trodden down all them that err from thy statutes: for their deceit is falsehood. THOU HAST TRODDEN DOWN ALL THEM THAT ERR FROM THY STATUTES - ( .) FOR THEIR DECEIT (IS) FALSEHOOD - their crafty deceit, wherewith they think to crush the godly, shall prove false to them, and shall he baffled. The deceivers shall find to their ruin that it is themselves, not the godly, much less God, that they have deceived ()....

118._Thou hast trodden under foot all those who wander from thy statutes. _By _treading under foot _he means, that God overthrows all the despisers of his law, and casts them down from that loftiness which they assume to themselves. The phrase is directed against the foolish, or rather frantic, confidence with which the wicked are inflated, when they recklessly deride the judgments of God; and, what is more, scruple not to magnify themselves against him, as if they were not subject to his power. The last clause is to be particularly noticed: _for their deceit is falsehood _(439) By these words the prophet teaches, that the wicked gain nothing by their wiles, but that they are rather entangled in them, or at length discover that they were mere sleight of hand. Those ignorantly mar the sense who interpose the copula _and, _as if it had been said, that _deceit and falsehood were in them _Th...

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 119:118. _THOU HAST TRODDEN DOWN_] All thy enemies will be finally trodden down under thy feet. _THEIR DECEIT_ IS _FALSEHOOD._] Their elevation is a _lie_. The wicked often become _rich_ and _great_, and affect to be _happy_, but it is all _false_; they have neither a _clean_ nor _approving_ _conscience_. Nor can they have _thy_ approbation; and, consequently, no true _blessedness_....

THOU HAST TRODDEN DOWN ALL THEM THAT ERR FROM THY STATUTES - Compare the notes at Psalms 119:21. Rather, “Thou hast made light of,” or “thou despisest.” The Hebrew word means properly to suspend in a balance; to weigh. Then it means to lift up lightly or easily; and then, to make light of; to contemn; to regard anything as “light.” The Septuagint and Latin Vulgate render it, “Thou dost despise.” That is, God regards them as of no account; as a light substance of no value; as chaff which the wind carries away. Compare Job 21:18; Psalms 1:4; Psalms 35:5;...

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

THOU HAST TRODDEN DOWN ALL THEM THAT ERR FROM THY STATUTES,.... That wander from the way of the Lord's commandments; that deviate from his precepts, go astray constantly and wilfully; a people that err in their hearts, and with all their hearts. These the Lord treads down, as mire in the streets, as grapes in a winepress; which shows his abhorrence of them, his indignation at them, and how easily they are subdued under him; FOR THEIR DECEIT [IS] FALSEHOOD: or, "their hypocrisy [is] a lie" m: the appearance they make is a false one; they appear outwardly righteous, but are inwardly wicked; have a form of godliness, but deny the power of it: or all their deceitful doctrines are lies in hypocrisy, though dressed up with all the art and cunning they are masters of; or all their subtle schemes to corrupt and subvert the true doctrines of the word are in vain and to no purpose. m So Michaeli...

We will read tonight two of the stanzas which make up the 119 th Psalm, beginning at the 105 th verse. Psalms 119:105. _Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path._ God's Word is full of brilliance; it is always giving out its blessed light. It casts a light upon all our daily life. It is a light for the house, and a light for the way, and happy is the man who never walks abroad without this lantern to light up his pathway. There are many pitfalls on the road, and many places where the traveler's garments may soon be besmeared, so he has great need of this light to guide him. Psalms 119:106. _I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments._ I scarcely remember ever hearing of a man swearing, and

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...