Psalms 119:130

The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple. THE ENTRANCE OF THY WORDS GIVETH LIGHT - like the sun's beam entering through an aperture into a dark room. So "the Lord opened the heart of Lydia" to attend savingly to the Word; then the light gained an "entrance" into her soul. What then are we to think of those who deny the people of God free access to the Word of God? The Hebrew is literally 'the opening of thy Word' - i:e., the opening of the eyes of the soul caused by thy Word (entering). The Chaldaic somewhat similarly, 'The impression of thy Word.' The allusion is thus to the Urim (meaning light). What the Urim and Thummim were to the consulting worshipper, that thy Word is to me, giving me a response on all questions of faith and duty. So the Septuagint uses here the term [deeloosis] by which they ordinarily express the Urim. The Arabic, Septuag...

130._The entrance of thy word is light. _The amount is, that the light of the truth revealed in God’s word, is so distinct that the very first sight of it illuminates the mind. The word פתח _pethach, _properly signifies _an opening, _(10) but metaphorically it is taken for _a gate. _Accordingly the old translator has rendered it _beginning, _which is not improper, provided it is understood of the rudiments or first elements of the divine law. It is as if the Prophet had — “Not only do those who have attained an accurate acquaintance with the whole law, and who have made the study of it the business of their lives, discern there a clear light, but also those who have studied it even very imperfectly, and who have only, so to speak, entered the porch.” Now we must reason from the less to the greater. If tyroes and novices begin to be enlightened at their fi

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 119:130. _THE ENTRANCE OF THY WORDS GIVETH LIGHT_] פתח _pethach_, the _opening_ of it: when I open my Bible to read, light springs up in my mind. Every sermon, every prayer, every act of faith, is an _opening_ by which light is let into the seeking soul....

THE ENTRANCE OF THY WORDS GIVETH LIGHT - The Septuagint translates this, “the manifestation (or declaration) - ἡ δήλωσις _hē_ _dēlōsis_ - of thy words enlightens.” So the Vulgate. Luther renders it, “When thy word is revealed, so it delivers us, and makes the simple wise.” DeWette, “The opening (revelation) of thy word,” etc. The Hebrew word - פתח _pethach_ - means an “opening” or “entrance” - as of a gate, Joshua 20:4; Judges 9:35; and then “a door,” as of a tent or the temple, Gen 18:1; 1 Kings 6:8; or the gate of a city,...

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

THE ENTRANCE OF THY WORDS GIVETH LIGHT,.... The beginning of them; the first three Chapter s in Genesis, what light do they give into the origin of all things; the creation of man, his state of innocence; his fall through the temptations of Satan, and his recovery and salvation by Christ, the seed of the woman, the first principles of the oracles of God, the rudiments of religion, the elements of the world, the rites of the ceremonial law, gave great light into Gospel mysteries. As soon as a man enters upon reading the Scriptures, if he has any degree of understanding of the things in them, they immediately throw light into his mind; or, however, as soon as ever the word has an entrance into the heart, and through the Spirit, power, and grace of God, makes its way and has a place there, that being opened by the Lord for that purpose, light arises in darkness. It maybe rendered, "the open...

Psalms 119:129. _Thy testimonies are wonderful: therefore doth my soul keep them._ Every true believer admires God's Word; and, more than that, it amazes him: «Thy testimonies are wonderful.» View them from any point you may select, they are wonderful, wonderful in themselves, wonderful in their operation, wonderful in the way in which they endure all kinds of testing, and yet remain the same: «Thy testimonies are wonderful.» This wonder, however, in the true believer leads to godly practice, to holy living: «Therefore doth my soul keep them.» Our soul must be like a golden gasket in which we store the priceless jewels of the Word of the Lord. You cannot rightly keep God's Word anywhere but in your soul; to keep it merely in the memory, or in the intellect, is of no avail. Ps

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...