Psalms 119:136

Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law. RIVERS OF WATERS RUN DOWN MINE EYES, BECAUSE THEY KEEP NOT THY LAW - (; ; .) Hengstenberg translates, literally, 'Mine eyes come down (dissolved in) waterbrooks.' So the Arabic and Ethiopic. The English version understands, 'from' before "mine eyes." So the Syriac. . God is pleased with the zeal which His servants show for His honour, as insulted by the transgressors not keeping His law. Indifference as to this argues a want of true love for God. Zeal should be tempered with tenderness of spirit. Indignation at the transgressors should be joined with grief and tears for th...

136._Rivers of waters run from my eyes. _(15) Here David affirms that he was inflamed with no ordinary zeal for the glory of God, inasmuch as he dissolved wholly into tears on account of the contempt put upon the divine law. He speaks hyperbolically; but still he truly and plainly expresses the disposition of mind with which he was endued; and it corresponds with what he says in altogether place, “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.” (Psalms 69:9.) Wherever the Spirit of God reigns, he excites this ardent zeal, which burns the hearts of the godly when they see the commandment of the Most High God accounted as a thing of nought. It is not enough that each of us endeavor to please God; we must also desire that his law may be held in estimation by all men. In this way holy Lot, as the Apostle Peter testifies, vexed his soul when he beheld Sodom 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...

Verse Psalms 119:136. _RIVERS OF WATERS RUN DOWN MINE EYES_] How much had this blessed man the honour of God and the salvation of souls at heart! O for more of that spirit which mourns for the transgressions of the land! But we are not properly convinced of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. ANALYSIS OF LETTER PE. - _SEVENTEENTH DIVISION_ In this division the psalmist - I. Praises God's word. II. Shows his affection to it. III. Prays for grace to keep it. IV. Mourns for those who do not. 1. The eulogy he gives to God's word here is from a _new quality_ not mentioned before. "Thy testimonies are wonderful;" wondrous mysteries are contained in the Divine oracles. 1. The _ceremonial_ law is wonderful, becaus

RIVERS OF WATERS RUN DOWN MINE EYES - My heart is sad, and my eyes pour forth floods of tears. It is not a gentle weeping, but my eyes are like a fountain which pours out full-flowing streams. See Jeremiah 9:1. “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears,” etc. Compare Jeremiah 14:17; Lamentations 1:16; Lamentations 2:18. BECAUSE THEY KEEP NOT THY LAW - On account of the sins, the follies, the stupidity, and the transgressions of people. So the Saviour wept over Jerusalem...

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

RIVERS OF WATERS RUN DOWN MINE EYES,.... That is, "out of" them; as the Syriac version: or, "mine eyes let down rivers of waters" t; see Lamentations 3:48; that is, an abundance of tears, which flowed like a river; an hyperbolical expression, setting forth the excessiveness of grief. The reason follows, BECAUSE THEY KEEP NOT THY LAW; the persons are not mentioned, but must be understood of wicked men; whose open and impudent transgression of the law in innumerable instances, and in the most flagrant manner, gave the psalmist great distress, as it does all good men; because the law of God is despised, his authority is trampled on, his name is dishonoured, and he has not the glory which is due unto him. The gloss of Arama is, "because Adam and Eve kept not thy law;'' which transgression brought ruin on all mankind. The Septuagint and Arabi

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...