Psalms 119:121

I have done judgment and justice: leave me not to mine oppressors. I HAVE DONE JUDGMENT AND JUSTICE: LEAVE ME NOT TO MINE OPPRESSORS. As I have done no injustice to others, so leave me not to he the victim of injustice. Not that he was absolutely free from unrighteousness, but he was so in respect to his enemies and their charges. In the main drift of his life he was just....

121._I have done judgment and righteousness. _The Prophet implores the help of God against the wicked who troubled him, and he does so in such a manner as at the same time to testify that the harassing treatment he received from them was on his part altogether undeserved. If we would have God to come down to succor us, it becomes us to see to it that we meet him with the testimony of a good conscience. As He everywhere promises his aid to the afflicted who are unrighteously oppressed, it is no superfluous protestation which the Prophet makes, that he had not provoked his enemies, but had restrained himself from all injury and wrong-doing, and had not even attempted to requite evil for evil. In asserting that he had at all times _done judgment, _he means that whatever rite wicked practiced, he steadfastly persevered in following after integrity, and never turned aside from what was just a...

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...

LETTER ע AIN. - _SIXTEENTH DIVISION_ Verse Psalms 119:121. _I HAVE DONE JUDGMENT AND JUSTICE_] I have given the best _decision_ possible on every case that came before me; and I have endeavoured to _render_ to all their _due_....

I HAVE DONE JUDGMENT AND JUSTICE - This commences a new division of the psalm, indicated by the Hebrew letter _Ayin_ (ע _‛_) - a letter which cannot well be represented in the English alphabet, as there is, in fact, no letter in our language exactly corresponding with it. It would be best represented probably by what are called “breathings” in Greek. The meaning of the first part of this verse is, “I have led a righteous and upright life.” It is equivalent to saying that he had kept the law of God, or had made that the rule of his conduct. LEAVE ME NOT TO MINE OPPRESSORS - To the people who would do me wrong; who seek my hurt. He urged this on the ground that he had been obedient to the divine law, and might, therefore, with propriety, make this request, or might claim the divine protection. Man has no merit of his own, and no claim on God; but when he is his true

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

e, AIN.--THE SIXTEENTH PART. Ver. 121. AIN. I HAVE DONE JUDGMENT AND JUSTICE,.... As king of Israel; which is the character given of him, 2 Samuel 8:15; and in which he was a type of Christ, Jeremiah 23:5; and as a private person; which is everyone's duty, and every good man especially will be desirous of performing it: it is not indeed perfectly done by any, and therefore not to be trusted to; nor was it so done by David; nor did he place his confidence in it; nor did he say this in a boasting way, but in defence of himself and his innocence against those who oppressed him with their calumnies, as appears from the next clause. The Syriac version takes it to be an address to God, and as describing him, "O thou that doest judgment and justice!" to whom the following petition is directed

Psalms 119:1. _I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love._ Presumptuous thoughts, erroneous thoughts, wicked thoughts, foolish thoughts,-all three David hated. A good man ought to be a good hater, as well as a good lover. What should he hate? He should hate sin thoughts. What should he love? He should love the law of the Lord. If we do not hate sin in the very egg, we shall not be likely to hate it in its fuller development. The very thought of sin must be detestable to us; and if we do not think of evil, we shall not speak evil, nor do evil. We ought to begin with David at the beginning, and say, «I hate vain thoughts;» yet negative religion is not sufficient, so we should go on to the positive form: «‘Thy law do I love;' and I love it so much that I wish I could always keep it, and never transgress it, and never forget it.»...

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...